CFO Hub

Introduce your business and what you do there.

We are an affordable housing developer and owner of several assets on the west coast and southeast of the United States.

What challenge were you trying to address with CFO Hub?

We consider ourselves a 30-year-old startup, and the industry is very different than it was when we started. Our current executive team was brought in 4–5 years ago to create a more modern organization, and they’re very good at what they do, but there isn’t anyone to take ownership of our finances and ensure we are in compliance with nonprofit reporting and regulations. When you work with investors and lenders, you need to have someone who can speak their language and be responsive to their needs and requests. CFO Hub provides a full-time CFO for us.

What was the scope of their involvement?

The challenges and information our investors and lenders need change with the wind, and we needed to have a single point of contact who could keep them up to date. The first phase of our project with CFO Hub was making sense of our existing processes and numbers and then implementing procedures going forward that provide a comprehensive reporting structure.

Their assigned CFO resource sets the vision for the financial aspects of our business. This involves helping us recognize opportunities for growth and shoring up or expanding existing lender and investment relationships.

They also handle our taxes. We had existing third-party relationships handling some of this, but it was never done in a comprehensive fashion. CFO Hub takes the numbers from our various properties and consolidates them into a story of our current position and opportunities for improvement. They tell us what we need to do to move to the next level.

What is the team composition?

We work with one person as our CFO.

How did you come to work with CFO Hub?

I’ve had a very long relationship, since high school, with Brandon (Director); we’ve been friends for decades. We happened to have a professional discussion, and he shared with me the services they offer at CFO Hub.

I’d recently started with my current company and recognized our need for financial support. I met with other members of their executive team and came to understand how they delivered value. My executive team then entered into serious discussions with CFO Hub.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent around $50,000–$100,000 with them so far.

What is the status of this engagement?

Our relationship began in June 2020, with CFO Hub offering a few hours of support a week. Our relationship expanded in November, moving more into a full-time engagement. The project is ongoing.

What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement?

The discussions we’re having around our financial picture and our decision-making are much more clear and concise than they used to be. I felt and recognized the growth right away. It didn’t take a full year to decide if our relationship was going in the right direction. We were in rough shape when we started with CFO Hub, and their work quality is par excellence.

They took a bit nudging; I had to call them personally and tell them to push us a bit, asking them to ruffle our feathers if that’s what they had to do. Our CFO is a bit slow to invest in technology, but I encouraged CFO Hub to cut to the chase and tell us what we need to do in plain language. When they did that, we began seeing how to take ownership of our financial environment. Rather than sit back and be told what to do, we started to be candid and honest.

Working with CFO Hub, we feel like we have someone guarding a very important gate in our defense, as well as providing weaponry. They’ve provided more efficiency through new processes, as well as benchmarked certain standards that are necessary for us.

As a nonprofit, we’re required to submit monthly, quarterly, and annual reports, and we can be shut down if we don’t process them appropriately. We provide our partners with all sorts of tax advantages, but if we don’t meet our reporting requirements, then we lose all those benefits. We’ve improved markedly in this area since bringing on CFO Hub.

Before bringing CFO Hub on board, everyone was taking on a little piece of responsibility, but it wasn’t allowing us to move forward. When our investors need information, they don’t want to be shuffled around to different people. They want to speak to someone who has the answers or can get the answers. CFO Hub has helped improve our promise of value to our stakeholders.

How did CFO Hub perform from a project management standpoint?

We meet with the leadership team about once a quarter — it used to be once a month — to touch base about challenges, opportunities, and where we want to be.

What did you find most impressive about them?

I appreciate cool people who speak openly and honestly, and I can pick up the phone and call CFO Hub whenever I have a question. We’ve had a very good rapport from the starting gate. They wrap their inquiries around conversations that seek to get to know me and us as individuals and an organization. I don’t enjoy working through a formal process, and that’s normally what I experience with accountants, but it’s not the case with CFO Hub.

They’re subject-matter experts in their field, and they focus on how to better serve their clients. You can tell, at the end of the day, that they measure success by how their clients are impacted.

Are there any areas they could improve?

I would like CFO Hub to feel more empowered to speak when they see an issue, rather than biting their tongue. If I were hiring a CFO, then I wouldn’t want them to wait around until I tell them what to do. I’d want them to own it. That’s a process, but from a leadership standpoint, it could have been facilitated better at the beginning of our relationship.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

When you take your car to the mechanic, you don’t ask them to not look under the hood. I would encourage people to let CFO Hub in and show them the current state of affairs. They’ve seen everything before, and you’ll move toward high-performance quickly if you’re candid from the start.

Please describe your company and your position there.

As the CEO of Stratus10 I am responsible for the growth and success of the company. Having a solid finance team is a large part of our success.

For what projects/services did your company hire CFO Hub?

CFO Hub manages all our accounting and financial strategy processes.

What were your goals for this engagement?

Ongoing accounting support and guidance.

How did you select CFO Hub?

Based on their superior knowledge and expertise with similar companies.

Describe the engagement in detail.

CFO Hub has been an integral part of our journey and continues to be so.

Describe their billing or cost structure.

Billing is monthly.

What was the team composition?

We work with multiple team members depending on the level of expertise we require for specific items. All of them are great to work with.

Can you share any outcomes from the engagement that demonstrate progress or success?

This is an ongoing engagement and we are absolutely pleased with the services we receive from CFO Hub and their staff.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

The CFO team is easy to reach and we have a consistent cadence with them to make sure we are on the same page.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

Their expertise. They really know what they are doing and provide excellent guidance and answers to all our questions.

Are there any areas for improvement?

I can't think of anything that could be done more efficiently for our engagement.