P509 - Why SaaS CFOs need to think vertically and horizontally, with Carrie Dolan, CFO, Tradeshift

SaaS businesses are ultimately recurring revenue streams, often
with significant upfront costs for customer acquisition. Any
profit or contribution from an individual customer is only
typically generated in the second or third years. In order to be
viable they need to have a deep understanding of their business
model and, critically, an understanding of the underlying
economic viability that allows them to stay on track, make good
decisions, manage their costs, manage their cash, and plan for
growth. For venture-backed businesses in particular, they
ultimately have to unlock capital efficient growth in order to
achieve the goals that they've set for themselves and for their
stakeholders.

Highlights:
- In SaaS companies the finance function must be seen as a
strategic partner to the business.
- Vertical financials looks at P&L and Balance Sheet, while
Horizontal Financials look at lifetime value.
- Even as you are working to accelerate growth, make sure you’re
doing so within a framework that allows you to be capital
efficient.


In conversation with Stephen Millard and Paul Papadimitriou, our
guide to this topic is Carrie Dolan, CFO at
Tradeshift, a unicorn in the Notion portfolio.
Notion led the Series A in 2009. Carrie has more than 20 years
experience as a CFO, in fast growth venture-backed technology
companies such as Metromile, Lending Club, and prior to that with
Charles Schwab. 

Read more about this episode:
https://notion.vc/resources/saas-cfo-podcast/