Jason M. LemkinCEO, SaaStr · Co-Founder of SaaStr AI, SaaStr Fund, Adobe Sign

Unleashing the Power of a CFO: The Key to Business Success with CEO ZoomInfo

14 Oct 2023 · 1 min

Watch on YouTube

0:51

A short transcript excerpt from a YouTube discussion about the strategic role of a CFO. Speakers argue a strong CFO acts as a business partner—providing dashboards, articulating the "rhythm of the business," and guiding investment decisions—rather than merely as an accountant. They also voice concern that the quality of heads of finance has deteriorated recently, suggest causes (faster startup growth, increased competition for limited finance talent), and question whether a VP of Finance is sufficient for scaling startups.

Chapters

When we got a new CFO in a real CFO that CFO was able to really articulate the rhythm of the business. He gave dashboards to the department head so they understood what was going on early. He helped us double down on areas that made sense where we were like shy let's double our investment here and we'll continue to reap the rewards. And so really thinking about your CFO as a business partner not purely an accountant is a valuable lesson.
And and I've seen, I've actually seen the quality of heads of finance.
Deteriorate the last few years.
Oh interesting. I think there may be two root causes.
One, startups are growing faster than ever.
So however they did in the beginning.
They just, they stick with it longer.
Right and some of it may just be more competition.
For limited number of resources but.
To tie that together like.
How much can you stretch.
For the cfo? Is a VP of finance good enough?
Like where's that line.