Chief Financial Officer at Zappar (2024-01 – Present)
A leading provider of augmented reality software with 3 globally sold products: a SaaS platform for both B2B and B2C customers, an award-winning creative agency and a ground-breaking hardware product. SaaS | Series A | £4m ARR | 60 employees
- Hands-on restructuring role, implementing a number of company-wide cost saving initiatives in response to revenue changes.
- Key contributor to the potential exit of the business, including preparation of forecasts, pitch decks, due diligence and legal review.
- "Growth" CFO role owning SaaS performance metrics, designing & building metric dashboards as a single source of truth and working with the commercial and operations team to action and deliver growth initiatives.
- Board-level participation in the strategic direction of the company and presentation of financial results and key metrics at board meetings.
- Managing the quarterly OKR process: working with CEO & COO to derive strategic company goals, communicating them to the company, project-managing OKR-task teams & monitoring results against targets to ensure the company stays on track with budgeted growth.
- Initially managed a team of 2 (1 bookkeeper and 1 Head of Finance), then restructured and automated finance tasks to later manage 1 BizOps Manager.
- Working with the Product team to effectively model and derive pricing of a new AI assistant, using credits.
Chief Financial Officer at TalkLife (2023-04 – 2023-12)
Mental health application offering peer to peer support to university students and corporation employees. BSB SaaS | Seed | £1.5m ARR | 20 employees
- Implemented Maxio (Saas Optics) to fully automated invoicing and SaaS KPI's to replace manual processes. Resulted in improved cash collection & more stringent focus on metrics.
- Worked closely with CEO / Founder to close Seed financing round of £3m from strategic corporate VC and angel investors. Prepared the financial model & fundraising narrative as well as term sheet negotiation & legal review.
- Managing Head of Legal and overseeing all day to day finance
- Cash flow forecasting & runway monitoring
- Building & maintaining a new financial model for budgeting and reporting, including a SaaS customer acquisition funnel & cohorts.
- Preparing board packs & investor communications as well as presenting KPI & financial performance to the board.
Head of Finance at HubbleHQ (2018-07 – 2023-04)
Online marketplace for flexible office space, connecting landlords & tenants, pioneering the hybrid workplace post-pandemic. B2B Marketplace & SaaS | Series A-B | grew from £1m to £3m ARR | from 20 to 75 employees. Joined as first Finance hire as Financial Controller before being promoted to Head of Finance after 12 months.
Built all processes from scratch for our referral fee product and on-demand booking product. Hired & mentored the Finance team of 3, including a Financial Controller, Management Accountant & Finance Assistant.
- Together with CEO, worked on Venture Debt funding, Future Fund equity round & Series A2 totalling £7m of capital raised, responsible for all financial modelling, reflecting the story of the capital raise and running investor walk-throughs & queries.
- Identified a weaknesses in the pricing model which led to a change in pricing strategy. Communicated and worked cross-functionally to implement the change and incorporate into team OKRs to drive better product usage and ultimately revenue.
- Responsible for unit economics calculations, cohorts & scrutiny of LTV & CAC, which led to changes in marketing & sales strategy and increased focus on reducing customer churn.
- Implemented new management packs & processes with best in class reporting, reducing month end close to 7 days and improving debtors days from 120 to 40 days.
- Financial planning and analysis, responsible for the financial model, cash flow forecasting, runway monitoring and communicating performance against KPI's.
- Identifying & implementing new software to make the Finance team more efficient, including Soldo to improve traceability of company spend and Tipalti to automate office provider payments.
- Leading a high performance Finance team focused on continuous improvement & value add.
- Designing & maintaining a global online marketplace, collecting cash upfront from customers through Stripe and making usage-based payments to office providers, navigating global VAT and foreign currencies.
- Managing the EMI scheme, co-ordinating R&D tax credits, EIS submissions & all other dealings with HMRC.
Financial Controller at City Pantry (2017-11 – 2018-07)
Food delivery marketplace for corporates (subsequently acquired by Just Eat). B2B Marketplace | Series A | £2.5m Revenue | 60 employees
- Bringing the Finance department in-house from an outsourced provider.
- Working with the Product team to automate elements of invoicing & VAT reporting which significantly reduced the number of customer queries, improving working capital efficiency.
- Managing a precarious cash balance via weekly cash flow forecasts
- Working with the senior leadership team to maintain the financial model, analysing customer acquisition costs and costs that drive the top line.
- Building scalable accounts payable processes using Receiptbank & Pleo.
Credit P&L and Risk Controller / Financial Accountant / Fund Accountant at Various (Deutsche Bank, Oaktree Capital, Vision Capital, Barings Capital Management, HSBC) (2011-07 – 2016-09)
Permanent role as Credit P&L and Risk Controller at Deutsche Bank (2011 - 2013). Contracting roles through a limited company include Financial / Fund Accountant roles at Oaktree Capital, Vision Capital (Private Equity Fund), Barings Capital Management & HSBC (2013-2016). Career break to travel South America (2015/2016)
Supervisor at KPMG (2008-03 – 2011-03)
3 year training contract completed in the Financial Services audit division, serving a range of customers from listed Asset Management firms to large plc level Collective Investment Schemes, managing teams of up to 15 auditors.
- First time passes of both Board exams.
