On this episode of the Leaders of Modern Finance podcast, host Tiffaney Fox Quintana welcomes Jack McCullough, President of The CFO Leadership Council, a professional association founded in 2006 to empower senior financial executives to be successful through networking with their professional peers.

Jack is a published author known for  Secrets of Rock Star CFOs, a book based on conversations with elite CFOs, and most recently, The Psychopathic CEO: An Executive Survival Guide.  He says the secret to becoming a rock star CFO is to think of yourself as a cross-functional executive, who happens to be a financial expert. Being a back-office executive isn’t going to fly in the modern world.

He says the role continues to evolve, and now there are more MBAs in the position because the role has become more strategic than operational. He wouldn’t be surprised if ten years from now we start seeing data scientists in the role.

Jack also talks about the importance of having a mentor or coach, and not necessarily one in finance. He shares the importance of the relationship between the CFO and the CEO. And he offers great insight into the importance of ethics.

It’s a fascinating conversation.

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On this episode of the Leaders of Modern Finance podcast, host Tiffaney Fox Quintana welcomes Evgeny Fetisov, Chief Financial Officer at Semrush, a global online visibility management platform.

Evgeny goes into some detail about his journey to his role as CFO at Semrush, where he was brought on just a couple days before they began the process of going public. His earlier career included banking and investment capital, including experience with the Russian Stock Exchange.

When it comes to dealing with other departments at Semrush, Evgeny and his team’s philosophy is to treat them as clients. This promotes a culture of financial responsibility, resulting in sound fiscal decisions on their part.

A major component of those decisions is the data Evgeny and his team provide. He points out the importance of distributing data to those internal clients that is necessary for them to make informed decisions, but not to overwhelm them with data that is irrelevant.

As he says, it’s important to humanize your data.

This episode is brought to you by Stampli. The Most Powerful Way to Process & Pay Invoices.

Stampli is the only Accounts Payable Automation software that centers communications on top of the invoice so that accounts payable collaborates better with approvers, vendors, and anyone involved with purchases to quickly resolve issues and questions, resulting in 5x faster approvals.

Contact us to see why users love using Stampli and schedule a demo at Stampli.com.

On this episode of the Leaders of Modern Finance podcast, host Tiffaney Fox Quintana welcomes Scott Almeida, Chief Financial Officer at Recorded Future, a world leader in intelligence for enterprise security.

Scott has been CFO at Recorded Future since 2013, which he says is an unusually long amount of time in the tech industry, particularly for a company that provides Software as a Service.

By joining the company at its earliest stage, Scott has had a front-row seat to explosive growth over the years. His first year he oversaw $1 million in annual revenue. That revenue has grown to over $200 million today.

With that growth comes the temptation to overspend, but Scott says the culture of being financially responsible still exists, having been instilled in the early, leaner days. He also credits a culture of humility and teamwork that creates a desirable work environment and a stronger company.

Despite all the growth, Scott says he hasn’t forgotten the leaner days, and he is still willing to roll up his sleeves and get done whatever needs to be done. Good advice for any finance leader.

This episode is brought to you by Stampli. The Most Powerful Way to Process & Pay Invoices.

Stampli is the only Accounts Payable Automation software that centers communications on top of the invoice so that accounts payable collaborates better with approvers, vendors, and anyone involved with purchases to quickly resolve issues and questions, resulting in 5x faster approvals.

Contact us to see why users love using Stampli and schedule a demo at Stampli.com.

On this episode of the Leaders of Modern Finance podcast, Ben Murray of The SaaS CFO is joined by Dan Haarmann, CFO at AiFi, a company creating autonomous, checkout-free retail automation solutions.

Dan talks about the current state of AiFi, which is building its Series B and experiencing some expansion with support in China, Europe, and India. Things have become more complex recently now that it is shipping the product and delivering the platform in a live environment, and Dan is in the process of hiring a team to bring functions in-house that have previously been outsourced.

AiFi is a SaaS company, but it also has hardware and deployment costs as part of its model, which is kept in mind when developing its KPIs at this stage of its growth.

Dan has been tracking all the finance and growth metrics from the beginning, even though some of them may not be important today. Growth is the focus right now, but he knows in the long run cash is king, and he’ll need all the numbers at his fingertips in the future to paint a complete picture of the finances of the organization for investors and board members.

Resources:

This episode is brought to you by Stampli. The Most Powerful Way to Process & Pay Invoices.

Stampli is the only Accounts Payable Automation software that centers communications on top of the invoice so that accounts payable collaborates better with approvers, vendors, and anyone involved with purchases to quickly resolve issues and questions, resulting in 5x faster approvals.

Contact us to see why users love using Stampli and schedule a demo at Stampli.com.

On this episode of Leaders of Modern Finance, Derek DeWinter and Mike Tomasello, founders of the DeWinter Group—a professional search firm specializing in financial, accounting, and IT talent—discuss a topic they are asked about quite often: When is the right time to bring on leadership positions to your organization?

Mike talks about the differences in early stage companies, specifically Series A through Series C. He points out the specific needs at each of those stages, and what leadership roles in finance and accounting should be filled at each stage.

They continue the discussion around the skills and expertise needed for Series D and beyond, including filling leadership roles when your company is getting ready to go public. At that stage, you need a different set of skills, including Wall Street relationships; being able to manage the expectations of Wall Street; and managing SEC reporting.

With over 50 years of experience between them, Derek and Mike provide valuable insights on the way founders and leaders should think about each stage of the company’s growth when it comes to financial and accounting leadership.

Resources:

This episode is brought to you by Stampli. The Most Powerful Way to Process & Pay Invoices.

Stampli is the only Accounts Payable Automation software that centers communications on top of the invoice so that accounts payable collaborates better with approvers, vendors, and anyone involved with purchases to quickly resolve issues and questions, resulting in 5x faster approvals.

Contact us to see why users love using Stampli and schedule a demo at Stampli.com.

Peter Taylor, Corporate Controller at Purple Innovation, joins the Leaders of Modern Finance podcast on this episode to share the framework he follows to ensure that his department is running at maximum efficiency. This process, developed over the course of his career, is a valuable tool for any corporate finance professional.

Peter starts with the importance of planning. He admits that he’s not always the best at planning in his personal life, but asking the right questions to make sure the plan is a comprehensive and efficient one is critical to success.

He also suggests leaders jump into researching new tools that can provide automation and efficiency in the daily operations of your department. This may also affect your decision-making on human resources. If you’re running more efficiently, you might not need to bring on new hires.

Peter is also a big fan of documentation. He loves email as a documentation tool to ensure everyone has a clear understanding of the plan, goals, and objectives of the department. Clear documentation helps the team work toward a common goal.

Resources:

This episode is brought to you by Stampli. The Most Powerful Way to Process & Pay Invoices.

Stampli is the only Accounts Payable Automation software that centers communications on top of the invoice so that accounts payable collaborates better with approvers, vendors, and anyone involved with purchases to quickly resolve issues and questions, resulting in 5x faster approvals.

Contact us to see why users love using Stampli and schedule a demo at Stampli.com.

On this episode of Leaders of Modern Finance, Derek DeWinter, Mike Tomasello, and Don Seeley of the DeWinter Group have a roundtable discussion about the state of business today. They focus on their area of expertise, which is talent recruiting in the finance, accounting and tech industries.

Mike kicks things off by talking about the Controller Report, which is a compensation study and industry report for Bay Area Accounting and Finance Professionals. He talks about how thorough their data collection is and some of the interesting trends they identified in both public and private companies.

Don weighs in on the chaotic state of business today as a result of the pandemic. He shares what that means moving forward for both employers and candidates who are negotiating unprecedented flexibility options into their working lives, especially when it comes to where they are going to work.

Derek also explores workplace flexibility, and talks about his observations on what new demands are becoming commonplace for talented candidates, both in the Bay Area and in other parts of the country. He also describes what employers are having to do to accommodate those requests.

Click on the link below for the whole conversation.

Resources:

This episode is brought to you by Stampli, the most powerful way to process & pay invoices.

Stampli is the only Accounts Payable Automation software that centers communications on top of the invoice. This helps accounts payable to collaborate better with approvers, vendors, and anyone involved with purchases to quickly resolve issues and questions, resulting in 5x faster approvals.

Contact us to see why users love using Stampli, and schedule a demo at Stampli.com.