Episodes

Greg Kautz and Kevin Appleby discussed the challenges of lease accounting and the need for technology to streamline these processes. Greg highlighted the benefits of automating lease accounting, while Appleby questioned the need for separate accounting rules for lessees and lessors. Later, the pair discussed the benefits of leasing assets for business growth, emphasizing the importance of considering leasing as an option for expansion. Finally, they discussed the challenges of fundraising in the...

Catherine Clark and Kevin Appleby discussed the importance of addressing personal and professional growth through holistic mentoring, emphasizing the role of emotional intelligence in decision making and relationship dynamics in business. Catherine is head of mentoring at GrowCFO. She frequently supports her mentees when they need to have a difficult conversation. Key topics covered include: Catherine Clark’s holistic approach to mentoring, which involves unlocking a mentee’s personal potentia...

Stephen Campbell, founder and chief solution architect at MacroFin, joins Kevin Appleby to discuss best practices for ERP implementation success. They share their experiences transitioning from accounting to technology consulting and implementation. Key topics covered include: Common challenges clients face when outgrowing systems like Xero and the decision process for selecting a new ERP Best practices for vendor selection and simplifying often lengthy and complex RFP processes Tips for effe...

Timothee Clement. USA Country Manager at Agicap joins Kevin Appleby on the GrowCFO Show as they discuss the business case for introducing specialist cash flow forecasting technology. Timothee is a returning guest, he discussed implementing cash flow forecasting in episode 119. In this episode he discussed the business case for investing in cash flow forecasting technology with podcast host Kevin Appleby. Timothy explained how most companies still rely on error-prone spreadsheets due to the comp...

Randy Wootton is an experienced technology executive with over 20 years of experience in corporate leadership roles. He joins Kevin Appleby as a guest on the GrowCFO Show ahead of appearing as a panellist at the GrowCFO Global Finance Summit. He has served as CEO of three startups: Rocket Fuel, Percolate, and Maxio. Randy spent 8 years in the U.S. Navy before transitioning to the corporate sector with Microsoft and Salesforce. He holds an MBA from Harvard Business School and a Master’s in Great ...

Chris Tredwell joins regular host Kevin Appleby on the GrowCFO Show. Chris is the Chief Sales Officer at ERP software provider Aqilla. Chris leads GrowCFO’s Future of the Finance Function series of webinars and will be presenting the opening keynote at the upcoming Global Finance Summit on 15-16 May 2024. Aqilla is a mid-market, Cloud-based, Accounting / Postmodern ERP solution that sits above well-known entry-level SME products such as Xero, Quickbooks and Sage. It has the capabilities of prod...

Anthony Perrozi is an independent finance transformation advisor, author and coach. Anthony shares his vast experience and practical insights on how finance teams can evolve from mere reporters of results to crucial drivers of business value. He stresses the importance of mindset in transforming finance teams and lays out how to establish a project approach that optimizes existing processes and pinpoints areas needing improvement. Anthony talks about his journey to becoming a full-time finance ...

Remote working is becoming ever more popular. Besides the trend of working from home, existing workers may want to move to other countries, either for a short period or long term, and the business may want to take advantage of the skills pool available by recruiting further afield. While there are many advantages of remote work, it also opens up new issues in legal and fiscal compliance. John Lee joins Kevin Appleby on the GrowCFO Show to discuss the problem and show how his company, Work From A...

Tim Merryweather joins Kevin Appleby on the GrowCFO Show ahead of a Webinar in April about how to value your business. Tim is an experienced CFO. He describes his career journey, including working in London, Singapore, and the Middle East, and highlights his practical experience in valuing and acquiring businesses. Tim and Kevin discussed Tim’s early experience at Mouchel, a highly acquisitive former FTSE250 company with a high valuation multiple. They talked about valuing a business being acqu...

In the final part of the series on scaling FP&A, Catherine Marks brings together her old team from Virgin Media O2 to discuss the merger of the two organisations and what this meant for the finance teams within each merged company. Regular podcast host Kevin Appleby chats with Catherine, formerly Head of Group FP&A at Virgin Media O2 and now FP&A and Team Training Lead at GrowCFO. They are joined by Julie Parker, who before the deal, was Pre-merger Planning Integration Lead, Finance at O2 and r...

In the second of a 3 part series on scaling your FP&A capability, Paul Barnhurst, the FP&A Guy, and Catherine Marks, head of FP&A and team training at GrowCFO, join Kevin Appleby to discuss FP&A tools. They discuss scaling finance operations with a focus on infrastructure and choosing the right FP&A tools for growing organizations. Paul is a Finance Professional with 12+ years of finance and FP&A experience, including business unit CFO roles. He earned a business bachelor’s degree from BYU and ...

In the first of a 3 part series on scaling your FP&A capabilities, we’re looking at developing the FP&A team. GrowCFO Show host Kevin Appleby is joined by Jane Riley, Director at executive recruitment specialist Zanda, and Catherine Marks FP&A lead at GrowCFO. Catherine and Jane discuss building a scalable FP&A team to support rapid business growth. The first hire is important. Bringing in a dedicated FP&A professional is a luxury few will be able to afford, so the initial hire will likely be ...

Luigi Testa, CFO at LinkSquares joins Kevin Appleby on the GrowCFO Show to share his journey growing LinkSquares from a small company with $2m revenue, through a $100m fundraise, to one with 100% revenue growth in recent years. LinkSquares helps legal teams automate tasks for more efficient work. Luigi discusses navigating business growth through technology, hiring expertise, and finance leadership as the CFO. His FP&A background has helped provide strategic guidance. How did Luigi navigate a ...

Ashley Vukovits, joins Kevin Appleby on the GrowCFO Show ahead of the March GrowCFO Best Practice Accelerator that will give you practical tools and advice to plan a fundraise. She will be the guest in the first of three workshops in the accelerator. Ashley is based in Indianapolis, Indiana and is currently managing director of Liftbridge CXO. Liftbridge CXO specialises in placing fractional CFOs in start-up to scale-up stage technology companies to help them reach the next level of growth. Ash...

Aneal Vallurupalli is a young CFO making a big impact. His career progression is remarkable, moving from investment banking to CFO roles at various companies, including his current role as CFO at Airbase. Aneal joins Kevin Appleby on the GrowCFO Show to talk about the state of Fintech in 2024. Airbase is revolutionizing finance by streamlining company spending processes through a platform that handles payroll, accounts payable, expenses, and physical/virtual cards. Aneal discussed how Airbase’s...

Nicolas Boucher joins Kevin Appleby on the GrowCFO show and shares his experience implementing AI in finance. Nicolas teaches people how to get started with AI in finance, and this is the focus of the conversation. He discussed many ways of using ChatGPT as an assistant rather than just a search engine. Nicolas discussed how to structure prompts to get the most value from ChatGPT, and gave some great examples, such as drafting letters, writing procedures, and generating training content. ChatGPT...

In part 2 of the three-part mini-series on AI for finance, Adam Shilton returns to the GrowCFO show. A year ago, Adam spoke to Kevin Appleby about what’s likely to happen in tech for finance in 2023. 12 months on, they repeat the conversation, but for 2024, the focus is very much on AI. Adam is the founder and podcast host at Tech for Finance and a leading voice on Linkedin. Adam discussed current AI tools for finance and how they are advancing with multimodal capabilities and advanced data an...

Kevin Appleby interviews Thomas Zweifel about his career as an author and consultant. Thomas explains that he writes books based on mistakes he has made working with clients in different cultures and industries so that others can learn from his experiences. Thomas is an award-winning author. Some of the books he mentioned writing include Culture Clash, about mistakes made working in different cultures, and Strategy into Action. His most recent book, Gorilla in the Cockpit, discusses how biases a...

Tom Ricca-McCarthy, CO-Founder and CEO of Lucidity joins Kevin Appleby to talk about how to execute your business strategy. Kevin and Tom discuss executing business strategy and the challenges involved. Tom explained that while formulating strategy is relatively easy, execution is the difficult part where a strategy needs to be translated into clear activities and goals. They discussed how communication is key to ensure everyone understands the strategy and their role. A common pitfall is stra...

In the first of a 3 part mini-series about AI in finance, Isaac Heller, CEO of Trullion, joins Kevin Appleby on the GrowCFO show. Isaac describes himself as a proud Texan. Following a sabbatical in 2019, he started a side project, SMRT, that became a Saas startup, Trullion. Trullion is a next-gen technology company building a single source of truth for the Accounting world. Trullion has offices in New York & Tel Aviv. Isaac and Kevin discussed how AI is impacting the CFO role. Isaac’s company, ...

Finance teams are changing rapidly. AI and digital transformation are removing many traditional accounting roles, and the modern finance team needs to learn new skills. But how do you upskill your finance team? Award-winning author, executive coach and HR professional Marlo Lyons joins Kevin Appleby on the GrowCFO Show to specifically answer the question, “How do you upskill your finance team?” Marlo discussed with Kevin how finance leaders can develop talent within their teams. Some of the key...

Christian Wattig joins Kevin Appleby on the GrowCFO Show. Christian runs the FP&A boot camp in the USA and is the founder of FP&A Prep. FP&A skills are in greater demand than ever. Kevin and Christian explored how to improve your FP&A skills. Christian discussed his background growing up in Germany and working for large consumer goods companies like P&G and Unilever. He talked about moving to the US and then transitioning to work in tech at Squarespace. Christian explained how he started teachi...

Catherine Marks, former VP of Finance at Depop joins Kevin Appleby on the GrowCFO show. Kevin interviews Catherine about evaluating a finance function and, in particular, her experience applying this to her finance team at Depop. Catherine discusses the 5-step process she used at Depop to do this. She highlights tools like the GrowCFO size of finance team report and competency frameworks that can help. Catherine also shares lessons from applying this process at Depop as they grew and were acquir...

Susana Serrano-Davey joins Kevin Appleby to discuss transforming doubt into achievement. Susana shares her experience overcoming self-doubt to write and publish a book. She outlines a 7-step methodology spelled by the letters in ACHIEVE: Aspire Fearlessly, Creatively Express, Hold Back and Wait, Innovatively Organize, Embrace Support, Validate Your Journey, and Evolve Beyond Limits. A – Aspire Fearlessly. This means to just get started on your goal or dream without worrying about success. Take ...