Annual Letter 2022. Only the cockroach shall survive.
Every first quarter of a new year brings new hope and optimism.
We leverage those feelings to pour renewed energy and love in the work we do.
2021. A year of Transition.
We’ve come a long way since Oct 2018… when we formed our company.
2021 has been a year of transition for yours truly. The Beirut port explosion spit us out; Paris took us in.
We would like to think that the blast powers our ambition to move forward.
The Alex the CFO portfolio. $15mln strong and growing.
Alex the CFO today manages the accounts of companies operating in 7 countries (lebanon, Cyprus, UAE, France, UK, US and Canada), with an aggregate turnover of $15mln in Revenue in 2021 and 95 employees.
Our customers work in Medical Systems, Q-commerce, EdTech, Field Force Management, Logistics and Hospitality.
We’re expecting 2022 to brings us more metaverse/ NFT companies.
We worked hard to regenerate after the explosion, the monetary crisis and covid. Many of the ambitious founders we work with did not live to see another day. Their businesses were too fragile to survive. We survived by remembering who we serve and why (luck might have had a lot to do with it, too).
Money: a very human story.
There is a reason we spend our days digging into other people’s accounts.
Within the rows of their bank statements, lie a deep human story. Or rather, stories.
People coming together to create more than they consume.
At the heart of it all are the founders; their fears, frustrations, ambitions.
Every day, they show up, dig deep within themselves to find the strength and the courage to turn thoughts into matter, dreams into reality.
In their daily struggle, they turn to us to tell them how their story will unfold.
We wake up every day to fight for that privilege.
Building Earth’s Most Founder-centric Finance Team
Alex the CFO is focused on partnering with 8 new businesses in 2022.
They must all have a strong need and desire to transform their finance department into a modern, tech enabled powerhouse that meets the challenges of the new finance world.
We’ve narrowed down Our Services to:
Core Operations: Bookkeeping, tax, budgets, using our could-based finance tech stack
CFO Reports: Delivered to your inbox, every month
Fundraising support: financial modeling and investors success
Throughout our work, we want to make these partners more resilient, more ambitious.
What we’ve learned in 2021. Only the Cockroach shall Survive.
Cockroach are robust and anti-fragile which are traits we like to see in our companies. Do the following to increase your robustness in 2021:
Own the technology. Companies that own real ground-breaking technology (registered patents) have the potential to enjoy stratospheric valuations, far beyond their intrinsic worth; when paired with the right “sponsor”, usually a conglomerate that sees large, immediate, realizable synergies.
Keep it clean. Messy accounting and unclear contracts (especially on the revenue side) can extend your investment timeline from 3 months to 3 years; and incur hundreds of thousands in legal fees.
Align your gain with that of the customer you serve. SAAS businesses that command a “variable” fee -linked to their own customers' performance- tend to blow away traditional SAAS companies that rely solely on MRR growth.
Use arbitrage to everyone’s advantage. Real arbitrage opportunities can be reaped by employing the bulk of the team in “low income” countries and selling in “high income” countries.
Develop loyalty within your team. Focusing on team first and developing loyalty reaps dividends, not only in the form of low employee turnover but also in paid time out for the founder-CEO.
Be virtual. Pure SAAS products (consumed online only) can turn companies truly global on day 1; while hybrid SAAS companies (with a foot on the ground, such as logistics) tend to be more geographically constrained; slower to scale up.
Make automation your lifestyle. Working less by using more automation frees your cashflow from expensive hires (if you don't know where to start, search for ClickUp, Zapier).
Keep it short and sweet. Having a short cap table makes your next investment round more likely.
Beware “strategic” investors who can impact your product roadmap or can exert supplier/ customer pressure.
Avoid multi-hat-wearing stakeholders: an investor-customer or investor-supplier or customer-supplier. Life is already complicated enough without added conflicts of interest.
Ditch expensive coding. No code and low code systems, and API integrators can dramatically reduce your workforce.
Know what to track. High performance teams differentiate between lead (output) and lag (outcome) indicators.
Help yourself succeed. Being in a hyped or “trendy” sector truly gives your business a lot of headwind (assuming you have a real high quality offering).
Next steps.
I hope the end of your first quarter matches its beginning in energy and enthusiasm. If not, remember to start with motion (move your body a little), follow it with emotion (get excited about your big Why) and then take Massive Action.
The world needs you to light up your purpose and put out your best work.
And if you need help knowing the story behind your numbers, you can reply to this email.
Peace,
Samer
