We always look forward to our annual gathering of portfolio company CFOs. They are a talented group of executives and, because they all lead finance teams at high growth SaaS and data services companies, they have a lot of valuable insights to share with each other about confronting complex challenges and evaluating opportunities as they scale.

This year, roughly 30 CFOs from our portfolio companies joined us in Scottsdale, Arizona. Like our other gatherings throughout the year, such as our CEO Summit, Technology Summit, and Sales & Marketing Summit, we called upon executives and friends of the firm to share what’s top of mind for them as they head into 2024.

Here are our top three takeaways from our discussions:

Takeaway #1: Macroeconomic uncertainty, whether we experience a soft-ish landing or “stronger for longer” economy, necessitates relatively conservative planning through 2024, including increased rigor and alignment of investments tied to sales and marketing performance more than ever.

Takeaway #2: The most successful modern CFOs are empowered by technology and automation to maximize data-driven decision support, OKR frameworks and strategic imperative prioritization.

Takeaway #3: It’s a constant balancing act to successfully navigate today’s hybrid office / remote work environment, yesterday’s “battle for talent” vs. today’s “quiet quitting,” and building a world class finance team to achieve the competing tactical vs. strategic priorities of a business is now more complicated than ever with potential game-changing generative AI risks and opportunities around every corner.

We reflected on these topics and several other important issues that are top of mind for CFOs today. The full agenda is included below.

Thank you to all who joined us this year. We’re grateful for the opportunity to spend time together and am already looking forward to the next one!

2023 Spectrum Equity CFO Summit Agenda & Speakers

Economic Outlook: Charting a Course for 2024 & Beyond
Speaker:
David Lyons, Vice Chair, JP Morgan Private Bank

M&A Best Practices Panel (Buy-side and Sell-Side)
Moderator: Colin Moore, Connor Group
Speakers:
Emma Whelan, The Knot WorldWide
Ido Sakal, DispatchTrack
Reed McBride, Carta

Future of Finance: Enabling Automation for the Data-driven CFO Speakers:
Michael Belkin, Zuora
Brock Davis, ContinuServe

Veteran CFO Panel
Moderator: Brian Regan, Spectrum Equity
Speakers:
Andy Ivanovich, The Knot WorldWide
Peter Krivkovich, Bitly
Sean Brecker, Headspace

AI & Financial Innovation
Speaker:
Tim Sanders, Client Strategy, Upwork