Partner
Jim Macdonald
Managing Director, First Analysis
- Firm
- First Analysis
- Title
- Managing Director
- Role
- Managing partner
- Known as
- Investor
Record updated 18 September 2026
About
Jim Macdonald has over two decades of experience at First Analysis, working with entrepreneurs as an investor and as an advisor on growth transactions to help build leading software-as-a-service (SaaS) businesses. With his widely read “SaaS Quarterly Insights” report, he is a thought leader in the area, and his work has been cited for excellence in the Wall Street Journal’s “Best on the Street” survey, in Forbes and in other publications. He supports First Analysis’ investments in Drive My Way, Freeosk, SynergySuite, Transformative Pharmaceutical Solutions, ViralGains and Yello. Prior to joining First Analysis in 1997, he was a general manager at Nalco Chemical, where he played a key role in expanding Nalco’s service offering to include operating and leasing equipment at customer sites. This led to formation of a joint venture with U.S. Filter. Earlier, he was with a subsidiary of Ecolab. He earned an MBA from Harvard University and a bachelor’s degree in civil engineering from Cornell
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