Joining Vikram on the podcast today is Tyler Sloat, the CFO at FreshWorks who is championed as someone instrumental in securing IPOs for SaaS businesses. Prior to joining Freshworks, Tyler had taken two companies public, POET Software and Zuora. Today, Tyler shares with us insights on the role of CFOs and how to get your SaaS business ready to go public.

Tyler shares his story of how he took an interest in business at a young age. He then describes the similarities and differences between Zuora and Freshworks when they were going public and how his job as a CFO differed in both organizations based on a number of aspects. Tyler explains that the role of the CFO has dramatically transformed over time, leaning into different roles, and he also shares the metrics he and his team use to determine the readiness of an organization before going public. He also discusses the importance of tracking predictability and forecasting when getting IPO-ready, and throughout the episode, shares useful information for CFOs and others who are on the journey of making the decision to take their business public.

The Finer Details of This Episode:

• How Tyler’s interesting childhood shaped his view of the future
• The process of taking Zuora and Freshworks public
• How the role of the CFO has evolved over the years
• What is the operational and executional readiness of an organization?
• Achieving accuracy and predictability
• Why you should track predictability before going public
• Metrics used for accountability
• Things Tyler would have done differently