EP 005 - Being System Driven with Amit Kumar, Head of Finance CoE at Avataar Ventures

Our special guest for the show today is Amit Kumar, an accomplished finance expert who heads the Finance Centre of Excellence at Avataar Ventures. As a premier growth stage VC firm, Avataar specializes in nurturing SaaS and B2B startups that are building in India for the globe.

Amit isn't just another Chartered Accountant. He brings to the table a wealth of experience, spanning over two decades, that he garnered from various multinational corporations and vibrant startups, both within India and beyond. His professional journey has taken him to GE, Oracle, Schweppes, Bosch, and Attune Technologies – a HealthTech SaaS company backed by Avataar Ventures itself, where he was the CFO.

For those of you who didn't know, Amit is also an entrepreneur in his own right. He founded LOGIQORE, a venture that offered fractional CFO and CFO advisory services to early and growth-stage B2B and SaaS startups across India and the ASEAN region.

Amit's mastery isn't confined to just one area. He has a knack for setting up and streamlining financial operations, expertly managing cash flows, and creating growth strategies, backed by financial KPIs tailor-made for start-ups. From establishing new offices in multiple countries, to structuring company policies and procedures, to ensuring compliance, and even navigating the often tricky terrains of equity and debt financing, M&A, and JV setups in India - Amit has done it all!

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Quotes:

"I firmly believe that company should not be people dependent, rather it should be system driven."

"Learning never stops."

"At the end of the day, you should feel satisfied that you have done something good for the company. [If] That part is there on each day you come back home, I think that's the job you should do."

"If you give something free, it has no meaning for the customer because he anyways does not value the effort gone into that product. If there is a charge for it, there is a value for it."

"Over the last 20 years, I think most of the companies have understood that, finance means much more than accounting actually. Accounting is only a subset of the entire thing what finance department can do. And a CFO is a guy who basically runs the show for them as far as finance and operations are concerned. So he is not a guy who has to only look at the numbers or the performance of the company after the performance has happened. He is a guy who has to also tell you that you are getting into this risk. The way the business is functioning, I think we can achieve these kinds of numbers."

"CEO understands the CFO is not a finance accounting guy. He is the guy who is basically my eyes and ears and helps me to understand where am I going wrong or is there a chance for me to go wrong or where am I doing really great."

"Saying no is very easy, anyone can say that. But giving a solution against that problem is what I think the modern CFO does and should do."

"I do believe in the 3 eyes principle which I learnt in GE, that the person who does the transaction, passes the transaction, and approves the transaction, they all should be different. So system helps you to drive that."

"Being a CFO does not mean CFOs don't have emotions. They do have as well. But the thing is they have to look at the company as a whole, not look at individuals. So when I am given a choice, I go with the concept, can I save the company? And if I can save the company by cutting down some cost for the company, honestly, I will go ahead with it."

"Automation is needed honestly to me at every level. You decide what level of automation you need... don't go by the concept of what should be the framework for when to bring in automation. Should bring in automation as early as possible."

"A good CFO will always take that call as to, okay, now is the time to bring in a system for this company because I am losing visibility, I'm not able to give to the management the future vision of this company because I lack on these systems. That's where you bring in things in the company."

"So I feel convincing the board or the CEO is not a challenge till the time you can show future things about it, transparencies, compliance, visibility, all these factors into it, plus savings on cost based on the data you get from the system."

"Maybe it comes from an investor point of view, but yes, transparency and standardization is something every investor looks at. Transparency in the sense that provide right data at the right time and take investors as your friend. They will only help you."   

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Where to find Avataar Ventures:

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/avataarvc/about/

Website: https://avataar.vc/ 

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Where to find Rohit:

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rohitagarwal001/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/podcast_SoF

Email: [email protected]

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