Zachary K. Kimball
Founder & CEO at Hardfin. San Francisco, California.
Profile
Leading Hardfin, the financial operations platform for hardware-as-a-service. Our software helps modern device businesses manage, streamline, and scale HaaS from quote to cash.
Formerly led strategy & analytics at Skupos. Prior experience at McKinsey & Company with a focus on payments and exposure to strategy, pricing, sales, organizational design, and due diligence. Studied venture finance at Harvard Law School, conducted econometric analysis at the Federal Reserve, and consulted on web development for databases and payments.
Focused on building at the intersection of hardware, software, and finance. Long-standing interests in payments, data platforms, and infrastructure.
Skills
Strategy & Product
Product and market strategy work focused on B2B software
Payments & Fintech
Software and database engineering focused on web payments
Data & BI
Data systems focused on analytics and business intelligence
Education
Harvard Law School, Cambridge, Massachusetts
J.D. 2015
- Harvard Law Entrepreneurship Project (HLEP), President
- Harvard Association for Law and Business (HALB)
University of Rochester, Rochester, New York
B.A. 2010, summa cum laude, Phi Beta Kappa
- Major in Honors Economics with Highest Distinction; Barry Rapoport Prize
- Major in Political Science; James D. McGill Memorial Prize
- Minor in Theatre; Charles I. Keelan Memorial Award
- Academic cluster in Computer Science and Mathematics; three years of Spanish language study
- Performed in six university theatre productions; co-founded student theatre troupe
Experience
2021–present
San Francisco, CA
Hardfin
Founder & CEO
- Building the financial operations platform for hardware-as-a-service. Hardfin powers device companies’ entire lifecycle (inventory, deployment, billing, revenue, and asset financials).
2018–2021
San Francisco, CA
Skupos (acquired by PDI Technologies)
VP, Strategy & Analytics
- Managed strategy and analytics for the market-leading data platform in convenience retail. Retailers, distributors, and brands leverage the Skupos platform to create and capture value from transaction data.
2015–2018
San Francisco, CA
McKinsey & Company
Management Consultant
- Supported clients in multiple industries on strategy, pricing, sales, organization, and market analysis with a focus on financial technology and payments.
January 2015
San Francisco, CA
Earnest
Business Operations Intern
- Designed methods to automatically underwrite credit risk for potential borrowers through data analysis.
Summer 2014
San Francisco, CA
McKinsey & Company
Summer Associate
- Created processes for strategic and operational planning as part of a major organizational redesign.
Summer 2013
Menlo Park, CA
University Business Intern
- Worked on privacy and product strategy, including ads policy, acquisition due diligence, and payments research.
Summer 2012
Cambridge, MA
Legal Economics, LLC
Summer Associate
- Analyzed discovery documents and data to measure industry market power for expert-witness reports in antitrust litigation.
2010–2012
Boston, MA
Federal Reserve Bank of Boston, Economic Research Department
Senior Research Assistant
- Assessed foreclosure crisis using time-series data to measure impact of household finances on mortgage and housing markets.
2007–2010
Rochester, NY
University of Rochester, International Theatre Program
Designer and Developer, Website and Electronic Payments System
- Created secure payments system for reservation and control of theatre box office and management of patron data.
2006–2010
Rochester, NY
University of Rochester, Educational Technology Center
Web Developer; Multimedia Consultant; Staff Supervisor
- Developed, maintained, and updated websites for university departments and programs; supervised student staff.
2006–2007
Maynard, MA
SiCortex, Inc.
Software Intern
- Engineered dynamic inventory control, revision backup, and software deployment for high-performance computing startup.
Technical
- HTML / CSS
- Python / PHP
- JavaScript / Node
- Snowflake / BigQuery
- SQL / dbt
- Stata / Matlab / R / SAS
- Linux / Bash
- Git / Subversion
- Adobe CS / Final Cut
Articles
-
“The Ibanez Property Ring: A Surprising Hidden Story Behind a Significant Foreclosure Lawsuit” (September 2015).
Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=2684522. -
“US Mortgage and Foreclosure Law.” With Paul S. Willen. The New Palgrave Dictionary of Economics. Online Edition. Eds. Steven N. Durlauf and Lawrence E. Blume. Palgrave Macmillan, 2012.
Available at https://link.springer.com/referenceworkentry/10.1057/978-1-349-95121-5_2935-1.
Posts
-
“Building a serverless ‘Twitter data stack’ for free with dbt and BigQuery.” Open Bracket Blog. August 2026.
Available at http://blog.zacharykimball.com/2021/08/building-serverless-twitter-data-stack.html. -
“A/B Testing to Increase Mobile App Profitability.” With Joey Conway. Lauching Technology Ventures Blog. Harvard Business School. April 17, 2014.
Available at https://launchingtechventures.blogspot.com/2014/04/ab-testing-to-increase-mobile-app.html. -
“Saturation of .ly Domains with English Adverbs.” Open Bracket Blog. March 6, 2014.
Available at http://blog.zacharykimball.com/2014/03/saturation-of-ly-domains-with-english.html.