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 |

BizCrunch

BizCrunch is a Discovery, Due-Diligence and Deal-Execution Platform for Off-Market Private Equity Acquirers.   BizCrunch powers Acquisition Entrepreneurship and SMB Succession M&A.

SMB M&A is frustrated by inefficient, opaque and time-consuming processes.  BizCrunch is on a mission to make selling and acquiring companies faster, cheaper and easier through digital transformation.

Co-Founder and CEO

Enterprise Insights Ltd

We help scale businesses, and to future-proof leaders, through impactful Executive Coaching programmes. As a dynamic consultancy and coaching company, Enterprise Insights offer a portfolio of transformational services, designed to facilitate British scale-up businesses in achieving sustainable growth, securing capital investment, and embracing perpetual change.

Principal Consultant

ElectrAssure Ltd

ElectrAssure designs, installs and operates electric vehicle charging solutions, chargepoint management systems and site support services, delivering critical infrastructure to support the future of transport.

Non Executive Director

Letchworth Garden City Heritage Foundation

My role as Chair requires leadership of the Board and ensuring it operates effectively; ensuring the smooth running of Board meetings; promoting good governance; providing supervision and support to the Foundation's CEO where required; and representing the Foundation publicly.   Acting in accordance with the Nolan Principles, I seek to lead in an open-minded, fair and objective manner, to enable the Foundation to operate optimally in delivering on its charitable and commercial mandates for the benefit of the stakeholders of the Garden City.

Chairman Of The Board Of Trustees

I support the Leadership Team in setting, pursuing and achieving the necessary strategic objectives for the Foundation, such as energy-efficient housing, skills and youth employment, regional economic success, ecology and improvement of the public realm.

Trustee and Board Member

Contributing to oversight and strategy at this innovative nonprofit, responsible for maintaining and enhancing the world’s first Garden City.

Governor

Boardroom Advisors: Part-Time CEOs MDs NEDs for Scale-Ups and SME's.

Boardroom Advisors provides experienced, real-world CEOs, MDs, Non-Executive Directors, Chairmen and paid Mentors for Scale-Ups and SMEs on a part-time, PAYG basis.  Their talent pool consists of some of the most successful proven business leaders in the UK.   Available from one day per quarter and at short-notice, with no recruitment fees, no long-term commitments and including interchangeable personnel as your needs change.  You can scale up or down your advisory as needed.  Your Boardroom Advisors function as part of your team, providing you with consulting, direction, and strategy at a fraction of the cost of a full-time hire, which makes them perfect for start-ups, scale-ups, small family businesses and SMEs.

Fractional CxO / Advisor

Connectd

As an early investor in Connectd, I have made several Angel Investments via the platform and served in a coaching capacity as this exciting business has achieved impressive growth exceeding £1m ARR.   Supporting Connectd's Transition To Portfolio program, I serve as Mentor to participants seeking to begin working with startups and scale-ups in Advisory and Non-Executive Director roles.

Mentor - Transition to Portfolio

Stratiphy

stratiphy.io is a FinTech robo-advisor, investment-strategy and portfolio-management platform for values-driven investors.  It provides strategies based on financial performance and ESG scoring, and delivers valuable insights for a low monthly subscription.

Advisor

biz4Biz

biz4Biz a not-for-profit company, run by experienced business leaders, that provides a coherent voice for businesses in Hertfordshire.  biz4Biz aims to influence and shape policymaking and encourage investment in Hertfordshire by engaging with local and central government, relevant public sector bodies and local organisations, to promote the county of Hertfordshire as a great place to live and do business.  

Its networking, suite of services, government liaison and charitable involvement operations aim to benefit the residents, commuters, workers and business-owners who all contribute to Hertfordshire life.

Associate

Block Dojo

A startup venture-builder, putting companies and their founders through their paces during an intense 12 week programme, providing seed-funding and development services to build the future of blockchain applications.

Investment Consultant

Startup 2 Standup

StartUp2StandUp is a community of founders, funders, advisors and service-providers who collaborate to provide mutual support on the journey from startup to scale.   I serve as Coach and Facilitator to the weekly founders' surgery sessions and a Pitch-Event Panelist at the community's periodic meet-ups.

StartUp Coach

"The key is not spending time, but investing it."
  -- Stephen Covey.

Having built, acquired, grown, sold and exited companies during my 20+ years in industry, I developed and honed a skillset in leadership and M&A.

Following my exit through sale to a Nordic Nasdaq listed permanent ownership group, I pursued my passion for innovation in the startup ecosystem.   As an Investment Director at a startup incubator, an Angel Investor and a Director of Henley Business Angels, I was privileged to work with many early-stage companies.     With the cycling of the macro market, from growth to value, I returned to my roots in serving buyouts of Small- and Medium-sized Businesses.

I co-founded BizCrunch to digitally transform SMB M&A, aiming to help triple the volume of deals completing in the UK annually, by reducing time, cost and complexity through digital transformation.

Enterprise Insights provides a portfolio of consulting and coaching services, designed to facilitate StartUp and ScaleUp companies in achieving and managing sustainable growth, and in preparing for exit.  

As a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts, Chairman of a Charitable Foundation, and a trusted Mentor/Advisor, I've served high-performing leaders, enabling them to further the success of their teams and organisations.

Gareth Hawkins

Grateful to our BizCrunch users who helped shape this huge update.    You asked for features and stats that help you better refine your proprietary outreach campaigns.    

Our team have over-delivered, with a host of helpful campaign features to further help Searchers get to positive conversations with off-market Sellers, FAST.

ETA/Search // Investor : Acquirer : Founder : NED

We rebuilt our outreach tool from the ground up.

After hundreds of conversations with acquisition entrepreneurs - both inside the BizCrunch community and beyond - today we're shipping Campaigns 2.0.

Here's what's in this mammoth update 👇

New analytics dashboard: 
→ Delivery rate, open rate, click tracking 
→ Unique reply counts and engagement trends over time
→ Full CSV exports for deeper analysis

New workflow tools: 
→ 🔁 Clone campaigns - reuse copy with one click
→ 💾 Save as template - turn winning messaging into reusable playbooks

Deliverability upgrades: 
→ More double-verified emails in our database
→ Infrastructure improvements driving week-over-week performance gains
→ Better inbox placement = more conversations with owners

The result:

Better data. Faster workflows. More emails reaching owners.

For searchers and SMB acquirers running systematic outreach, this is a major step forward.

This is live NOW in your workspace - with some more incredible upgrades coming next week. So stay tuned 👀


#BizCrunch #ETA #OffMarket #Acquisition

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The Battle

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Performance Score.css-goub6s{font-size:var(--chakra-fontSizes-md);font-weight:500;color:var(--chakra-colors-gray-600);display:block;margin-top:var(--chakra-space-1);}Dan Dudley's LinkedIn Performance

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