FP&A Today

Sruthi Lanka: Why Top Startups see FP&A as Central to Strategy

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Engineer-turned-CFO Sruthi Lanka  was drawn  into finance after seeing her parents - themselves brilliant engineers - losing money in the markets. “I couldn't understand how people who could solve incredible math puzzles in their head could not figure out how to make a return in the markets. And so that's what led me down this path of navigating into finance.”

Today she is CFO at investing app, Public.com, the biggest competitor to Robinhood, famous for the “GameStop Frenzy which rattled markets in January 2021. 

 

In this episode Sruthi reveals

  • Her vision for FP&A as central to business and executive leadership  
  • Her experience of The GameStop Frenzy in late January 2021 which coincided with her joining Public.com, helping it explode from “a relatively young startup to having over a million members”
  • The centrality of data or analytics partnering with finance and why some engineering and SQL is an important skill set for CFOs
  • Her founding membership of FSuite in which StartupCFOs meet to discuss everything from the best tools to complex challenges they are facing 
  • Why a regular monthly meeting with FP&A is “sacrosanct” - in order to optimize what is measured and show  progress against targets 
  • The importance of FP&A doing the “hard work” of building “simple” financial models

    • Watch the full show on YouTube

    Read the full transcript and blog

    Show Links

    FSuite (A thriving, invitation only community where CFOs turn to excel in their career and day-to-day) 

    Follow Sruthi Lanka on LinkedIn

    Follow Paul Barnhurst on LinkedIn

    Follow Datarails on LinkedIn

    FP&A Today is brought to you by Datarails.

    Datarails is the financial planning and analysis platform that automates data consolidation, reporting and planning, while enabling finance teams to continue using their own Excel spreadsheets and financial models.

    Get in touch at www.datarails.com

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