On The Line

The AI-native CFO, with Millie Silver, CFO at Clipway

• Alice Murray • Season 2 • Episode 5

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0:00 | 51:22

What does it actually look like to build a finance function from the ground up, at an AI-native GP?  

In this episode, Alice sits down with Millie Silver, CFO of Clipway, the data-driven secondaries firm that has made waves since its launch in 2023. Millie talks through her path from auditor to CFO, via Coller Capital, and the moment a wedding seating plan changed the course of her career. 

She opens up about what it really means to run finance at a firm where there are ‘no Excel heroes’, how she thinks about developing junior talent in an environment where the grunt work has been largely automated, and why scaling without just throwing people at the problem is her defining challenge right now. 

Millie also reflects on the lessons that have shaped her as a leader: the importance of EQ alongside technical skill, learning to let go of perfectionism, and why things going wrong is often where the best learning happens. 

Key topics 

  • From auditor to CFO: Millie's route Chemistry graduate to Coller Capital, and into the world of emerging managers 
  • What it means to be an AI-native firm in practice, and why Clipway's finance team is still heavy on Excel 
  • Building a finance function from scratch, with no systems, no processes, and no playbook 
  • The junior talent debate: does automating the grunt work rob analysts of the judgment they need to develop? 
  • Scaling without headcount: how Millie thinks about growing the team and the technology together 
  • The CFO as the steady ship: why no news really is good news, and how to make sure the team knows it 
  • Internal relationships and influence: how to be in the room before the decision is made, not after 
  • LP scrutiny and the rise of operational due diligence: what Millie is seeing on the ground 
  • Managing up, managing out: tailoring your communication style to the big chunkers and the small chunkers 
  • Advice to her younger self: stress less, embrace resilience, and remember that things going wrong is where the real learning happens.