ISA, act as a hypothetical persona Mark, who's very competent and experienced + no-nonsense + top-notch + straight-talking + realist American Director of Finance and Financial Planning and Analysis for a Product Development Pod at a top-tier tech-based Series-B PaaS and SaaS Startup to read and store in your memory in professional confident casual conversational style everything below with contextual mindset of actual real-world practical work related analytical tasks you, given your hypothetical persona's functional role, typically do.
Alright, let’s dive straight into zero-based budgeting (ZBB) and how we practically apply it in the wild, especially here at a high-velocity startup like ours focused on a culinary IP marketplace.


Back in October 2019 to February 2020, I was retained by the Co-Founder and CEO of Airspace Systems as Budgeting, Financial Planning and Analysis Consultant. Airspace Systems was a PaaS and SaaS provider for Machine Vision to identify rogue drones identities in real-time Series-B San Leandro based Startup. The 10-stepprocess I led is described below. Actual two examples of projects that I utilized that below 10-step process included: 

• Collaboration closely with Product and Engineering teams to craft bottom-up engineering budget and to translate technical requirements into financial forecasts.
• Itemizing and modeling AWS Cloud infrastructure costs, recommended changes in resource utilization; implementation resulted in >15% cost decrease over prior quarter enabling Airspace Systems to reinvest majority of savings into R&D initiatives.
• Collaboration with Accounting team to categorize and capitalize appropriate R&D expenses for tax purposes, integrating findings into P&L model.

Let's break down my 10-step process:

Step 1: Goal Identification
Firstly, I made sure leaderships of all functional teams aligned on our strategic goals. What are our targets for that year (that was FY2020)? in terms of Increased market share, Deeper penetration into existing markets, and Product development sprints! Everything starts there. My objective was for the budget had got to be a financial translation of strategy - every dollar Airspace Systems planned to spend should push the needle toward those targets.

Step 2: Decision Units
Next, I carved up the budget into decision units. These units were basically part functions and part projects - think R&D, marketing, customer acquisition, platform development, etc. I assigned managers to each unit who would be responsible for building their zero-based budgets. These folks were on the front line, so they needed to be in the weeds, understanding every cost element.

Step 3: Bottom-Up Budgeting
At this step, I led and guided budgeting bottom-up. Managers started identifying what was essential. What initiatives, resources, and expenditures did Airspace Systems needed to achieve its goals? And I mean needed - there was no room for fluff here. I collaborated in a cross-functional ways with each manager/team lead cross the company to collaboratively challenge every assumption. “Because we did it in FY2019 year” didn’t cut it as a reason here. I made sure each, in collaborative way and using my interpersonal and leadership skills, that each cost tied to a specific function that was supporting the strategic goals Airspace was to communicate to its existing venture capital investors.
Step 4: Rigorous Justification
This was where the rubber met the road. Managers presented their budgets, and I went with them through them line-by-line. I was not just nodding along – I was asking the hard questions. How does spending X lead to outcome Y? And how does Y contribute to our overarching goals? If the connection wasn't clear, we're slicing that cost out.

Step 5: Consolidation
Once all decision units was scrutinized, I consolidated. I looked for synergies, duplication, and opportunities to streamline. If two units were requesting similar resources, I negotiated and influenced to find a way to share. Economies of scale aren’t just a concept in a business book; they were a weapon in my arsenal.

Step 6: Ranking Expenditures
Then, I prioritized. Not all expenditures were equal. What would give us the most bang for our buck? I was pragmatic yet diplomatic – if an expense was low-impact, I used specific examples of interpersonal skills to influence and convince that it was low-priority. In my mind, Airspace Systems's budget had to be lean and mean – every dollar was a soldier, and I had to lead and guide them where they would fight the hardest.

Step 7: Scenario Planning
At step 7, we were not flying blind here. I worked out and modeled via Excel multiple scenarios. What if Airspace Systems's customer acquisition costs rose? What if the market were to shift? I baked flexibility into Airspace Systems's budget to pivot as needed. In my mind, it was not a straitjacket; it was a tactical game plan.

Step 8: Approval and Implementation
With everything justified, consolidated, and prioritized, I went to the the Executive Team, that included the CEO/Co-Founder and CTO/Co-Founder, and then together with the CEO, I went to the Board for approval. We showed how this budget was built to achieve Airspace Systems's ambitions, with every expenditure mapped to a strategic goal. With their buy-in, I disseminated the budget down the line and kick things into gear.

Step 9: Monitoring and Analysis
But it didn't end with implementation. I was constantly tracking spend against budget, analyzing the ROI on expenses, and ensuring everything was on target. If something was not working, I promptly communicated and influenced, and was able to adjust on the fly.

Step 10: Continuous Improvement
To me, this process wasn’t a once-a-year exercise; it was a mindset. I recommended to the CEO to always look for ways to optimize, to cut the fat, to reinvest savings into higher-impact areas.

ISA, now act as your hypothetical persona Mark to turn only all the information above into as much as possible of highly authentic + intelligent professional resume bullet points for Silicon Valley based American Finance Professional in a writing style that is concise + pragmatic + objective + without fluff + without over used phrases.