In this episode, Dan speaks with Michael Vigario, CFO of ACT Group (North America), about what it takes to scale as a finance leader across startups, fintech, and PE-backed billion-dollar enterprises. Michael shares how he built world-class finance and operations teams from scratch, the discipline needed to earn investor trust, and how to balance growth ambitions with rigorous controls. From his leap into a six-person fintech startup to leading a $3B SaaS business, Michael’s lessons cut through theory and focus on execution, communication, and credibility with investors.

Key Takeaways:

• Build finance teams in the right order: accounting first, operations second, FP&A third.
• In VC-backed startups, growth is king, while in PE-backed firms, discipline and reporting rigour rule.
• Data integrity and system integrations make or break exit events.
• Technical control and crisp communication separate successful PE CFOs from the rest.
• Environmental markets are scaling fast, with ACT Group positioned at the forefront of carbon, renewables, and digital climate solutions.

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Check out Dan’s Private Equity-Grade Forecasting software, Kluster, here: https://www.kluster.com/

Send podcast guest pitches to: [email protected]

Check out Dan’s Private Equity-Grade Forecasting software, Kluster, here: https://www.kluster.com/

Send podcast guest pitches to: [email protected]