This article is part of our Inside High Alpha series. As a venture studio, we build on our experience operating and investing to drive our success in building and scaling enterprise software companies. Read on to get an inside look at our teams.
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From day one, High Alpha’s Finance team supports founders to make informed decisions, navigate challenges, and ultimately thrive in crowded markets.
I sat down with High Alpha’s Chief Financial Officer — Blake Koriath — to talk about the team, how they support founders, and why early-stage companies should invest in strategic financial resources.
What Does the Finance Team Do at High Alpha?
The High Alpha Finance team provides world-class strategic financial guidance to enable the founders we support to build products customers love and scale the business. We also leverage our experience building dozens of B2B software startups to help founders raise capital and make strategic resource allocation decisions.
How Does Your Team Support Founders?
We want founders to focus on building the product. As they research the market and make validation calls, we set up the financial infrastructure to run an early-stage software business. Alongside that, we’re also providing ongoing strategic support. We perform financial forecasting to help founders strategically build out their hiring plans alongside the HR and Talent team, execute runaway analysis, fundraising strategy, KPI reporting, and board meeting prep. We do whatever we can to save founders time and lessen their financial anxiety.
How Does Partnering with Your Team Create an Advantage for Founders Versus Working with Fractional Financial Support?
Our advantage is pattern recognition. We have optimized the financials and back-office operations for forty-plus B2B SaaS companies, making us adept in the zero-to-one stage.
Other fractional finance support firms typically run a similar playbook with each client, but each early-stage software business is unique. Being immersed in the business allows us to think strategically outside of just “finance” or “accounting” and help founders find product-market fit and finance the business with the right amount of capital.
We also hold an “in the boat” mentality. We want the companies to be as successful as possible, so we are prepared to roll up our sleeves and do whatever it takes to scale the business.
How Does the Team Continue Supporting Founders After They Roll Off Services?
When companies are ready to graduate from our support, we help them find their full-time finance leader through our network. We also do quarterly networking breakfasts to continue fostering a community amongst the finance leaders in our portfolio, and we’re always available for questions and support as needs arise.
How Should Founder Candidates Learn More About Building with High Alpha?
As a venture studio, we leverage our expertise as investors to fuel our proficiency as operators. This synergy allows us to build breakout companies and world-class teams. If you want to learn more about High Alpha, check out our website.
