40 Under 40: Jennifer Cecilian, Cecilian Partners
By Lisa Dukart – Associate Editor, Philadelphia Business Journal
Jennifer Cecilian
CFO, Cecilian Partner
Education: BS, Finance, West Virginia University
“A love for numbers and math” inspired Jennifer Cecilian’s career. After pursuing her finance degree, she spent nearly a decade with De Lage Landen, where she focused on the health care global business unit. After stints in finance at other organizations, in 2019 she joined startup Cecilian Partners, which her husband co-founded. The New Hope property technology company focuses on community developers and production homebuilders. Just a few years old, the company has already made an acquisition and grew by a factor of 300 from 2020 to 2021 and has a post-money valuation of $10 million. Cecilian, 36, helped close $3.7 million in capital over the last year and a half, and the company has grown to over 100 client-projects across the nation. The company continues to eye expansion and Cecilian will look to launch a Series A late this year to help fuel that growth.
Proudest professional accomplishment: Taking the leap from corporate to startup life. Being in control of your own destiny is a powerful thing.
Proudest non-professional accomplishment: Being a mom. My girls are, by far, my best and proudest accomplishment.
Before my 40th birthday, I’d like to: Buy a pocket farm and have some type of animal sanctuary. Also, have a killer garden.
The best advice I’ve ever gotten: How you do anything is how you do everything.
Go-to tactic when feeling burned out: Music and running. I listen to music while working on spreadsheets or documents and my real stress outlet is to go for a run. Both help me relax and see things more clearly.
Something on my bucket list: To go on a safari with my husband and girls.
The best-kept secret in Greater Philadelphia is: Warmdaddy’s in Philadelphia. We had our rehearsal dinner there and it was incredible.
