Chief Financial Officer

The Opportunity:

The Chief Financial Officer (CFO) reports to Westfield’s Chief Innovation and Strategy Officer and joins the 1848 Ventures leadership team, assuming shared accountability for operationalizing the venture studio’s mission, vision, and goals. This role will define the long-term approach to financial management for the 1848 Ventures organization and the ventures within the portfolio, including developing new capabilities as needed. The role is remote/hybrid, with 25% required travel to the Westfield Home Office near Cleveland, Ohio.

This opportunity is focused on increasing the financial management structure, rigor, and acumen across the 1848 Ventures’ ecosystem. The CFO’s time will be divided across the below day-to-day activities and overarching responsibilities.

Day-to-Day:

Portfolio Economics and Venture Funding

• Maintains a working knowledge of the Total Net Value (TNV) Model – 1848 Ventures’ proprietary stochastic method for quantifying the potential value and critical uncertainties of each venture – both as a general framework and as a venture-specific tool
• Collaborates with each venture’s business leader and commercial strategist(s) to ensure the business plan, budget, and TNV Model are aligned
  

Capability Build

• Embraces a high-touch, business-first approach to finance and accounting support to enable increased velocity within the venture studio
• Oversees the finance and accounting resources responsible for day-to-day financial management
  

Finance & Accounting

• Reviews, analyzes, and presents financial and metrics reports and provides recommendations to business leaders
• Reviews and implements tools and processes that support the overall business and decision making on an ongoing basis
• Understands the implications of being a wholly owned subsidiary of a regulated insurance company, and collaborates with Westfield stakeholders to ensure compliance
• Reviews agreements with employees, vendors, partners, and customers to translate into financial execution
• Reviews and ensures application of appropriate internal controls, compliance, and financial procedures
• Oversees the Accounts Payable, Accounts Receivable, Cash and Treasury Management, and other processes managed by the finance and accounting resources
• Monitors capital position and manages quarterly capital infusions in compliance with the Westfield process and capital commitment
  

Other Back-Office Support

• Collaborates with a range of Westfield stakeholders (accounting, finance, procurement, legal, compliance, HR, IT, etc.) to enable speed and flexibility within 1848 Ventures while ensuring appropriate compliance with internal policies and procedures
• Identifies opportunities to right-size, align and/or improve existing back-office functions to support the business needs and increase efficiency

Responsibilities:
Portfolio Economics and Venture Funding

• Engages with the TNV Model for each concept and venture, serving as a thought partner with the business leaders and commercial strategists in the development and refinement of the model
• Defines and manages the bi-weekly venture review process
• Oversees bi-weekly financial and metrics reporting for ventures, including budget performance, cash burn, and SaaS metrics
• Develops the Seed and Series A round investment approval packages which articulate the investment recommendation/decision based on the business plan, budget, and TNV model
• Determines SaaS benchmarks and how they are quantified, including creation of a dashboard of metrics to be used to assess the ventures on a bi-weekly basis
  

Capability Build

• Participates as a member of the 1848 Ventures’ leadership Team providing financial information to help drive informed decision making
• Supports Westfield’s Chief Innovation and Strategy Officer in managing the Venture Committee and other communications and collaboration with Westfield stakeholders
• Collaborates with Westfield’s Chief Innovation and Strategy Officer and commercial strategists to develop and refine the stochastic portfolio economics model that estimates the total capital needs and value creation potential of the entire 1848 Ventures’ portfolio
  

Finance & Accounting

• Establishes and refines processes to support the business needs of 1848 Ventures and the portfolio of ventures and reassesses performance and metrics on an annual basis
• Anticipates the financial and metrics reporting needs of the venture studio and creates the processes to support those needs, adapting as business needs evolve
• Educates and informs Westfield stakeholders about the business needs of 1848 Ventures and the implications for finance and accounting policies and procedures
• Initializes financial controls and processes for new ventures when they are established as a new subsidiary (typically at Seed Investment), tailoring the approaches based on the unique needs of the venture
• Understands the unique needs of emerging concepts and ventures, and creates or refines accounting processes and procedures to deliver on the business needs
• Ensures timeliness and accuracy of financial and management reporting data, and financial statements (weekly, monthly, quarterly, annually)
  

Other Back-Office Support

• Partners with Westfield’s Chief Innovation and Strategy Officer, the 1848 Ventures leadership team, and other internal and external stakeholders to optimize additional back-office functions (legal, HR, IT, procurement, etc.), including designing new structures, processes, and resource plans
• Partners with Talent Strategy to guide leadership through total rewards planning and selection including but not limited to benefits, merit budgets, incentive compensation, sales commissions, etc.

Qualifications:

• Proven experience in a SaaS business(es) leading finance and accounting functions to enable business success and velocity
• Previous experience leading across multiple back-office functions such as legal, HR, IT, and procurement
• Ability to analyze the strengths and weaknesses of various business strategies, business models, pricing models, and other variables, and create projections based around those models
• Excited by creatively solving new challenges and bringing clarity to ambiguous problems
• Experience leading change, managing stakeholders, achieving alignment and buy-in among disparate audiences, and delivering results in a variety of settings
• Excellent communication skills and experience building effective relationships at all levels of the organization and influencing senior leadership and critical stakeholders
• Degree in Finance, Accounting, or related discipline

Nice-to-haves:

• Understanding of Stochastic Modeling
• Past involvement working in a state/federally regulated, compliant environment
• Experience working with products that are powered by machine learning/AI