The SaaS CFO

Join us for an insightful chat with Michelle Duval, the dynamic founder and CEO of Fingerprint, as we explore her journey from pioneering one of the world's first coaching firms to creating an AI-powered tool for understanding cognitive biases and motivational traits at work. Listen in as Michelle discusses the freemium user acquisition strategy and the success story of how Canva integrated Fingerprint into their onboarding process. In the second part of our conversation, Michelle sheds light on the capital raising process, having secured AU $9 million to date, and the crucial milestones that guided their fundraising. She offers valuable advice to SaaS founders about understanding investors and knowing the key metrics that drive a business. Don't miss out on Michelle's insights about the future of Fingerprint and their mission to make human development accessible through conversational generative AI. -Founded 2017 -Staff of 43 -Around 1M ARR -HQ in New Zealand but remote first -6.5M USD raised to date Subscribe to Ben's newsletter: https://mailchi.mp/df1db6bf8bca/the-saas-cfo-sign-up-landing-page Fingerprint Linked: https://www.linkedin.com/company/fingerprint-for-success/ Michelle Duval's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/michelleduval1/ SaaS Fundraising Story: https://www.thesaasnews.com/news/fingerprint-for-success-f4s-raises-au-5-million-in-seed-round

Sightfull, a San Francisco, CA & Tel Aviv, Israel-based company enabling strategic analysis of business data at scale, announced that it raised $18 million in series A funding. I interviewed Noam Liran, co-founder and CEO at Sightfull. Noam has spent most of his career in cybersecurity. He worked at a company that was acquired by Microsoft and then spent three years at Microsoft in R&D. Sightfull’s round was led by Dell Technologies Capital, with the participation of Norwest Venture Partners and Tiger Global. The new investment brings total funding to $24 million and will accelerate product development, meet increasing market demand, and expand the Sightfull team across multiple departments. Sightfull enables SaaS companies to quickly analyze vast amounts of complex business data to test and adjust their go-to-market strategies continuously. - HQ in SF and Tel Aviv - Founded in September 2020 - Staff of 30 - $24M Raised Noam Liran’s LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/noamliran/ Sightfull’s LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/sightfull/ SaaS Fundraising Story: https://www.thesaasnews.com/news/sightfull-raises-18-million-in-series-a Join Ben’s SaaS community here: https://www.thesaasacademy.com/offers/ivNjwYDx/checkout Follow Ben on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/benrmurray Subscribe to Ben’s SaaS newsletter: https://mailchi.mp/df1db6bf8bca/the-saas-cfo-sign-up-landing-page

Chronicle, a San Francisco-based startup that provides a presentation platform, raised $7.5 million in seed funding. I interviewed Mayuresh Patole, founder at Chronicle. He has a background in management consulting. Mayuresh was great at creating presentations but knew there was a better, faster way to tell stories in the business world. Chronicle was created to solve two main problems. The first is that creating slides is time-consuming because many presentation tools expect users to be visual designers, and most are not. The second is that the results are usually unappealing and static. The seed round was co-led by Accel and Square Peg, with participation from angel investors from Apple, Google, Meta, Slack, Stripe, Superhuman, OnDeck, Adobe, and others. - Founded in 2021 - Staff of 15 - $7.5M raised - Investors value authenticity Mayuresh Patole’s LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mayuresh-patole/ Chronicle’s LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/chroniclehq/ SaaS Fundraising Story: https://www.thesaasnews.com/news/chronicle-raises-7-5-million-in-seed-round Join Ben’s SaaS community here: https://www.thesaasacademy.com/offers/ivNjwYDx/checkout Follow Ben on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/benrmurray Subscribe to Ben’s SaaS newsletter: https://mailchi.mp/df1db6bf8bca/the-saas-cfo-sign-up-landing-page

Ramp, a London, UK-based forecasting analytics startup transforming how global finance teams plan for the future, raised $5 million in seed funding. I interviewed Dan Marcus, co-founder and CEO at Ramp. Dan is a serial entrepreneur with a passion for SaaS. Ramp is helping mobile gaming apps forecast revenue more accurately. The round was led by AlbionVC and Eurazeo with participation from Triple Point Ventures and angel investors including Barnaby Hussey-Yeo, CEO at Cleo, and Stephane Kurgan, Ex-COO at King.com, among others. Ramp is a user and revenue forecasting startup that is transforming how global finance teams plan for the future. It uses an opinionated view of modeling the interactions between the different levers of a business and with additional models to optimize inputs such as seasonality and live ops. - Founded 2018 - HQ in the UK - Staff of 34 - Passing $1M ARR - Raised $5M Dan Marcus’ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dansmarcus/ Ramp’s LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/rampgrowth/ SaaS Fundraising Story: https://www.thesaasnews.com/news/ramp-closes-5-million-in-seed-round Join Ben’s SaaS community here: https://www.thesaasacademy.com/offers/ivNjwYDx/checkout Follow Ben on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/benrmurray Subscribe to Ben’s SaaS newsletter: https://mailchi.mp/df1db6bf8bca/the-saas-cfo-sign-up-landing-page

Giskard, a Paris, France-based software startup specializing in artificial intelligence quality, raised €1.5 million in a funding round led by Elaia with participation from investors including Bessemer Venture Partners. I interviewed Alex Combessie, co-founder and CEO at Giskard. Alex started his career in finance and loved the data part of finance and strategic consulting. He went back to school for data science and became a software engineer and data scientist. Giskard’s AI Test product allows for the building of automated tests on AI models to measure critical quality criteria, including ethics, robustness, and efficiency. Angel investors including Christine Balagué (Founder of Good in Tech), Julien Chaumond (CTO of Hugging Face), Oscar Salazar (Founding CTO of Uber), Nathalie Gaveau (Co-Founder of PriceMinister), Charles Gorintin (CTO of Alan), Nick Hernandez (CEO of 360Learning), Vincent Huguet (CEO of Malt), Shéhérazade Semsar de Boisséson (CEO of McCourt Global), Chris Schagen (ex-CMO of Contentful) and Victor Coisne (VP Marketing of Strapi) also participated in the round. The investment will provide the startup with the firepower to engage in a sustained recruitment drive that will welcome additional talent to develop and commercialize its offer while venturing into new fields including computer vision, time series, and generative AI models. - Founded 2021 - HQ in Paris - Staff of 12 - 1.5M Pre-seed Round Alex Combessie’s LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/alexcombessie/ Giskard’s LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/alexcombessie/ SaaS Fundraising Story: https://www.thesaasnews.com/news/giskard-raises-1-5-million-in-funding Join Ben’s SaaS community here: https://www.thesaasacademy.com/offers/ivNjwYDx/checkout Follow Ben on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/benrmurray Subscribe to Ben’s SaaS newsletter: https://mailchi.mp/df1db6bf8bca/the-saas-cfo-sign-up-landing-page

Wisor AI, a Tel Aviv, Israel-based advanced freight booking software solution, raised an $8 million seed round led by Team8. I interviewed Raz Ronen, Co-founder and CEO Wisor. Raz served in the Israeli Air Force special forces and then jumped right into startup life. Wizor is changing the way global freight is moving around the world by helping freight forwarders automate route planning, pricing, booking, payments, and more. Other investors who participated in the round included Ocean Azul and Hico Investment Group, as well as pre-seed investors fresh.fund, Atooro Fund, The Dock, Seed IL Ventures, and Izaki Ventures. The funding will expedite Wisor’s mission to digitize the global supply chain industry and empower freight forwarders to plan, price, and book a shipment in seconds instead of hours or days. Founded 2021 HQ in Tel Aviv Staff of 26 and growing $8M seed round Raz Ronen’s LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/raz-ronen/ Wisor’s LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/wisorai/ SaaS Fundraising Story: https://www.thesaasnews.com/news/wisor-ai-raises-8-million-in-seed-round Join Ben’s SaaS community here: https://www.thesaasacademy.com/offers/ivNjwYDx/checkout Follow Ben on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/benrmurray Subscribe to Ben’s SaaS newsletter: https://mailchi.mp/df1db6bf8bca/the-saas-cfo-sign-up-landing-page

Coho AI, a Tel Aviv, Israel-based product-led revenue platform raised $8.5 million in seed funding. Coho AI is a product-led revenue platform that enables companies to maximize the revenue potential of their user base. I interviewed Itamar Falcon, co-founder and CEO at Coho AI. Itamar was born raised in Israel and has experience in product management and engineering. Coho AI helps established companies that have reached product-market fit evolve into product insight-driven businesses. Coho AI shows companies that a product-led growth (PLG) methodology can be applied to a wide range of SaaS companies and at different stages of the customer lifecycle. The round was led by Eight Roads, TechAviv, and a select group of angel investors, including company co-founder Ariel Maislos, Shlomo Kremer, Natan Linder, and other high-profile founders. With this funding, Coho AI allows to further build its platform that accelerates growth for B2B SaaS companies by effectively “lifting the hood” on their customer usage data. Founded 2021 HQ in Tel Aviv $8.5 raised Staff of 19 ARR < 1M (at Feb-23) Itamar Falcon’s LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/itamar-falcon/ SaaS Fundraising Story: https://www.thesaasnews.com/news/coho-ai-secures-8-5-million-in-seed-round Join Ben’s SaaS community here: https://www.thesaasacademy.com/offers/ivNjwYDx/checkout Follow Ben on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/benrmurray Subscribe to Ben’s SaaS newsletter: https://mailchi.mp/df1db6bf8bca/the-saas-cfo-sign-up-landing-page

Produce8, a Vancouver, BC, Canada-based SaaS startup that provides distributed and digital-first teams real-time visibility into the work getting done across all their business apps, raised $6 million in funding. I interviewed Joel Abramson, CEO and co-founder at Produce8. Joel has a strong background in IT managed services and more recently as a partner at Top Down Ventures. Produce8 is a digital work analytics platform. It helps teams understand how they leverage their technology and time to improve performance and protect employee wellbeing. Produce8 plans to launch into the IT services market at the start of 2023 with expectations to expand across other industry verticals in quick succession. Founded Jan 2021 HQ in Vancouver Raised $6M Staff of 20 and ramping Solve big problems Joel Abramson’s LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/joelabramson/ SaaS Fundraising Story: https://www.thesaasnews.com/news/produce8-raises-6-million-in-funding Join Ben’s SaaS community here: https://www.thesaasacademy.com/offers/ivNjwYDx/checkout Follow Ben on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/benrmurray Subscribe to Ben’s SaaS newsletter: https://mailchi.mp/df1db6bf8bca/the-saas-cfo-sign-up-landing-page

Vestico, a London, UK-based fashion tech startup that uses AI to help online shoppers find the perfect sizes and shades while buying a product, secured £250,000 in funding. I interviewed Maddie Forman, co-founder and CCO at Vestico. She is a first-time founder with a strong sales background at Diageo. She met one of her co-founders, Maia Sasania, while getting her MBA. Vestico is an all-in-one content, sizing, and personalization platform for fashion and beauty eCommerce. Type in your body measurements to see how fashion fits your body type. They are doing the same thing for the beauty industry. The investment came from the early-stage-focused London-based venture capital firm Jenson Funding Partners. The funds will be used to develop its technology further and transform the next generation of e-commerce. The company has already partnered with the Spanish fashion label Desigual and plans to expand its service to include more international brands over the next year. Founded 2020 Team size of 4 £250K pre-seed round Find founder/investor fit Maddie Forman’s LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/maddie-forman/ Vestico’s LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/vestico-co/ SaaS Fundraising Story: https://www.thesaasnews.com/news/vestico-raises-250-000-in-funding Join Ben’s SaaS community here: https://www.thesaasacademy.com/offers/ivNjwYDx/checkout Follow Ben Murray on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/benrmurray Subscribe to Ben’s SaaS newsletter: https://mailchi.mp/df1db6bf8bca/the-saas-cfo-sign-up-landing-page

Zift Solutions, a Cary, NC-based provider of Partner Relationship Management (PRM) and Through-Channel Marketing Automation (TCMA) software, recently announced that it raised $70 million in funding. I interviewed Gordon Rapkin, CEO of Zift Solutions. Gordon is a serial CEO, and it shows in his knowledge, experience, and insight. He is a 5X CEO. The round was led by Investcorp Technology Partners (“ITP”) with participation from existing institutional investors Arrowroot, Oxx, SSM, and AshGrove Capital. Zift will use the $70M to invest in its go-to-market engine, marketing awareness, new geographies, and in innovation. It takes twice as long as you think to raise capital according to Gordon, but he saw improving SaaS metrics, win rates, and a repeatable sales process. Founded 2006 HQ in Cary, NC 120 staff Sub $20M ARR Recent $70M raise Partner Community Management Gordon Rapkin’s LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/gordonrapkin/ SaaS Fundraising Story: https://www.thesaasnews.com/news/zift-solutions-raises-70-million-in-funding Join Ben’s SaaS community here: https://www.thesaasacademy.com/offers/ivNjwYDx/checkout Follow Ben on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/benrmurray Subscribe to Ben’s SaaS newsletter: https://mailchi.mp/df1db6bf8bca/the-saas-cfo-sign-up-landing-page