The Hard Part with Evan McCann

Figma is one of the most exciting companies in the world! So it was a ton of fun to chat with Praveer Melwani the CFO. Praveer joined as employee 25 and has scaled with the company over the last few years. If you're curious about Figma, finance in a high-growth company or the future of the CFO role check out this episode. We discussed a ton of interesting topics including... -Joining Figma as employee 25 (now at ~1500) -Scaling with Figma and moving into the CFO role -Nuances to the CFO role at Figma -Developing and learning from mentors -How the CFO role is changing especially in high-growth tech companies -Empowering and building a finance team -The importance of understanding business drivers and key metrics as someone on the finance team -How the finance team works with product and other teams, meetings, cadence and more -What makes Figma such a special company and product -Tools the Figma finance team uses -Timing on building and hiring a finance team at a startup Mentioned - Mark Goldberg from Index Ventures and Dylan Field

This is a must-listen episode for any CPG founder, investor or fan! Kiva Dickinson⁠ is the Founder & Managing Partner of ⁠Selva Ventures. Selva Ventures invests in healthier living. They support Seed & Series A stage consumer health & wellness brands that make healthier living more engaging, accessible, habit-forming and fun. We discussed... -His background in investment banking at Barclays, private equity at TPG and investing at CircleUp. -Why he wanted to start his own firm in the CPG space. -Debunking the myth that CPG doesn't work for VCs. -Why investing in CPG requires a better batting average compared to technology investments. -Why Kiva looks for products with strong gross margins and repeat purchase metrics. -What is the sweet spot and inflection point for Selva to invest. -Spaces in CPG that Selva and Kiva are excited about. -Kiva's thoughts on celebrity brands. -Hiring investors in the CPG space. -"DTC is a channel, not a business" and how to run a strong retail strategy. -Why LA is one of the best geographies for CPG businesses and investors. Selva is an investor in Mid-Day Squares. Jake Karls 🇨🇦 .

A very fun conversation with Fiorella Schiffino, the CFO at Raven Indigenous Capital Partners⁠! Raven Indigenous Capital Partners is Canada's first Indigenous-led and -owned social finance intermediary. Raven focuses on facilitating the flow of capital through impact investing to support the ongoing revitalization of the Indigenous economy. Raven builds relationships with Indigenous communities and entrepreneurs to drive sustainable change. We discussed... -Moving from PwC to Inovia Capital and the VC space. -Diving into the finance side of venture including financial operations of the fund, cash management, compliance and reporting. -The move to Raven. -Assisting portcos with establishing governance and financial infrastructure. -Guidance on hiring CFOs or bookkeepers and implementing accounting systems. -Fund construction and reserves for follow-on investments. -Raven's thesis and mission in supporting Indigenous and Native American entrepreneurs. -When should founders think about hiring for finance roles.

Ronak Trivedi⁠ is an incredible founder. Such a fun convo! Ronak is the Co-Founder & CEO of ⁠Pietra. A Pietra membership unlocks access to cost-plus pricing across software, logistics, sourcing, and marketing tools; all while earning cashback every time you spend on your business. We discussed... -The journey from the University of Waterloo to founding his own company. Top lessons learned from working with Travis Kalanick at Uber and CloudKitchens. -The major pivot Pietra made and how to do pivots well. -The future of e-commerce. -Thoughts on competition and competitors building a similar product. -Building infrastructure, logistics and other challenging pieces of e-commerce. -Pietra's membership model. -Connecting global factories with a global network of founders and new businesses. -How Pietra works with factories and digitizes them. -Raising money and how Pietra raised from Founders Fund, Andreessen Horowitz, TQ Ventures, M13 and others.

Had a great time chatting with Adam Felesky⁠ the Co-Founder and CEO of Portage Portage is a global investment platform focused on fintech and financial services. Their team partners with ambitious companies across all stages, providing flexible capital and deliver a global network of investors, commercial partners, advisors and value-creation experts. With deep industry knowledge and entrepreneurial experience, Portage is committed to supporting the leaders who are reshaping financial services. Their portfolio companies include Wealthsimple, KOHO, Borrowell, Dialogue, nesto and more. We discussed... -Starting Horizons ETF and nuances to the ETF business. -The founding story of Portage with Paul Desmarais. -Fintech in Canada. -Portage's portfolio companies Wealthsimple and KOHO. -Secondary funds and liquidity. -Regulatory environment in Canada and open banking. -Building an investment team globally. -Infrastructure and AI are promising areas in the fintech space. -Portage's different funds and their relationship with Diagram Ventures. -The importance of timing.

⁠Such a fun conversation with Vedant Suri an Investor at General Catalyst⁠! General Catalyst is a venture capital firm that invests in early-stage and growth-stage companies. The firm has offices in the United States and Europe and has funded and nurtured several high-profile companies. Some notable companies in their portfolio include Airbnb, Stripe, Snap Inc. and Mistral AI. Vedant has a really interesting background working at startups, Goldman Sachs's TMT team (like previous guest Vivek Ramaswami), Boston Consulting Group (BCG) and CapitalG (Google's growth fund). We discussed... -Invest in companies with ambitious founders who are domain experts in their respective fields. -Focus on both the infrastructure layer and the application layer of technology. -Explore spaces like observability, industrial software, vertical AI, and HR software. -Consider founder market fit and founder product market fit in investment decisions. -Transitioning from consulting to growth-stage investing. -Mentorship is valuable in learning the ropes and navigating VC. -Be character-consistent and run your own race as an investor. -Develop a mix of inbound and outbound deal flow by building sector expertise. -Have a prepared mind when evaluating opportunities and understand the market, product needs, and potential risks. -Tastemakers are influential individuals in the ecosystem who can provide valuable insights and connections. -Great board members. -The Canadian tech ecosystem has exceptional founders but could benefit from dreaming bigger. Shoutouts to Trevor Oelschig and Hemant Taneja in the episode.

⁠Great conversation with Lucas Matheson the Canada Country Director at Coinbase⁠! We discussed... -Why Coinbase is excited about the Canadian market. -Educating Canadians on crypto and Coinbase -Coinbase's offerings including the Coinbase wallet, Coinbase One subscription, Coinbase card, and Coinbase Commerce. -The digitization of money and how it creates an interesting transition to crypto and digital assets. -The future of money. -Coinbase Ventures and the investments they have made. -Working with government and regulators. -Announcement of Stand with Crypto in Canada.

If you are a founder looking to create partnerships, business development or distribution channels with big tech this episode is for you! Filled with tactical insights to get deals done. Matthew Clark⁠ is a Media and Technology Executive. Matthew has spent time at Microsoft, Amazon, MasterClass, and Unity in business development. Currently, he is also a Business Development Advisor for Venu Sports (a joint venture between Disney, Fox and Warner Bros. Discovery). We discussed... -Breaking into big tech in the US. -What does strategic business development actually mean. -Negotiating, with a focus on startups interacting with big tech. -Engaging with platform companies and things to be aware of. -Startups and founders should avoid negotiating term by term and instead focus on the overall value and strategic alignment of the deal. -Startups should be thoughtful and careful when engaging with platforms. -What decision-makers you should speak with at big tech companies to get deals done. -How TV has changed with streaming. -How AI makes it cheaper and easier to create good enough quality content, disrupting traditional production methods. -How to make exclusive content successful. -The future of media + technology.

⁠"Every great founder should carve out at least 10% of their time to be just opportunistic and build relationships" - Alison Kaizer⁠ the Head of Talent at ⁠Golden Ventures! Golden Ventures is a leading seed-stage venture capital fund, based in Toronto and investing across North America. This episode is a MUST listen for any founder who is hiring (which is every founder). Alison is one of the best in the business and this episode is full of tactical insights for founders. Takeaways -Scaling Ritual's hiring and talent process. -How to do case studies well in the interview process. -How to approach potential hires cold. -Questions to ask in interviews. -How to run a great interview process. -When to hire someone to oversee your talent and hiring. -How to think about compensation. -How to think about titles and when to give them out. CC - Rob Khazzam

⁠Great convo with Pouria Assadipour the Co-Founder and CTO of ⁠Beatdapp! Beatdapp helps music labels and artists track their songs to collect royalties. Beatdapp is a tracking system that authenticates, verifies, and validates media streamed in real-time. It reduces the tracking discrepancies between Digital Service Providers (DSPs) and rights holders, increasing royalty revenue for rights holders while limiting legal exposure, expensive audit costs, and lawsuits for DSPs. We discussed... -How Beatdapp determines if a listen is human. -Music industry breakdown. -Importance of streaming in the music business. -Breakdown revenue sources for streams and artists. -Importance of data and AI in the industry. -How to build a great engineering team. -How to find a technical co-founder. -How to hire early engineers for a startup.