Ep. 174: Pedro Barros - Scaling and Managing a Successful Global Finance Team

Contact Pedro Barros:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/pedromonteirobarros/


Remote: https://remote.com/


FULL EPISODE TRANSCRIPT:
Adam: (00:04)
Welcome back to Count Me In, IMA's podcast about all things
affecting the accounting and finance world. This is your host
Adam Larson and today you are listening to episode 174 of our
series. In this episode, you'll hear from Pedro Barros, VP of
Finance at Remote. At Remote, Pedro was responsible for analyzing
financial performance for budgeting and forecasting, managing all
accounting operations and providing strategic guidance to
accelerate business expansion. Over the last five years, he has
been focusing on high growth tech companies and was previously
Head of Finance at Codacy. He joined Count Me In to share his
knowledge on building, scaling, and managing a successful global
finance team. So keep listening as we head over to the
conversation now.
 
Mitch: (00:57)
So I understand Remote, your company is growing very rapidly.
And, I'm just curious to kind of kick off our conversation here.
How are you thinking about structuring the finance team during
this growth phase and what are some of the key positions or key
areas within the finance team you're really focusing on?
 
Pedro: (01:13)
Thanks Mitchell. I joined the team as the first finance hire
around two years ago, and it's a team of over 50 people today. I
started the team top down, so we really went for, expertise and
individuals with, subject matter expertise. But, it was a hard
combination because we also wanted folks that could settle in, in
well, in a very fast and growing, entity company. And, we found
them like I've hired, two or three directors that really
accelerated all the finance functions, a Group Controller and a
Treasurer. And, a bit later than that, Director of Tax and all of
these individuals really, really accelerated how the finance
function was structured, how we were delivering to the business
and how the finance was partnering across the organization.
 
Mitch: (02:17)
And now I know we will talk a little bit, you know, as far as,
scaling everything and how all this ultimately plays out, you
know, for the finance function, but as far as the individuals go
and as you're going through this hiring process, you know, for
our listeners who maybe are looking to jump into new finance
roles and things that are evolving across the profession in
various industries, what are some of the qualities that you're
really looking for in a finance hire and, you know, as everything
is growing so rapidly, you know, a fast growing company like
Remote, what are some of the skills that you're really, you know,
targeting?
 
Pedro: (02:50)
I touched, on my previous question around the deep subject matter
expertise, it's folks, that can have a lot of ownership in their
role. So someone that can compliment what I'm doing and, not
necessarily build redundancy. So having folks that have done it
in the past and can come very quickly, has done and have a high
impact is critical. Someone that can nurture teams, because we
knew at the place that we were going, that we would have to grow,
teams very rapidly. And at the same time, we had to hire
individuals that were very, tech savvy on the aspect of
automation and how to make systems work for them and not just
grow the team to address the growing pains and the growing needs
of the organization as we're scaling very, very fast.
 
Mitch: (03:50)
And you, you kind of just alluded to it a little bit. but you
know, we were talking about individuals, the finance team, how
does that really fit into the overall organization? Right? So
what we're really trying to figure out here is, you know, how
does Remote manage the company culture and make sure that
everybody, you know, plays their part and, fits in, in a cohesive
team?
 
Pedro: (04:11)
Yeah. On your first point, the finance team at Remote is a bit
different from many other organizations, as we are core to a lot
of the product development that we do, a lot of the services that
we provide. So we tend to, it's a subject like global employment
is a subject is very close historically with, finance teams. And
we have a lot of expertise in the team to help enable the overall
company in terms of how Remote culture is managed in terms of
fast growing and how we can sustain it. It was something that was
designed even before the company was created, which were our
values. Both the Auburn, Marcel, our founders, are very committed
to the culture of the company through values alignment. We have a
lot of cultural diversity, as you can imagine, by having folks in
60 plus countries across the globe working for us. So our
expectation is we'll have a lot of cultural diversity, but an
ambition is that folks will always work, at Remote with deep
values alignment. And this goes with excellence ownership,
kindness. It's one of the, I think it's the glue of the company.
It is the value of kindness and something I have to in terms of
automation and the scalability of the business.
 
Mitch: (05:41)
That's great. I know you, oftentimes historically I think
accounting, finance teams, at least the perception is they've
kind of been siloed, right. Kind of the smaller group, you know,
very focused on the numbers and getting the job done, but, you
know, that has evolved so much. And, companies like yours, the
finance function is really more or less the backbone for
everything. And kind of, you know, what I've seen through various
conversations here, you know, the team that's really driving
those core values and just the cross-functional collaboration,
the finance team, and those are the individuals who can really,
you know, portray those values and gain support, and really
partner to bring the business forward. So, I think, you know,
aligning core values like that is certainly key. With that
sentiment, you know, the idea that, global diversity and
following these values, what else is it that your company is
doing, that we can share with our listeners that would help other
accounting, finance functions, finance teams, you know, grow and
manage successfully like you are, you know, on this global basis,
getting back to the topic here, how can we help other accounting
and finance teams scale globally?
 
Pedro: (06:58)
I think there are some fundamental things that the Remote is
doing well, and it's working well, for us, in term one is, the
working asynchronously. Means that you do your job and you work
whenever it fits you, it fits your schedule. It fits your
motivation when you are stronger. And it's not from not from nine
to five, or maybe it is, it's not, it's independent from that.
It's much more focused on objectives and not on the achievements
more than on activity per se. And, if you are on, certain hours,
and, the way we are doing it, based a lot on, documentation has
managed Remote to grow very, very fast. Our finance team has
grown massively and, very successfully continues supporting the
business and delivering to our objectives. And I have folks from
Korea to San Francisco, and, we are very much independent, from
where, anyone is because they, they do their thing.
 
Pedro: (08:06)
They understand what they need to do. Their individual has a very
clear objectives and drive for excellence. They take ownership on
their projects and, the work they need to do. And all these
documented when someone is asleep, there's a document for me to
act upon. And next day, that person is live at whatever time and
they can pick up on that. So there's always this sense of follow
continuous work. What Remote has also enabled in terms of, global
distributes companies is, hiring the best individuals anyw...