Maddy Devine traded consulting with multinational corporations for building startup finance teams from the ground up — and she’s never looked back.

Her first finance job was consulting for Accenture, and she’s now VP of Finance at virtual conference software company Bevy.

Maddy believes that the two key components of building a finance department that fuels business growth are the tech and the people. Not necessarily in that order.

Maddy looks for people who share the belief that finance should be about more than making sure what’s going out is balanced out by what’s coming in. Her team outsources that work, so they can focus on strategizing.

On the tech side, Maddy won’t settle for a tool that can’t scale along with the business. Researching and implementing software is a significant commitment of time and energy, so you need to make sure you’re not going to outgrow your investment within a few months.

On this episode of The CFO Playbook, Maddy explains which part of the function startup finance leaders need to tackle first, how to find a balance between protecting your budget and empowering departments on the business end, and the skills she looks for in her team.

Connect with Maddy on LinkedIn.

Connect with our host Ross on LinkedIn.

If you want a better way to track and control your team’s spend, checkout Soldo.com.

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