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What does one of the world’s biggest corporations have in common with a tech startup? In a changing world, more than you might think. I recently spoke with Amanda Whalen, former CFO of Walmart and current CFO of the startup Klaviyo who has experienced both – and says there are differences based on size, but also commonalities. Amanda spoke specifically about an increasingly important area of focus for CFOs: building and nurturing customer experience, trust and loyalty.
Risk taking reputation
Jeff Thomson: Startups often have a reputation for risk-taking and sometimes even lack of fiscal discipline as they try to attract investment. As a startup CFO, how do you balance the necessary risks with cautious and efficient capital allocation? How should a startup CFO in general plan for smart, long-term growth amid an investor assumption of “hypergrowth”?
Amanda Whalen: This is actually something that attracted me to Klaviyo. The company was bootstrapped at the beginning, so fiscal responsibility is in our DNA. We’ve always been an efficient grower, and been thoughtful about our investments – even as the company has scaled.
Right now we’re thinking about how we can grow and continue to become even more efficient in our core business. That means considering where the market is growing the fastest, what’s our share and where we have the most efficient returns in terms of LTV: CAC [lifetime value per customer-to-customer acquisition cost] and payback. We also think across time horizons, to make sure we’re not only building for today, [but] we’re protecting an appropriate amount of investment to go towards earlier stage ventures that will drive our growth a few years from now, and how we find the balance across those two.
Transitioning from big to small
Thomson: Before becoming CFO at Klaviyo last year, you were EVP and CFO at Walmart International. What was the transition from one of the world’s biggest established companies to a startup like? How are challenges different or similar in the two different business environments and what insights do you have for CFOs contemplating a similar career change?
Whalen: It’s been a really exciting transition. Even at Walmart, I was able to work with very nimble, high growth companies like Flipkart – and that’s what I get to do again here.
At Klaviyo, I’m really focused on how we build on the momentum that the business has seen over the past few years. We’ve had a tremendous trajectory – and now we need to build on that, scale it and take it to the next level. From a finance perspective I’m focused on how we effectively allocate capital and where we make investments to continue to grow; the systems and processes we’re going to need to sustain the growth; and how we think about what it’s going to take to operate as a much larger business than we are today.
For CFOs contemplating a similar career change, I’d encourage them to first think about what they’re looking for in a business. I was looking for a product that customers love, one with strong macro tailwinds, and a terrific team I knew I’d enjoy spending every day with. I was also looking for a place where I would have the ability to build and have an impact. My team is making big decisions that share our future and [I’m] also being super hands on building the processes and systems that will help us scale and get to where we want to go. Folks contemplating a change need to love and want to do both.
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Strategic and customer focused
Thomson: Among the many changes to the CFO role in recent years, the finance leader has become more strategic and customer-focused, using customer needs and experiences to inform decision-making. What are the skills and requirements of the “customer-first CFO”? How should CFOs and finance professionals more broadly rethink their attitudes toward customer and client experience?
Whalen: You’re right – these days CFOs can’t just be focused on the financial health of a business – they need to be fully immersed in the mission and vision, and what a company is doing to help its customers thrive. At Klaviyo, our number one value is to be customer first – and that extends to all departments of the business. Every department is expected to talk and listen to customers and understand how we can further help them.
So, I think the number one requirement is a willingness to be curious and to learn. Before joining Klaviyo, I’d already started to have that customer focus – I read reviews and talked to customers to understand what Klaviyo is solving for. But it’s not enough to just go through the motions and simulate what it’s like to be a customer. Now that I’m here, I spend time with the voice of the customer team to understand patterns and trends, attend key account reviews to hear how things are going for our largest customers, and talk directly to customers. What’s great is that I actually have friends who are Klaviyo customers – so I’ve been able to reach out and talk to them about how we’re helping them build their businesses, and what we can do better.
By talking with customers, it ensures that when we’re setting priorities or making investments I’m always thinking about how those will help us meet our customers’ needs and solve their pain points now – and in the future. Making our customers’ lives better is core to building an enduring business – and it’s up to us to figure out how to do that.
Lastly, in addition to external customers – as a CFO you also have internal customers – the business. As finance professionals we bring in a toolkit of best practices – but how we use and apply that toolkit depends on what the internal needs are, and those will be different from company to company. Just as there’s no one size fits all solution for customers, there isn’t one for businesses either. It’s up to you to figure out how you can adjust what has worked in the past to what will work in the future, and scale the business in a way that is attainable and sustainable for years to come.
