FY23 planning advice from expert CFOs
Issue 006
Welcome back to Surfacing, Emergence Capital’s new monthly newsletter. Subscribers receive the most relevant news, thoughts, trends, and jobs in the B2B SaaS ecosystem each month. Subscribe below to get the newest edition in your inbox. FYI: This month’s edition is landing one week early to accommodate for the holidays.
🔦 FEATURED CONTENT
How to Plan for FY23 Amid Economic Uncertainty
By Kevin Spain, General Partner at Emergence
As the new year approaches, many founders and executive teams are in the throes of planning for FY23. But with economic uncertainty still looming, many founders are wondering about the best way to approach planning for next year.
To help, we spoke with two experts in our portfolio: Tim Cabral, the former CFO of Veeva Systems, and Kelly Steckelberg, the CFO of Zoom. Collectively, these two CFOs bring decades of experience leading executive teams through the annual planning process and have learned a textbooks-worth of knowledge and wisdom along the way. Here’s their top-line advice:
Your plan should be nimble and based on your current visibility
During uncertain times, be “appropriately aggressive”
Don’t let scenario-based planning make you complacent
Your plan should be the company’s plan, not finance’s plan
Don’t make blanket cuts—focus on what drives revenue and what you can live without
Read the full piece here.
🚀 GO-TO-MARKET ADVICE
Want to Hit Your First $1M? Triple Down on Marketing
By Doug Landis, Growth Partner at Emergence
As an early-stage founder, you should be maniacally focused on pipeline and meeting revenue goals. To get to your first $1M in revenue, you might naturally think that you need to hire salespeople since they’ll be the ones who follow up on your inbound leads. However, there’s something you’re neglecting when you do this. Who is going to generate the leads that ultimately feed your sales team?
Marketing leaders are responsible for far more than building websites and running campaigns; they are customer correspondents, experts in conversion analysis, and the driving force behind a company's image and reputation. In short, they are the ones who get customers in the door and keep them there.
When you invest in marketing from day one, you are setting your company up for success down the line. In this piece, I’ll cover in more detail why you should hire a marketing leader sooner than you think.
📰 PRESS
Our team featured in the news
Business Insider | VCs say hybrid work, generative AI, and niche collaboration tools will be some of the top future-of-work trends that dominate 2023, featuring Jake Saper
Business Insider | 7 recruiters at high-flying venture firms share their best tips for jobseekers, featuring Tammy Han
The 20% Podcast | The Art of Building Executive Presence, featuring Doug Landis
💸 PORTFOLIO NEWS
Upkeep, Top Hat, and Federato
Ryan Chan, CEO of Upkeep, wrote a book on the future of maintenance, reliability, and operations called Asset Operations. Congrats, Ryan!
Top Hat acquired Aktiv Learning to accelerate their mission of delivering personalized, engaging, and equitable learning for every student.
Federato was named a Top Insurtech Startup in 2022 by Wellfound (formerly AngelList Talent).
🔮 PORTFOLIO JOBS
Looking for your next role?
Check out the open opportunities at our portfolio companies.
G&A & Operations
Bill.com: Director of People Analytics (San Jose)
Gusto: People Partner, Segments (Denver, New York, San Francisco)
Threeflow: Director of Underwriting Operations (Remote)
Top Hat: Vice President of Business Technologies & Operations (Toronto, Remote)
Eng, Product & Design
ASAPP: Director of Product Management (Mountain View)
Gusto: Head of Benefits Product (San Francisco)
Regal: Head of Data Science (New York)
Salesloft: Director of Product Management (Remote)
GTM & Business Operations
Chainalysis: Director of Global Channel Sales (New York, Remote)
Digital Air Strike: Vice President of Marketing (Scottsdale)
Top Hat: VP, Enterprise Customer Success & Services (Toronto, Remote)
UpKeep: Director of Demand Generation (Los Angeles, Hybrid, Remote)
We have ~1,006 open roles on our portfolio jobs site. Check them out!
👀 EMCAP HAPPENINGS
Happy holidays from Emergence! ❄️
We wrapped up the year with a flurry of fun events. From Friendsgiving, our holiday party, and our white elephant gift exchange, we had snow much fun celebrating a great year and spreading holiday cheer!
Wishing everyone happy holidays and New Year!
