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01:01 Introduction and Background
04:32 International Experience and Transition to CFO Role
05:40 Early Years in Finance and Long Tenure at Bank of America
12:59 Lessons from the Dot-com Bubble and 2008 Financial Crisis
15:39 Managing the COVID-19 Pandemic at Teleperformance
18:15 Transition to Kiavi and the Real Estate FinTech Lending Space
21:08 Managing Remote Teams and Building Rapport
23:38 Establishing Cadence and the Future of Finance
28:02 When to Hire a CFO and Their Value to the Company
33:56 Short-term Loans in the Home Loans Market
37:16 FinTech company vs. Traditional Lender
40:20 Fundraising and Financing Strategies
43:35 Advice for the First 100 Days as a CFO
50:52 Making Informed Decisions Before Joining a Company
52:39 Motivation and Challenges of Being a CFO
54:28 Advice for Young Professionals Aspiring to Become CFOs
59:55 Defining a Successful Career
01:01:57 Lightning Round
01:06:14 Conclusion
"The super CFO... is really a proxy for the CEO."
“First thing you learn that there are different ways to do things… people and countries and cultures have different backgrounds and histories… You just need to get flexible and understand that people want to do the right thing.”
“Even if you're backed by big investors, it doesn't last forever if you can't deliver on business and growth goals.”
“It's easy to put things into a PowerPoint. But at the end of the day, it comes to materializing and delivering value from those initiatives.”
“Once you are in the C-suite, you really need to live with the consequences of the decisions that you make.”
“You gotta be very paranoid of risks that are out there. And often these are risks that are hiding in plain sight. So, looking back at the big financial crisis and the big bubbles that were out there, it was all there, but you are so much wrapped up in the day-to-day, you have a real trouble seeing those risks that are looking out there. So that's why I'm sort of, I'm always paranoid.”
“You gotta be fast if those things happen (like COVID-19 Pandemic). And it is very difficult to make decisions if you don't have the data set to make good decisions.”
“The mortgage business is a very low-margin business and there's a lot of volatility in the business. If interest rates go up, our business drops by 50%. If interest rates go down, then business expands.”
“I have one rule: I don't like any surprises. So, there's an expectation that I want to hear sort of the bad things and the good things before they are being distributed within the organization.”
“I want finance to be embedded in the market-facing functions. I want that finance is the owner of record for all the analytical stuff that's being done.”
“The CFO needs to be more than just a scorekeeper. That is sort of the minimum thing. The finance organization looks at numbers all day long, and I think they need to do more. They need to enable other departments. They need to point out where there are opportunities for growth, for cost savings, and all those things.”
“We have come to the point where the average income in the United States doesn't allow people to buy the average home.”
“I'm looking for people that, I wanna promote and bring up, do they really think like owners.”
Where to find Alex Urmersbach:
Where to find Kiavi:
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/kiavi/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/kiavi_inc
Website: https://www.kiavi.com/
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Where to find Rohit:
Twitter: https://twitter.com/podcast_SoF
Email: [email protected]
Sponsor:
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