Finance Gals

     Many start-up founders don’t have the cash to hire finance experts.  Bookkeeping is not the only thing that is beneficial for a company.  Having the ability to review financial statements is not only helpful, but also necessary.  Analyzing the difference between the budgeted cost versus actual result can really illuminate the path forward.  For example, let’s say you plan for material cost to be $10K this month.  If it turns out to be much higher, it is helpful to know the cause. 

     Founders would like to keep cost at the minimum, so they often resort to do-it-yourself bookkeeping and foregoing the benefit of a good CFO services, until they ‘make enough money’.  Big companies have the benefit of having experts run the financial models and sensitivity analysis to look at different scenarios before they go forward with a project.  For example, prior to opening a new factory somewhere, a large corporation usually would run financial models and scenario analysis to identify the best path forward.  Why can’t start-ups and small companies have access to this kind of financial expertise?

     We offer the necessary financial expertise to STEM-related women founded companies at a rate that is proportional to the company’s revenue.  For a pre-revenue company, the upfront cost would be basically negligible.  We would instead ask for an advisory seat, a certain stake in the company, or future equity in the company.

     The services that we offer would vary, depending on the company’s need.  Those may include:

• Financial statements creation (P&L, Balance Sheet, Cash Flow Statement)
• Financial statements review.  Analyzing the difference between budgeted costs and actual costs is helpful to see if there is any cost improvement opportunity.
• Financial projections.  Useful for investors, board of directors, or any stakeholders.  Especially crucial for a company to wants to raise more money.
• Modeling.  Modeling is helpful for any planned project.  We can calculate the return on investment (ROI), payback time, and help you evaluate the attractiveness of a project.

     My solution serves women founders in the STEM fields.  This solution will help them run their businesses more efficiently.  Having affordable access to financial expertise / CFO services will help these women founders make the right business decisions.

     The solution will impact their lives in how they are making business decisions.  Some examples of who will benefit, and the ways they will benefit are as following:

1. Entrepreneurs or founders that are thinking about raising more money.  Having access to high quality financial modeling and projections will help founders convince investors of the feasibility and promise of their businesses.
2. Founders that would like to improve their costs and profitability.  Instead of just a bare-bone bookkeeping, founders that have access to a CFO service will do better.  Founders can compare the cost trends from month-to-month that will help see if any costs are increasing, and why.  A deep dive analysis into the costs will help founders find opportunities for cost savings.   
3. Entrepreneurs that are thinking about launching a new project.  Before launching a new project, or entering a new market, founders can benefit from an analysis of the project.  What is the return on investment (ROI)?  What is the payback time?  

I am in the loop of founders of start-ups, including women founders.  I am part of the organizations for these founders.  I am also in the communication channels for these founders in STEM.  I talk with them, and try to provide tidbit of help, when possible.  These interactions help me understand the needs of the founders.  

I am engaged with one-two founders that are working on their start-ups.  I am providing financial analysis and strategy related advice.  We start with a small number of clients to test this new model.  

     After getting my degrees, I felt that I had to choose a stable career path.  Years later, the allure of entrepreneurship finally dawned on me, and I decided to dabble in the start-up world.  With my educational background in engineering, I have always been drawn into the STEM field.  I see many people out there that would like to be an entrepreneur, but not sure how to build a successful (and profitable) business. 

     I am excited with the opportunity to help women founders and entrepreneurs in the STEM field to succeed.  I strongly believe that having access to CFO services will help the founders make informed and good business decisions.  This in turn, will help founders achieve or increase profitability faster. 

     The grant money will help fund the operations.  Also, partnering with Tiger Fund and MIT would allow for greater reach for the founders.  Those names will also add credibility to the program.  Partnering with MIT and Tiger Fund will allow me to expand this program and reach more people.  There will be many women start-up founders (some from MIT) that will benefit from this program.  As the saying goes, “Together we are stronger”.  

I am actively involved with the start-up’s community.  For example, I am part of a couple of groups that are in the heart of the start-up communities.  I have been getting practical questions from women founders in my community.  

It uses a new business model.  I would provide the service ‘for free’ for women founders and entrepreneurs in STEM, while they are in pre-revenue stage.  As the company starts generating revenue, there will be fee associated with the service.  

     For the next year, I plan to increase awareness of this program to women founders and entrepreneurs in STEM.  Subsequently, I plan to add more clients and companies that will benefit from this program in the next five years.  I will achieve that by spreading the word in the start-up community.  Further, I will educate the STEM women founders on the benefit of CFO services, and how their companies could benefit from those initiatives.   

     The business is highly scalable.  We plan to increase the number of clients and the impacts over the years.  My team can expand the team members in finance to accommodate more clients if needed.

I will measure my progress toward the impact goals by assessing how companies benefit from the program.  For example, if a company launches a new project successfully after conducting the financial modeling, that will be a score one for the program.  If a company achieves profitability as planned, that will be another score.  

My solution will have an impact on the problem as it helps women founders make good business decisions using CFO services.  I expect this to happen, as good modeling and financial analysis allow people to examine the drivers that affect their company’s profitability.

Many of our Finance analysis can be done using Excel.  There are times when we analyze data in databases.  

I work full-time on helping women founders with financial analysis, strategy and such.  I have a CPA-holder colleague that is available to help with accounting matter.  

We are currently a team of women.  Specifically, I am of Asian heritage, with background in technology, engineering & finance.  My education was in STEM.  My work experience includes investment banking, research, and finance.  I plan to use the diversity of the background of people in the team and provide a solution that will benefit women founders in STEM.     

Offering CFO services to companies.  For clients that are in pre-revenue stage, the service is ‘free’.  We ask for an advisory seat and other related non-monetary compensation.  The advisory seat is mainly so we can help by providing input regarding the direction of the client company.  

We would like to keep our costs low (using free plan for a variety of things).  For clients that already generate revenue, we charge them some fees. 

We are keeping the costs low.  We are very mindful in using our resources.  There are many ‘free’ resources out there that are available.  For example, we use a free plan for communication.