Good morning. This year, I’ve explored how the modern CFO approaches strategy. And finance chiefs have been sharing their perspectives.
I recently sat down with Chris Nagy, the new CFO of Salesloft, and its CEO, David Obrand, to get their take. “I think of the financial plan as being the core structure that supports strategy,” said Nagy, who joined the software company in September. This helps create a connected vision, but also an execution plan where you can hone in on the things that matter to become successful, he said.
Salesloft, an AI revenue orchestration platform, helps sales teams to automate their workflows and connect with prospects. The AI also guides a salesperson to the next best actions to take. The company, founded in 2011, reached a $1.1 billion valuation in January 2021. Vista Equity Partners took a majority position of its business in December of that year, a deal that raised its valuation to $2.3 billion. Among the company’s clients are Google, 3M, IBM, Shopify, Square, and Cisco. Earlier this year, Salesloft acquired Drift, a buyer experience and conversational AI company.
Nagy has over 25 years of experience with an extensive background in private equity-backed technology companies. He's worked across financial services, software, data, and technology sectors. Nagy enjoys helping companies grow to the next stage, he told me. In joining Salesloft, he’s getting back to working with high-growth enterprise software that helps companies engage with their customers, he said.
I asked Obrand, CEO since 2023, his thoughts about his strategic partnership with Nagy.
“You really want a CFO that shares the same ethos as you in terms of how you build the business, the values of the organization, how you show up and execute every day,” Obrand said.
But you also want someone that can challenge you with different perspectives, he said. “Otherwise, you just end up in what probably feels like a great echo chamber, but ultimately doesn't actually push the envelope of what you can do as an organization,” Obrand said.
Salesloft will reach full profitability by the end of this year, Orbrand said. When you're a business generating hundreds of millions in revenue, there are nuances in balancing driving profitability through growth, he said.
“That is where Chris and I get to focus a lot of our time and attention,” Orbrand noted. For example, choosing the right investments, and determining the timing and expectation of those returns, “in what I think many of us feel is a fairly uncertain macro environment today,” he said.
Have a good weekend.
Sheryl Estrada
sheryl.estrada@fortune.com
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