Finance Flight School 2020: Building for Scale
By: High Alpha
Tags: Startup Finance, Startup, SaaS, Finance

Last week we hosted our third annual Finance Flight School and the first ever virtual Flight School. More than 60 finance leaders and CEOs from High Alpha portfolio companies across the country joined us for Flight School.

We had the pleasure of welcoming three incredible industry leaders: Kyle Poyar, VP of Growth at OpenView Venture Partners, Elena Gomez, CFO at ZenDesk and Jack Sinclair, CFO at Bolster. They shared their experiences, key takeaways from their years in tech, and actionable tips for finance leaders at startups.

Maddy Cutler and Tim Page, Financial Analysts at High Alpha, sat down (at a safe distance) to discuss their key takeaways from the event below.

How to fix your SaaS Pricing — Kyle Poyar, VP of Growth at OpenView Venture Partners

Maddy: I was surprised by his observation about the potential negative impacts of lower pricing. It can initially seem counterintuitive when your primary focus is on getting customers and gaining traction in the market, but Kyle pointed out that B2B buyers are not price sensitive. Often buyers recognize when prices are too low and are not sustainable for a long-term profitable business.

Tim: Right, he drove this point home by saying that while all businesses think about product-market fit, they should really be thinking about product-market-price fit. A one-size-fits all pricing approach doesn’t work, so startups need to figure out how users measure value and price accordingly.

Breakout Sessions: Thought Collaboration with Finance Leaders

Maddy: During the breakout session, my group had a great discussion about how a common pricing misconception is that there are only one or two standard pricing approaches a new business can use when, in reality, there are many different pricing models a business can utilize depending on its product(s), customer base, market segment, and company size.

Tim: The breakout sessions were a hit for everyone attending this year. It was great that we still got to meet other finance professionals in the portfolio even though the Flight School was virtual. My breakout session centered around tactical ways that finance groups have improved through automation. One major win that members in my breakout group had this year was through the automation of the Accounts Receivable process through tools like SaaSOptics.

Leaning Into Growth — Elena Gomez, Zendesk CFO

Maddy: Her earnings call prep was so interesting to me! One of her biggest focuses is working with the team to come up with a strong narrative with three to five consistent themes to discuss on the call, which, for smaller companies, is a mindset that can also easily be translated for board meeting prep.

Tim: Elena also advocates for hiring a dedicated finance person as soon as possible. This is often a delicate decision in the startup world, as many young companies are trying to make their cash last as long as possible. However, having a knowledgeable person on board that can help with scenario planning can pay dividends over the long run.

“You really want to get your organization thinking about durable growth over the next 12, 24, 36 months. Bring the management team along in that journey, not just the CFO.” @gomez3_elena #HAFlightSchool - High Alpha (@highalpha) August 20, 2020

Maddy: I really admired her team growth mindset. She emphasized how important it is to have A+ players on board, make sure everyone is clear on the company’s short-term and long-term goals and get the entire team involved in the plan to reach those goals.

Building a strong foundation for startup finance — Jack Sinclair, Bolster CFO

Maddy: I enjoyed hearing about the biggest lessons finance leaders have learned throughout their career. As the CFO for three different start-ups, Jack Sinclair shared a valuable lesson about how important it is to create a strong financial foundation from the start. At the beginning of his career, he discussed how he thought he was always saving time by being scrappy and taking shortcuts, such as not automating some of his processes, but in reality created more work for himself as the business scaled and completed fundraising rounds.

Tim: All of our portfolio companies are looking to have an exit down the road, and as someone who has been involved with the associated due diligence, Jack was able to give a valuable perspective. Something as seemingly straightforward as saving all documents in shared folders can save a lot of time down the road when lawyers are asking for contracts and meeting minutes. Some additional items Jack recommended keeping handy in a dedicated space:

Signed closing docs

Leases

Government filings

We hope our conversation provided a glimpse into some of the valuable lessons we learned from these three incredible speakers! Thanks to Blake Koriath, our speakers, and all of our participants for a great virtual Finance Flight School. We can’t wait to see you all back here again — hopefully in-person — next year!

Originally published at https://highalpha.com on August 31, 2020.