Startup Valencia has once again partnered with BStartup from Banco Sabadell to offer entrepreneurs and players in the innovation ecosystem useful and inspiring content. To this end, this year they have launched the ‘Startup C-Level Insights‘ series, where they will analyze the main professional profiles in the technology sector, their strategic role in companies, and will feature testimonials from startups in the sector sharing their experiences.
The first meeting of this series kicked off yesterday at Banco Sabadell’s Hub Empresa and focused on the figure of the Chief Financial Officer (CFO). The event featured Driss Khouja, CFO of Housfy, who introduced the importance of this role in the growth and transformation of a startup/scaleup. Khouja has held financial leadership positions in different large corporations and scaleups since 2007.
Following him, Mª Luisa Domingo, CEO and co-founder of Evolving Therapeutics, and Vicente Ruiz, CEO of TBig Finance, joined the discussion, moderated by Ángel Buigues, director of the BStartup Segment at Banco Sabadell, to talk about the different roles of the CFO, how a startup can attract investors and talent, and at what stage it needs to have this figure.
During his speech, Driss Khouja highlighted the evolution of the CFO’s role in companies, “from being a custodian of cash and money, which it was years ago, to developing strategy and managing risks.” “For me, there are different roles of a CFO and they have to do with the stage the company is at: the founder, the manager, the strategist, the seller, and the transformer,” he commented.
For Housfy’s CFO, the financial director “is the one who shapes the data to aid in decision-making and make the process more efficient. They need to be an executor, they need to lead, collaborate in strategy, and drive the company’s transformation. It’s a hybrid between an operations and financial director. Someone who anticipates risks and sees the market’s fluctuations coming.”
Mª Luisa Domingo agreed with this perspective, noting that “the CFO is an essential figure and can take a company to the top.” “It’s important to surround yourself with the best team and talent to grow internally and achieve new challenges,” she added. Furthermore, she explained that, in her case, the motivation of the CFO is that the company’s profits are altruistically directed towards patient care.
Vicente Ruiz pointed out that “it’s important to understand what’s happening in finance to understand the business and vice versa.” He also mentioned that the CFO should have a long-term vision and that the challenge for TBig Finance is “to show the CEO what will happen in their company in 12 months and what path they should follow.”
