ThriveGrowth

Providing Fractional CFO services to various startups in Fintech, SaaS, E-commerce, Digital Marketing, and Sustainability.

Highlights:
•	Built 20+ financial models, resulting in $10m+ investments and an acquisition.
•	Collaborated with startups to extend runway by an average of four and a half months.
•	Advised on metrics dashboards, enhancing Founder understanding of unit economics.
•	Guided startups in successful completion of Seed rounds.
•	Led incorporation of India "tech hub" entity and UK office setup for an Australian fintech, including FCA license application.
•	Raised venture debt funding, extended Fintech startup's runway.
•	Advised on share option schemes using Seedlegals and Vestd.
•	Implemented financial tech stacks for scalable growth.
•	Assisted startups in expanding their operations to the US market, providing strategic guidance and overseeing the successful establishment of US subsidiaries.

Fractional CFO

SHAY CPA P.C.

Fractional CFO helping investment backed companies with a range of services from financial modelling, fundraising to systems and processes.

NatWest Accelerator

The NatWest Accelerator supports and empowers UK entrepreneurs to scale their businesses to the next level.

Mentor

Wilbe | Home for entrepreneurial scientists

Wilbe educates, builds and invests in scientists solving some of the world's hardest problems. Based in London, Wilbe works with scientists from leading research hubs from Cambridge, Imperial, Oxford in the UK to Max Planck in German.

Finance Lead

Highview Power

Highview Power is a technology company which has developed the CryoBattery, a proprietary solution to extending wind and solar energy throughout the day. The company is now positioned to roll out the technology on a commercial basis. Involved from the very early stages to c. £200m valuation.

•	Raised £55m (equity and debt) over 5 rounds, with thorough investor engagement and due diligence.
•	Pioneered go-to-market strategy for proprietary CryoBattery technology.
•	Secured £22m grant funding for commercial and innovation efforts.
•	Developed finance, legal, IT, HR functions to sustain growth.
•	Implemented scalable systems including Xero, Receipt Bank, CapDesk, and more.
•	Spearheaded Corporate Governance policies.
•	Led tax strategy, including transfer pricing, patent box, and R&D tax credits.
•	Setup US subsidiary included navigating regulatory requirements, coordinating legal processes, and liaising with local stakeholders for seamless entry into the US market.

Finance Director

ENGIE

Assistant Reporting Accountant

Publicis Groupe

Senior Management Accountant

I help you grow and scale your business as an outsourced CFO. Through the company I founded, ThriveGrowth, I get to do what I love: support startups and SMEs with my finance expertise. With nearly two decades of finance experience — six as the Finance Director of a technology startup — I know what it means to step into a fast-paced business and pinpoint areas for growth.

During my six years at the aforementioned startup, I:

•	Helped it grow from 10 to 50 people
•	Raised £55m over 6 rounds
•	Created a finance function and the necessary team
•	Enabled the company to expand abroad
•	Watched as the company almost went under and helped turn it around 
•	Grew its valuation to £200m 

Now, I bring everything I’ve learned to founders and entrepreneurs through ThriveGrowth. With real hands-on experience, I can help at each stage of your journey (startup, growing, scaling). If you need a CFO, advisor, consultant, or mentor to help you grow your company, get in touch.

👉🏽Schedule a call: https://calendly.com/thrive-growth
👉🏽Email me: enquiries@thrivegrowth.co.uk
👉🏽Call: 0203 920 8210

Rakesh Shah

PatientPop Inc.

SMB SaaS platform-complete practice growth solution that empowers healthcare providers to thrive in the digital age.  PatientPop and Kareo executed a merger in Nov. 2021 to form Tebra.  They are generating over $200 million of annual recurring revenue, serves over 20k healthcare practices and 80 million U.S. patients. 

Successfully utilized my vast financial/operational experience with a strong background of working in high growth/early stage e-commerce/SaaS start-ups to build, from inception, the Accounting, Payroll and Billing departments while converting the accounting records to GAAP as well as operational process improvements/cost reductions across multiple departments. 

By thinking big, while I understand, analyze and execute “in the weeds”, I remain strategic and creative in my thinking to facilitate material financial results such as margin/EBITDA improvements; A/R collections; improved month end close timing/quality; dramatic reduction in cash burn/treasury mgmt. by re-negotiating vendor contracts, aging payables, etc. resulting in over $700k/month; $8.2M annually in savings during COVID.

Vast experience in system conversions: 
-Accounting Systems/Implementations:  Quickbooks to NetSuite; Bill.com; Concur; Carta
-Billing Systems/Implementations:  Zuora to NetSuite Suite Billing; Salesforce CPQ, ARM (Advanced Revenue Management in NetSuite for Revenue Recognition Guidance- ASC 606)

-Audits:  Led/owned the Company's first inaugural financial statement audit by a Big 4 firm as well as the subsequent 3 annual audits successfully with a clean opinion; no material weaknesses; no adjustments, etc.

-Extensive Revenue Recognition experience with ASC 606 guidance implementation

VP of Accounting

Helix Sleep

-Built, from inception, the accounting and operations departments, while converting the accounting records to GAAP as well as operational process improvements/cost reductions. 
-Created the day to day accounting and operation/supply chain functions and best practices (systems, internal controls, month-end close, revenue recognition, product logistics, etc.).  
-Facilitated product margin improvements
-Created workflows and analysis to reduce product refunds
-Launched 5 consumer products (inception to market), supply chain/logistical cost reductions, as well as improve financial reporting timing/metrics/budgeting for the board/founders.
-Operational process improvements:
      -Refunds: Restructured the “topper” initiative to increase acceptance rates, thus improving return rates by 50%.  
      -Implemented customer return feedback workflow resulting in necessary product updates/refund reductions
      -PO/Daily Order Process: 
           -Implemented daily reconciliation process to verify all orders were sent to the mfg., thus 
             improving any delayed products.
           -Implemented/created daily orders report process to verify our mfg. is adhering to our 2 day 
            shipping time frame (SLA), thus confirming our customer’s received their product as expected 
       -Product Defect Reduction:
           -Mfg. Report Card: Implemented a monthly mfg. feedback process to improve product defects
           -QA process implemented at each mfg. as well as production narratives to improve production 
            workflow
     -Inventory: Managed old inventory to be fulfilled during new product launches/product running 
      changes, etc.
-Product Launches: Launched 5 new products from inception to market facilitating PO/IT integrations; product design/testing; supply chain/logistics; pricing/forecasting; product education employee training; revenue rec; mfg. selection/RFP’s, etc.

Controller / Director of Operations

ZocDoc

-Successfully created and built, from inception, ZocDoc’s (one of NYC’s most exciting start-ups valued at over $1.8B) accounting department into a team of 7 employees 
-Converted the accounting records to GAAP and guided the Company successfully through their first three financial statement audits.  
-Created the day to day accounting function and best practices (systems, internal controls, month-end close, revenue recognition, accruals, stock compensation expense, etc.)
-Treasury:  Created a monthly cash forecast model to predict within 1% of operating cash burn 
-Systems: Served as the business lead for vendor negotiation and implementation of new systems including T&E (Concur), stock based compensation (CapMx; Shareworks) and financial reporting (NetSuite (originally Quickbooks))
-Process improvements:  
    -Accounts Payable: Created the A/P process, ensure payables were aged properly 
    -Accounts Receivable: Created the A/R collection process resulting in a reduction in DSO from 300 days to 30 days, equating to a collection of over $10M that was previously deemed uncollectable 
    -Internal Controls: Designed/implemented internal controls (SOX) for key processes (narratives/RCM’s/flowcharts) to mitigate a Material Weakness, while educating the Company and employees
    -Payroll (Payroll reported directly to Accounting): Successfully implemented a new payroll process (bi-weekly and semi-monthly pay cycle) that streamlined and improved payroll accuracy, timing, reducing ADP fees
    -Budgeting:  Successfully created/managed Accounting dept. budget and financial plans while managing successful deployment in current and future periods against actuals resulting in <1% delta annually
-Vendor Mgmt: Lead negotiator for all contracts (audit; systems; consultants, credit card processors, NDA’s, etc.) resulting in favorable contracts such as $20k audit fee for 3 straight years; reduction of credit card processing fee from 2.9% to 2.5% (savings of over $150k + per year)

Controller

Access Furniture Inc.

Direct-to-consumer e-commerce platform; portfolio of furniture and home goods
Accounting:
    -Created and built the Accounting department to a team of 6 employees for a fast growing e-commerce start-up
    -Responsible for key functions for fulfillment, purchase orders, customer service, payroll, A/R, A/P, etc. 
    -Reduced month end close from 25 days to 4 days
Business/Operational improvements:
    -Product Fulfillment: Improved the fulfillment process from holding inventory to a more robust drop-shipping process resulting in over $1M increase in working capital; improved customer shipping time/efficiency
    -E-commerce Website: 
        -Improved website customer UI by simplifying customer check-out experience resulting in improved conversion rates, optimized inventory tracking by creating built in product stock information 
        -Created “free shipping” best practice on all orders to improve conversion rates (in-line with competition)

CohnReznick LLP

Audited the financial statements/footnotes for public companies; 10-Q and 10-K filings with the SEC

Audit Manager

KPMG LLP

-Participated in the IPO/S-1 of Morton’s Restaurant Group (Morton’s Steakhouse) 
-Experienced with the requirements of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act - Section 404. 
-Audited the financial statements/footnotes for public companies; 10-Q and 10-K filings with the SEC
-Top rated performer rating received every year

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Rakesh Shah

Reno Amorizzo, CPA

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