OpenView Partners Hosts CFO Forum for Portfolio Companies
Boston, MA – Last week, expansion stage venture capital firm, OpenView Venture Partners hosted its portfolio companies for its second CFO and Extraordinary Execution Forum. The forum was organized by the OpenView team to introduce the latest developments and best practices around finance, tax and legal for high growth technology companies.Participants of the forum included CEOs, CFOs, VPs of Operations, Directors of Finance, and Controllers from OpenView’s portfolio companies and prospect companies.
The forum focused on providing participants with a deep dive into upcoming GAAP pronouncements, as well as legal and tax trouble areas common to high growth technology companies. The forum concluded with a hands-on working session focused on optimizing a high tech company’s economic model. The forum included speakers from the OpenView team, including Finance Principal Cynthia Mignogna, Legal Senior Advisor Jeremy Aber, in addition to including several partners from Grant Thornton LLP, a global audit, tax, and advisory organization.
“Finance serves as the vital connection between daily operations and the ultimate results executives and shareholders want to see. As companies move from the start-up to the expansion stage, strategic financial leadership coupled with a solid understanding of the drivers of a company’s economic model may be the missing link. We created this forum to help our portfolio companies easily quantify their economic models, understand the key drivers, and develop a perspective of key actionable initiatives that can optimize their economic performance,” said Mignogna.
“The primary value of any of OpenView Labs’ forums is providing portfolio company executives the opportunity to engage with their peers around their issues and best practices. Specifically, the CFO forum focused attention on each company’s economic model, and provided the CFOs with a framework to focus their senior teams on driving towards better economics and capital efficiency,” stated Firas Raouf, Venture Partner.
Last week’s forum was a continuation of the Capability Maturity Model for Finance that was rolled out in 2009 at the first CFO forum. The CMM for Finance is a comprehensive program that includes immediate exercises and activities, and guidance for long-term success.
Michael Olson, CFO of AtTask, has participated in both CFO forums. “Our processes were all ad hoc. We needed to build a foundation of standard procedures. The forums helped us establish a baseline for improving processes and moving to the next level.” Steve Anderson, Director of Finance and Operations of Central Desktop, adds, “At Central Desktop, by adopting the CMM with help from the OpenView Team, we’ve better positioned to drive Extraordinary Execution by getting into a quarterly cycle by which we track our progress as we aim to go from a ‘Level 1’ to a ‘Level 3’ mature finance organization—ready to scale with the rest of the Company and prepared for the explosive growth that is sure to come.”
For more information on how OpenView helps its portfolio companies develop a best practice finance function, read about our Capability Maturity Model for Finance. About OpenView Venture Partners
OpenView Venture Partners is an expansion stage venture capital fundwith a focus on high-growth software, internet, and technology-enabled companies. Through its staff of seasoned operating executives, who collectively bring several decades of technology and management experience to the firm, OpenView is able to help portfolio companies with quickly ramping up Product, Go-To-Market, and Organizational and Operational functions to best practice levels. The firm was founded in 2006 and has a total capital under management of approximately $240 million. OpenView Venture Partners is based in Boston and invests on a worldwide basis.
About AtTask
AtTask is a leading provider of on-demand project management software. Its flagship product, @task, puts business intelligence tools in the hands of executives and team-collaboration in the hands of the front line. Its platform independent solution is increasing efficiency and productivity for fortune 500 companies across the globe. Some of AtTask’s clients include: Apple, CBS, Johnson & Johnson, Chevron, Fujitsu, Hanes, Hawaiian Airlines, HBO, Hitachi, GE, McDonalds, Toyota, UCLA, and Walt Disney.
About Central Desktop
Central Desktop provides affordable, easy-to-use social collaboration tools for business teams, without the IT hassle. Central Desktop makes it easy for teams to collaborate on projects both inside and outside the firewall without the need to download, install or configure any software. It is a flexible collaboration platform for your business that is perfect for managing projects, creating team intranets and group workspaces.