A small firm, by design.

The first was IP Notes. John founded Tribal Capital Markets, where he structured more than $30 billion in diversity-mandated transactions and created the IP Notes asset class — raising $675 million to fund nineteen intellectual-property-rich technology companies against credit support conventional lenders would not extend. The premise was that a properly structured third-party obligation could make fundable what the collateral alone could not.

The second is the surety-backed platform he built for a vertically integrated clean energy developer. The logic is closely related, applied to construction rather than intangibles: an investment-grade obligation is used to produce a rateable credit out of a transaction that project lenders would not otherwise fund. He originated the structure, carried it through rating agency review, documented it with national counsel and a national bank trustee, and placed the resulting notes with institutional buyers — from cold outreach to a rated, repeat-issuance program.

His earlier work includes co-development of a $700 million renewable diesel project in Utah, and structuring the largest USDA 9003 Renewable Fuels loan ever closed — a $198 million facility that remains unmatched in scale. He has executed over $1 billion in SBA-eligible PPP securitizations and led a $375 million expansion financing for the Morongo Casino through a combination of taxable municipal bonds and private placements.

He also founded Bonds.com, the first all-to-all fixed income alternative trading system, and grew it into a $150 million publicly traded company prior to its acquisition by the London Stock Exchange.