Words of Wisdom for Startups from Allos CFO Julie Whitehead
In her role as CFO at Allos, Julie does much more than financial modeling. She also evaluates startup pitches, completes due diligence on potential investments, reviews legal documents, and completes all the back-office operations of a venture fund such as accounting, tax, and limited partner reporting.
With over 20 years of experience working in finance and accounting roles at an accounting firm, a public company, a boot-strapped startup , a venture-backed startup and now a venture capital firm, Julie’s advice is invaluable for those hoping to obtain venture funding. Her advice to young startups looking to secure venture funding is: “Stay as organized as possible from the very beginning,” she said. “Take the steps you need to ensure a smooth due diligence process when the time is right.” Those steps include:
Making all accounting information easily accessible and organized. When investors are ready to make an investment, all the company’s accounting information from its inception should be readily available. If it takes a startup a considerable amount of time to give an investor organized accounting information, doubts and concerns may be raised by potential investors.
Focusing on quality financial reporting. Quality financial reporting shows investors that a startup is serious about its future as a growing company. Financial forecasts, budgets and financial reports should be created and stored in easy-to-understand formats This will aid in ensuring investors clearly understand the company’s financial history and goals.
Tracking all key metrics. Apart from budgets and financial forecasts, a startup should ensure that it is tracking key pieces of information that demonstrates its growth over the months and years. Some key metrics that investors are interested in seeing improve over time are number of employees, cash burn rate, previous funding rounds, big customer wins, customer churn, customer acquisition cost and annual recurring revenue. There are a lot of metrics but find the ones that are key for the startup and the industry.
Organizing all legal documents digitally to ensure accuracy. It is far too easy for startups to lose certain important legal documents in the chaos of new funding rounds and the everyday challenges of running a startup. However, when considering a new funding round, investors may want to see proof of the legal entity formation, all previous funding rounds, stock certificates and term sheets. In order to keep all this information easily accessible, keep digital copies of every legal document.
Securing all data to back up any claims made. When creating a pitch deck and executive summary, it is vital that startups can back up every declaration made. When investors ask for historical data proving startups’ claims’ validity, market size validation, competitor funding, overall market growth and other claims you may have made. Easy access to this information is essential to build trust with investors.
Julie not only has expertise as a long-time finance professional, but also as a lifelong Cincinnati resident.
Cincinnati’s Changing Landscape
The recent startup explosion in Cincinnati offers Midwest investors an opportunity to shape the next generation of tech products and services. As a Cincinnati native, Julie has witnessed the city go from small tech contender to the sixth-best rising city for startups in the U.S. And because she understands the challenges early-stage startups face daily, Julie brings valuable expertise to Allos’ portfolio companies and has a strong aptitude for industry trends.
“The level of startup activity has increased greatly thanks to the work that accelerators, incubators, angel groups and VCs have done to nurture more new companies,” Julie said. She noted that in the five years she’s been a member of the Allos team, the Cincinnati tech ecosystem has changed dramatically. “We’re uniquely positioned to deliver real-time guidance for companies — which is important, because speed counts.”
The Future of Midwest Tech
With more than 20 years of experience working in finance and accounting, Julie’s view of the future of Midwest tech is optimistic. And as a woman in tech, her forecast on diversity and inclusion of women is equally positive. But positive change will require diligence.
“Being hands-on isn’t just doing the work every day,” she said. “It’s also getting involved in as much of the community as you can. Allos is committed to helping make a great future for Cincinnati and Midwest tech.”