The Real Slim Fady Show

The skillsets learned to be a successful CFO are very different than the skillets necessary to be a successful CEO. I'm joined with Howard to discuss his journey moving from a very successful CFO to becoming Founder and CEO of his own software startup. A conversation with Howard Katzenberg, ex CFO of Better and On Deck

Starting and growing a company isn't for the faint of heart and it's a full contact sport. From side hustling stickers to a fast growing ecommerce company selling coolers, backpacks, hats, and anything else, Trevor talks about his journey that led to raising $2M from a ecommerce titan.

Starting a company is difficult, scaling one is ten times harder. I'm joined with Sharrin Fuller who has successful exits under her belt to share stories of what it's like to scale and what she's doing now to help other founders exit the way they should

I'm joined by a great leader and person in Nina Chmura, Partner in Charge at Withum, Top 15 CPA firm in the world. We talk about how it was growing up in a small business family working at a pizza shop and a cafeteria and how those skills translated to a professional career.

I'm joined for with my first guest, Michael Ly, who has founded and scaled several successful companies from tech to professional services. We cover everything from what entrepreneurs need to think about, what scaling actually looks like, and what advice we'd give to our younger selves.

Hiring a finance person who actually knows what they're doing is extremely difficult because more often than not, you're figuring things out on your own. There are way too many inexperienced finance, or worse yet CPAs, who call themselves CFOs just because they want to. Find out what to look for and how to avoid a costly mistake.

When it comes to raising money, it's an art managing what kind of money you take because not all money is created equal.

Having raised money on the west coast, east coast, and the midwest, there are few good things I can say about raising money in the midwest. Listen to hear my worst experience with a VC and what I've learned after pitching to 100+ VCs.

After being both the CFO and CEO of VC backed companies, I share my experience of how those two mindsets differ and how they need to work together to really grow a company.

After running my SaaS FinTech startup for 4 years bootstrapped, I was able to learn some very valuable lessons before getting Venture Capital investment. I'll share about my experience running a bootstrapped tech company in a crowded market and how it's been since raising a $2M Seed round from a Boston based VC.

When companies scale, finance is usually the last role brought on in a full-time capacity but one of the most requested. Bringing that role on too early can slow your growth, but bringing it on too late could ruin your company. Listen in on how to think about bringing the finance skills you need to your growing company.