I help close the gap between the story we tell ourselves and what we're actually doing.
Jonathan Engle is an entrepreneur, a Russian linguist in the Utah Army National Guard, and a fractional CMO who builds with AI. He co-founded The Startup Stack, grew it for five years, and sold it to Startup Science in 2025, then led marketing there through mid-2026. In 2024 he founded Kingsfoil Health, a health insurance brokerage for startups. He speaks English, Russian, Spanish, and Portuguese.
Building a company is hard. It was harder for me, and part of the reason turned out to be ADHD, which I didn't learn about until later in life. Knowing how my brain works changed how I work, and I get more done now than I ever have.
I work with founders on the unglamorous parts of building a company. A founder needs someone they trust to jump in and start on their most expensive problem.
Backstory
I was adopted at birth, grew up in Provo, Utah, and spent most of my 20s collecting a weird hodgepodge of experiences. I started in real estate (not my favorite), moved to Paraguay to run a franchise, helped start a new impact investment fund, and then joined a fintech startup as its first sales hire and built the sales motion from zero.
The Paraguay chapter is the one I come back to most, because it was the perfect wild west. I didn't speak Spanish when I got there, so I had to learn the language and the business of Elevate Global at the same time. I lived in Ciudad del Este and worked through local leadership to rebuild the people and the processes at their worst-performing franchise in the country. I trained more than 150 small-business owners along the way.
I started The Startup Stack in 2020 as a directory for startup resources. Over five years it grew into a marketplace connecting founders with the software companies, service providers, and support organizations that help them, with more than 250 partners by the end. We were acquired by Startup Science in May 2025.
The numbers behind all of that, role by role, are on my track record.
See the whole track record →
A friend was the one who helped me recognize I have ADHD. The official diagnosis didn't change a lot, but it explained a lot. The systems I'd been building for years to manage my own chaos suddenly made sense. Now I get to help founders do the same: accept how they're wired, then build systems that fit.
Russian linguist, Utah Army National Guard.
I've served since 2021. I love this state and this country, and I'm proud to serve alongside my fellow Utahns as a soldier linguist.
Identity stack
- Builder
- Companies, systems, frameworks, ideas.
- Linguist
- English, Spanish, Portuguese, Russian.
- Citizen-Soldier
- Utah Army National Guard since 2021.
- Husband & Father
- I'm in my dad era, where my puns are put to good use.
- Tinkerer
- Code, AI tools, civic projects, travel, craftsmanship, standup comedy.
A few other things
I played French horn for over a decade, lift weights, practice martial arts, and recently got into Magic: The Gathering. I've been nerding out on Warhammer 40K lore. I'm nostalgic for RuneScape and PlayStation 2 but still hop on Steam for some good computer gaming. I enjoy a good show or film. I make a lot of coffee and yerba maté.
I grew up Mormon and have since found meaning in Norse, Buddhist, and Hindu traditions too. I'm at the least culturally Mormon, and I'm generally a fan of Jesus.
Think we'd work well together?
If you're an early-stage founder stuck on go-to-market, sales systems, or just the gap between the plan and the doing, let's talk.