Adnan Chaudhry

Brad Wolfe | Operational CFO Series The GC & CFO Partnership in PE-Backed SaaS The GC and the CFO. Two of the most important relationships in any PE-backed company. In a PE-backed SaaS or tech-enabled company under $1B, the relationship between the CFO and the General Counsel is where deals get done — or fall apart. Where exits get protected — or get messy. Where the board stays confident — or starts asking hard questions. I've lived this across eight PE-backed companies. Here's what I've learned. The Tension Is by Design The CFO is wired for speed and value creation. The GC is wired for risk and process discipline. Neither is wrong. The question is whether those two wires run parallel — or get crossed. Six Places Where It Matters Most 1. M&A Diligence. The CFO owns valuation. The GC owns reps, warranties, and closing mechanics. But purchase price adjustments, earnout structures, working capital definitions — those live in the overlap. Failure mode: the CFO drives the model while the GC flags risk in a memo no one reads until the night before signing. 2. Revenue Contracts and ASC 606. The GC negotiates the MSA. The CFO owns revenue recognition. Contract language is accounting policy. How performance obligations are defined, how termination clauses are written — it flows directly into when revenue gets recognized. A GC who doesn't understand ASC 606, or a CFO who doesn't read the contracts, is a material audit risk. 3. Covenant Compliance. Debt covenants sit with the CFO. But the legal definitions — EBITDA add-backs, permitted investments, change of control triggers — are documents the GC negotiated. When you're approaching a threshold, you need both in the room. 4. Management Incentive Plans. The GC drafts the MIP. The CFO models the exit economics. Misalignment creates the most damaging conflict at exit: management expectations that diverge from actual distributions. Brief the CEO together. Not separately. 5. Board Communication. If it's board-worthy, both of you knew before the meeting. A CFO who drops a financial surprise the GC didn't know about — or a GC who mentions litigation the CFO hadn't modeled — erodes sponsor confidence fast. 6. Lane Ownership. CFO owns the numbers and the financial narrative. GC owns legal structure and risk framing. When they disagree — and they will — they disagree privately and present a unified position to the board. What PE Sponsors Watch For Legal costs opaque to the CFO. Financial decisions with undisclosed legal exposure. M&A diligence that isn't integrated. Board presentations where the two officers tell slightly different stories. Any of those patterns puts both executives at risk. "The CFO and GC are co-authors of the company's risk and value narrative — one in numbers, one in legal structure, always working from the same draft." When that works, the sponsor notices. When it doesn't, they notice faster.

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Even disciplined management teams experience software spend creep as licenses expand and subscriptions renew. This #GrowthBit by Taylor Koger and Claire King Krikawa shares advice on negotiating SaaS contracts and aligning spend with real value: https://lnkd.in/e6qEKB9q

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Great perspective from Thoma Bravo on applying lessons learned from on-premise to cloud wave to this SaaS to SaaS+AI agents wave.

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Private equity isn’t always about squeezing EBITDA—sometimes, it’s about giving the business room to grow. In Episode 218 of The SaaS CFO Podcast, Matt Blumberg (CEO of Markup AI) shares a powerful lesson from operating in PE-backed environments: you can unintentionally starve a company by forcing profitability too early. Mid-market PE is a different game entirely—and knowing when to break the paradigm and invest more to expand the pie can be the difference between stagnation and real scale. A great discussion on growth mindset, capital strategy, and the nuances of PE ownership. Episode 218 is now available, links down below 👇 YouTube: https://lnkd.in/gz2i558r Apple: https://rpb.li/tgVFdD Spotify: https://rpb.li/7pwzP5xca #SaaSFinance #PrivateEquity #SaaSLeadership #SaaSPodcast #FounderInsights

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I recently joined Colin Hewitt for his podcast, The New F*Word, which explores how Fractional CFOs are reshaping cash flow, financial strategy, and business growth. A Fractional CFO doesn’t need to have all the answers on day one. As I mentioned to Colin, "The biggest mistake I see is jumping straight to solutions before fully understanding the business. The approach I rely on is simple: listen first, create alignment, then deliver. That means understanding the people, the numbers, and the real problems before trying to fix anything. Once there’s alignment on what matters, execution becomes much easier." In this episode, we touch on a variety of other topics, including: * How to decide between a fractional CFO and a full-time hire * Why a company's financial narrative must pass the one-sentence test * The importance of alignment across every stakeholder * How to balance long-term vision with tactical flexibility * Why scenario analysis is a critical complement to point forecasts Please see the links below for the full podcast. I value your insights and look forward to your feedback... Apple: https://bit.ly/4aH65e0 Spotify: https://bit.ly/4qNfozk YouTube: https://lnkd.in/egaZEuFu #TheNewF*Word #FractionalCFO #CFOResponsibilities

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Vale a pena conferir o material anual da Thoma Bravo TLDR: "SaaS revenue is only approximately 25% of total expected software revenue in 2025, with projected 19% annual growth from 2025 - 2028. Many large enterprises still maintain significant on-premise infrastructure — particularly financial systems. Companies, including some of our portfolio companies, have been managing enterprise cloud and SaaS transitions for over a decade, and there is still plenty of runway left in this transition."

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In most B2B companies, the gong rings in sales and a fire drill starts in finance. Sales is signing custom deals while finance scrambles to figure out how to bill, invoice, and recognize the revenue. Quote to cash is one of the most fragmented processes in the CFO org. Legacy billing tools were built for v1 of the subscription economy. They handle simple subscriptions, then break the moment you add custom enterprise terms and usage-based pricing. In an AI world where everything is metered and usage-driven, that setup is unsustainable. That’s the gap Sequence is going after. Their end to end AI revenue platform is built for this reality, handling real-world Q2C complexity while automating the tedious work and keeping finance in control. An intake copilot turns messy custom contracts into billable schedules. A Rev Rec agent flags ASC 606 risk before entries hit the ERP. A Dunning agent tailors follow ups instead of spamming generic “please pay” emails. Huge thanks to Riya Grover, Enda Cahill, and the Sequence team for an incredible session. We’re grateful to everyone who joined and shared their questions. That wraps our final Scale CFO Demo Day of 2025, what a year! We’ll be back in the new year with more sessions and initiatives across the CFO community. If you’re interested in joining, link in the comments.

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Interesting stat from the Gartner CSO on compensation as a driver of B2B sales people. I don’t know what this means just yet, but I have a feeling that it’s got big implications for commercial leaders.

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CPO Playbook: Building Strategic Product Partnerships with Your CFO and Board In today’s market, capital efficiency is the new growth. Boards and CFOs are asking harder questions about ROI, and the Chief Product Officer can no longer afford to answer with features and timelines alone. To have true influence at the strategic level, great CPOs must evolve - from roadmap owners to financial storytellers. This playbook breaks down the 5 levers every CPO can use to connect product initiatives to business outcomes like ACV growth, CAC efficiency, and net retention - becoming indispensable to both the CEO, CFO, and the board. --- 1. Translating Product Strategy into Strategic Narrative Key Business Levers: ACV, NRR, NDR Your product strategy *is* your strategic narrative. Yet many boards hear about features and timelines, not outcomes. The best CPOs shift from talking about *what* they’re building to *why* it matters—anchoring product bets in financial upside. For example: - Launching premium features? That’s ACV expansion. - Driving adoption across new teams? That’s NRR lift. - Reducing churn through onboarding improvements? That’s NDR gain. The best test? Can your CRO, CFO, and CEO all articulate your product strategy - and how it drives financial performance? When product leaders speak the language of unit economics, they become strategic amplifiers—not cost centers. --- ✅ In the full version: - Turn your roadmap into a forecast of future cash flow - Build Product Ops as a unit economic cockpit - Drive retention, upsell, and valuation through PLG and PLS - Help your board understand how product powers margin and growth 👉 Subscribe to access the full playbook → Link in the comments

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PE - 6 Traits of Top CEOs in Private Equity In PE, effective leadership is the #1 driver of success. Here are the key criteria that make a good middle-market PE portfolio company CEO (which is a different role than a CEO at smaller companies): - Leadership: builds and leads high-performing teams; can lead under pressure through ambiguity and complexity, maintaining composure and clarity in high-stakes situations, and have ability to align cross-functional teams who work together to deliver under pressure. Also, top CEO can build winning and effective cultures - they gain and build trust through authentic leadership and frontline experience; they lead by example, and they know how to lead change while respecting legacy dynamics (i.e. the culture prior to the PE buyout / investment) - Results Orientation: focuses on data-backed performance and brings a history of quantifiable business impact across core value drivers, such as revenue acceleration and operational efficiency - Execution: in middle-market PE, CEO success is defined by daily operational execution, not disruptive ideas or global big-picture Fortune 100 vision. Priority is to scale businesses efficiently and profitably; top MM CEOs can optimize systems, improve margins, drive efficiency and achieve profitable revenue and EBITDA growth - Operational Rigor: focus on execution and team accountability, deep grasp of business drivers, implements systems for predictable performance, focus on capital-efficiency; operates with deep fluency in systems, processes, and performance levers. Top MM CEOs have the ability to quickly diagnose issues, implement practical solutions, and drive measurable improvements (e.g., Revenue growth, EBITDA growth, gross margin expansion, cost optimization) - GTM / Commercial DNA and Product Alignment: exceptional GTM/Commercial acumen (often great MM PE-grade CEOs have sales leadership or CRO backgrounds) - they align GTM with product strategy and with market demand - Resource Allocation: skilled at prioritizing capital, time, and talent toward highest-ROI P.S. There is certainly a lot more to hiring a great CEO, including middle-market stage fit, purpose fit, industry alignment, functional skill set fit, board dynamics, etc. and the recruiting processs has to be structured and effective. But the 6 core areas above are key to what defines a strong middle-market CEO in a PE-backed company. ------------------ #pe #privateequity #ceo #middlemarket #revenue #growth #investing #finance #business

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I recently joined Tim Tonella on the VENTURE 2 VICTORY podcast for a thoughtful conversation on where we are in the software cycle. Find the full episode here: https://lnkd.in/gdSGXXDZ

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Your Cloud Infrastructure bill is the new headcount plan. For years, startup board meetings obsessed over hiring velocity to drive growth. Now we’re seeing a shift. CFOs are putting cloud spending in the spotlight. In the age of AI, the marginal cost of delivering value isn’t a new developer for a salesperson; it’s a token, a model call, or a GPU hour. That’s why we backed Matt Biringer and Yassine Açoine at North.cloud. Their AI-powered financial system helps high-growth startups and Fortune 500 companies alike manage cloud costs with the same visibility and rigor they bring to development, hiring, and GTM. • No FinOps headcount required • Massive savings in minutes, not quarters • 500%+ net retention, hundreds of millions of cloud spend under management • Customer DevOps teams can focus on... drum roll... development and deployment, not forensic cloud accounting exercises. Cloud COGS are becoming core to your business model. North makes them predictable & controllable. Here's why we led their Series A round and why you'll never go back after trying this solution in your cloud infrastructure: https://lnkd.in/eQFHp9ku #DevOps #CFO #venturecapital #FinOps #AIinfrastructure

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Trust is the Real GTM Multiplier: Why Scaling Success Starts with Structure, Not Shortcuts Companies often believe that scaling go to market (GTM) is about multiplying what already works, but as Jeanne DeWitt Grosser notes, most GTM motions disintegrate at scale often in silent, subtle ways. The real problem? GTM is not treated as a product. Unlike product teams that storyboard, iterate, and obsess over user journeys, sales and GTM processes are frequently left to intuition or ad hoc fixes. When scaling, this lack of intentional design becomes the fault line where growth stalls. It’s tempting to assume that AI or new tech will solve most execution headaches, but technology alone will not save a fragile process. AI can automate, suggest, and accelerate but only if your team has already defined what good looks like. Scale bad processes, and you end up with bigger problems, faster. Teams need clarity and choreography: every stage, handoff, and buyer experience must build logically and seamlessly. Pricing objections and lost deals are rarely about the price tag itself; they almost always trace back to a missed stakeholder, a poorly illustrated ROI, or a breakdown in the buyer journey. Treating GTM like a learning and debugged system where every step can be analyzed and improved is how high performing teams and companies systematically eliminate these glitches. Finally, success still comes down to people who can instill structure and help guide buyers through costly, ambiguous decisions. (who not what) Unlike software, trust and business judgment cannot be automated. Great sellers equipped with frameworks, credibility, and empathy will continue to thrive, even as AI compresses the tactical work. For those navigating growth, the takeaway is simple: Build repeatable, testable GTM systems, not hero dependent ones. Bring product discipline to sales, and you will scale what works instead of multiplying what is broken. Your thoughts? #GTM #SalesLeadership #GrowthStrategy #B2B #SalesProcess #BusinessScaling

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With SaaS pricing up ~8.7% year-over-year according to SaaStr’s 2025 Price Surge Report, even minor contract decisions can make a difference. Before signing or renewing a SaaS agreement, Taylor Koger and Claire King Krikawa share advice to help CFOs, department leaders or any budget owner control software spend and negotiate contracts fairly. Learn how to understand list pricing and discount ranges, negotiate renewal caps and contract structures, account for seats based on usage and more. 🔗 Read the #GrowthBit now to ensure every dollar drives impact: https://lnkd.in/e6fVFVWX #GrowthBits #SaaSContracts #Finance #OperationalExcellence

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More enterprise SaaS companies are moving to consumption-based pricing. Many comp plans weren't designed with that model in mind. Traditional comp plans were built around a predictable revenue event: a customer signs a contract, the ACV gets booked, and the seller gets paid. In a consumption-based pricing model, that changes. Revenue trickles in as the customer uses the product, which can take months to ramp. The comp plan is now out of sync with when revenue actually arrives. That's usually when you see sellers gravitating toward legacy ACV products because the payout is more predictable, or CS and sales quietly disputing who owns expansion credit. Earnings feel less predictable, even when the account is genuinely growing. In our latest blog, we break down how enterprise leaders are adjusting compensation for consumption-based pricing without destabilizing earnings or creating internal friction. Read more here: https://lnkd.in/gnUFCRs3

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ROI is not just for assessing certain projects or investments. You should be using it to assess your partners and the value they bring to your business as well. #unipacproducts #ROI #distribution #meat&poultry #value

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It was a pleasure speaking with Grace Noto at CFO Dive about the talent shortage problem we are dealing with in the finance org. While we often measure ROI through hard costs and efficiency, we discussed shifting that focus. In a shrinking workforce, the real return on investment should be measured by how technology empowers our people. When we approach technology with an eye toward empowerment rather than replacement, we don't just solve for the bottom line. We solve for the long term health of our teams. https://lnkd.in/eygYen8n #technology #accounting #finance #taxtech

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🚨Is Ai killing mid market SaaS? Here’s what keeps PE awake at night…. ☎️ Contact Mission Intelligence for a comprehensive AI strategy for PE and dynamic execution model, tailored to unlock scalable growth and drive valuation. #AI #SaaS #PrivateEquity #Valuations #GrowthStrategy #MissionIntelligence #ArtificialIntelligence

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Many founders wait too long to hire a CFO. Here's when you actually need one. On the latest episode of The "Founder & CEO" Podcast, Michael Viscuso and I chat with Gordon Pothier and Steve Webber—two veteran CFOs with decades of experience helping companies scale. We dive deep into: - How a CFO drives growth beyond just keeping the books - When to bring a CFO on board (hint: earlier than most founders think) - What makes a powerful CEO-CFO partnership work - The strategic skills every growing company needs from their finance leader Whether you're bootstrapping your first startup or scaling past Series B, this conversation is packed with insights on finding the right finance partner for your business. Listen here: https://lnkd.in/g2fw7v9g #CFO #Founders #Startups #Leadership #Podcast #ScalingBusinesses

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