
When to Hire a CFO
In July 2017, Twitter announced that it was naming Ned Segal as its new CFO.
The appointment was met with much fanfare, because a CFO hire is usually made at an inflection point in a company’s history. Something about the business is fundamentally changing, requiring orchestration by a new Chief Financial Officer. This is especially true at privately-held companies.
Mike Farley (co-founder and CEO of Tile) shared his opinion on the impact of a CFO in his recent article The 1 Thing to Do If You Want to Grow Your Startup Quickly: Hire a CFO. As Mike expressed in his post:
A great CFO is much more than a spreadsheet wrangler — they help set corporate strategy, manage resources, and bring the CEO’s vision to life.
I recall when Sarah Friar was tapped to be the first-ever CFO at Square. I was working at Salesforce at the time, and Sarah was our SVP of Finance & Strategy. We lamented her departure, but knew she jumped at the opportunity to build another great company. At the time, Square’s success was far from guaranteed; 3.5 years later the company completed its IPO. Sarah shared her thoughts on the CFO role at The Scaleup Offsite (co-hosted by Greylock Partners and YC Continuity):
Being able to balance both the financial elements of what historically people think of as a CFO, with strategy and operations has been a great way to bring varied skillsets into a company. Something to think about when you go out to hire that CFO.
–Sarah Riley, Square
In 2016, the Financial Times published Inside the role of Silicon Valley’s Startup CFOs featuring: Sarah Friar of Square, Will Gaybrick of Stripe, and Brian Roberts of Lyft. Interestingly, each one of these CFOs was previously a banker on Wall Street (Sarah was at Goldman Sachs before her roles at Salesforce and Square). Each left a banking job for the allure of scaling a startup in San Francisco. Each was the first-ever CFO for their respective companies. And each played a strategic role in the development of their startups.
What I love about my job is that it is about so much more than just the numbers.
–Brian Roberts, Lyft
Yesterday, AppDirect announced the appointment of our new Chief Financial Officer, Michael DiFilippo. Michael has extensive knowledge around raising capital, integrating acquisitions, and overseeing financial strategy & operations for high-growth companies. More than “just the numbers”, Michael will be responsible for our Finance, Legal, Human Resources, and IT functions. Michael will drive the underlying planning and strategic processes for the next phase of growth at AppDirect. We’re thrilled to have Michael as part of the leadership team!
When is the right time for your startup to hire a CFO?
I’ve never had a successful entrepreneur tell me they hired their CFO too early.
–Jeff Richards, GGV Capital
I’m 60 days into my role at AppDirect. The team is coming together nicely!
