Michael Bayer is CFO of Wasabi Technologies, a cloud storage startup that reached unicorn status—valuation of over $1 billion—last year. When Bayer joined the company in 2018, he was the finance team, and handled most processes manually. Five years on, he oversees a business enablement team, including finance and accounting staff of ~30 people and has implemented a best-in-class tech stack. He spoke with CFO Brew about finance automation, obtaining staff buy-in around technology, and the risk and promise of generative AI.

What factors do you look for when choosing software to add to your tech stack?

We’re scaling. We’ve slowed down to more than 50% growth a year, as we’ve gotten bigger, but it’s still hyper growth. We’re always picking systems which have the ability to scale to an order of magnitude bigger than what we are today, because we will be there by the time the system is in place. And implementation will get incrementally harder the longer we wait.

How do you decide how much automation is appropriate?

I don’t want to implement 100% automation because that makes things very, very difficult to change. Yes, you design to be able to manage exceptions. But if there are too many exceptions, and you have too manual intensive a process, you’re going to be error-prone and it’s just not going to work for scale. And if you have too few exceptions, then you’re not able to flex, to be dynamic as the business changes. And so we’re trying to find that balance and build systems that have a little bit of flexibility, but automate the vast majority of transactions.

Click here for more on how Wasabi built their tech stack.—CV

The lack of an overarching compliance regime in fintech makes finding and following the correct regulations and licenses a tough course to track.

If you’re one of the 73% of fintechs without a dedicated compliance officer, or even a startup looking for investment, it’s time to get your ducks in a row.

Fortunately, Currencycloud, a Visa solution, can help. Their new ebook highlights how to keep compliance top of mind. Brush up on the current regulatory landscape and learn actionable strategies to ensure that compliance stays central to your biz.

The cherry on top? This ebook also has the scoop on what VCs are currently looking for when it comes to compliance, so you can start focusing on securing funding.

Clean up your compliance.

The holidays are coming up quickly (pro tip: Start working on that gift list now!). But even as we start to wind down for the year, we can’t sleep on skills development. To help keep you sharp, even if you’re already starting with the gingerbread dreams, we’ve gathered cheat sheets on machine learning operations, Excel shortcuts and tips, and successful presentations for finance professionals.

Take a look at these useful finance cheat sheets CFO Brew found on LinkedIn this month.

• Nicolas Boucher’s “100 Excel tips”: All right, hands up, who still loves Excel tips in this AI world? We see a lot of hands up, and Boucher, a corporate finance trainer and keynote speaker, offers 100 Excel shortcuts, formatting tips, and formulas for finance professionals. He includes both a list of tips and a handy one-page guide for quick reference.

Click here for more useful tips.—DA

Razzak Jallow is the CFO of FloQast, an accounting workflow automation company based in Los Angeles.

How do you think the CFO role has changed over the past five to 10 years, both for you, and in general?

The past decade has changed every aspect of how companies do business, especially at the leadership level. Businesses are more complex, with more diverse revenue streams, business models, partner networks, and technological ecosystems. Payback periods and customer lifetime value has significantly increased, which leads to a greater need to understand these complex models in short- and long-term business plans. As this complexity has risen, so has the need for the CFO’s input on broad strategic and operational initiatives.

The role of the CFO has expanded and CFOs are now taking on more due to their broad business knowledge and skill set. Today, it is no longer enough for a CFO to be merely the financial steward. Organizations look at CFOs as trusted strategic advisors who must be well-versed in the elements of business including things like product development, growth strategy, and customer experience.

Click to continue reading.—DA

Today’s top finance reads.

Stat: $320 million. That’s the value of leftover Yeezy shoes Adidas said it might have to write off after squashing their deal with Ye over the rapper’s antisemitic remarks. (ABC News)

Quote: “We’ve created the threat of a good example, and now we’re going to build on it. We just went on strike like we’ve never been on strike before and won a historic contract as a result. Now we’re going to organize like we’ve never organized before.”—UAW President Shawn Fain, about using recent union victories as a springboard for more organizing among autoworkers. (CNBC)

Read: Is AI going to make contract negotiations a thing of the past? (BBC)

Compliance craft: It’s time to take your fintech biz to the next level. Currencycloud’s ebook has all the deets you need to pass compliance and regulatory hurdles. Give it a read.*

Stay in the IPO-know: Going public can be the most momentous—and intense—endeavor a biz undergoes. Fidelity SPS joins CFO Brew to discuss the pros and cons of IPOs + equity solutions. Watch the chat.*

^{*A message from our sponsor.}