Sam McQuade CFO talking about advantages for startups hiring a flexible Chief Financial Officer these days: Startups, especially in their early phases, usually do not have full-time CFOs as they may not generate enough revenue to justify the cost of an additional C-suite member on the payroll. However, when things begin to look exciting – during a time of rapid scaling up or in case of a merger or acquisition – a CFO becomes inevitable. Still, many startups might be hesitant to take on the additional cost of a C-suite colleague, especially when the situation necessitating the presence of a CFO is transitory. CFOs, after all, bring highly valuable skills to the table and expect reasonably commensurate compensation. Hiring a fractional CFO is an innovative solution to this conundrum that many startups face.
A fractional CFO is an experienced CFO who provides services for organizations in a part-time, retainer, or contract arrangement. This offers a company the experience and expertise of a high-end CFO without the in-house cost—salary, benefits, and bonuses—of a full-time CFO. Unlike a full-time CFO who oversees and maintains all general financial strategy or an interim CFO who performs CFO duties before or between CFO hires, a fractional CFO’s duties are typically on a project basis and specifically tuned to the company’s particular challenges or goals.
In these early years of creating innovations in the corporate C-Suite, Sam McQuade nurtured and created a maverick approach to new finance operations for Stryker as it broke through to the lucrative emerging markets in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE)). While approaching the markets in the growing economies of Poland, Czech Republic, Hungary, Croatia and Romania, Sam McQuade was recognizing the need for Interim and Fractional CFO’s for the avalanche of incubators and startup companies in these underdeveloped economies that were on the cusp of being integrated into modern International Finance systems and markets. Discover extra details on https://medium.com/@sam_5012.
With technological advances disrupting job descriptions, the organization will have its share of fear and resistance. Given the close collaboration between finance and information technology, the CFO is in a unique position to anticipate the future needs of organization and help mentor people with their reskilling into other growth areas. What else do you think CFOs can be doing now to adapt to the future? I’d be very grateful if you provide your comments and share your thoughts. Thank you!
The CFO is the top ranking executive related to managing a company’s finances. This includes managing all aspects of financial and cash flow planning, as well as analyzing its financial position. A CFO is comparable to a treasurer or controller. However, unlike a controller or accountant, a CFO is responsible for financial planning, while the other two are in charge of bookkeeping and the company’s financial statements. Big public companies may have defined the CFO role, but the chief financial officer position is becoming increasingly common in midsize and even small firms. Recent postings for full-time CFOs on job-search sites include an emerging air mobility design and manufacturing company in Massachusetts with fewer than 20 employees and a 94-bed community hospital in Hawaii.
Benefits of Having a CFO: CFOs guide the finance and accounting team and have a broad view of an organization’s financial health, allowing the CEO as well as peers including the CMO, COO and VPs of HR and sales to focus on their own goals and operational issues. While a CEO or COO may have a background in accounting or finance, they generally don’t possess the same level of technical acumen and experience that a chief financial officer brings to the table.
Another purpose of a DAO is to automate decision-making. In a traditional organization, decisions are made by a small group of people. This can often lead to delays in decision-making. With a DAO, decisions are made by the code that governs the organization. This makes it much faster and easier to make decisions. In business environments, it frees up space for people to focus on other things. It has opened up opportunities for more decision-makers to get involved in the governance of a DAO. The most notable example is the MakerDAO, which is a decentralized autonomous organization that governs the Dai stablecoin. The MakerDAO has a voting system that allows anyone to participate in the governance of the organization.
Are you looking to expand your business overseas? Our experts are able to help you at any stage. We will first start by understanding your vision and global tax and cash strategy. Once aligned, we will help execute the financial, legal, compliance and talent solution activities to build your entity and team.
A lot of our clients at Panterra Finance ask us about DAOs, what they are, and how they work. So we thought it would be helpful to write a blog post explaining them. Before getting into DAO, a brief few things about blockchain. A blockchain is a decentralized and distributed digital ledger that records transactions on many computers so that the record cannot be altered retroactively without the alteration of all subsequent blocks and the collusion of the network. Sounds complicated? Let’s take an example to understand this better. Suppose there are two people, A and B, who want to transact with each other. A wants to buy a product from B worth $100. In the old way of transacting, A would hand over the $100 to B, and B would hand over the product to A. This process is called ‘centralized’ because there is one central entity, in our case, a bank or PayPal, through which both parties have to go through to complete the transaction.
This differs from the services traditionally provided by the external CPA who focuses on audits, reviews, taxes, and compliance work. Although valuable and very necessary, this work is more “backward-looking” in nature ensuring that past events are correctly reported and accounted for. The CFO however, is more focused on the “forward-looking” aspects of the finances, to help chart the course and ultimately navigate the business to success.
Looking to hire your very first CFO or wanting only some interim coverage? We provide CFOs for urgent very short term projects and longer term engagements. Customizable with fair pricing so you cover your business and don’t have to rush into a potentially bad solution and costly full time hire. The Fractional CFO and Interim CFO experiences gained by the executives assigned to these positions throughout Panterra Finance offers them a broad perspective of the dynamic changes in international markets. The part time CFO executives at Panterra Finance have access to worldwide teams that are proficient in and have initiated innovative strategies in projects centered on DeFi, Blockchain, Bitcoin, Ethereum, Crypto, Tokenization, ICO, IDO, and STO services. See more details at Sam McQuade CFO of Panterra Finance.