272. CFO 4.0 Revisited: From Start-up to Scaleup, a CFO's Guide to Navigating Growth with Sylvia Ionita

Originally released as episode 144 of the CFO 4.0 Podcast, this episode is part of our CFO 4.0 Revisited series — bringing back some of our most valuable conversations for a new listen.

Hannah Munro is joined by Sylvia Ionita, Finance Executive at LFG Solutions LLC, who at the time of recording was CFO at waterdrop. With hands-on experience scaling start-ups, Sylvia brings sharp, practical wisdom on what it really takes to grow a business from the ground up — the highs, the hard lessons, and everything in between.

In this episode, we cover:

• How presenting real numbers and financial data at all levels drives awareness and accountability across the team
• Sylvia's approach to leadership meetings, mentoring, and building genuine personal connections
• Implementation measures to enhance profitability and maintain control during periods of rapid growth
• How to discern which problems demand immediate action and which call for a longer-term strategic response
• The importance of internal mentorship and fostering a culture of personal development
• Sylvia's top tips for finance professionals stepping into the start-up world for the first time

Links mentioned:

• Sylvia’s LinkedIn

• Explore other CFO 4.0 Podcast episodes here.
• Subscribe to our Podcast!

Transcript

Welcome And Career Journey

SPEAKER_03 0:00

Welcome to CFO 4.0, the future of finance. The CFO role is changing rapidly. Moving from cost controller to strategic visionary. And with every change comes opportunity. We are here to help you take advantage of this transition, to win at work, drive your career forward, and lead with confidence. Join Hannah Monroe, Managing Director of iTest, a financial transformation consultancy and she interviews key experts to give you real-world advice and guidance on how to transform your processes, people, and data. Welcome to CFO 4.0, the future of finance.

SPEAKER_01 0:48

So hello everybody and welcome to this episode of CFO 4.0. As usual, I am your host, Han Rowe, and today's guest is uh someone actually I know through the uh the Gen CFO Network, as it were. Um, an official, I think Gen CFO Pioneer was the award, but I want to welcome on to the show um Sylvia Ionita, who is CFO of Waterdrop. Welcome, Sylvia. Lovely to have you on the show.

SPEAKER_02 1:14

Thank you so much, Anna, for having me. It's a pleasure being here, and I'm very much looking forward to our conversation.

SPEAKER_01 1:20

As as am I, as am I. So tell us a little bit about yourself, Sylvia. You know, how did you end up at Waterdrop?

SPEAKER_02 1:28

That's a great question. So a couple of years ago, I would have never thought that I would end up in a startup in Austria because I started after my studies, business administration, tax management as a major in personnel management as the second one. I thought to become a CPA and work as a tax consultant in this industry. But by chance, I started in a pharmaceutical company in accounting because I'm an accountant by heart. And yeah, that's how the story began. I was an accountant, then I moved forward to controlling. And the companies I worked at became smaller and smaller. So the first one was a huge corporation, pharmaceutical company where everything was structured from A to C. There was a policy for everything and the guideline for everything, ethics trainings, a clear development plan, everything you can think of. But I realized that I could not change anything. I couldn't have an impact. And that's throughout my career. I made stops in the packaging industry, also in the SaaS industry. But a couple of years ago, I stumbled over the top ads of Water Drop and I realized that's something I would love to do, having an impact, joining a company where I can create the finance department, where I can create something and also have a positive impact on the environment.

SPEAKER_01 2:41

Oh, and that's definitely something as part of the mission at

Waterdrop’s Mission And Scale-Up Reality

SPEAKER_01 2:44

Waterdrop. So tell us a little bit about Waterdrop and the kind of the journey that you've been on with the company.

SPEAKER_02 2:51

I'd love to. So Waterdrop has actually a very ambitious mission, so to say. We dream of a world without pre-filled beverages, sugary beverages in plastic bottles. That's not good for the environment. It's also not good for your health. So we want to make hydration be available to everybody, healthy and sustainable hydration. That's why we actually fight the traditional beverage industry. We fight the big guys that sell plastic bottles, even water filled in plastic bottles, and make our customers or enable our customers to create their drinks at the point of consumption by adding our little cubes that contain vitamins, that contain flavor, that contain taste. Nothing artificial, no additions, artificial additions, and vitamins, electrolytes or caffeine, depending on what our customers are looking for, and create some kind of lifestyle, a healthy lifestyle across the globe.

SPEAKER_01 3:44

How exciting. And tell us a little bit about the journey that you've been on from a finance perspective with WaterDrop.

SPEAKER_02 3:53

Yeah, actually, I applied for the job as a financial controller and a senior finance manager because Waterdrop was looking for quite a few finance people. And I started as a controller, as the very first finance team member here at WaterDrop. So there was no in-house finance team when I joined. But fortunately, right after me, a tax consultant joined the team, and so we two began to build some kind of corporate finance. So when I joined, there wasn't much here. There wasn't a real reporting. We had a very brief reporting from our consultant. Accounting was outsourced. And that was actually the first step that my colleague and I decided to take in source accounting. Because only when you have accounting in-house, you can get the data faster and you can make sure that it's accurate and the way you need it, you can have a better impact on the outcome. So that's what we did. The next one was a controller, so we build up controlling team. We tried to implement policies, and I say tried intentionally also to be a little bit ahead of what we might start talking about. We wanted to implement an approval policy for invoices because there was nothing. The credit card information of our CEO was spread across the company. Everybody was allowed to buy something to spend some money. And of course, when you're growing and you spent quite some money, you'll have at some point start managing the cash flow. And so we wrote the policy, but we were not allowed to roll it out because policy did sound too much like a corporation. And we were a startup. We wanted to have the freedom. Everybody outside the finance team was scared that a policy would reduce our speed, would kill the momentum. So we had to be very mindful with the words we did use from the finance team. So we instead of a policy, we created a guideline and we had to educate the team members because most of them haven't worked anywhere else but water job in their operational team. They didn't know how a corporation worked, and some of them seemed scared of a corporate. Because we are flexible, we are water job, we have a different kind of energy. And so we wrote down a few things and started educating the company. The next big project we had to take care of was, like I mentioned, credit card. It's not very useful if 30 people in a company use the same credit card information, because if there's one fraud attempt, all systems, all subscriptions are on ice, are frozen. So we started looking for alternatives, and that's why I stumbled over another company, another startup, that offers virtual credit cards where you could have one credit card number for each subscription type or each team. Those were the first things that we implemented, not super corporate, because I don't know any corporate big corporation that used to work with virtual credit cards at that time, but to bring some kind of structure into the company. So that's how it started. And of course, the finance team has to keep up with the growth of the company. When I joined, we were, I think, five companies in the group. Now we are already 18. So that's that's quite some progress we have to keep up with. We have banks in several countries, we have bank accounts, credit cards to manage, and most of the time we have external accountants. We also have to coordinate to make sure that we get the data that we need, and also invoices paid, reports to be generated. So those were the beginnings in a few works.

Insourcing Accounting For Speed And Control

SPEAKER_01 7:06

And so when you sort of you look back and that beginning stage, what was the were there any challenges bringing the accounting in-house, you know, with it being historically external?

SPEAKER_02 7:20

Yes, of course there was. First of all, we had to convince the CEO and the management team that we need more finance function in-house. That's always a question. You need salespeople, you need marketing people, but why would you need an accountant? Accounting can be done externally easily, usually. So that was the first step to convince our CEO from the benefits of what an internal accountant would bring. And the other thing was the actual recruitment part, because accountants in many cases are like stereotypes. They have to be very accurate. They're usually not the most extrovert people, and they like to do their job in a structured way. But in a startup, not much is structured. So you have to find a person that's great at her job itself, but also willing to accept this kind of insecurity or this constant change which there is in a startup. So finding the right person here was quite a challenge. So we may also made a few mistakes along the way. We were too much looking out for the expertise and not the cultural fit. Um, although we often say that the cultural fit is more important because you can learn all the qualifications you can gain. But if you don't have the personality, you won't be able to survive in a surrounding like this. But uh, from my experience, especially when it comes to such positions like accountant, you have just have to have the right balance of both sides. Because you need to ever see. Controlling is a little bit easier, but as an accountant, you just have to do your job right.

SPEAKER_01 8:43

Yeah, no, absolutely. I think especially with startups, if you're not comfortable with change and not a, you know, that that is a rarity, I think, sometimes in finance and accounting, especially with the lower end of the roles, then yeah, start-the-s probably aren't the right place for you to be very fair. And and so you mentioned having to convince the CEO to bring in bring it in-house. What were some of the the reasons and the sort of the conversations that you had with them to justify the expense of actually having internal people doing it?

SPEAKER_02 9:17

It's actually the two points. First of all, is speed, because if the person is sitting right in front of me or next to me, I can make sure that she does the important things right away. If you uh have an accountant and an external consultancy, they have their timetable. They have many other customers, and we were small, so we were definitely not the most important one for them. So they did not follow our timetable. We had to follow theirs. That was the first thing. And of course, the SE, not only in terms of local gap, and where nobody was there to control the external accountant, it just did the job book all the receipts, but also in terms of like the mapping or what is the content of the actual invoice. Not not many things are self-explaining. If I buy a desk, it's a desk. But if I get an invoice for influencer marketing, an external accountant might not know where to book it, or if especially if it's like an Instagram story. Is the marketing, is this a newspaper whatsoever, and they might not know it. And this way we have more control to get the accuracy into the books and have the right reporting than ours. These two things I guess convinced our CEO at the end of the day.

SPEAKER_01 10:23

And it's really interesting that they actually started with a controller role versus bringing somebody in to do the finance first. So, what was the logic behind that? What you know, what was it that they wanted from a controller role that they didn't think that they were getting from the external accountants?

SPEAKER_02 10:40

It's funny that you asked that because when I applied, three positions were advertised. It was senior accountant, senior finance manager, and a financial controller. And I think for the controller and the finance manager, the positions were not that clear, at least not from my back then perspective, because I was working accountant, finance manager, controller. So I had a different view on those things. And that's why I also applied for both positions. And after a couple of months in, I actually got the title change to finance manager at controlling to make sure that all my tasks are covered. Because when I started, I had to check 20 euro bills as well as manage a seven-digit loan from our main bank. So it was quite a fine line or balancing these things out, so many things on my desk, but I was fortunate to have a senior tax consultant next to me who at least took care of all the tax topics that I didn't have to deal with them. But I think to answer your question, I think our CEO actually realized that he needed some finance expertise in-house. He himself has a business background, so at first he did the accounting, and then uh a colleague who was taking care of operations, of inventory topics, finance topics, HR topics, and it just grew out of her shoes. So it was too much for her to handle, and that's why they decided they needed some help.

SPEAKER_01 11:56

And I think they just wrote all job ads to make sure that they get actually that's really interesting because I think sometimes, especially in startups, the um senior management they they have an idea if they want, but they don't always know what kind of finance person they want. It's really and I always find it really interesting to ask that question. Um, and and so you're totally right. So, and you've worked with a lot of startups. So, you know, how clear do you think the CEOs and the management team are when they're recruiting for fine for finance in their smaller businesses, what they're after?

SPEAKER_02 12:34

I think they might not be that different from CEOs from larger companies or more established uh companies. Most of them want an accurate reporting, pushing the button. So that's the ultimate goal, I think, of them, to have the numbers at hand in the moment they ask for the numbers in a clear structure, so comprehensive, clear, and like I said, accurate. I think that's what they want. And of course, um Martin, our CEO and founder, he of course wanted a sparing partner. That was also one reason why I chose this job, because the first discussion with him, it was so open and a dialogue, and I knew he would understand the finest topics as well. So somebody I can actually discuss situations, topics, or questions with him. That was very, very beneficial for me, especially at the beginning. But I think he just wanted somebody to take care of all the numbers stuff so he could focus on on the business.

SPEAKER_01 13:25

And um, you mentioned obviously that what um what CEOs want at a startup level isn't that different, but obviously it's a completely different environment. So you've worked across big companies all the way down to small companies. So what do you think are kind of the key differences working with a startup?

SPEAKER_02 13:46

In a startup, there's less structure available. I think when you join a larger company as a CFO or finance director, people I had worked with, there is not much room to move around. So it's clear what they also have to deliver by themselves. So when they know what they have to deliver, it's much easier to ask their team for support for doing certain parts. But if there is nobody actually knowing what the end result should be, it's much harder to define the things that you that you really need, or in terms of accounting, tax management, treasury, they might not be aware of all the topics that might come onto their desk at some point. So I think that's that's the big difference. For a large corporation, it's clearer. Uh they have their framework and they have a certain set of expectations, where in the startup world, I think the the room is much wider. You feel this plane or greener, however you would like to put it, and everything can happen. Also in in terms of growth and in terms of yeah, challenges from the from the shareholders, I think, are quite different from a startup and you have private investors, internet investors, and not that many corporations while you're compared to the public company.

SPEAKER_01 14:55

And you talk about obviously investors being a key difference between the larger corporates and the smaller businesses.

Investor Updates And Reporting That Sticks

SPEAKER_01 15:02

Um, is there any sort of tips and tricks that you've developed over the years to manage those relationships? Because obviously they're key and you're you're more in contact, I guess, with the the investors of the business than you would be necessarily in a larger business.

SPEAKER_02 15:16

I definitely am. So in previous positions, I hardly ever dealt with shareholders. So I also worked for um public companies, so of course there was not such a close contact with them. But I think it's good to have an open exchange with them. Um till now it's also mainly managed by by Martin. So he has the closest contact because most of the shareholders have been there from the beginning of the early days. So they have a very, very close exchange. I think the most important thing is to be reliable. So if you provide data, make sure that it's accurate and that it doesn't change too much over time. So when you reported last year numbers, they should not change 10 times till you have the final results. That's something you really have to be careful and make sure that the numbers are also understood so that you're also available for questions. So it's also here important to find the balance and to, I think, ideally have one or two of those shareholders to become a sparing partner for you as well. Maybe not a real mentor, but somebody you can actually discuss topics and not just report to.

SPEAKER_01 16:20

That's really interesting. And you mentioned obviously finding the balance between too much and not enough data. How how do you identify when you've got the balance right?

SPEAKER_02 16:32

A lot I do with uh Martin's expertise and his experience with the existing shareholders. Um things are, of course, gut-filling. Because when you when you review the data that you have, you went, ah, that might be confusing. That's something you also learn when you talk to other stakeholders in the company, like the business leads, the heads of different departments. Sometimes it's just too much detail. That's probably also one of the bigger challenges for me coming from accounting and trying to understand every euro in the books, versus what do I show the shareholders? How much information do we need, how much detail actually do they want or need to do their job, right? So it's it's probably a learning. I'm not sure whether there's there's one right way to do it. I think it's a learning and it definitely depends on the shareholders. So I think for the CEO or those people making the decisions, it's very important to choose the right shareholders and not just let anybody on board just because they're interested or want to put some cash in. I think the founders have to be very mindful whom to let in.

SPEAKER_01 17:33

That's really interesting because we talk a lot about picking your organization. We don't talk a lot about picking your shareholders. I think that's a whole podcast in itself, to be very fair. So you talked about obviously reporting was a key ask from the business of that of you coming into your roller shop. Um, how well established were the metrics and the reporting? Was that something you had to build from the ground up?

SPEAKER_02 17:58

More or less, yes. Uh I had to. So there was a very brief PL available from our external consultant. It was consolidated for three smaller entities in the main company, but it was very, very rough and not containing all the data of all entities. So I had to recreate it a lot. The good thing was that our CEO, he already had a business plan with a certain structure, which I could take as the foundation. So I took it from there because he had a clear expectation, what he wants to see in the in the PL, may focus the PL on Ibita. That was from the beginning and more or less still is. So it was clear what we need to show separately. And a few things then happen over time. When you realize, I think that's in everybody's finance um experience. When we realize that one bucket is is expanding, then we should show it separately. And the minor things can be consolidated. So that's just a learning you have, but we had the basic structure. That's what I one of the things that I really appreciated because Martin has this finance understanding, this business understanding, and also a certain reporting that he had already provided to the shareholders. So I took it from there and matured that the data is accurate, that it's filled with more information and expressive enough to meet all the expectations.

SPEAKER_01 19:18

And knowing what you know now, looking back on your your first sort of um maybe your first 12 months or your first 18 months in your your previous role as controller, would you have done anything differently?

SPEAKER_02 19:33

I probably would have. Um, even though I had not been a finance lead in in this regard like I'm now. Um I had a small team and I think you should have trusted my experience and also my gut feeling more, and pushed certain things that are now in place a little bit earlier. That was, of course, because of Martin's experience, and he's very clear and he has good expectations at some times, but I should have pushed a few things. And I realized that there's some kind of not only sided thinking, but um like you get some blind spots as soon as you're in the company for a couple of months. If you didn't do the things you planned to do at the beginning, you might forget to do them at the right point. So that's something, or making also a reminder at some point we have to implement this, then we need that, and not wait until things are about to explode. Because there are so many fires in a startup anyway, and you seem you only have to take care of the fires instead of really creating something. So that's something I would have done differently. The good thing though is that uh it's also a learning from my side. At some point, the business, so the different teams realize they need those things, like a guideline, like a budget or framework, and they start asking for it. And when you are then ready, that's the best thing. It did not happen that often, but usually we had to push and run and make things ready again, but then they are willing to accept those things. And they were much more open-minded and are grateful that they get those frameworks. Not in every instance, but in general. When they start asking for it, when they see the need for structures for guidelines or policies, it's much easier to get them implemented and also make sure that people will follow those guidelines.

Adding Structure Without Killing Momentum

SPEAKER_01 21:14

I think that's one of the biggest challenges, isn't it? Because startups, the reason people join startups is they don't necessarily want to be hemmed in by policies and procedures, and they love the freedom that it brings and the creativity that that drives for business. But like you say, there's a point at which it becomes necessary. So how do you like what's your what was your approach? Have you got any tips for anyone else that's sitting in there going, I have that exact same scenario? How do I convince them that even though it's it's it's you know, anti, you know, anti startups to put in rules and regulations, how do you go about convincing them those structures?

SPEAKER_02 21:54

I think on one side you have sometimes you have to take baby steps, not even though you know how. It should look at the end of the day. Don't rush there. Make sure that they manage the change or can handle the change. And the other thing is show them the benefit of those things. Something that I really realized or learned is with the budget, then they know where they can actually move in which area, in which range. If they don't know that, it this also sometimes creates some kind of insecurity. Some people don't have a problem with that because they just spend money or whatsoever, but others don't want to make a mistake and might be too cautious then and don't do enough, don't spend enough, don't try the resources they actually have. So showing them the benefits and giving them some kind of security also. So here you can move. This is your freedom area. Use it as much as you want or need, that I believe does help a lot. And then talk to them. Really talk to them. And also what also helps in, I think, in any cross-functional discussion, make them understand you and try to understand them. When you understand their business, their job, it's much easier to provide the guidance and at the end of the day, also get what you want. That's also when accounting controlling or sales and controlling, marketing and finance, there is, of course, friction and there's tension between those teams. One team always wants to spend money, and finance has to make sure that it's not overspent and that we have a positive cash flow and so on. But if you show them you can understand them and that you want to enable a successful business and them doing their job, then they are much more open to work with you. And I also realized this or experienced this with other finance people. I worked with external accountants, I worked with local finance people that are not directly reporting to me, but uh dotted line. And when you show them what also the data is used for and what the result is, they they also get some kind of fire sometimes. I have a funny, funny story there, or I thought it was funny. I had a colleague in a different company who started as a finance person doing everything, also payroll, office management. So she was not the perfect controller when I joined or universal accountant. But she did a good job and she had her procedures. And whenever I needed something extra, she was first a bit annoyed that she needs to do something extra. But at the end of the day, she saw that we are in the same boat, which is also very important, to make them understand that we all have the same goal. But also she saw the benefits. Um in my previous position, I learned to write small macros in Excel. And I showed her one. I created one for her, and she was super grateful and happy with it. But what made me really proud, a couple of months later, she showed me her own macro. And three years ago, she did not even use Excel. So that was a very proud moment for me, and that's why I think even if it's cross-functional, you can both sides can benefit from the cooperation, even though it's working and even though it might slow down some of the processes. But at the end of the day, we have the same goal, we want to get there. We, for example, want to become the world's leading hydration brand. We can only do this if we work together and get some processes into the books.

SPEAKER_01 25:06

And you and you mentioned obviously a little bit of tension between finance and marketing.

Marketing Spend Brand Value And Grey Areas

SPEAKER_01 25:11

And it's interesting you say that because I do feel like that's that's probably the area where we I see the biggest tension points within a business. Um, because they're almost at the complete opposite ends of the conversation. How do you like manage that relationship? How do you try and be that value-added partner whilst making sure that you know, from a from a class flow and a cost perspective, that you know you're you're managing that risk as well.

SPEAKER_02 25:38

That's actually super challenging. So I fully agree that's probably the biggest tension or biggest friction you can have. Here Autodob it also adds because our chief marketing officer is one of the founders. So he, of course, has the longest history with the company and also a clear which way he wants to get to. So we had quite some discussions. What I think is super, super important that you're open and that you address your concerns. I mean, at the end of the day, the decision has to be made by the CEO anyway. So if he approves a certain expenditure, certain campaign, then it's fine. But I think it's our obligation as finance people to show the impact, to create transparency, and to make sure that we get all the information we need and to stay, stay in touch. I'm very fortunate. I have a head of controlling a couple of years months ago he joined the company, and he's also managing our stakeholders very closely. He's meeting them, making sure that he understands them, but also that he provides input, that he provides structure, business case calculations, and so on. So it's a give and take also here. Of course, at the end of the day, decisions have to be made. Sometimes money gets burned, sometimes it has an amazing impact. Um, but we all have the same goal. And if we don't act as enemies, but like as partners, I think it can be very fruitful.

SPEAKER_01 26:57

And obviously, you're in the business of selling B2C a lot, by the sounds of it, a lot of what you're doing. How do you balance that ability to assess the value of marketing when you know, especially when you're doing things like influencer marketing, etc.? How because it's always a different skill set is in finance. There's not a necessarily a direct impact of this many sales. So, how do you manage that relationship and that conversation?

SPEAKER_02 27:23

That's also a great question, and probably not 100% answered. So, for a T2C, for actual online advertising acquisitions, it's super easy. We have a performance marketing team that really tracks the KPIs and manages the budgets very carefully. So that was a great improvement from my point of view towards the first year, somebody really managing this closely and making sure that certain thresholds are kept. When I joined the company, I think there were no such thresholds, only like very, very minor or minimal requirements, and that has changed. Also because the market environment has changed over the last two years. So two years ago or three years ago, um it was all about revenue growth. And now the market focuses on profitability, even for younger companies. So that's why we have to help the business shift the mindset. And this is again done via data, providing data, providing clarity, and hitting on some points or some numbers and making sure raising your voice. Um, I have a concern here, or what's the benefit there? Can you really show us the benefit of this campaign? So it's lots of conversation, lots of data, and not always we have it at hand. So sometimes it's also trust and gut feeling. But like we're growing and we have very strong marketing team, influencer team, overall social media team, they of course have a certain power. So brand is very important at Water Drop. I think that's one of our big assets besides the product itself and our our story and the product quality. So they of course have have quite a say. And here's just conversation. So this is work in progress to keep it short. This is actually work in progress with the marketing team.

SPEAKER_01 29:04

But again, it's great to hear you talking about brand as an asset versus a cost center. Because I think sometimes, like you say, uh that can be a challenge for finance to understand and do. And how do you know how do you assess the value of brand? Um, how do you how do you balance the performance marketing with the brand spend and having those conversations internally?

SPEAKER_02 29:28

So performance marketing, like I said, with the KPIs, that's something we can monitor pretty closely. The brand impact is more like a grayish field, I would say. So for some campaigns, we just don't see the direct direct impact of a direct return. Of course, we can monitor how the sales are developing after a certain campaign, but we it's not a one-to-one relation in in many instances. So that's that's really, really hard to say, I have to admit. So that's nothing where I can say if you do this, that will happen for sure. That's not working in this environment.

SPEAKER_01 29:59

Finance having to get comfortable in the gray, which is not a let's be honest, is not a place where you always feel that comfortable.

SPEAKER_02 30:06

No, no, of course not, of course. And that was definitely a big challenge for me as well, coming from accounting, from historic data. So there wasn't much to discuss about, just to provide them. So that's a different thing right now. But we're also moving forward into the B2B world and we are working with big wholesalers, with retailers, and there it's sometimes even harder to get the right data. We're working with Walmart or Target in the US. They actually provide data. In Europe, that's not a standard. So we have to assume quite a few details and have to rely on a few different points that we have and the experience of consultants and our more senior team members.

SPEAKER_01 30:45

And

Shifting From Growth To Profit Discipline

SPEAKER_01 30:46

you mentioned that obviously the economic climate has changed, particularly in the light of the recent um recent few years. How have you, from a finance perspective, managed that transition and trying to step more towards profitability versus growth at all costs?

SPEAKER_02 31:03

That's also still work in progress, but also here it's about transparency. We have, for example, with leadership team meetings on different levels. And a few months ago, we started to present the whole PL, the actual data in all levels, so that people are aware of the result of their work. The real numbers, the EBITDA, and address where we see saving potential, where we have to become more mindful, or where restrictions have to take place at some point. We are also still working on business case templates to make sure that certain business cases are just not happening if they're not profitable. So every case itself has to have a positive impact either on profitability or on brand and the future. So we decided design two years ago that B2P deals that cause a lot of friction within the teams because they have special requirements have to have a minimum revenue. Otherwise, we would not approve that. So things like that are helping to get also the awareness across the team to the level that we need it. And of course, like I mentioned before, certain policies. We are also trying a purchase order tool right now. Right now we're only approving invoices. So when the service has already been provided or the goods have been delivered, we approve the invoices. But we should start, of course, much, much sooner. So now we have a pilot case coming up that the purchases have to be approved at the time of the order. So this way finance can also have an impact and decide or actually stress out we have a service provider for that already. Guys, you have to talk to each other. We have to have the communication across the teams happening, things like that. So maybe it's not my pure finance work, but we have to think for the company as a as a whole in the finance team. We have to keep an eye on all the processes flown through the company.

Mentoring Priorities And Letting Fires Go

SPEAKER_01 32:50

And as CFO, how do you manage the communication with the wider leadership team? Like, how do you have regular feedback sessions? Do you catch up with them once a month? What's your approach to being that sort of business partner within the business?

SPEAKER_02 33:07

That actually got a bit lost. I have a very close communication with the CEO, of course. So I have several one on two one-on-ones every week. I try to catch up with the other C-levels or head-offs once in a while. I'm pushing this now again. Now that some projects have been closed, we can focus on this again, also in terms of relationship building, to make sure, like I said before, we are in the same boat. We want the same at the end of the day, even if our approach is uh quite diverse. So that's something I try to do. We also have regular sea level meetings, we have regular leadership team meetings, and we also have a mentoring program going on. So this is more across the levels where I have two very high potential female leaders that I meet once in a while to catch up and to make sure that on the one side, of course, the information is well received, but also the leadership skills and the personal side is not getting lost in all this speedy world because there's so much going on everywhere, I believe, and I think in larger corporations as well. But in this scale-up that we are now in, things are happening so quickly, and every day there's something new, and at least it seems so we have to make sure that the personal connections are still there.

SPEAKER_01 34:16

Absolutely. That personal connection is so very important, especially, and and it's great to hear that that mentorship, that internal mentorship happening, um, because it's yeah, it's um I think it's needed more than ever to help people to grow and develop. So you talked obviously about the speed of things happening, and you've mentioned a couple of times in this podcast the concept of firefighting. How do you uh manage the firefighting versus building for growth? What's you know, how do how do you think about which are the ones I just need to throw water on and which are the ones I actually need to put out and fix long term?

SPEAKER_02 34:54

That was a huge learning for me because I used to be a person, I want to fix everything, I want to keep all the balls in the in the air, uh, as you would say, but some have to fall down at some point, and deciding which ones to let go is a tough job, a tough transition to feel comfortable to some extent with that happening. I consider myself very fortunate because I have now leaders in the finance team. So compared to four years ago, where we have two people, we are now a team of 11 having two leads, two head-offs, that take quite some of the fire fighting off of my shoulders. So the fires I fight are more on a sea level level, actually, where we discuss topics, but the smaller fires are fortunate or smaller fires, the other fires are taken care of by the team. So that's super helpful. And that's also big learning, like letting things go, not just falling them, letting them fall on the ground, but make other people take care of it because they are capable and they are willing to do so. And everybody grows with the challenge, right? So also trusting your team members and the people you actually hired to do some of that job is is helping a lot and making me feel much more comfortable. And also discussing those things with other people, regardless of the seniority. All of them have a certain background, they have a different view on the things, and just talking about those things, discuss discussing what might be the best solution or which options do we actually have is super helpful. I think everybody knows when you talk about a problem in the very moment you realize what the solution is without getting any feedback from the counterpart. So that that's really, really helping me here a lot. And I think I have a very strong team now, and we also have some kind of finance all-hands meeting where we discuss certain things or within the finance leadership team, what we should do next, what's the most important thing, helping each other to prioritize and also discover problems as well as solutions.

SPEAKER_01 36:46

Amazing. And um, so this podcast has just disappeared on us. Um, but it's been great to talk to you all about um the joys of growing a startup and sort of getting into that scale-up area. If you know, looking back, and for those that are just uh maybe just come into startup world and going, oh my god, I can't believe I signed myself up for this. What are your top tips for them to help feel like um you maybe not under control, but that you're you you know which bias to go after?

SPEAKER_02 37:18

I think the first rule across all situations is communication. Talk to people. Talk to people, try to understand them and make them understand you. So try to learn their language to some extent. And one thing I had to learn the hard way, I guess, is don't take anything for granted. Not even when you talk to other accountants or finance people. Just because you are used to it doesn't mean that they are aware of it. So really basic things might not be in place. Make sure to check it. Make sure that those things that you take for granted are actually implemented. That's that's super important from my point of view. Yeah, and at the end of the day, I also told this to Chris. It's all about the people. You have to surround yourself with uh the right people and make sure that they are fine, that they are able to grow, that they can deliver, and that you have somebody to discuss the things, like I just said. So these are would be my top three things. I mean, they're probably not just finance related, they might feel universal, but that's how I I would close this up.

SPEAKER_01 38:19

Some amazing tips, and thank you so much, Sylvia, for sharing both your experience and your your knowledge on uh working, particularly with startups, because I uh I know it can be such a challenge, and it's great to hear that you guys are are growing and uh hitting the next exciting stage. So I want to say a massive thank you, Sylvia, for taking the time out today.

Wrap-Up LinkedIn And Free Quiz

SPEAKER_01 38:41

And to our listeners, if you enjoyed this podcast, let me know. I'm really keen to to hear more from you and get your thoughts and ideas on what topics you'd love to hear about. Do you want more from Startup World? Perhaps you want to dig more into those relationships with with key stakeholders in the C-suite. So I'd love to hear your feedback. Reach out to me on LinkedIn. Um, and thank you again to Sylvia for joining us on the show. And thank you to our listeners for listening. Speak soon, guys. Thank you so much.

SPEAKER_00 39:11

Hey Google, what's the best accounting software for my business? Give it a couple of years, and I bet you she'll be able to answer you pretty accurately. But for now, it's still one of the few questions Google can't give you an answer for. But we can. Take our free quiz and find out which stage product is the right fit for your business. Just head to itasolutions.co.uk.