No one highlights the versatility of the financial director as well as that of a vibrant start-up. Lizzy-Anne Neven of Rejuvenate Biomed, a Belgian biotech start-up, is the perfect example of this. What does your responsibilities look like as CFO of a young start-up? And what are the priorities financially? We went for a virtual coffee visit with an equally busy and atypical CFO.
Rejuvenate Biomed conducts research into human aging and how to slow it down. At the helm of the startup is CEO Ann Beliën. “Ann and I have known each other since we were 25,” says Neven. “I have always followed her journey with great attention.” In 2016, their paths also crossed professionally. A year later, Neven transferred her successful accounting office in Hasselt and started working as CFO at Rejuvenate Biomed. “My main task? Monitor the budgets carefully.”
How difficult was the decision to make the switch?
"The choice to distance myself from my own office and take a step into the unknown was certainly not an easy one. Many nights of sleep were lost, but I was involved in the Rejuvenate story from day one. One condition was that I would be given enough time to familiarize myself with the scientific dimension. That happened. I was allowed to ask all possible questions and attend meetings. Because I am not a traditional CFO and also perform executive tasks, it was also important that I understood how and why of certain invoices or budgets.”
“It is also important for other C functions that they have a substantive view of the budgets, so that they better understand the total picture and can anticipate where necessary.”
Lizzy-Anne Neven, CFO at Rejuvenate Biomed
What is your most important role within this start-up?
"Monitoring the budgets. Together with the CEO, I am working very intensively on this. Everything actually revolves around setting out the substantive timelines for various research projects, to which budgets are then linked each time. These budgets must be continuously updated and then reported to the Board of Directors, so that they can then check whether we are still financially on track. In addition, I think it is very important to be able to keep the accounts ourselves in the first instance. It is the only way to to get a good overview and to keep it.”
In short: you are the financial jack of all trades?
"In addition to monitoring the budgets and keeping the accounts, I also monitor the contracts, I advise our CEO in negotiations with investors on both a financial and contractual level, I do financial administration, invoicing and payments and I investigate subsidy options. I am also currently taking on the position of HR manager. So my role is indeed very broad, at a strategic, operational and administrative level. We do want to hire an HR manager in the long term, later an administrative profile and then an accountant. This way I can focus even more on strategy, financial controlling and reporting.”
What have been the biggest challenges along the way?
"During the first investment round, my job was to guide the CEO in the search for potential investors. That was a fairly difficult process that took longer than expected. Investment companies had to be convinced with the research data available at that time. And in full corona times. That is precisely why it was very important to clearly communicate the strategic growth trajectory, as well as the process of identifying the scientific activities and the associated profiles, timelines and budgets. That was also successful."
“After a new capital round, we may end up in a different world, in which my role as CFO will also be given a new meaning.”
Lizzy-Anne Neven, CFO at Rejuvenate Biomed
And then the story really begins.
"Another challenge that we then had to learn to deal with is managing the expectations of the investors and taking their internal processes into account. You become more dependent on the working methods of the different parties and their reporting needs. This will only increase with the next capital round: the reporting to investors will become increasingly intense. We are prepared for that. In the meantime, we have also unlearned from focusing on one hard date for a project."
Not everyone lives between numbers every day. How do you convey financial awareness to colleagues?
"That has to go both ways. However, I don't want to overload people with financial information. You work together with different types of people, in our case usually scientists, who are less interested in the financial aspect. That is not a problem. However, it is important that the various functions within management have a clear idea of the content and structure of a budget for a particular project so that they also understand the total picture better. Just as I try to understand the science, the scientists also try to understand the financial aspect.”
How do you see your current position as CFO evolving?
"That is not yet completely clear. During the previous capital round, the investors agreed on the strategy and the interpretation of the C-functions. That is a situation that can change quickly. With a next capital round, new investors will decide on this. So we are well aware that after the next round we may end up in a different world and the C-functions will have to be filled differently. I don't see any problem with that, but we will see about that. Have a title and sit on an island? I certainly don't plan to do that.”
Three tips from Lizzy-Anne Neven for finance professionals
- Understand the story: Try to understand the business as best as possible, immerse yourself in the story of one
start-up, and convey what the company stands for and wants to stand for. - Be flexible: Being CFO at a start-up is about more than just an F. You will also have to perform executive tasks
who fall outside the classic role of the CFO. - Trust others: You cannot be aware of everything. You don't have the sufficiently specialized
knowledge in-house? Then rely on external partners.
Read the full whitepaper here
The CFO of the future will be the Da Vinci of his time, it seems. From watchdog to catalyst, leader or innovator: no role is unfamiliar to the Chief Financial Officer. What expertise and skills are indispensable for the coveted job of CFO? And how do you do that, combining all those different hats? In addition to Lizzy-Anne Neven, we interviewed 4 other CFOs about their roles and experiences.
