Roadmap Creation for Finance

The path to becoming the CFO of one of the world’s leading telecommunications companies has been marked by challenges, learning, and enormous personal growth. I recently had the opportunity to reflect on my experience as a leader with Jack McCullough. We covered a lot of ground, from my personal journey of immigrating to America as a child, to my role as CFO, where I helped build the most talented team in the industry, and importantly, the strategic pivot AT&T has undergone over the last 4+ years.     Some of my most valuable lessons:     ⭐ Embrace Bold Decisions: Over the last four-plus years, we’ve been on a path to refocus the business on connectivity, which included divesting non-core assets, significantly reducing our debt, and cutting the dividend. All of these choices led us to where we are today- growing earnings, growing cash, and growing shareholder returns. Bold decisions, however challenging, are essential for long-term success.  ⭐ Build a World-Class Team: Building a strong team is foundational to the success of your business. A recurring theme in my career has been the importance of surrounding myself with the most talented, most inclusive team possible. This involves maintaining great networks, being an honest broker, and providing constructive feedback.   ⭐ Stay Curious: Throughout my career, I’ve sought opportunities to learn and grow. From a fellowship with the SEC, to earning my MBA at Columbia University, continuous learning has equipped me with the skills needed to navigate the evolving landscape of the finance industry. Encouraging a culture of learning within your teams can drive innovation and success – your colleagues have a lot to teach you!    Read more in Forbes:

When I was hired as a CFO, I was probably the least qualified candidate. No CFO experience. No Big 4 pedigree. Never built a finance team from scratch. Honestly, I loved being the underdog. Because it taught me something important: Most finance leaders don’t fail from lack of qualifications; they fail from lack of clarity. They think finance is about reporting what already happened. But I saw finance as a team that shapes what happens next. So, three years ago, I had a clear vision that shaped my mission: Finance wouldn't just be a cost center. It would become the intelligence hub of our company. If you're a finance leader, here’s exactly how you can do the same: 1️⃣ Hire people smarter than you...fast. Stop hiring mini-versions of yourself. Identify your blind spots and fill them immediately. Great teams are built from diverse strengths; not comfortable copies. 2️⃣ Fix your data foundation first. Your finance function is only as strong as your data clarity. We upgraded our ERP, revamped our chart of accounts, and built dashboards that gave us insight. 3️⃣ Become an internal business partner, not the finance police. Your job isn’t just budgets and controls. Your role is enabling Sales, Marketing, and Ops to clearly see exactly how their daily decisions create shareholder value. That’s when finance stops reviewing results and starts driving them. Our mantra became crystal clear: “We are the compass of the company. We put the business back on the rails. And we guide it toward value.” So if you’re an FP&A lead, a VP Finance, or a CFO-in-the-making: Don’t wait for permission to lead. Design your finance function to drive strategy. It starts with mindset. Then systems. Then trust. #CFOInsight #FPandA #StrategicFinance

Every finance leadership team is shaping the future finance function, often through the people it chooses to promote. Promotion decisions are not just individual career moves. They send a signal about what the function values. If the strongest technical profile is always promoted, finance may become highly reliable but too backward-looking. If the best relationship-builder is always promoted, finance may become well-liked but insufficiently challenging. If the person who can combine credible numbers with sound judgement is promoted, finance starts to become a stronger business partner. In many finance teams, four archetypes tend to appear: 📊 The Reporter Delivers accurate numbers and strong control, often once the books are closed. This profile brings reliability and technical discipline, but may become a provider of hindsight rather than an active voice in decisions. 🏭 The Operator Combines credible numbers with a clear recommendation and engages the business early enough to influence the outcome. This profile brings judgement, business understanding and command of the numbers, but can become overextended as the business increasingly relies on them. 🚶♀️➡️ The Bystander Processes what is requested without challenging the request or framing the decision behind it. This profile can be dependable in routine work, but risks becoming invisible when priorities, structures or cost levels change. 📣 The Cheerleader Builds strong relationships and creates openness in business conversations. This profile brings trust and access, but may over-index on relationships if the numbers are not challenged, validated or translated into decisions. The important question is not only who sits where today. It is which profile the organisation is unintentionally turning into the role model for everyone else. To move the team, CFOs can start with four practical steps: 1️⃣ Name the gap Map each person against two dimensions: technical credibility and business partnering. 2️⃣ Bridge the gap Identify what is holding each person back: judgement, confidence, commercial understanding, or technical depth. 3️⃣ Pair for progress Let strong Operators coach others on live business topics, not generic development exercises. 4️⃣ Reward the full combination Promote credible numbers, commercial judgement and clear recommendations, not just one of the three. Look at the last five finance promotions. What did they actually reward? P.S. If you are deciding who moves into the next finance leadership role, this is a useful 20-minute discussion with the leadership team before the informal decision has already been made.

Finance teams don't fail because they can't do maths. They fail because leaders don't know how to build them. I've inherited underperforming finance functions multiple times. Smart people. Good technical skills. Yet the team was fractured, slow, and invisible to the business. The assumption was always the same: "We need better talent." We rarely needed better talent. We needed better leadership. Here's what I discovered: the difference between a finance team that drives value and one that just processes transactions comes down to how the leader structures the work, develops the people, and connects finance to the business. I took over a team of eight where people were siloed. Accountant on payroll. Another on accounts payable. Another on reporting. Nobody talked to each other. Knowledge was trapped in individuals. When someone left, institutional knowledge walked out the door. Within six months, we reorganised around business outcomes instead of functions. Same people. Same technical skills. Completely different energy and impact. Why? Because suddenly they understood how their work connected to decisions that mattered. That's leadership, not hiring. Elite finance leaders build teams around three things most miss: First: Clarity of purpose. Your team needs to understand how their work drives business outcomes, not just compliance or process. When a junior accountant sees how their work feeds a decision that impacts growth or cash, their engagement shifts. Second: Capability development. You're not just managing current performance. You're building people for the next level. That requires deliberate investment in skill development, exposure to different work, and coaching on judgement, not just execution. Third: Cross-functional integration. Your team doesn't exist in isolation. Finance teams fail when they're disconnected from operations, strategy, and decision-making. Elite leaders embed finance in the business, not besides it. The maths never changes. But how do you structure the team, develop the people, and connect finance to strategy? That's everything. What's one area where your finance team has untapped potential because of how they're currently structured or led?

High Financial Literacy = Better Leader , How........? Let’s be real—great leadership isn’t just about motivating your team. It’s about understanding the numbers that keep the lights on. When I became Chief Strategy Officer at 28, I learned this the hard way. One day, someone asked me, “What are you contributing to the business?” And honestly, it stung. I realized that no matter how empathetic or visionary you are, if you can’t manage the P&L, optimize costs, or align resources effectively, you’ll hit a wall. Leadership is about more than inspiring others—it’s about delivering results backed by sound financial decisions. That’s when I started using the EMBED framework, a simple way to connect financial literacy to leadership: 🔵 E – Empathy: Numbers don’t exist in isolation—they’re connected to real people. Instead of cutting costs blindly, look for ways to protect team well-being while driving engagement. Engaged teams are 21% more profitable.(Gallup) 🔵 M – Managing Stakeholder Expectations: From your team to your investors, people want clarity. Clear financial communication builds trust and confidence. Transparent leaders increase investor trust by 30% (McKinsey & Company). 🔵 B – Building Future Leaders: Great leaders pass on their knowledge. Teach your team to think about costs, benefits, and the bigger picture—you’re building tomorrow’s leaders. Leadership-focused companies see 2.4x higher returns (Deloitte). 🔵 E – Efficient P&L Management: Your Profit & Loss isn’t just a report; it’s your strategy. Streamline operations, question redundancies, and align spending with priorities. Financially literate leaders make businesses 20% more profitable (HBR Consulting). 🔵 D – Defining Clear Structures: Every role in your team should have a purpose, both strategically and financially. This eliminates overlap and boosts efficiency. Well-structured organizations improve margins by 10% (PwC). In my role, focusing on these principles didn’t just improve the bottom line—it created a culture where everyone knew their impact. What’s one way financial literacy has shaped your leadership journey? I’d love to hear your experiences in the comments. Follow Sanjay Kathuria, CFA for more! #LeadershipTips #FinancialLiteracy #BusinessGrowth #TeamEngagement #StrategicLeadership #LeadershipDevelopment

I’m speaking to more VC finance leaders who feel close to making the jump into private equity but keep hitting the invisible wall. The blocker is almost always the same. They haven’t operated inside a private equity environment and they narrowly lose out to candidates who have that experience. That gap matters more than people think. And most VC finance leaders simply haven’t been exposed to the cadence, scrutiny and value creation model that PE expects as standard. There is a route that works consistently well for making the transition. Stepping in as a number two under a proven private equity CFO. You get real exposure to the PE operating rhythm. You see how value creation gets executed. You build the muscle memory around accountability & board pressure. You learn what a real PE cycle feels like. And most importantly, you experience a full transaction from inside a PE backed business, learning directly from an experienced operator. Once someone has that on their CV, combined with the growth journey they picked up in venture, stepping into a first-time PE CFO role becomes significantly more natural and far more compelling for investors. The VC → PE number two → PE CFO pathway has become one of the more reliable routes into private equity for first-time CFOs. #cfo #privateequity #venturecapital #finance #CareerProgression

Most advisors start the conversation at step four. Here is what steps one, two, and three actually look like and why skipping them is expensive. Step one: Spending clarity. Before any investment conversation, you need the real number for what you spend every month. Not an estimate. Not a rough sense. Most clients are off by 30 to 40%. That gap is where wealth quietly disappears — regardless of what returns the portfolio generates. Step two: Net worth mapping. Not just the portfolio. The flat you live in, the LIC policies from 2007, the ESOPs you haven't reviewed, the FDs across three different banks. Everything, in one place. Until this exists, any advice built on top of it is built on an incomplete picture. Step three: Money longevity. One question: does what you have, combined with what you're saving, last your lifetime at the lifestyle you want? This requires a proper financial plan, not a returns projection. This is where most clients encounter the answer they've been avoiding. Only after these three steps does the investment conversation make structural sense. Step four: which asset class, which product, what to buy is the only conversation most clients want to have. It is also the last one that should happen. The order matters. Not as a philosophy. As a sequence with real consequences when it gets ignored. #WealthManagement #FinancialPlanning #PersonalFinance #HouseOfAlpha #FeeonlyAdvisory

After 15 years in the C-suite and 4 board seats, I’ve noticed the same mistakes that quietly stop talented finance leaders from becoming CFO: 1) They think like controllers, not operators. CFOs don’t just report numbers - they shape decisions. If you never talk about customers, product, competitive pressure, or revenue levers, you’re signaling you’re a functional expert… not an enterprise leader. 2) They build relationships up, not across. Great CFOs aren’t just trusted by the CEO and board. They’re trusted by GTM, Product, Ops, and People because they show up early, listen, and help solve real problems. 3) They can model a forecast but not tell the story. The CFOs who earn board confidence connect everything in one clean thread: what’s happening, why it matters, what options exist, and the trade-offs behind each path. Boards remember the narrative - not the spreadsheet. 4) They wait to be invited in. Future CFOs don’t sit back. They initiate scenario plans, pressure-test strategy, and surface risks before anyone asks. 5) They stay stuck in precision mode. Perfect accuracy slows companies down. Standout CFOs set decision thresholds, embrace scenario ranges, and call out the unknowns so the business can move faster. 6) They solve today’s problem, not the next stage. Boards choose the leader who can scale the company from $20M → $50M, $50M → $200M, or pre-IPO → public. Your mindset must shift with the stage. 7) They underestimate how much the CFO role is leadership. Most misses aren’t technical - they’re about influence. CFOs lead rooms, drive alignment, and bring clarity in moments where ambiguity is high. The difference between a great finance leader and a CFO isn’t technical skill. It’s how you think, how you lead, and how you show up. PS: I coach finance leaders on strategic storytelling, board communication, and executive presence. If you’d like to explore working together, send me a DM.

Most startup financial models are beautiful lies. I’ve reviewed hundreds of early-stage models. And the pattern is clear: → CAC magically drops over time → Churn is “estimated” but never tracked → LTV isn’t calculated or worse, inflated → Headcount costs are wildly optimistic → There’s a “Misc” tab with $1.2M in it Why does this happen? Because founders treat models like investor theatre. Built to impress. Not to operate. The cost? → You raise capital with zero visibility on runway → You overhire and miss your margin targets → You make roadmap bets you can't actually afford → And worst of all? You realize too late that the business model doesn’t work Your model isn’t a pitch prop. It’s your decision engine. A good one should answer: → What happens if CAC jumps 25% next quarter? → Can we delay the next hire and still hit targets? → What’s real runway after expansion churn? If you can’t get those answers, you don’t have a model. You have a spreadsheet in a blazer. Here’s how to build one that actually works: 1/ Start with a clear purpose → What decisions should this model help you make? Hiring plan, pricing strategy, runway clarity? Be specific from day one. 2/ Ground it in real systems → Pull actuals from your CRM, accounting, and payroll. Your model is only as useful as the data it’s built on. 3/ Link your core financials → P&L, Balance Sheet, and Cash Flow should speak to each other. If they don’t, your forecast can’t be trusted. 4/ Segment revenue realistically → Break revenue down by product, customer type, or geography. Model retention, expansion, and churn by cohort — not hope. 5/ Reflect costs with accuracy → Include real team ramp times, founder comp, tech debt, and overlooked ops costs. This is where most risk hides. 6/ Run scenarios, add sensitivity → Best case, worst case, base case. Play with CAC, churn, and pricing levers. Your model should answer “what if?” 7/ Use and update it regularly → If your model isn’t revisited monthly, it’s already outdated. It should evolve with your business — not collect dust post-fundraise. Bottom line? If your model looks polished but doesn’t drive decisions.. Rebuild it. Your business depends on it. PS: Curious, what’s the one metric you check first when you open your model? ——— Need help making the numbers make sense? I’m Mariya. Fractional CFO for SaaS startups. I help founders get clear on what the numbers are really saying. 📩 DM me if your model doesn’t match your reality.

Big money decisions can feel overwhelming. Buy, invest, sell, or save every choice carries weight. Here’s the truth most people don’t say out loud: Poor decisions aren’t usually about lack of knowledge. They’re about lack of a process. Without a framework, emotion, pressure, and noise take over. With one, confidence and clarity follow. Here’s a simple framework to guide major financial moves: 1) Clarify the Objective • Know exactly what you want to achieve • Distinguish wants from needs • A clear goal reduces costly confusion 2) Assess the Financial Impact • Look past the sticker price • Map recurring vs one-time costs • Consider taxes, liquidity, and risk 3) Evaluate Opportunity Cost • Every choice sacrifices something else • Compare alternatives objectively • Pick the option with highest long-term upside 4) Stress-Test the Decision • Imagine worst-case scenarios • Ask “What if I’m wrong?” • Build protection before committing 5) Check Emotional Bias • Fear, excitement, or pride can mislead • Slow down decisions and get rational input • Emotions should inform, not drive 6) Align With Long-Term Strategy • Ensure choices fit your 10-year plan • Short-term wins shouldn’t derail future goals • Consistency compounds over time 7) Decide, Document, Commit • Write down why you chose this path • Set review checkpoints • Execute confidently, unless facts change The difference between regret and confidence isn’t luck. It’s having a repeatable process. What’s the last money decision you made using a clear framework? Follow me Marc Henn for more. We want to help you Retire Early, Supercharge Your Cash Flow, and Minimize Taxes. Marc Henn is a licensed Investment Adviser with Harvest Financial Advisors, a registered entity with the U. S. Securities and Exchange Commission.