Controller's Code: The Secret Formula to a Successful Career in Finance

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Mike Whitmire on Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/michaelcwhitmire/
FloQast on the web: https://floqast.com/

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Transcript

Mike Whitmire: [00:00:02] If I had asked for something already, and I had to go back and ask for it - it was the second or third time - I would generally go the puppy-dog-eyes route and just look worn down and look terrible and just be like, "Hey, I'm really ... I'm exhausted. I was just trying to get the stuff done. Would you mind sending it over so I can go home a little bit earlier tonight?" That pity approach worked every time. It was beautiful. So, if you're an auditor, if someone's not getting you stuff, instead of getting mad about it, and trying to get angry about it, and make them do it, just be pathetic; then they'll help you out.

Blake Oliver: [00:00:40] Welcome to The Cloud Accounting Podcast. I'm Blake Oliver.

David Leary: [00:00:44] And I'm David Leary.

Mike Whitmire: [00:00:45] And I'm Mike Whitmire, co-founder, and CEO of FloQast. 

Blake Oliver: [00:00:47] Mike, thanks so much for joining us. Really excited to have you here. David, I don't know, have you ever met Mike at any these conferences we've been at?

David Leary: [00:00:55] I don't think so. I think maybe when we went to Sage's Intacct, I think the FloQast team was there, but I don't know if he was there, or maybe he was, and you pointed at him from far away.

Mike Whitmire: [00:01:04] Yeah. That conference has gotten wild for FloQast, and for me, as well, so I wouldn't be too shocked if I was just running around.

Blake Oliver: [00:01:11] So, David, Mike is the CEO at FloQast, a developer of close-management software, where I had the privilege of working for a couple of years before my current gig. He started his career as an auditor at Ernst & Young, made it to Senior, and then left to join Cornerstone OnDemand, a year before they IPOed. So, went through that whole IPO process as an in-house accountant and then spent, I think it was, three years there, Mike? Then you went off to start FloQast? Is that right? 

Mike Whitmire: [00:01:43] Yep. Yeah, just about three years.

Blake Oliver: [00:01:46] I wanna learn more about that; talk about that. But first, given everything that's going on, how's it going? How are you doing?

Mike Whitmire: [00:01:54] Doing well. For those of you listening in the future, we are currently quarantined as a result of COVID-19. I think we're, what, six weeks into this quarantine now? Time's kind of blurring together. It's getting tough. But, yeah, it's been really nice, obviously, with all the tools we have available to us now, the transition to the company working from home wasn't the craziest thing in the world.

[00:02:18] I think the bigger one is, obviously, you look across what's going on in the world, and the economic impact is top of mind for me, running the business. Then, also, the impact this is having on people just emotionally, and mentally, you can tell it's kinda starting to catch up to people. In a lot of the conversations I've been having, that's been a pretty top-of-mind item, right now.

[00:02:38] Fortunately, for us, we haven't had to make drastic decisions, like do big layoffs, or anything like that. We were lucky enough to have closed our Series C round of about 40 million bucks just two months before all of this started falling apart, so I feel really fortunate that we're in a position where we don't have to do aggressive layoffs or anything like that, like a lot of other companies are looking at.

Blake Oliver: [00:03:01] How is that going, transitioning to remote? Because I recall, when I was working at FloQast, everybody was in the office together in L.A., which was really nice in a lotta ways.

Mike Whitmire: [00:03:12] Yeah, the founders, and I, we're big proponents of being in the office. I think, just first and foremost, we just enjoy it. We enjoy being around the people, and we do see the benefits of being near each other. But I think because of the type of company we are - we're a SaaS company - we're very open to technology; we have purchased a ton of software over the years, we were almost ready to go to work from home. So, from a tech perspective, there really was no transition. We just flipped the switch, and everyone was able to still do their job.

[00:03:42] I think the bigger one was it was adjusting culturally. It's just very- it's very different. I think the group that I was most c...