Bio

JC GARRETT

JC has spent nearly his entire career working with startups in one form or another. JC currently serves as the Chief Executive Officer for the 200+ person global custom software development agency, FarShore, and is the primary startup mentor for its investment and advisory arm, Dashfire.  He started with FarShore in its early stages over 10 years ago and has worked closely with hundreds of startups to be a strategic leader in their tech and business planning processes.  While software development is FarShore’s business, JC always looks at tech with the end goal of creating profitable and sustainable ventures that can raise money, scale operations and grow revenue. He also serves as a mentor for several startup accelerators including Techstars as well as Chicago-based 1871.  and enablement organizations while co-hosting the recently launched “Mentor Musings” web series.

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Originally from Nashville, where he received his undergraduate degree in Communications, JC moved to Chicago to start a career in non-profit management before pivoting into the for-profit world by pursuing his MBA from Pepperdine University with dual concentrations in Entrepreneurial Management and Marketing.  While in business school he started his own startup consulting practice successfully helping dozens of entrepreneurs plan and raise their first rounds of financing as well as execute their initial go-to-market strategies. After earning his graduate degree, he took his first steps towards becoming a technologist by returning to Chicago where he ran growth and strategy for a B2B SaaS startup, which he stayed at until joining FarShore/Dashfire in 2010.