This document provides advice and considerations for financial management in startups from Xavier Sansó. It discusses: - Sansó's background and experience as a project-based CFO for startups. - Common misconceptions executives have about entrepreneurship and how most never try starting companies. - Important financial considerations for startups like understanding investor mentality, whether the opportunity is large enough, and if the founding team is aligned. - Challenges startups face like high failure rates between funding rounds, team discrepancies causing failure, and the importance of fostering change as a CFO.

1. Financial management @ startups
Xavier Sansó |EAE | Barcelona, 10 March 2016 1

2. Xavier Sansó es.linkedin.com/in/xaviersanso/
• Xavier Sansó has a BBA and an MBA by ESADE
(Barcelona) and is a qualified management
accountant in the UK (CIMA Adv Dip MA)
• Partner of Delvy, a boutique advisory. Xavier
leads the finance practice
• Project-based CFO for startups such as Upptalk,
Captio, Qustodio.
• Founder of Spire Bioventures, an
incubator/management consulting company
that targets the biotechnology/medical devices
industry (Barcelona/Silicon Valley)
• Former FP&A EMEA for a Life Sciences
multinational company (SCIEX), amongst others
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4. • It is said that over 80%
of executives have at
some point considered
becoming
entrepreneurs…
• (Even though less than
20% of them ever try)
• … Certainly 99% of
those who read this
book should want to
work at a startup
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5. “When it comes to your career, the
worst thing you can do is mistake
activity for progress and then
complain about your lack of
progress.” (source)

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7. Speaking about personal finances…
• You should really have between 9 and 18
months put aside
• Perfect opportunity for pre-2008 crisis
contracts with large severances, if the
departure is friendly
• Success in the corporate world is personally
inflationary
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9. You will hear this -- discount it
• “Do you think people will pay for that?”
• “Have you heard of company xyz? I think they
tried that and failed.”
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10. The wrong considerations
• How much capital have you raised, what is the
burn rate, and how long will the money last
for? (reality will prove any assessment to be
wrong, money is available…for the right
project)
• How much equity will I get and how much can
it be worth? (what if the company does not
survive or there is a downround?)
(source)
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11. The right considerations
• How big is the opportunity (if you don’t do it,
someone else will)
• Startups are built top-down by hiring and
retaining the right team
• Make sure you understand the mentality and
the motivation of your financial investors.
Polish your VC finance fundamentals, if need
be.
• Would you invest in this company?
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12. On death and immortality
• The real challenge is not to create a business
but to scale it (source)
• Between 25% and 40% of startups die
between the stages of Series A to Series B
• About 33% of businesses die because of
discrepancies among the founding team (source)
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15. The CFO is here to change the company
• If you do not foster change
you are not doing a good job
• “Consensus requires
dissension” – what happens
if you don’t know the
business well enough?
• “Exile knaves but fight for
divas” – not fully sure about
this one
• “Think 10X, not 10%”
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16. Failure and uncertainty
• Fail often so that you can succeed sooner.
• You often succeed at startups if you are able to
stick around for long enough – key is resource
optimization, here the CFO can help a lot
• Be ready to take decisions with a much smaller
and worse analytical base.
• If possible, think about using external, standard,
semi-free data rather than internally produced
one. If need be, adapt your metrics to match
external definitions, not vice versa.
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17. Innovate. Dominate.
• Instill the concept that every
moment in business happens
only once.
• Do not copy (easy), instead make
something new (difficult)
• With a corporate background,
you are programmed to grow
things from 1 to n. Change that to
foster going from 0 to 1.
• Progress comes from monopoly,
not from competition.
Competition destroys profits for
individuals, companies and
society as a whole
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18. Do not settle on the basics
• One of your most important contributions will
be to set the operational cadence: what data
needs to be reviewed, when and with whom
• "We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence,
then, is not an act, but a habit." – Aristotle.
Build strong processes. Improve through
iteration. No excuses.
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19. Corollary
• Get involved in the company’s culture. This is
not a check in-check out job (even if age
difference or background makes it difficult)
• “Embrace change”… ever important. Even
more so for a startup.
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{ thank you }
es.linkedin.com/in/xaviersanso/Xavier Sansó

21. Bibliography
 http://www.amazon.com/The-Monk-Riddle-Creating-Making/dp/1578516447
 https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/20140725005005-15454-why-posting-your-resume-is-the-least-
effective-way-to-get-a-job
 https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/article/20140805063038-155853-questions-to-ask-before-
quitting-your-job-to-work-at-a-startup
 http://techcrunch.com/2014/07/20/the-problem-with-founders/
 https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/20140730121535-8190842-why-we-merged-to-form-onevest
 http://www.amazon.com/How-Google-Works-Eric-Schmidt/dp/1455582344
 http://www.amazon.com/Zero-One-Notes-Startups-
Future/dp/0804139296/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1457610197&sr=1-
1&keywords=from+zero+to+one
 http://sidsavara.com/personal-development/excellence-as-a-habit
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