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Intro
This chapter explores how a company leverages innovative financial solutions to provide merchants with swift access to funding and loans, streamlining the traditional banking process. It also examines the transformation from a conventional corporate model to a more agile startup environment, highlighting the associated challenges and opportunities.
Today’s guest went from being the CFO of a very large telecom company where he was meeting with ministers in Jordan to joining a team of just four people at a startup in Saudi Arabia. Abdullah Tahboub, CFO of Foodics, a cloud-based POS and restaurant management solution, joins CJ to talk about this leap and explain why he wishes he had joined the startup world sooner. The conversation delves into the differences between corporate and startup CFO roles. Abdullah also explores the rapid digital transformation in the food and beverage industry in the Middle East. He outlines Foodic's business model and evolution from cashier systems to payments, becoming a comprehensive fintech and SaaS company. He provides insights into the crawl-walk-run process of this business and how he balances growth in both the SaaS and payments aspects of the org.
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SPONSORS:
NetSuite provides financial software for all your business needs. More than 40,000 companies have already upgraded to NetSuite, gaining visibility and control over their financials, inventory, HR, eCommerce, and more. If you're looking for an ERP platform ✅, head to NetSuite https://netsuite.com/metrics and get the CFO’s Guide to AI and Machine Learning.
RightRev automates the revenue recognition process from end to end, gives you real-time insights, and ensures ASC 606 / IFRS 15 compliance—all while closing books faster. Whether it's multi-element arrangements, subscription renewals, or complex usage-based contracts, RightRev takes care of it all. That means fewer spreadsheets, fewer errors, and more time for your team to focus on growth. For modern revenue recognition simplified, visit rightrev.com and schedule a demo.
Planful is a financial performance management platform designed to streamline financial tasks for businesses. It helps with budgeting, closing the books, and financial reporting, all on a cloud-based platform. By improving the efficiency and accuracy of these processes, Planful allows businesses to make better financial decisions. Find out more at www.planful.com/metrics.
Brex offers the world's smartest corporate card on a full-stack global platform that is everything CFOs need to manage their finances on an elite level. Plus they offer modern banking and treasury as well as intuitive expenses and accounting automation, bill pay, and travel. Brex makes it easy to control spend before it happens, automate annoying tasks, and optimize your finances. Find out how Brex can help you make every dollar count at brex.com/metrics.
Vanta's trust management platform takes the manual work out of your security and compliance process and replaces it with continuous automation. Over 9000 businesses use it to automate compliance needs across over 35 frameworks like SOC 2 and ISO 27001. Centralize security workflows, complete questionnaires up to five times faster, and proactively manage vendor risk. For a limited time, get $1,000 off of Vanta at vanta.com/metrics.
Tropic is an intelligent spend management solution that consolidates your spend data and processes into one unified offering, enabling insights and decisive action. It doesn’t just show you where the problems are—it helps you solve them. From spotting hidden optimization opportunities, like duplicative spend, to automating those painful procurement workflows, to giving you the best market data that turns every vendor negotiation in your favor. Tropic combines smart insights with real human expertise to keep you ahead of the curve. Visit tropicapp.io/mostlymetrics to learn how
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FOLLOW US ON X:
@cjgustafson222 (CJ)
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TIMESTAMPS:
00:00 Preview and Intro
02:27 Sponsor – RightRev | Planful | Brex
06:10 Abdullah’s Bold Career Move & Why CFOs Avoid Risks
09:56 Being a Corporate World CFO Versus a Startup CFO
16:03 Digital Transformation in the Food and Beverage Industry
17:54 Sponsor – Vanta | Tropic
21:38 Food & Beverage and Tech in the Middle East and North Africa
24:24 The Evolution of Foodics’ Business Model
31:35 How Lending Works in This Industry
34:55 Balancing Growth in SaaS and Payment Revenue Streams
37:21 Forecasting for Payments
40:30 Staffing for Both SaaS and Payments
42:27 The Most Difficult Part of Adding Payments
45:34 Long-Ass Lightning Round: Dealing with Underperformers
47:39 Advice to Younger Self
48:22 Finance Software Stack
49:03 Craziest Expense Story
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