Clementine Svartz, Head of Finance at Spendesk, talks about exponential growth, challenges that come with a fast-paced, growing company, and the journey of Spendesk to attain unicorn status.
Clementine Svartz - The Role of a Financial Controller in a High-Growth SaaS Company
Joining Vikram on the podcast today is Clementine Svartz, the Head of Finance at Spendesk, a company that makes corporate spend management easy. Spendesk recently joined the Unicorn Club mid-2021 and has experienced exponential growth right from its inception. Despite the challenges that come with a fast-paced growing company like Spendesk, Clementine and her team run a tight financial ship. Today, she shares her expertise on how SaaS companies can experience growth in their finances as well as her thoughts regarding the role of a financial controller in a company.
Clementine begins by sharing the outstanding growth Spendesk has experienced year over year and the part she has played as the head of finance. She discusses the metrics and KPIs that come into play when measuring the financial growth at Spendesk and also discusses how the role of the financial controller has evolved over time, thanks to automation and digitalization. The episode comes to a close with Clementine sharing useful tips for finance controllers and those looking to improve their knowledge in tech finance – insights that you absolutely cannot afford to miss.
The Finer Details of This Episode:
0:00 Introduction
1:40 Spendesk’s growth over the years
4:25 How Clementine balances growth and cost as Spendesk's Head of Finance
7:46 Metrics and KPIs used to measure growth in a SaaS company
8:52 The role of financial controllers in fundraisers
13:21 How to develop a new mindset as a financial controller
16:21 Implementing the use of technology to improve the finance industry
20:09 Using metrics to make timely decisions
23:33 Advice for those looking to learn about tech finance in SaaS
