Ep 4: Serving the Underserved with Dana Price, CFO at Kenzie Academy

When you're a mission-driven early stage tech company headquartered in the heartland, does it change the fundamental skills you need as a Finance Business Partner?  Not exactly, but you'd better be comfortable wearing extra hats.  Dana Price, CFO of Kenzie Academy, shares smart career hacks for Finance Business Partners and how a strong network can propel your success at any career stage.  Listen in!

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Matt

Transcript

SPEAKER_00: 0:01

Hi, this is Matt Cooley, host of the podcast Upside Downside, where we explore what it takes to be the best finance business partners possible. I'm a finance business partner myself and former president of the New York City chapter of Financial Executives International. Prepare to meet professionals on the front lines of value creation and hear their stories. If you'd like to suggest a future guest for this podcast or be a guest yourself, please reach out. Now on to today's podcast. Please welcome Dana Price, Chief Financial officer at Kenzie Academy. Welcome, Dana.

SPEAKER_01: 0:35

Thank you, Matt. It's good to be here.

SPEAKER_00: 0:37

Oh, it's absolutely great to have you on our podcast. And I know people are going to love hearing all about you. Please tell us about your business and how you came to the role that you have today.

SPEAKER_01: 0:48

Sure. So Kenzie Academy is a workforce training development company. We are basically teaching folks technology skills for jobs of tomorrow. And what I specifically mean by that is we are teaching software for engineering and UX engineering to many of the underserved and folks who don't have access or means. And we are taking them out of jobs that are generally making less than$30,000 a year, training them up, getting them skills and certificates and having them leave and get a job, making somewhere in the range of$50,000 a year. So life-changing events

SPEAKER_00: 1:29

to those. Oh, that's very cool. How did you come to this role? Yeah,

SPEAKER_01: 1:35

so I met a guy, right?

SPEAKER_00: 1:38

Okay, that's one way to do it.

SPEAKER_01: 1:41

So I had this job specifically, the lead investor of the Kenzie Academy is a venture capitalist firm that I had done business with in one of my prior lives. And I literally called him up one day and said, Matt, his name also happened to be Matt as well. Okay. I'm bored. What do you got going on? So he introduced me to the co-founder and CEO of Kinsey Academy, and God help him, the rest is history.

SPEAKER_00: 2:13

I love that, though. And I could see that with your personality, placing that phone call. That's awesome. So as you know, this podcast is about finance business partnership. What are the unique attributes of a strong finance business partner from your perspective?

SPEAKER_01: 2:31

So number one, you have to have patience. Number two, you have to have a sense of humor. Number three, you have to be and have to have just a little bit of crazy to just sort of survive what life may throw at you, obviously, given the environment we're in today. And you have to just have the ability to step back and think at 50,000 feet. If you had a really good partner, a lot of times you don't want to work somebody who is just like you. You want someone who's going to be 180 degrees opposite you so that you can sort of bring together the best of both minds. And you have to know how to compromise, right? And when to say, all right, you know, I don't agree, but I'll support you in that effort. So, and then the little bit of crazy also helps along the way, especially when you're in an early stage company.

SPEAKER_00: 3:24

Okay. That sounds quite fascinating. How did those attributes or skills align at a company like Kenzie Academy where it looks like a social mission is very much part of your business model. Did those basic skills change?

SPEAKER_01: 3:43

Not really. I mean, yes, you are correct. We are very, very mission driven. We're not about just making money. My lead VC is going to probably yell at me if he hears that. But we're also about serving the underserved. So we are very, very mission driven. And that has to be very very instilled in our culture and also instilled in you know obviously the employees that that we hire so you know that's where a little bit of crazy comes into play is you you have to sort of be able to step back you know I have the fortune of being able to you know have an undergraduate degree I have also the fortune of being able to go to graduate school you know there's a lot of folks that don't have means and opportunity so you have to be able to step back and think about, well, you know, you know, maybe my bad day was, you know, having an issue happen with one of my investors, but a bad day for one of our students could literally mean that, you know, they're a single parent, and they may have lost their job, so they can't continue with our program. Or with COVID, there's, you know, a death in their family, or they were laid off, and that is a life changing event to them, and will alter their course of their future so you have to be able to put yourselves in the shoes of the student to understand what they're going through so that you can better figure out how to solve for them because everything we do at Kenzie it's all about the students you know yes I'm the CFO and I do CFO like things but I do it for the students and as long as you have that mentality you know you'll get by in a social mission driven company if you don't well then you got a problem probably

SPEAKER_00: 5:31

right that's a That's a different conversation, I guess.

SPEAKER_01: 5:33

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00: 5:34

So, so, uh, Kenzie is, is headquartered in Indiana. I'm just curious, um, given its mission and, and physical headquarters location to the extent that that matters anymore. Um, how do you, uh, is there any blowback from Silicon Valley, for example, on this, or are they fully supportive of this?

SPEAKER_01: 5:55

Um, so I would say, I wouldn't say there's blowback. I think, you know, a lot of the, uh, Silicon Valley focuses on Silicon Valley. And that's why we're headquartered in the heartland of the U.S. You know, we started the company. My co-founder and CEO started the company. His sole mission was to basically focus on the heartland. Because if you think about folks who live on the coast, a lot of folks who live on the coast have means and access and opportunity. Whereas, you know, you have an enormous amount of individuals in the heartland of the U.S. that are being displaced by technology and automation. And nobody's focusing on them. So that's sort of why our company was formed. And that's sort of why, you know, we're based in Indianapolis. And, you know, from our perspective, if that doesn't work for you, that's fine. You know, you're probably not an investor in our company. And that's perfectly fine. But we're doing what we're doing for very specific reasons.

SPEAKER_00: 6:54

Oh, that's wonderful. Okay, I appreciate that. So we're both members of an association for finance professionals and frankly, that's how we met each other. Um, how do you view professional associations and similar activities like that, uh, outside of your day job, particularly in terms of career development?

SPEAKER_01: 7:14

Yeah, sure. So it's funny to hear myself call the finance professional, which we chuckle. Um, so, you know, obviously you and I are sitting here on a podcast talking, so that's a benefit of, of joining organizations like the FEI. Um, you know, what, One of the things that I look at when I look for where I want to spend my time outside of work, I need, number one, interaction that's going to be meaningful. It's going to be a learning. There's a lot of learning moments in life. It doesn't matter how old you are or what you're doing. There's something that can always be learned day in and day out. So I look for meeting with like-minded individuals who can actually also educate me, teach me something, maybe answer a question on what generally ledger system are you using and why all those wonderful, exciting things. And, and just being in an environment that not only will I get my continuing education because I am a CPA, but I can actually, you know, ask questions, explore things, you know, I'm not afraid as you know, to pipe up and ask, you know, what did you do here? How did you handle that situation? And I think in those environments, you know, it's really helpful from a, professional and a career perspective to have that backdrop because as you know when I need something there's somebody I'm going to call and most likely one of them is going to be you Matt.

SPEAKER_00: 8:46

I think we have called each other for various things in the past and I'd say too that that applies regardless of where you are in your career. In fact it might even be more important early stage.

SPEAKER_01: 8:58

I would agree you know because you obviously those who are focused on doing something you know life changes right and it makes changes along the way and you might sort of be at a place where you're stagnated or you're not sure to do or you're in a situation and there's outlets for where you can go to ask for help that's one of the other benefits of organizations like that

SPEAKER_00: 9:24

Okay, excellent. So what's your favorite way to stay in touch and stay resilient in your career?

SPEAKER_01: 9:33

So to stay in touch and from a, so I see that as sort of a two-prong question. If you're talking about staying in touch with people, it's just, it's literally, you know, picking up those 10 digits on the end of your hands and using them to type an email to somebody and just reaching out and just saying hey what's going on how are you you know how are you in this COVID environment you know what's what's going on in your world if it's staying in touch from a you know technical perspective of yes I'm you know a CPA and I have to you know stay on top of things and God help me I can't for life and remember how to run gap deferred revenue app deferred rent and could someone please help me with that you know that's attending whether it be continuing ed or reading technical bulletins and, you know, a lot of that stuff I do at night when I need to go to sleep. But it is basically staying current with current accounting because that's going to obviously have an impact, especially if you're a company that's audited on your financial statements. And staying resilient is just, you know, when, you know, there's always a point in everyone's life where you're, you know, you're kicked and you're down and you're not feeling so great. And you just, you have to know that there is light at the end of the tunnel. And part of that goes back to your prior question about contacts and who can you call and network and just making sure you have a network. And understanding that we all go through things, it's a matter of how you get out of the situation that you find yourself in, being positive and figuring out what's it, how to make lemonade from lemons. Is that the quote?

SPEAKER_00: 11:24

Does that answer

SPEAKER_01: 11:24

your question? It

SPEAKER_00: 11:26

does. No, that's sage advice. That's great. So last question, my friend, where is the finance business partner role headed from your perspective? And what would you suggest people be doing now to prepare for that future? There's so much change going on, right?

SPEAKER_01: 11:42

Yeah. So, you know, to me, it's all about technology and automation, whether it's, you know, understanding what RPA is and, you know, understanding, you know, how you're going to deploy bots or anything like that to, you know, knowing when someone says, well, can you just, you know, get that up on Slack, you know, knowing what Slack is per se, obviously everyone knows what Zoom is now, but understanding how to use technology and how to use it effectively and efficiently along with the continued trend of just, you know, maintaining, you know, just because your finance doesn't mean that you should only know finance things you really have to have an operating knowledge and a base of understanding you know how your company works all the intertwinings you you have to you have to have HR skills you have to have IT skills you know you have to have a whole bunch of different skill set in your you know finance arsenal so to speak and I think that is just continued and obviously in the environment that we're in now technology is just accelerating faster and faster So that's, to me, priority number one.

SPEAKER_00: 12:59

Okay. That's a great perspective. I think within my company, we view it very much the same as well. It is a holistic animal. It's definitely not the old, you know, accounting pronouncements and staying up on those things by itself. Okay. Excellent. Well, this has been a wonderful discussion. Thank you for being with us today, Dana. And I hope things continue to go well at Kenzie.

SPEAKER_01: 13:23

Thank you so much, Matt. And thank you for having me. It's good to catch up as well. Appreciate

SPEAKER_00: 13:27

it. Pleasure's mine. And thank you our subscribers for listening to this episode of Upside Downside. See you next time.

SPEAKER_01: 13:34

Take care.