Public market investor turned proven multi-stage, high-growth technology CFO, Casey Woo had always loved building things. And it is this passion for building that drove him towards finance. He believes post pandemic, the role of a CFO has evolved from accounting and controls to strategy and business intelligence. In a chat with CLEAR, Woo shares important insights from the world of finance, forecasting, and the joy and value of a good work-life balance.
Question: Tell us something about your childhood and how it impacted your life.
Answer: I was born and raised in Los Angeles, California. My parents immigrated from Shanghai and Taiwan. My mom was a jeweler, and my dad was a real estate agent. I learned every aspect of my work ethic from them. I have a sister I am close to and we live in the Bay Area now. Growing up, I was never creative in the sense of an artist, but I have always had a natural inclination to dream and build things.
Question: What inclined you towards finance?
Answer: I went to the United States Military Academy at West Point and pursued undergraduate studies in Economics at Harvard. I enjoyed my work, but it got a little lonely when I began my career as an Investment Banking Analyst at Morgan Stanley. I realized that I missed having a team. As an investor, you’re either buying or selling things. You aren't building anything, per se, and it’s more transactional and advisory. I have always been interested in building things, whether it was Legos or IKEA furniture. What I love about the finance function is how omnipresent it inherently must be, like the nervous system or bloodstream in the human body. Every other function, like marketing or tech, is more like an “organ” — performing a specific function. But finance is everywhere, diverse and cross-functional - working with many different stakeholders. It’s far more interesting, in my opinion.
Question: So, you've often said that your stint with WeWork has had the most transformative effect on your career. Could you please tell us something about that?
Answer: My WeWork experience afforded me invaluable lessons and experiences. Before working there, I had mostly worked with companies with less than 200 employees. WeWork was not only large and global in scale, but it was also super fast-growing. And I have always been someone who feeds off adrenaline and a challenge— such as the excitement of hiring people and opening new offices every other day. Since the product is people & offices and not software, there was a potent human element — at WeWork, we were building a community. It has also taught me a great deal about fast-moving creative companies where one has to balance many demands.
Question: What kind of unprecedented challenges did you encounter at WeWork? And what did they teach you?
Answer: The biggest challenge was striking a balance between growth and profitability. In fact, this is a persistent dilemma for companies aiming for hypergrowth: Do we grow more or aim to increase profits? During my stint at WeWork, I realized that growth companies are like rocket ships where cash equals fuel. You need to achieve escape velocity and go very fast; however, too fast and your wings rip off; too slow, you fall out of the sky.
While WeWork went too fast, it remains the #1 coworking brand and business in the world with an amazing product. It changed the way people worked before and after the pandemic.
Question: Speaking of the pandemic, how do you think a CFOs role has diversified since then? For instance, right now, CFOs are also responsible for hiring and retaining the right kind of talent.
Answer: I think the primary role of a CFO in general has evolved from accounting and controls to strategy and business intelligence. Earlier, it was limited to compliance, monitoring spending, forecasting, governance, and set targets. Now, it's become far more strategic and business-first. To put it another way, there are 3 levels of finance: reporting the weather, forecasting the weather and influencing or changing the weather. Historically, reporting and forecasting were the main focus, but increasingly that has become table stakes and a primary role is serving as a strategic partner - influencing and changing decisions across business stakeholders daily. I also feel like the make-up of finance teams has diversified and evolved toward more data and analytic-intensive roles. We now have strategic finance professionals who run SQL queries and databases. Today, CFOs strive to provide real-time insights into the business.
Question: What challenges do you face with so many balls in the air? For example, one thing that comes to my mind is, like you said, influencing the weather. So in that process, you must also ensure that the CEO and the investors are aligned. Generally, what is your strategy to convince them about a good or bad investment?
Answer: It’s about “business-first”, and function second. Every employee in the company should have a business-first approach to problems and processes. First, I try to understand the business intimately and what are the key drivers. Secondly, I learn who the key stakeholders are and how best to work with each. The ability to play “google translate” is a very important skill set. Engineers speak a different language than sales who speak a different language than accounting. This is no different for CEOs and investors. It’s critical that you help facilitate buy-in from all parties on the North Star of the company before you prioritize finite resources.
Question: With phenomena like the Great Resignation and an upcoming recession, people are losing interest in their jobs unless it is reaffirming or their employers acknowledge the value they are adding to the business. What kind of efforts should a company put in to keep the employees motivated and help them see value in what they are doing?
Answer: The most crucial step is to never forget about your people - without them, there is no business. Employees should be provided clear goals, fair compensation and the ability to make an impact.
As a CFO or any leader, our job is to retain, develop, and grow talent. Be in constant communication with team members, keep a pulse on the culture and create a feedback loop based on trust and transparency. Employees respect being treated like adults - honest, constructive, real talk. Invest in employee growth, and provide them with career growth, if not at the company, it’s ok, send them off to grow elsewhere.
Question: What is that one thing, according to you, that CFOs, irrespective of their sector, often get wrong?
Answer: I have seen a lot of companies that think they're ready to scale when they aren't. There is a fallacy that they have achieved product market fit and hit the gas too early. CFOs should be more diligent and vigilant about when to scale.
I have also seen CFOs who get their priorities wrong, and this ultimately affects the company. They should help the leaders in the company focus on what matters first or focus on the 80 of the 80/20 and avoid spending time on matters that simply don’t move the needle for the stage of business they are at.
Question: You took a conscious decision to move to later-stage companies after being in a leadership role in a series of early to mid-stage firms. What fueled this decision?
Answer: I love early-stage startups because you can move fast and make a big impact. I moved to later-stage companies as I discovered my love for scaling a business versus finding product market fit and laying the “first-floor” foundation again and again. Another factor was that as I was growing older, I wanted more stability in terms of finance because now I had a family. It wasn’t just me I was looking after and after all, nannies take cash :-)
Question: Has there been a CFO who you look up to? Someone you idolize….
Answer: I have had a few mentors who taught me significant lessons. I'm glad to be a part of a community filled with interesting and inspiring people. I’ve always admired professionals who have been able to strike a healthy work-life balance. I look up to people who take their careers seriously but are also kind human beings. Bill Smith, the founder of Landing, my previous company, is someone I greatly respect. He takes his business seriously, but he also makes time for his family and is able to “turn off” - he’s masterful at compartmentalizing. I try my best to stay true to doing what I love, giving back and along the way be a good, kind human.
.png)
