Page 15 - 10 Most Trusted Overseas Education Consultants in India

COVER STORY

SANDEEP SHROFF WE SPEAK WITH SANDEEP WHO HELPS ALIGN THE SECRET INGREDIENT(S) BEHIND THE
AND FOCUS THE TEAM ON THE COMPANY’S SUCCESS OF THE INC 5000 COMPANY
TWEAKING COMPANIES’ FINANCIAL ROADMAP TOP PRIORITIES. EXCERPTS GOING FORWARD: The distinguishing feature at myStartUpCFO is our
WITH F & A SERVICES THROUGH MYSTARTUPCFO THE CHRONICLES OF MYSTARTUPCFO unconventional work-from-home culture. This gave us
Prior to becoming an entrepreneur, Sandeep worked myStartUpCFO was born to solve a crucial problem: a head-start when the pandemic struck. While most
in software development in Silicon Valley, investment helping early-stage founders focus on their business other businesses struggled with figuring out the nuts
banking and research on Wall Street and investor while mitigating common startup killers such as lack and bolts of the mechanics of work-from-home, we
relations and M&A at Infosys. His first entrepre- of financial oversight. myStartUpCFO provides a fully adapted to the pandemic-driven changes rather
neurial attempt was an equity research firm focused
on organizing public company reported financial and flexible CFO office to startups - from day-to-day quickly because we’d been largely a work-from-home
operational data; the startup was an early adopter bookkeeping based on US GAAP and accrual-based company since inception.
of cloud technology and used software to automate accounting to help with fund-raising, Board & investor
structuring unstructured data into information usable reporting, budgeting and planning, compliance, taxa- Our team was already set up for an asynchronous
by hedge funds and mutual funds. The recession of tion, etc. So far, we have worked with 2,000+ entre- mode of working. Our processes were documented
2007-2008 forced that endeavor to shut down in preneurs and helped them raise $3B+ in equity and in rigorous SOPs, and everyone knew how to leverage
2010. debt financing. cloud-based collaboration tools like Hangouts, Zoom,
Google Suite or even WhatsApp to function effectively.
We are in the business of helping startups succeed. Second, we firmly believe that businesses should
We are proud of the fact that we have helped startups serve a larger purpose. This is why we made our social
grow big and that we are there from the incorpo- mission of providing flexible job opportunities, espe-
“It was in 2010 that I ration to their eventual exit, whether via IPO or an cially to women, a core business element, as opposed
to an afterthought.
started consulting for M&A event. At myStartUpCFO, we want to help close the gender
various clients, in roles We’ve noticed that startups unknowingly tend to pay gap in the workplace. We are proud of how our
neglect their finance team! Today, startups believe
ranging from product in staying lean, which means trimming all the fat in company has created opportunities for women and
how these working mothers have become our unique
their expenses. Unfortunately, the finance team,
to operations to finance being part of “overhead” becomes a casualty of brand differentiator.
to management. Most this thinking. UPGRADING THE FINANCIAL DEXTERITY OF
STARTUPS AND SMES
of my clients were I’ll give you an example of how this backfires. I once We specialize in working with young companies. In
quizzed the CEO of an early-stage startup about his
asking for help raising company’s growth. He told me this: “We are doing fact, a lot of our clients start work with us even before
they formally form the company! And we’re there
quite well. The revenue is growing month on month, we
money, cleaning their have enough money in the bank, and the employees for them throughout their journey to an exit, may it
be a big-bang IPO, a rumbling acquisition, or a quiet
are happy. Life’s good.” But when I looked deeper, I
books, and creating noticed that at the aggregate level the company’s dissolution. We take care of data entry, day to day
bookkeeping, bank reconciliations, cash management,
revenue was growing, but month on month, a good
pitch decks. That’s when chunk of small customers kept canceling the service. and creating the financials for management and Board
reporting.
I had a conversation The aggregate revenue from these customers was However, the real product we are selling to our clients
small, which is why their cancelation got lost under
with my friend and revenue increase from a few large customers. Once is the time and attention we free up for them to focus
we pointed out this problem to the CEO, his deeper
on other more important things in their companies.
former colleague from dive into product issues resulted in not only reduced We proudly and gladly take over the “grunt work” side
churn of smaller customers but also wins with some
Infosys, Sudhir Pai, who larger ones as well. of F&A so the leadership can look at the big picture,
without getting overwhelmed by the details. As of
specialized in taxes. The point is: Mentally, it’s impossible to track too date, we have helped our clients raise $3B+ in equity
and debt financings.
many pieces of information, and most companies at
In 2013, we started this stage make these decisions more on gut feeling The modern-age CFO is now also a data scientist.
and less on hard data.
myStartUpCFO to help There is so much data available to the CFOs (and
everybody else for that matter!), that more decisions
startups navigate the When myStartUpCFO steps inside the company, can be driven from hard data as opposed to just gut
we look beyond the dollars and cents. We look at
feel. This is where modern technology and relevant
finance and accounting the operating metrics that underlie the workings dashboards come into play in the modern-age CFO’s
of a company. (Number of customers, revenue per
side of their business,” customer/seat, usage of our clients’ product by their decision-making process.
customers, …) This scrutiny allows us to spot issues
recalls Sandeep before they become a bigger problem. Contin- IN NUMBERS: THE GROWTH SCALE OF
MYSTARTUPCFO
uous fine-tuning of a company’s operations based
on metrics coming from this financial data engine We have hired 100s of employees over the last 8+
is hard but necessary for success. We live by this years and 1,000+ clients have chosen us to handle
ethos every day. their F&A needs.

|14 thecorporatereview.com | India | Vol. 3 | Issue 2 | February 2022 |15