Navigating the Shift from Corporate to Startup Finance

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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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