Naeem Ishaq's guest appearances

Naeem Ishaq

CFO THOUGHT LEADER

Bowery Capital Startup Sales Podcast

The Backbone: a journey inside finance at a startup

Jeff Epstein

Darrell Cox

Grant Halloran

Russell Sachs

Jimmy Forbes

Garrett Stanton

Kayvan Salmanpour

Meghan Gill

Kaveh Rostampor

Bob Lempke

Cezary Pietrzak

Chris Flores

Morgane Palomares

Oliver Jay

James Weitzman

OwlTail

Checkr

Joining me on this episode of the Backbone is Naeem Ishaq, CFO at Checkr, the leading technology company in the background check industry. At Checkr, Naeem leads finance, facilities, and data operations teams, responsible for financial strategy and planning, corporate development, and optimizing Checkr’s financial performance for long-term growth. Naeem has nearly 20 years of leadership experience at companies like Circle, Salesforce, and Square (which he helped to lead through a successful IPO in 2015). He was one of the first 5% of employees at both Square and Salesforce and has a strong record of repeatedly scaling growth businesses from startup stage to global reach. I chat with Naeem about:  His career journey working at the intersection of finance and tech since 2002, starting at Intel. From there he joined Salesforce in 2008 when it was a $4B market cap company and 1700 people, spending over four years there before joining Square when they were around 170 people and helping them go through their IPO. Prior to joining as the CFO at Checkr, Naeem led finance at Boxed Wholesale and Circle. What Checkr does and what the company is all about. Some of the frameworks and mental models that formed the M&amp;A playbook for organizations like Salesforce and Square. Throughout his career Naeem had the opportunity to work very closely on M&amp;A. While at Salesforce, he  played a key role in the acquisition of Jigsaw for $300M and the Buddy Media acquisition for $689M. Then at Square, he led the acquisition of Caviar. Naeem has worked on 40+ different M&amp;A transactions during his career. His advice to finance leaders who may end up going through an acquisition process with large strategic acquirers. The best practices for navigating through times of crisis, from the CFO seat. The biggest misconception about the finance function within growth stage software companies like Checkr.--- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/backbone/message

Joining me on this episode of the Backbone is <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/naeemishaq/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Naeem Ishaq</a>, CFO at <a href="http://www.checkr.com/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Checkr</a>, the leading technology company in the background check industry. At Checkr, Naeem leads finance, facilities, and data operations teams, responsible for financial strategy and planning, corporate development, and optimizing Checkr’s financial performance for long-term growth. Naeem has nearly 20 years of leadership experience at companies like Circle, Salesforce, and Square (which he helped to lead through a successful IPO in 2015). He was one of the first 5% of employees at both Square and Salesforce and has a strong record of repeatedly scaling growth businesses from startup stage to global reach. <blockquote>I chat with Naeem about:</blockquote> <ol> <li>His career journey working at the intersection of finance and tech since 2002, starting at Intel. From there he joined Salesforce in 2008 when it was a $4B market cap company and 1700 people, spending over four years there before joining Square when they were around 170 people and helping them go through their IPO. Prior to joining as the CFO at Checkr, Naeem led finance at Boxed Wholesale and Circle.</li> <li>What Checkr does and what the company is all about.</li> <li>Some of the frameworks and mental models that formed the M&amp;A playbook for organizations like Salesforce and Square. Throughout his career Naeem had the opportunity to work very closely on M&amp;A. While at Salesforce, he  played a key role in the acquisition of Jigsaw for $300M and the Buddy Media acquisition for $689M. Then at Square, he led the acquisition of Caviar. Naeem has worked on 40+ different M&amp;A transactions during his career.</li> <li>His advice to finance leaders who may end up going through an acquisition process with large strategic acquirers.</li> <li>The best practices for navigating through times of crisis, from the CFO seat.</li> <li>The biggest misconception about the finance function within growth stage software companies like Checkr.</li></ol>--- Send in a voice message: <a href="https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/backbone/message" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/backbone/message</a>

Ep. 62: Taking care of your people, company, & customers while navigating through a crisis with Naeem Ishaq, CFO at Checkr

Circle

Circle CFO Naeem Ishaq’s Forrest Gumpian career trajectory has given him extraordinary exposure to most of Silicon Valley’s touchstone technologies – the semiconductor, cloud computing, mobile payments and, most recently, cryptocurrency. After a stint as a dot.com-era entrepreneur he launched as an undergraduate, Ishaq has invested the past 18 years accumulating a trove of experience within some of the technology industry’s most iconic companies, including Intel, Salesforce, Square, Box and Circle. Along the way, he learned crucial leadership lessons from a remarkable collection of CEOs and CFOs, including former Intel finance chief and current Intel chairman Andy Bryant. Ishaq says Bryant demonstrated what it takes to cultivate a thriving “strategic finance culture.” Today, as head of Circle’s finance team, Ishaq views the ability to quickly “shift context” as key to nurturing his team. He honed that agility at Salesforce when its market capitalization (now $100 billion) was a plucky $3 billion. As head of finance for Salesforce’s emerging businesses group, Ishaq managed the finance functions of 13 different divisions. “It was definitely great training to be a CFO and to really context-shift between different businesses,” he adds. “The reality of being a CFO is that you are often shifting context between many different parts of the business.”

Circle CFO Naeem Ishaq’s Forrest Gumpian career trajectory has given him extraordinary exposure to most of Silicon Valley’s touchstone technologies – the semiconductor, cloud computing, mobile payments and, most recently, cryptocurrency. After a stint as a <a href="http://dot.com" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">dot.com</a>-era entrepreneur he launched as an undergraduate, Ishaq has invested the past 18 years accumulating a trove of experience within some of the technology industry’s most iconic companies, including Intel, Salesforce, Square, Box and Circle. Along the way, he learned crucial leadership lessons from a remarkable collection of CEOs and CFOs, including former Intel finance chief and current Intel chairman Andy Bryant. Ishaq says Bryant demonstrated what it takes to cultivate a thriving “strategic finance culture.” Today, as head of Circle’s finance team, Ishaq views the ability to quickly “shift context” as key to nurturing his team. He honed that agility at Salesforce when its market capitalization (now $100 billion) was a plucky $3 billion. As head of finance for Salesforce’s emerging businesses group, Ishaq managed the finance functions of 13 different divisions. “It was definitely great training to be a CFO and to really context-shift between different businesses,” he adds. “The reality of being a CFO is that you are often shifting context between many different parts of the business.”

442:  The Context Shifter| Naeem Ishaq, CFO,  Circle

This week, we welcome Naeem Ishaq, CFO of Boxed Wholesale, onto the show to discuss "SaaS Churn Management In Early-Stage Sales Orgs." Boxed Wholesale is an eCommerce company focused on delivering the "big box club" experience (bulk grocery a la Sam's Club or Costco) direct-to-consumer online. We recorded the session live at the Bowery Capital CFO Summit 2016, where Naeem joined us as a panelist on the topic of "Maximizing Customer Retention &amp; Managing Churn" alongside Antonia Pitney (CFO of Handshake) and Bart Hacking (CFO of Bettercloud). In this podcast, Naeem discusses how he has tackled SaaS churn at his various roles, from Salesforce to Square. We also explore the churn issues any early stage founder or CXO should expect to face, and the various quantitative approaches one should use to best measure and manage retention. Naeem Ishaq has 15 years of experience as a finance and strategy professional in the tech industry, from Fortune 50 companies to early-stage startups. Prior to assuming his current role as CFO of Boxed Wholesale, he spent 4 years at Square, where he most recently served as the company's Head of Finance, Strategy &amp; Risk. Before that position, Naeem spent nearly 5 years at Salesforce, ascending to Senior Director of Finance &amp; Strategy. Naeem cut his teeth in finance at Intel where he spent 6 years, following a brief role at Chevron where he began his career. In addition, Naeem has also advised several startups along the way, including eero, a consumer electronics startup aiming to reinvent the home WiFi system. Having worked across many software business models at 5+ top-tier technology organizations, Naeem brings an excellent perspective on how to think about, measure and manage SaaS churn. Tune in now to hear his thoughts on how to stay ahead of churn and ensure the right people on your team become retention pros.

This week, we welcome Naeem Ishaq, CFO of Boxed Wholesale, onto the show to discuss "SaaS Churn Management In Early-Stage Sales Orgs." <a href="https://www.boxed.com/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Boxed Wholesale</a> is an eCommerce company focused on delivering the "big box club" experience (bulk grocery a la Sam's Club or Costco) direct-to-consumer online. We recorded the session live at the <a href="https://bowerycfosummit2016.splashthat.com" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Bowery Capital CFO Summit 2016</a>, where Naeem joined us as a panelist on the topic of "Maximizing Customer Retention &amp; Managing Churn" alongside Antonia Pitney (CFO of <a href="https://www.handshake.com/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Handshake</a>) and Bart Hacking (CFO of <a href="https://www.bettercloud.com/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Bettercloud</a>). In this podcast, Naeem discusses how he has tackled SaaS churn at his various roles, from Salesforce to Square. We also explore the churn issues any early stage founder or CXO should expect to face, and the various quantitative approaches one should use to best measure and manage retention. <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/naeemishaq" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Naeem Ishaq</a> has 15 years of experience as a finance and strategy professional in the tech industry, from Fortune 50 companies to early-stage startups. Prior to assuming his current role as CFO of <a href="https://www.boxed.com/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Boxed Wholesale</a>, he spent 4 years at Square, where he most recently served as the company's Head of Finance, Strategy &amp; Risk. Before that position, Naeem spent nearly 5 years at Salesforce, ascending to Senior Director of Finance &amp; Strategy. Naeem cut his teeth in finance at Intel where he spent 6 years, following a brief role at Chevron where he began his career. In addition, Naeem has also advised several startups along the way, including <a href="https://eero.com/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">eero</a>, a consumer electronics startup aiming to reinvent the home WiFi system. Having worked across many software business models at 5+ top-tier technology organizations, Naeem brings an excellent perspective on how to think about, measure and manage SaaS churn. Tune in now to hear his thoughts on how to stay ahead of churn and ensure the right people on your team become retention pros.

SaaS Churn Management In Early-Stage Sales Orgs with Naeem Ishaq (Boxed)