Shane Leonard, an experienced CFO with an entrepreneurial background, on becoming a trusted advisor to founders

Kiran shares some insights into his business background, starting in engineering and then moving to venture capital. In this episode we talk about how the operational CFO can partner closely with the founder and lead a focus on gating important investment decisions and targeting the right metrics for success. We dip into the why rev ops must always be on the radar and the optimal approach to hiring into the finance team.Kiran is a three time CFO and his current company Alloy, Asolves the identity risk problem for nearly 600 of the world's leading banks and fintech companies.

In this episode we talk to Paul Barnhurst, the FP&AGuy, and a thought leader in training and content that helps FP&A and Finance leaders drive better business decisions. We dive into the critical ‘whats’ of FP&A, discuss the upside of seeking out those all important leading indicators and you might be surprised why FP&A leads and CFOs alike need to adjust their communications to bring the bottom line right to the front. Website: The FP&A Guy (thefpandaguy.com)Planning & Analytics Community: Home | Plan Buddies (plan-buddies.com)Your host is Guy Hutchinson and this podcast was brought to you by Startup CFO.https://startupcfo.tech/Music: Pumpkin Blues by Daniel Fridell and Sven LindvallLicensed through Epidemic Sound

In this episode we talk to Joe Knowles, VC and partner at Smedvig. We learn about the Smedvig approach to investing and make a deep dive into the challenges making that first finance leadership hire.Joe explains how the CFO role is different from others in the C-suite and how the team at Smedvig seek to persuade founders of the ROI in that hire. He talks through what the investor director looks for in a strategic CFO, and how a focus on ‘hiring-up’, bringing in someone with experience running a Tech business at scale, can so often pay off for their portfolio companies.

In this episode Guy Hutchinson steps into the guest seat to share some insight on why the Startup CFO community is such an amazing resource for Tech CFOs. Guy had an accomplished career as a CFO building startups from seed-to-scale. On this journey he founded a meet-up group with three other CFOs, and that group became Startup CFO the leading community in the space. We discuss in detail how this type of community can offer finance professionals peer-to-peer support, developing events that support signifiant career advancement and how the group now focuses on the key strategic aspects of the CFOs role. He explores why trust and authenticity are the one true currency and shares a surprising recommendation for any CFO thinking about becoming a founder.A big thank you for Emily Lincoln-Gordon who interviewed Guy for this. Emily is COO, former General Counsel and founder at table eight. https://www.tableeight.io/

In this episode we talk to Eleena Broadfoot. Eleena is the CFO at Beauty Pie, a great success story with their direct to consumer proposition. She has had an accomplished career, including some great experience working within Virgin Group. Always working closely with passionate founders, she takes us through her personal journey and how she has focused on her career development. We discuss in detail how she assesses new roles and forms a view on a business that is really going to scale. She shares some remarkable insights on how finance professionals should think about their career development and how a commitment to coaching can transform any career.

We have an in depth talk with Anthony Danon, an investor running the Cocoa fund and focusing on fintech.For CFOs in our community, he shares some remarkable tips on identifying a great tech business to work with …..… as well as laying down key identifiers for successful founders. Anthony has spent >9 years in fintech as an operator, VC and angel, having done 34+ investments. He is a pre-seed/seed investor into companies like Atlar, Hyperline, Primer, Pivot, Ramp Network, Tide, TrueLayer, Two and Wayflyer. Most recently, he co-founded Cocoa, an angel fund backed by tech founders.He believes believe 'Fintech is everything' and he looks for single-minded determination in founding teams.

In this episode, we speak with Douglas Squirrel, super experienced Consulting CTO. We focus the discussions on his work in developing a high-performing tech leaders. He includes some remarkable stories from his Tech career on how CTOs can support business outcomes.CTOs and CFOs are often kindred spirits and can drive business transformation when they unlock a close business partnership

Christian Wattig is an FP&A expert with 14 years of leadership experience at P&G, Unilever, and Squarespace. He is the founder and managing director of FP&A Prep, where he teaches FP&A skills to finance teams and business leaders through on-site training and public online seminars. In this wide-ranging conversation, Guy and Christian discuss what differentiates exceptional from average FP&A teams, how to get the most out of the planning process, and share advice for implementing advanced tools like machine learning models. You can learn more about Christian and his FP&A training programs here:LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/christian-wattigThe Art & Science of Forecasting:https://forecastingmastery.comFP&A Bootcamp:https://www.fpaprep.com/courseAnd of course, if you are a finance professional in Tech, feel free to apply to join our grouphttps://startupcfo.tech/

Shane Leonard and Guy Hutchinson talk through the path for Tech CFOs to become the trusted advisor to the CEO.Our regular listeners will know CFOs aren't just about numbers and crunching out financial statements. In the world of VC backed Tech, we are often working with founders who are primarily focused on product and achieving that early tractionAt this stage you need the CFO to take on a wider remit, becoming that vital trusted adviser. Shane discusses the optimal path for taking on this important role.

In this episode, we talk to Ian Sutherland, CFO at Tide the UK company building a modern business current account, optimised for small business ownersIan has been CFO at Tide for six years, and during this time he realised that he could align his passions for tackling climate change and set Tide on a path to achieve Net Zero. In this discussion with him we build an understanding on why Net Zero sits neatly within the skills framework of a CFO.