Solid Bond.

Finance and Commercial Director

My role is to provide finance support to a portfolio of businesses. the level of support and the type of support needed varies significantly from business to business. 

Typical Responsibilities:

- Business Planning/ Budgeting
- BI Implementation/ Management Accounts
- Attended and presented financials at board meetings
- Power BI report writing
- Tax Planning/ Liaising with Tax Professionals
- Lead on Software Implementation 
- Liaising with External Accountants
- Investment Appraisals/ Due Diligence
- Preparing investment paperwork with lawyers
- Staff management of transactional finance team

Finance Manager

Safran

Main purpose of the role is to help control the direct purchases for over a £110m spend and to business partner with the purchasing department. 

- Set the budget for direct purchases for all products, budgeting for a spend of over £110m
- Monitor and work with budget holders to control the expenditure on 4 purchasing cost centres and carriage in costs
- Present the monthly KPI pack to the Purchasing director and to senior management occasionally
- Calculate and monitor the purchasing overhead absorption rate (purchasing fee) and explain any over/under recovery
- Provide detailed and complex variance analysis on gross margins for the wider cost of production team. 
- Complete balance sheet reconciliations. 
- Provide detailed analysis of the GRNI account in working through credit notes owed by suppliers. 
- Calculate and post amendments to stock to value at actual cost at the year end.  
- Led and successfully delivered the annual standard costing by coordinating the work of 3 other accountants.

Management Accountant (Supply Chain Controller)

- Finance lead responsible for reviewing the industrial/ operational performance of one of the business operations. 
- Prepare budgets and quarterly forecasts with budget holders.  
- Set the annual labour budget for 300+ employees. 
- Close out month end in a tight 2.5 day deadline. 
- Prepare journals for accruals, prepayments and ad hoc movements of cost. 
- Identify potential risk and opportunities and flag these to senior management.
- Cost control of site general/ travel expenses, over £15m per year. 
- Developed detailed reports on general/ travel expenses and to coordinate the delivery of a £2m expense reduction challenge set by group. 
- Use of SAP and Hyperion accounting systems (loading budgeted hourly rates, purchasing fees and expenses and forecast data into both). 
- Utilised strong Excel skills to automate many tasks savings over 2 hours at month end and simplify tasks during the month. 
- Involved in headcount reporting and standardising headcount reports between HR and finance to present consistent figures to senior management. 
- Business partner with the sheet metal/ components operation of the business.
- Audit support both internal and external. 
- Standard setting and material validations.
- Deliver the annual costing run to re-set standards for the new year. 
- Conduct frequent cost centre reviews with over 10 budget holders. 
- Work effectively with French counter parts.

Management Accountant (Industrial Controller)

Fujitsu

Worked as the finance lead for over 20 cost centres/ budget holders managing a cost base of over £20m per year.

Responsibilities included:
- Accurate creation of monthly management accounts
- Preparation of monthly journals
- Process and post accruals and prepayments on a monthly basis
- Managing the month end process
- Performing ad hoc analysis to provide information to the Finance Business Partner
- Created detailed business review packs for operational managers in their business reviews
- Provided detailed utilisation reports and variance analysis
- Prepare annual budgets and quarterly forecasts
- Perform a variance analysis between quarterly forecasts with commentary to the Finance Business Partner
    - Examples include:
        - Impact of new day rates on the forecast
        - Impact of changing rules of how group property costs are applied

- Conduct quarterly forecast reviews with operational managers and remove errors from the forecast
- Use of accounting packages such as Oracle and Hyperion Financial Management
- Developed excellent Excel skills

Finance Graduate - Cost Accounting

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints

Lead Teacher at the Missionary Training Centre. Oversees the training for the English department consisting of 8 members of staff, while still maintaining all the responsibilities of an MTC Teacher. 

- Responsible for setting and managing the departments work schedule
- Participate in an interview panel for new teachers in the English department. 
- Delivers tailored training on the curriculum to staff on a bi-weekly basis
- Analyse effectiveness of teaching and offer training to improve quality of teaching.

Lead Teacher

Teacher at the Missionary Training Centre. Deliver a 2 week training programme to groups of 6-10 students in preparation for a 2 year, or 18 month, voluntary mission. 

- Deliver tailored training on core teaching skills to groups of 6-10 students
- Create specific personal development plans with students.
- Communicate clearly with team members on students progression 
- Employed time management skills in adhering to a fixed schedule 
- Utilised Microsoft Office in creating classroom learning materials

MTC teacher

University of Surrey Careers Service

Temporary campaign to produce university employability statistics by gathering information from recent graduates. This campaign contributed the University being ranked 6th best in the UK. 

- Developed a professional telephone manner through the calling of graduates
- Employed attention to detail while recording vital information
- Maintained an accurate database of potential leads
- Coordinated daily workload with colleagues to maximise results
- Analysed results which identified certain leads to target resulting in increased results.

Data Collector

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints

Worked in a voluntary role as an assistant to a leader of a local religious organisation.

- Prepared agenda's for weekly meetings and recorded action points
- Employed Microsoft Office skills in preparing visual materials for audiences
- Maintained an accurate database of membership information
- Managed the local leaders schedule
- Coordinated interviews with individuals and management
- Developed strong communication skills in coordinating with members of the organisation

Administrative Assistant

Was a full-time voluntary missionary/ official representative of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints in Scotland, Northern and the Republic of Ireland. Responsible for finding and teaching individuals wanting to learn about the organisation.

- Consistently worked 10-11 hour days to achieve targets
- Managed a team of 30 volunteers and set and reviewed their targets on a weekly basis
- Created PDP's with members of the team and periodically followed up with their progress 
- Developed a training programme which resulted in the doubling of new leads within the team
- Produced statistical reports for management using Excel
- Advanced interpersonal skills by training individuals on a 1 on 1 basis

International Volunteer

Vodafone

Placed in the busiest store in the region as a sales assistant in a high street telecommunications company.

- Employed communication skills in responding to customer queries, complaints and then, resolving customer concerns.
- Demonstrated leadership skills managing the shop floor and assigning work to team members 
- Developed an ability to manage time working with customers with limited time
- Converted new leads into customers
- Implemented staff training to increase effectiveness as a sales assistant

Sales Assistant

Looking for and working with high growth starts ups. We invest in and give active support to great founders to help grow and scale their businesses. 

Dan is the Finance and Commercial Director at Solid Bond Capital, where he provides finance leadership to the Solid Bond portfolio, works with founders through investment rounds and processes, leads on the finance support given to the portfolio companies and evaluates businesses pitching for investment taking them through from first pitch, investment, and post investment support. He is a chartered management accountant and graduated with a 1st class honours degree from the university of Salford. Following graduation Dan qualified in industry working with several businesses in accounting/ finance business partnering roles focused on financial and operational reporting/ performance improvement prior to joining Solid Bond Capital in 2019.

Dan Dudley

One of the checks investors are doing when you are pitching to raise #preseed is how do the founders fit into team. 

I've seen massive overlap in founders or a co-founder that clearly has no massive value add but owns a chunk of equity. It just starts to work against you.

And the sad thing is hardly anyone will ever feedback that that is the issue. Definitely worth looking at that heavily before going out to raise. 

#preseed #startups #venturecapital #founders

Pre-seed Investor at Solid Bond | Actively Investing | Finance and Commercial Director |

Flexport

Business Development

Forward Advances

Built and scaled a venture backed B2B FinTech lender. Delivered 150% QoQ growth for over two years. Raised £15M in debt & equity. Reported to the board of a listed entity.

Venture CEO

Forward Partners

Sat on the leadership team of an early stage investor.

Managing Director

Earnt.It

Bootstrapped and launched a consumer FinTech enabling early wage access.

Founder

PayPal

Led a $10b card product and launched new lending businesses through strategic partnerships.

Product, Business Development and GTM

Scaled Buy Now Pay Later and Revenue-Based Financing products to a £2b originations run rate.

Head of Operations

HSBC

Program Manager

Bank of America

Head of Projects

British Army

IT and Telecommunications Engineer

Fractional operator for Founders & Innovative Corporates | Follow for insights on business and leadership

I've built and scaled fast-growing FinTech products as a founder and operator.

- Scaled PayPal’s Buy Now Pay Later and Merchant Lending business in the UK to a £2B annual originations run rate.
- Bootstrapped a consumer FinTech, enabling customers to access wages early.
- Founded and scaled a venture-backed FinTech, providing revenue-based financing to digital businesses.

I’ve developed expertise in early product validation, go-to-market strategy, growth, and operations.

Along the way, I've just been following my interests and solving problems for customers.

Oh, and I love riding motorbikes and climbing mountains.

Hasam Silva

Excited to announce the launch of The Trade Leaders Table.

This is a small, invite-only dinner exclusively for CEOs and CFOs of businesses over $100M in revenue who are focused on simplifying global trade in 2026.

It’s two hours, under the Chatham House Rule, focused purely on knowledge exchange.

You’ll be joined by other business leaders and a specialised group of experts in customs, freight, and finance.

The goal is simple: share the practical knowledge needed to simplify global trade in 2026.

The first date is on 15 January 2026.

#globaltrade #supplychain #customs #workingcapital #fintech

FinTech GTM & Growth | Scaling Flexport Capital in EMEA

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