EP 009 - Confidence, Prepare, Execute, and Repeat with Joy Mbanugo, CFO at ServiceRocket

I'm super excited to be speaking with Joy Mbanugo today.  She is a Chief Financial Officer and Qualified Financial Expert, known for her work in financial governance and structure across organizations ranging from $200 billion to pre-revenue startups.

Currently serving as the CFO at ServiceRocket, Joy's responsibilities encompass finance, accounting, revenue operations, treasury, and more. Her focus areas include enhancing profitability, cash management, scaling the business, and leading digital transformation.

Joy joined ServiceRocket from Google where she held several finance roles. At Google Cloud, she analyzed deals worth between $25MM and $1B related to Google Cloud Partnerships and Industry Solutions. She developed a process to provide monthly financial results to the Cloud Partnership and Industry Solutions leadership and monitored annual revenue growth of up to $1.5B. She also designed and implemented a cash management system for Alphabet Treasury, transforming intercompany transactions and funneling over $100B in assets. Additionally, she engineered the Tax and Intercompany workstreams for the most extensive U.S. ERP conversion from Oracle to SAP. Joy managed a team of more than 80 contractors and over 40 staff members and orchestrated investment and risk management strategies to influence business decisions.

Her previous experience also includes working at BlackRock, where she handled taxation of securities lending, and at Ernst and Young, where she worked in both audit and tax.

A leader, a mentor, and an innovator, Joy has also been a voice for empowerment, leading employee resource groups at Google and served as an Advisor on the Finance Committee for the Northern California Chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union. She has also written for various publications, including Forbes and Huffington Post.

In her spare time, Joy enjoys local markets, spending time with family and friends, and investing in crypto and private companies. With a rich educational background, including a Juris Doctorate and a Masters of Accountancy, Joy's insights are backed by a profound understanding of the financial landscape.

Join us as we explore the mind of Joy Mbanugo, her approach to finance, and delve into her strategies, philosophies, and the experiences that have contributed to her success so far.

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Quotes:

“I would just encourage women to speak up because it's really hard.”

“For the modern CFO, data is everything.”

“Thinking strategically about growth, no matter what size you are.”

“Don't be afraid to say what you want to do.”

“A CFO should look at themselves as a servant to the business. And so you are there to enable the business and you are there to be a great partner to the business.”

“I think [AI in finance] is gonna be revolutionary. I feel like it's been here for a while. I think we're just now seeing it.”

“I am a very organized person in the sense that once I put my mind to something, I kind of tried it out. But I took a lot of data points.”

“If people talk about investing in things, investing in yourself always has the highest return.”

“That was a pivotal point for me because seeing women who had been, not are, but were very successful CFOs on corporate boards, I was like, okay, I think I can do this.”

“Get to know the people. And that, you know, that's very cliche, but I think when you get a big title, your ego can take over.”

“Well, you leave Google if you want to get a higher title, right? So Google's great. But one thing Google is really good at doing is hiring people who are really good at one thing and keeping you in that one thing. And so if you want to expand, you can move around, which I did. But if you want to expand and move up, it's kind of hard because you're competing with super-talented people.”

“I'm into the weeds and numbers and not the technology. And I'm glad I moved from finance treasury to tech because, like, tech is the future. Well, it's not just the future, it's the present and the future.”

“You know if you meet someone who's in your profession and you just admire them, and I've had that a few times in my career and I was... I really admired him, and I was like, I really like to be like that someday.”

“I know finance and sales people have a very special relationship, but I think you can't be a successful CFO without having a good relationship with your sales team or at a minimum head of sales.”

“I think [quick wins are] important, but I would not put it over. It depends on the company. What does the company value? And my CEO values relationships.”

“I would say do something broad and maybe go to one of the accounting firms. If you don't go to an investment bank. Go to an accounting firm. Go to a consulting firm.”

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