The Backbone — Episode 47: A framework for managing M&A as a CFO
Saeideh Fard, Chief Financial Officer at Tulip
Joining me on this episode of the Backbone is Saei Fard, Chief Financial Officer at Tulip, the mobile in-store platform built exclusively for store associates.
At Tulip, Saei is responsible for managing the company’s financials and employee success, including financial planning & analysis, tax management, employee hiring, staff diversity, and professional development. Prior to Tulip she served as Group CFO at TravelEdge since 2015 and led the company’s global finance operations through a period of rapid organic growth, M&A, and integration. She previously held executive leadership positions at Marketwired, a global communications and media company and Sysomos, a SaaS online analytics technology provider. Saei holds both Canadian and US CPA designations and began her career at PricewaterhouseCoopers. She is a speaker and volunteer for several women in leadership organizations and a former Board of Directors member with JobSkills, a Canadian non-for profit committed to advancing opportunities for underemployed citizens.
I chat with Saei about:
- Her journey into tech starting at PwC with stops at Sysomos, MarketWired, and Travel Edge prior to joining Tulip.
- Tulip — what the company does and what it’s all about.
- Tulip’s sales process the most indicative KPIs and metrics of the business.
- Best practises from a systems integration (or separation) perspective that people should be thinking about for M&A processes.
- The biggest misconception about the finance function within a technology company.
We close things off with a quickfire round:
- Your go to online resource for all things startup finance related
- Your favourite productivity hack
- Tech jargon that makes you cringe
- The best advice you’ve received
- One thing you don’t leave the office before finishing
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Check out previous episodes of The Backbone
Episode 46: Pushing company-wide transformation of a craft brewer through technology w/ Trevor Young, Chief Financial Officer at Steam Whistle Brewing
Episode 45: Driving growth through an omnichannel approach at an established wellness brand w/ Michelle Armstrong, Chief Operating Officer at Saje Natural Wellness
Episode 44: Striking the balance of growth and profitability as a bootstrapped company w/ Jessica Katz, Director of Finance at Format
Episode 43: A framework for growing and scaling finance functions w/ Mustafa Nafar, VP Finance at Modsy
Episode 42: What investors really care about from a CFO turned VC & the top metrics for direct-to-consumer businesses w/ Amy Wu, Partner at Lightspeed Venture Partners
Episode 41: The key differences between marketing-driven SaaS companies to sales-driven ones w/ Amar Shrivastava, VP Finance at Clubhouse
Episode 40: Mejuri’s data-driven approach to managing inventory as an omnichannel, emerging direct-to-consumer brand w/ Katie Sellers, Director of Finance at Mejuri
Episode 39: Balancing short term expectations of investors with longer term strategic roadmap decisions as a public company tech CFO w/ Shouvik Roy, Chief Financial Officer at Versapay (TSXV: VPY)
Episode 38: The Consumerization of the Enterprise & Key Differences Between a Strategic and Financial Acquirer w/ Alok Pandey, VP Finance & Corporate Development at AnchorFree
Episode 37: An Inside Look at Salesforce’s $689M Acquisition of Buddy Media & Lessons Learned from Raising $150M+ w/ Oliver Bell, CFO at Springbot
Episode 36: Key Considerations + Metrics for Expanding a Localized Marketplace w/ Corey Noyek, Finance Manager at Platterz
Episode 35: Getting Dirt Underneath Your Fingers as an Operator w/ Tom Finn, VP Finance at Solstice
Episode 34: An Inside Look into Lightspeed’s $275M+ IPO & Scaling a Global Organization w/ Brandon Nussey, CFO at Lightspeed POS
Episode 33: Behind the Scenes of SnapTravel’s $21m Slam Dunk Series A from Steph Curry w/ Ankur Bansal, Head of Finance and Business Development at SnapTravel
Episode 32: A CFO Must Master Being a Capital Allocator w/ Sujeet Kini, CFO at Solium Capital
Episode 31: A Former Banker + Growth Investor Turned Operator on the Consequences of Raising Too Much Capital w/ Steve Isom, VP Finance at Flywheel
Episode 30: Customer + Revenue Churn at a SaaS Company with Recurring + Services Revenue w/ Cory Michalyshyn, CFO / COO at Solink
Episode 29: The First 100 Days as a Finance Leader of a Venture-Backed Startup w/ Bryn Knox, Head of Finance at BenchSci
Episode 28: Scaling a Finance Function of a High Growth Company with Strategic & Institutional Investors w/ Tiffany Hsiao, VP Finance at Rubikloud
Episode 27: Raising a $27M Financing Round & Managing the Ever-Changing Priorities as CFO w/ Dave Pooley, Chief Financial Officer at Axonify
Special Feature: Exploring a New & Revolutionary Revenue Model for Education w/ Austen Allred, Co-Founder and CEO of Lambda School
Episode 26: Lessons Learned from Raising $32M Growth Round + the Symbiotic Relationship Between Finance & Operations w/ Samiksha Khanna, VP Finance and Operations at Uberflip
Episode 25: Correlating Non-Financial Metrics into Financial Outcomes + Balancing Ad-load & Revenue Generated Through Sponsored Contentw/ Trisha Egberts, Finance Manager at Figure1
Episode 24: Learnings from Starting and Shutting Down a Startup + Balancing Multiple Product Stakeholders w/ Mark Jarvie, VP Finance at Drop
Episode 23: Learnings from Raising/Exiting $700M+ in Deal Value for Software + Hardware and the Importance of a People-First Approach in Finance w/ David Brennan, Chief Financial Officer at Ecobee
Episode 22: Raising $47M from Strategic vs Traditional VC & the Level of Finance Leader to Hire at Each Stage of a Company’s Evolution w/ Danielle Cerisano, VP Finance at League
Episode 21: Using Analytics and Predictive Models to Improve Budgeting + the Role of Attribution in Assessing Digital Marketing ROI w/ Emma Lyndon, CFO at Canopy Labs
Episode 20: Considerations for CAC and Churn in a Self-Serve Pricing Model w/ Matt Dove, VP Finance at Celtx
Episode 19: The Journey of Raising $100M ICO (Initial Coin Offering) as a Venture-Backed Unicorn w/ Brandon Brunet, Controller at Kik
Episode 18: Bootstrapped to $12M Series A & What it Means for the Finance Function w/ Jennifer Pollock, Director of Finance & Operations at RateHub
Episode 17: The Added Complexities of Hardware Tech Companies & How to Price a New Medical Device w/ Travis Phung, Director of Finance & Administration at Exact Imaging
Episode 16: Monetizing a Free Product & Navigating Complexities of the Financial Services Space w/ Brian Wu, Finance Lead at Borrowell
Episode 15: Serving the Restaurant Industry & Breaking Into Tech in a Finance Capacity w/ Rob Curcio, Director of Finance at TouchBistro
Episode 14: Scaling the Finance Function, Fundraising, Making Acquisitions & Operationalizing Metrics w/ Ryan Magee, Chief Financial Officer at Cority
Episode 13: Serving the SMB Market at a Publicly Traded Software Company vs a High-Growth Startup w/ Darren Wood, Director of Finance & Operations at Jobber
Episode 12: Leading Finance at NPOs to High Growth Tech & Bootstrapping vs Raising Venture Capital w/ Anthony Scolaro, VP Finance & Operations at Lucova
Episode 11: Raising $17M Series A Round & What it Means to be ‘Venture-Backed’ w/ Frank Jessop, Director of Finance, Sensibill
Episode 10: Vendor Selection Considerations & Viewing the Finance Function from an Engineering Perspective w/ Gerti Dervishi, VP Finance at Flybits
Episode 9: The Process of Acquiring Companies as a Startup & Best Practices for Investor Relations w/ Ryan Levenberg, VP Finance at Q4 Systems Inc.
Episode 8: Raising VC Funding to Executing an $110M Acquisition + Demystifying the Progressive Roles of the Finance Leader within a Startupw/ Dwayne Walker, CFO at LookbookHQ
Episode 7: Going Through an Acquisition of an eCommerce Company & Keeping Both Sides of a Marketplace Happy w/ Elena Armstrong, Co-Founder & VP Finance at Exact Media
Episode 6: From Finance to Founding an IoT Startup & Bootstrapping vs. Raising Venture Capital w/ Sacha Sawaya, Co-Founder and CFO at Litmus Automation
Episode 5: Difference Between Being an Advisor vs Finance Leader for Tech Startups & When to Raise Capital w/ Eugene Bomba, CFO & VP Operations at ThoughtWire
Episode 4: Transitioning from Professional Services to Finance Leader of Pre-Revenue Tech Startup w/ Chris Parkes, CFO at NuraLogix
Episode 3: Why Finance & Operations go Together & Dealing with the Highly Regulated Financial Services Industry w/ Leen Li, Head of Finance at Wealthsimple
Episode 2: How Finance Scales Growing from 25 to 200+ Employees & Transfer Pricing w/ Les Cullen, Director Finance & Operations at TopHat
Episode 1: Managing Churn & Being Private Equity Backed w/ Daniel Israelsohn, VP Finance & Operations at Firmex
The Backbone is a podcast hosted by Shubham Datta, that explores the journey inside finance at a startup. Each episode features a finance leader (Director/VP, Finance or CFO) that:
- shares their story of how they entered the world of startups,
- explains what their company does
- describes unique challenges he/she faces in their role