Minds

CEO & Founder

Mindvalley

Certified Life Coach

Leathwaite: Executive Search

Asia Strategy & Transformation Practice

True Search

Partner, Greater China Country Lead

H.I. Executive Consulting (HIEC)

Partner, APAC Professional Services Practice

VCube International

Founder and Partner

Alcoa

Director of Strategy and Analysis, Asia-Pacific

Roland Berger

Deputy Project Manager/Senior Consultant, Consumer & Retail and Technology

A.T. Kearney

Business Analyst, Financial Services

Gavin is a transformtional leader in executive search and personal coaching, renowned for his expertise in elevating senior leadership in high-growth start-ups and scale-ups. Collaborating with private equity, venture capital funds, and founders across Asia, Gavin delivers strategic talent insights and pioneering thought leadership.

With an illustrious career that includes conducting over 20,000 executive interviews, Gavin’s mastery in talent identification and influence has driven the success of global companies like McKinsey & Company, L Catterton (LVMH), Accenture and Permira.

Gavin’s passion for connecting with people and unveiling their unique stories led him to establish "Empower Through Stories", an initiative that inspires and motivates the next generation of leaders through powerful narratives. 

An alumnus of Stanford and the University of Chicago, Gavin’s global experience spans the US, Italy, Singapore, China, and Thailand. His leadership continues to set benchmarks in excellence, innovation, and influence in the industry.

Email: gavin@mindssearch.com
IG: gavng89

Gavin Ng

I had an amazing conversation with Creasoft Capital — and it’s one every founder should pay attention to - 

Entrepreneurship and the quiet costs that rarely make it into public conversation.

According to a study by UCSF, entrepreneurs are nearly twice as likely to experience burnout and chronic stress compared to the general working population.

And McKinsey & Company  projects that 30–45% of tasks will be automated by AI, which sounds exciting — until you realise automation doesn’t reduce demands on your mind.
Sometimes it increases them.

Decision fatigue.
Constant adaptation.
Th pressure to lead a team through a landscape that shifts every quarter.

So here’s the real question for founders:

What happens to your energy, clarity, and mental resilience when your business, your people, and the world all fight for your attention at the same time?

That’s what Wajeeh H. and I explored — the true cost of entrepreneurship in an AI-driven decade.

🎧 Podcast is on the way.

Stay tuned.

Gavin

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#entrepreneurship #founders #AIfuture #mentalhealth #leadership #thecostofit

Investor | Founder | Executive Search Leader | Coach

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Meta just quietly signalled what every employee and leader needs to hear:
your future performance won’t just be what you do, but how much AI amplifies it.

From 2026, Meta will tie employee performance to “AI-driven impact.”

Not “Did you use AI?”
But: Did AI materially move your results?

Employees are being told to:

Use AI in day-to-day work.
Capture AI-fuelled wins in self-reviews.
Expect performance systems (and even review-writing) to be AI-assisted.

This isn’t just a Meta story.
It’s a preview of where performance culture is going.

Here’s what stands out to me:

🧠 AI literacy is shifting from “nice to have” to “core expectation.”
The question is no longer “Should I use AI?”
It’s “How irresponsible is it not to?” — especially in knowledge work.

⚡️ Performance is moving from effort-based to leverage-based.
It’s not just: “Did you complete the work?”
It’s: “How much did you use AI to multiply speed, quality, and output?”

🧩 The real differentiator won’t be AI access—it’ll be AI habits.
Everyone will have tools.
Few will build daily workflows: prompts, automation, internal copilots, AI-assisted thinking.

🚀 Companies are formalising an AI-native culture, not just AI tools.
When AI shows up in scorecards, hiring, promotion criteria, and even how reviews are written…
it stops being innovation and becomes muscle memory.

If you’re an employee, manager, or founder, here’s what I’d start doing now:

1️⃣ Rebuild your personal performance philosophy around leverage, not effort

Stop thinking in terms of “tasks completed” or “hours invested.”
Start thinking in terms of:

What did I accelerate?
What did I automate?
What quality did I improve?
What decision became sharper because of AI?

Your career advantage will come from showing compounding leverage, not incremental output.

2️⃣ Redesign your core workflows so AI becomes infrastructure, not an add-on

Pick 2–3 workflows that define your role: analysis, communication, research, reporting, client prep, project management.
Then ask:

Where can AI remove steps?
Where can it take the first draft?
Where can it pressure-test my assumptions?
Where can it replace low-value cognitive load?

Employees who make AI invisible (because it’s embedded everywhere) will outperform those who treat it as a tool they “use occasionally.”

3️⃣ Build a visible “AI impact narrative” — not a usage narrative

Management doesn’t care that you used AI.
They care what AI changed.

Create a simple track record you can point to:

Faster delivery cycles
Higher accuracy
Reduced manual work
Stronger client-facing outputs
Better decision frameworks
More scenarios explored per unit time

Now - What's the one thing that AI can meaningfully improve your performance?

- Gavin 

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#ai #executivesearch #aitalent

You don’t need the title “Head of AI.”
You just need one AI success metric.

In the past month, 3 mid-career professionals asked me the same quiet question:

“What can I possibly do next?
The job market pivots to AI. 
My skills feel… falling behind.”

They weren’t wrong.
AI has reshaped the talent market.
And many were never trained to use it.

But here’s the part most people misunderstand:
Recruiters aren’t looking for AI titles.
They’re looking for proof that you can deliver impact in an AI-enabled world.

Last week, I coached a senior corporate exec from a logistics company who felt “outdated.”
His CV said “AI Project Lead.”
But zero numbers. Zero proof.

We rewrote one line:

“Reduced onboarding time by 40% through AI automation.”

Within 2 weeks, his response rate tripled.

He didn’t become more “AI.”
He simply showed he could use AI to drive real business results.

That’s what the market rewards.

Because concrete metrics beat shiny titles every time.

More importantly — talent branding has shifted.
Your value is no longer your job title.
Your value is the impact you can prove.

Here’s the paradigm shift:

You don’t need to master AI.
You need to show how AI makes you more valuable.

And you can start small.

Here’s how to build your first AI success metric — even if you’re not technical:

1️⃣ Choose one task where AI can help you work faster.
Pick something you already do — drafting emails, analysing data, summarising meetings.
AI upgrades you.
This is your easiest path to a measurable win.

2️⃣ Use AI to reduce the time by 20–40%.
Ask AI to generate drafts, automate steps, or summarize.
Small wins count — they prove productivity.

3️⃣ Measure what changed.
Track minutes saved, errors reduced, or turnaround speed.
Numbers make your story credible.

4️⃣ Turn it into one CV bullet.
Grade-5 English.
Specific.
Impact-focused.

Like:
“Cut reporting time from 3 hours to 45 minutes using AI-assisted workflows.”

5️⃣ Update your LinkedIn intro with that one metric.
Leaders and investors notice people who can deliver, not just talk about AI.

This is how mid-career professionals stay relevant.
Not by chasing new titles — but by proving real-world value.

What’s one AI result you could show if someone asked you today for proof of impact?

– Gavin

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#CareerGrowth #Executivesearch #AI #mindssearch #ExecutiveCoaching

In Asia, I’ve watched great founders turn defensive, even destructive, when investor alignment broke down.

The first argument between founders and investors rarely happens in the boardroom.

It happens in the spreadsheet.
Revenue forecasts. 
Burn rates. 
Valuation and exit pressures.

The founder sees vision.
The investor sees math.
Both are right — and both are looking for a common ground.

Here’s the deeper truth:
Most founder–investor conflicts aren’t just about results.
They’re about rhythm.

The founder is playing the long game — obsessed with legacy, momentum, and the next horizon.
The investor is reporting quarterly — focused on discipline, clarity, and protecting capital.

One’s driven by conviction.
The other by validation.

The best founders learn to measure progress without shrinking their dream.
The best investors I’ve seen translate ambition into accountability — without killing belief.

5 practical moves to achieve this goal:
1. Translate Vision into Metrics
Sit down quarterly. Founder leads the “why.” Both define the “how to measure.”
Walk out with one shared story, two columns: vision + KPIs.

2. Build Dual Dashboards
Run two scoreboards side-by-side:
• Growth (users, brand, expansion)
• Governance (burn, margin, cash)
Review both monthly — no decision if one goes dark.

3. Agree on Non-Negotiables
Founders list 3 red lines (e.g. no mission dilution).
Investors list 3 (e.g. no governance blind spots).
Put it in writing — revisit every 6 months.

4. Hold Pulse Checks
15-minute sync mid-quarter.
No slides. One question:
“Are we still aligned on rhythm?”
Prevents big misalignment later.

5. Co-Author the Narrative
After each board, founder writes vision, investor writes evidence.
One internal memo — one message.
Story + numbers = trust.

But rhythm is a choice.
You can always choose to tune before the music stops.

- Gavin

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#asialeadership #executivesearchforfounders

This chart puts a visual to the quiet anxiety a lot of us are feeling right now.

For decades, the formula was simple: Corporate growth equals hiring. 

When the S&P 500 went up, job openings followed. They synchronized.

We are witnessing the "Great Decoupling." in real time. 

The S&P 500 is roaring to new heights, driven by efficiency and AI optimism, while total job openings are freefalling back to pre-pandemic levels.

What does this mean for us as professionals?

It means the future isn’t just unequal; it’s sharply "K-Shaped." he "K" represents a split in how we work and how our value is measured.

🔹 The upward arm of the 'K': Professionals and companies using AI to decouple their output from their headcount. They are achieving exponential efficiency. Growth is no longer labor-dependent; it's capital and compute-dependent.
🔹 The downward arm of the 'K': Roles defined by repetitive cognitive tasks, or professionals waiting for the "hype to blow over." The chart shows the market no longer values this labor at the same rate.

The debate isn't "Will AI create more jobs than it destroys in 20 years?" The reality is today. Today, companies are realizing they can grow massive value without massive hiring.

If you are reading this as a knowledge worker, this may be a wake-up call. The middle ground is vanishing.

Actionable Insights for the K-Shaped Future:
🚀 Stop being a "user" and become a "leverager." 
Don't just ask ChatGPT to summarize an email. Use AI to redesign your entire workflow to be 10x faster. If your output is tethered to your hours worked, you are vulnerable.

🔍Audit your role for automation risk. 
Be honest. What percentage of your week could a sophisticated agent handle in 2 years? If it’s over 50%, pivot immediately to strategy, complex human relationship management, or high-level creative synthesis.

🤝 Become the "Human-in-the-Loop" expert. 
The upward arm of the K belongs to those who can orchestrate AI systems, audit their outputs for hallucinations, and apply high-judgment ethics to machine decisions.

The link between growth and jobs starts to break. Which side of the break are you standing on?

- Gavin

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#ArtificialIntelligence #executivesearch

When humanoid robots clean skyscrapers and load aircraft, what happens to the ‘entry-level job’?

Three headlines this week hit me harder than usual:
✈️ Amsterdam is testing robots for aircraft ground operations.
🏙️High-rise façade-cleaning robots are now commercially deployed in Asia.
⚙️Yamaha expanded its industrial robot line — longer reach, faster cycles, more flexible form factors.

Individually, these are cool engineering stories.
Together, they signal something larger:

The ‘first job’ in many industries is quietly disappearing.
Not in a dramatic Hollywood way.
But in the slow, economic way that reshapes a labour market before people realise what happened.

Because here’s the uncomfortable truth:
Technology doesn’t remove jobs — it removes the starting point of a career ladder.

And when the bottom rung disappears, the entire pathway above it must be rebuilt.

And the deeper truth emerging from these signals is this:

🤖Automation enters through the work humans avoid… but exits through the work humans thought they owned.
Cleaning buildings wasn’t a “career destination,” but it was a pathway upward.
When the pathway automates, the middle weakens next.

⚠️We’re not moving into a labour shortage—we’re moving into a skills misalignment crisis.
Japan needs robots because workers are disappearing.
ASEAN will have workers—but not enough robot-literate ones.

🔀 The divide won’t be humans vs robots—it will be humans who can work with robots vs those who can’t.
A cognitive divide.
A workflow divide.
A judgement divide.

🧩 The real competitive advantage won’t be robot hardware—it will be the ecosystem around it.
Robot OS, predictive maintenance, safety layers, orchestration software, industry-specific modules—
this is the “AWS of robotics,” and someone will own it.

In your industry, which entry-level role in your industry will automation quietly absorb first — and what new pathway replaces it?

- Gavin
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The Hidden Role of Executive Search in Scale-ups

Executive search in a scale-up isn’t about recruitment.
It’s about risk management.

When a company hits Series B or C, every new leader either protects enterprise value — or destroys it.

I’ve sat on both sides:
The founder wants someone who “gets it.”
The investor wants someone who can run it.
And somewhere between those two worlds is the person who can actually scale it.

In one Series C search, the brief wasn’t “Find me a CEO.”
It was “Find me someone the founder can trust — and the board can believe in.”

Skills were easy to check.
But the real test was chemistry, emotional maturity, and timing.
Because you’re not just hiring for execution —
you’re designing the next phase of governance.

What Smart Founders and Investors Do Differently ⚙️

1️⃣ Define the next chapter, not just the role.
Clarity on where the company is going shapes who you need — not the other way around.

2️⃣ Hire one phase ahead.
The best leaders can handle the next 18 months, not just the current quarter.

3️⃣ Run the founder–fit test early.
Don’t wait for chemistry issues post-hire — build trust during the search.

4️⃣ Split ownership clearly.
Founders lead vision, new hires lead systems — and both report truth to the board.

5️⃣ Onboard with alignment, not paperwork.
Use the first 60 days to sync culture and expectations — not just sign contracts.

The best searches don’t replace founders — they protect what made them and the company successful.
Hire for continuity.

- Gavin

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#executivesearch #scaleupleadership

If AI is part of your fund raising pitch, investors only want to know one thing:
“Does this make your business more repeatable, or more replaceable?”

I sit with a lot of early-stage founders across Asia, and there’s a pattern I’m seeing more often now.
They come in with ambitious ideas, clean slides, early success and a long list of AI features.
But when we move into the business model, very few can explain how AI might actually strengthen the engine of the company.

Not the vision.
Not the narrative.
The engine.

Last week, a founder walked me through a pitch that looked great on the surface.
But as we discussed their operations, it became clear that the AI was more decoration than discipline.
It didn’t deepen their defensibility.
It didn’t increase output consistency.
It didn’t reduce dependence on human judgment.
It was simply there, like a new coat of paint over the same old wall.

And that’s the skepticism many investors feel today.

We’re no longer asking whether AI is there.
We’re asking whether your business can survive when AI becomes a commodity — because in many categories, it already is.

A single engineer with vibe coding can now rebuild half of what used to be considered a SaaS product.
Features are less important.
Repeatability is key.

The founders who get investor trust are the one who can walk investors through a workflow and point to the exact place where AI improves speed, accuracy, or consistency — and then tie that directly to cost, margin, or scale.

When AI reduces variance, that’s repeatability.
When AI removes friction, that’s repeatability.
When AI shifts work from intuition to process, that’s repeatability.
And repeatability is what investors underwrite at early stage — because it’s the only signal that the business can grow without collapsing under its own weight.

How to make your investor deck “AI-repeatability ready”

1️⃣ Add a “Before vs After AI” slide

Show the exact process today vs. the AI-enhanced version.
Use simple numbers.
People understand contrast more than concepts.

2️⃣ Quantify one metric that moves

It can be delivery time, onboarding hours, churn, accuracy, or CAC.
One number is better than ten assumptions.
Keep it real, even if it’s early.

3️⃣ Explain why AI makes the process repeatable (solving a pain point)

Say it plainly:
“What used to depend on human judgment now depends on a system.”
Repeatability reduces risk — and investors invest to reduce risk.

4️⃣ Pressure-test the idea with a non-technical audience

If they can’t explain back how AI helps, you’re still speaking jargon.
Clear storytelling beats technical depth.

Your next investor meeting will go very differently depending on that answer.

– Gavin

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#StartupPitch #InvestorDeck #AIValue #StartupInvestment #GrowthStrategy

The Fragile Middle (0→1 vs. 1→10 vs. 10→100)

Most startups don’t die at zero.
They die in the middle.

At 0→1, everyone’s a builder.
Speed matters more than structure.
You hire missionaries, not mercenaries.
Every win feels like a miracle.

At 1→10, momentum arrives.
You start hiring specialists, building functions, tightening focus.
Meetings appear. Processes emerge.
Chaos slowly gets organized.

At 10→100, the business demands systems.
Governance, predictability, structure — everything investors love.
But that’s when something else breaks.

I’ve helped companies move from startup to scale-up, then to growth, and eventually pre-IPO.

And the most fragile stage isn’t the start —
it’s that messy, awkward scale-up → pre-IPO transition (10→100).

Because that’s when:

The company outgrows its early heroes but hasn’t yet attracted institutional leaders.
Every process feels half-built.
Everyone’s learning on the job — under investor pressure.

It’s long, scrappy, and brutally exposed.
Because for the first time, you’re building the plane while flying toward the runway.

That’s why this stage kills momentum more often than the early chaos.
The skill set that got you here — creativity, speed, hustle — now needs to evolve into discipline, clarity, and governance.
And most teams underestimate that evolution.

Here are 5 ways to navigate the messy middle 🚀
🔥 1. Build your bridge team.
Hire a few people who’ve scaled before — they’ll turn chaos into order without killing speed.

🧭 2. Write things down early.
Don’t wait to “get organized later.”
Document what works now so new hires don’t start from zero.

⚙️ 3. Balance growth and control.
Keep chasing growth, but make sure someone’s watching burn, cash, and compliance.

🧩 4. Make board talks useful.
Stop reciting updates — talk about what’s changing, what’s breaking, and what help you need.

💬 5. Communicate more than feels necessary.
The moment you think “everyone knows,” they don’t.
Keep repeating direction until it sticks.

What stage are you really leading right now: 0→1, 1→10, or 10→100? What's that one small win you can get this month. Small wins compound faster than perfect plans. 

- Gavin

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#scaleupgrowth #executivesearchforfounders

I love the positivity in this.

A young engineer getting recognised because her actions mattered more than her volume.

If AI can help leaders spot quiet, consistent, high-integrity contributors… that’s a future I’m excited about. 😊

No.1 Tech Voice to Follow & Influencer on LinkedIn|Award Winning Author|AI-IoT-Blockchain-Cybersecurity|Speaker|61k+

Google co-founder Sergey Brin ran an unusual experiment inside an internal company chat by asking #Gemini which participant deserved a promotion.
Instead of selecting senior or outspoken employees, the AI highlighted a young woman engineer who was rarely vocal but consistently contributed.
After reviewing Gemini’s suggestion, leadership approved her promotion.
The incident underscores how AI systems may surface overlooked talent that traditional performance reviews often miss.

We have 2 years before everything changes.

Not 10.
Not 5.
But 2.

I watched Steven Bartlett's new hashtag
#doac episode today, and it hit me harder than I expected.

Because the truth is — many people think AI is a “future nice problem" to have, which we would enjoy the increased productivity, accessibility to better and cheaper services and goods. 

And here’s the part people don’t want to hear:
What's the "trade" when we are opt in to this future?

Love the the balanced, real perspectives on our near future discussed in this episode. 

If you watch one thing this week, watch this:
https://lnkd.in/gfRwuiDA

This will shift how you think about the next two years — and why the real disruption is happening sooner than we think.

- Gavin

https://lnkd.in/gWDXuzqj

Open video: AI Expert: We Have 2 Years Before Everything Changes! We Need To Start Protesting! - Tristan Harris on youtu.be

AI Expert: We Have 2 Years Before Everything Changes! We Need To Start Protesting! - Tristan Harris

Cameron Kinloch

True Vantage Partners

I work with CEOs, founders, executive teams and Boards to accelerate growth and strengthen governance during critical inflection points - fundraising, scale up, IPO prep, and M&A. 

My expertise spans Finance, Biz Ops, HR, Legal, and RevOps across a wide range of industries.

Key Projects:
• M&A Advisory: Led diligence, buyer negotiations, and Board updates for a fintech company exploring strategic alternatives.
• PE Portfolio Company Scale-Up: Built Finance, HR, and Legal functions from scratch for a PE-backed company to enable scale under new ownership.
• Fundraising & Forecasting: Developed 5-year models and investor decks that supported successful Seed and Series A raises.
• Liquidity Planning: Designed cash flow and scenario models to guide capital planning and lender alignment for high-growth businesses.
• Operating Discipline: Introduced OKRs and operating "rhythm of business" that improved alignment and accountability across teams.
• Biz Ops & RevOps: Helped establish forecasting, GTM analytics, and cross-functional planning processes.

I advise, support, and execute, bringing C-suite and Board-level perspective while helping companies build the financial and operational foundations to reach key milestones.

Board, CEO & CFO Advisor

EROAD

EROAD is a public telematics company, dual listed on the NZX/ASX exchanges. Member of the Finance, Risk and Audit Committee and the Nominations Committee.

Independent Board Director, Audit & Nom Gov Committees

Copper Cow Coffee

Independent Board Director

Weights & Biases

Successful exit to CoreWeave in May 2025.  W&B is building the best in-class, enterprise grade tools for AI developers. 

I am incredibly proud of our achievements at W&B. To highlight a few:

• Significant company scaling with 10x ARR growth and headcount growth from 90 to 270
• Built Finance & Legal teams from 0 to 15 + staff; supported scaling of People, Rev Ops and Deal Desk
• Launched first long-range model, AOP, and board reporting
• Forecast accuracy >97 %
• Closed $50M Series C-2 and managed investor relations
• Implemented treasury program
• Completed clean Deloitte first-year audit with no audit adjustments
• Deployed NetSuite, Pigment, Airbase; cut close to 8 days
• Opened Japan entity

Chief Financial Officer

Guided Board and CEO through M&A exit to private equity. Chair of Strategic Planning Committee. Finance Committee.

Independent Board Director, Audit & Strategic Planning Committees

Dynamic Signal

Led successful M&A exit to private equity for enterprise SaaS company with 30% of the Fortune 100 as customers. 

Led all M&A workstreams for the company (banker selection, diligence, negotiation of deal terms, closing of the transaction and integration) while also leading Finance, Legal and Revenue Operations.

Bulletproof 360

Joined as CFO of Bulletproof.  Promoted to COO and added to the Board of Directors within 6 weeks of joining.  The full executive team reported into me.

• Full operational responsibility across Sales, Marketing, e-Commerce, Supply Chain, R&D, Finance, Legal, HR, and Customer Service
• Restructured operations and cost structure to achieve profitability within 6 months
• Led creation of Compensation and Audit Committees and refinement of corporate governance policies and practices

Chief Financial Officer, Chief Operating Officer and Board Director

Ripple Foods

Full CFO responsibilities. Recruited to lead all Finance functions reporting to the CEO.

• Board: Led Board discussions on financials.  Managed Board agenda and resolutions
• Financings: $65mm Series C announced January 2018; led upsize of large debt facilities
• Audit: Managed successful completion of first year audit
• Team: Built out Accounting and FP&A team from 2 to 8 in ten months

SVP, Finance

Ripple

Full CFO responsibilities for global enterprise software and payments company, reporting to CEO.

Recruited to lead all Finance and Facilities functions.  Finance responsibilities spanned FP&A, Accounting, Business Intelligence, Investor Relations, Revenue Operations, Treasury, and Tax.

• Strategy: Developed framework to refine and drive alignment to long-term company strategy 
• Finance: $55mm Series B announced September 2016. Transformed Finance into a strategic partnering function across entire business and built out key finance functions from scratch
• Operations: Drove operational maturity and excellence as the company rapidly scaled its enterprise sales. Scoped, established and helped hire key roles across the company
• Metrics: Created company goal setting process and responsible for cascading goals throughout the organization. Defined key company metrics
• Tax: Led initiatives to optimize company's global tax structure
• Investor Relations: Established IR function for digital asset and equity investors
• Facilities: Led global facilities function and full build-out of 30,000 sq. ft new HQ

VP of Finance

Box, Sunrun

Recruited to establish and scale critical finance functions and the FP&A organization at several incredible companies.  Built teams and established finance functions from scratch through hyper-growth, international expansion, multiple acquisitions and IPO.  

Took Box through the S-1 process and Sunrun through IPO. Took on progressively larger and more senior roles culminating in VP, FP&A role.

VP of FP&A

As a CFO, COO and 4x Board Director, I bring over 20 years of experience leading companies through pivotal transitions and driving strategic growth. 

Here's how I've helped some of the most prominent startups on Wall Street and in Silicon Valley scale:

↳ Led companies to triple-digit growth and profitability within six months.
↳ Spearheaded numerous eight-digit debt, equity, and convertible fundraises.  Achieved 100% direct sales growth while reducing costs by 20%.
↳ Advised CEOs and companies ranging from $2M to $450M+ in revenue through multiple funding rounds, IPOs and M&A exits. 
↳ Served on 4 boards, both private and public, guiding CEOs and management teams.
    
I grew up in LA where grit and education were non-negotiable. That drive took me from a public school to Harvard—and eventually to Wall Street.

My time on Wall Street was a wild ride. While I loved the fast-paced world of finance, I found my true passion in Silicon Valley, helping tech companies grow and succeed.

I’ve enjoyed combining my financial expertise with the innovative spirit of startups, guiding them through growth, IPOs, and successful exits. In the past decade, I've had the chance to work with visionary founders, helping them scale while setting them up for long-term success.

Now, I’m on a mission to help companies grow, using everything I’ve learned.

Here’s how I can help you:

1) Speak at your event on leadership, finance, or scaling startups.
2) Advise your company on navigating growth challenges, preparing for an IPO, or improving financial performance.

Shoot me a DM or email me at cameron.kinloch@gmail.com, and we’ll chat more.

We are building the best in-class, enterprise grade tools for AI developers. Our vision is to be the single system of records for all things AI within an organization.

Used by teams at NVIDIA, OpenAI, Lyft, Blue River Technology, Toyota, and MILA, W&B is part of the new standard of best practices for AI.

Early in my career as a CFO, I opened a 60-slide board deck to present in our quarterly meeting.

By slide 4, the Chair stopped me and asked, “Cameron, what do you want from us?”

That question stung and it changed how I run boards forever. 💡

Board meetings aren’t report-outs.
They’re decision forums.

It’s not about reciting metrics or proving effort.
It’s about getting clarity on what moves next. 🎯

Here’s the 3-step formula I now follow to make that happen:

1) Start with the ask.

Before you open your deck, be clear on what you need from the board.
A decision? A green light? A perspective?

If you can’t summarize your ask in one sentence, you’re not ready to present.

2) Simplify the narrative.

Most CFOs think the board wants everything. They don’t.

They want the why and the so what. Cut the noise, connect the dots, and frame every slide around what truly matters to the business.

3) Tie every metric to a story.

Don’t stop at “what happened.” Explain “why it matters” and “what we’ll do next.”

Every metric should lead somewhere, otherwise, it’s trivia.

Once I reframed meetings around action, everything changed.
Our discussions became faster, decisions clearer, and execution sharper. ⚡

That shift also supercharged trust.

The board began seeing finance not as a function but as a strategic partner that keeps the business moving forward.

If you’re a CFO still measuring success by how much you present → flip it.

Measure it by how clearly the board moves after you’re done.

P.S. I advise CFOs and VPs of Finance on building decision clarity, tighter narratives, and leadership rhythms that move the business forward. Reach out if you want to strengthen how your team shows up in the boardroom.

Board Director | CFO & COO | 4 Exits, 2 IPOs | Advisor to High-Growth CEOs and CFOs

After 15 years in the C-suite and 4 board seats, I’ve noticed the same mistakes that quietly stop talented finance leaders from becoming CFO:

1) They think like controllers, not operators.

CFOs don’t just report numbers - they shape decisions.

If you never talk about customers, product, competitive pressure, or revenue levers, you’re signaling you’re a functional expert… not an enterprise leader.

2) They build relationships up, not across.

Great CFOs aren’t just trusted by the CEO and board.

They’re trusted by GTM, Product, Ops, and People because they show up early, listen, and help solve real problems.

3) They can model a forecast but not tell the story.

The CFOs who earn board confidence connect everything in one clean thread: what’s happening, why it matters, what options exist, and the trade-offs behind each path.

Boards remember the narrative - not the spreadsheet.

4) They wait to be invited in.

Future CFOs don’t sit back. They initiate scenario plans, pressure-test strategy, and surface risks before anyone asks.

5) They stay stuck in precision mode.

Perfect accuracy slows companies down.

Standout CFOs set decision thresholds, embrace scenario ranges, and call out the unknowns so the business can move faster.

6) They solve today’s problem, not the next stage.

Boards choose the leader who can scale the company from $20M → $50M, $50M → $200M, or pre-IPO → public.

Your mindset must shift with the stage.

7) They underestimate how much the CFO role is leadership.

Most misses aren’t technical - they’re about influence.
CFOs lead rooms, drive alignment, and bring clarity in moments where ambiguity is high.

The difference between a great finance leader and a CFO isn’t technical skill.
It’s how you think, how you lead, and how you show up.

PS: I coach finance leaders on strategic storytelling, board communication, and executive presence. If you’d like to explore working together, send me a DM.

Starbucks’ new CFO, Cathy Smith, turned heads this year with a $5 million cash signing bonus and a $6.4 million equity grant.

But the real headline isn’t the pay.

It’s why she was hired.

Smith stepped in at a moment when Starbucks was facing:

☕ Multiple quarters of declining same-store sales
☕ A weakening emotional connection with customers
☕ A culture and operating model that needed a reset

This wasn’t a “steady state” CFO hire.

It was a turnaround hire paired intentionally with CEO Brian Niccol.

Because today’s CFO mandate has changed.

It’s not just a finance problem.
It’s a leadership problem.

And that’s exactly why she was chosen.

Boards today don’t want CFOs who just balance books.
They want CFOs who can lead the business forward.

It’s no longer about reporting what happened, it’s about shaping what happens next.

1) From finance leader → enterprise leader

Cathy Smith wasn’t hired to oversee accounting.
She was hired to rebuild momentum - Using finance as the lens for execution, culture, and customer experience

2) From data → narrative building

Financial Precision matters, but it doesn’t move people
The CFO who can extract meaning behind earnings, costs, and forecasts, and turn it into a clear story, inspires belief across investors, employees, and the board.

3) From siloed thinking → cross-functional leadership

Turnarounds don’t happen from one department.
The most effective CFOs align teams, re-energize culture, and enable faster, better decisions across the entire business.

Starbucks didn’t hire Cathy Smith for where the company is.

They hired her for where it needs to go.

And they placed a bet that finance leadership can help drive that shift.

Lesson:

The CFOs who shape the future - not just report the past - are the ones defining the next era of leadership.

PS: If you’re a CFO or VP of Finance preparing for that next step, I coach leaders on the real levers of the role: strategic narrative, board communication, and enterprise leadership. DM me if you want to explore working together.

Forbes called her the most powerful and influential CFO of the last decade…

But when Google hired Ruth Porat in 2015, most analysts doubted she was the right fit.

A Wall Street operator at an innovation-driven tech giant? 
Many assumed her discipline would slow Google down.

The opposite happened:

📈 Alphabet’s market value grew past $3 trillion during her tenure
🚀 The stock jumped after her early earnings calls
💡 The company consistently beat revenue and profit expectations

Here’s what she actually changed - and what today’s CFOs can learn from her:

1) Anchor decisions in data.

Porat was famous for saying, “The answer is a number.”
Data over opinions. Signal over noise. It cut through politics fast.

2) Replace passion projects with real frameworks.

She introduced structure to how Google funded big bets.
Teams had to prove why they deserved capital - not just ask for it.

3) Challenge the status quo.

She pushed back on excess, tightened spend, and reset expectations.
Not to clip innovation - but to fuel the right innovation.

4) Think in decades, not quarters.

Her support for AI and Cloud was grounded in long-term value creation.
CFOs don’t just protect the present. They underwrite the future.

5) Earn investor trust through transparency.

By separating core results from “Other Bets,” she gave investors clarity.
Clarity → confidence → multiple expansion.

Porat didn’t shrink Google. She sharpened it.

That’s the new era of finance leadership:

CFOs don’t just keep companies healthy. 

They shape strategy.
They influence product priorities. 
They build investor conviction. 
And they make the long term impossible to ignore. 💪

PS: If you’re a CFO or VP of Finance preparing for that next step, I coach leaders on the real levers of the role: strategic narrative, board communication, and enterprise leadership. 

DM me if you want to explore working together.

At 25, my boss called me into her office...

"You're making great progress, but we're holding off on the promotion..."

I didn’t get it.

Now that I’m in the C-suite, I see why that promotion never came.

I was the hardest worker in the room.
Answering emails at midnight.
Taking every project.
Saying 'yes' to everything.

But here’s what I didn’t understand then:
Hard work isn’t the same as visible impact. 💡

I kept my head down. 
I never talked about my wins. 
I never connected my work to the bigger business story.

20 years later, I still see employees being misled.

❌ The hardest worker doesn’t get promoted.
❌ The smartest worker doesn’t get promoted.

✅ The person who shows their value gets promoted.

Your work won't speak for itself.
You have to.

Make your value impossible to miss.

- Pitch your ideas in meetings
- Talk about your career goals during 1:1s
- Tie your wins to business objectives
- Bring solutions, not just problems
- Celebrate milestones through internal channels

Quiet mouths don’t get fed.

And in your career, visibility is a skill - not a personality trait.

Early in my tenure as a board director, I emailed a question about an assumption in the financial model.

Within hours...

- The Chair acknowledged the question
- A fellow director asked for clarification
- Management responded with context the next day
- The item was added to the next meeting agenda

That simple exchange told me everything → this board values transparency, accountability, and speed.

And I realized you can learn a lot about a board’s culture from something small: how they respond when a director raises a concern over email.

On less mature boards, the same note is met with silence, defensiveness, or deferral.

And the truth is, concerns don’t disappear.

 They just reappear later as bigger, more expensive problems.

Governance reveals itself in small moments.

A healthy board:

✅ Acknowledges
✅ Clarifies
✅ Discusses
✅ Acts

An unhealthy board avoids all four.

We talk a lot about culture in the boardroom, but you can usually see it long before the meeting starts.

In 2003, Michael Fiddelke joined Target as a finance intern.
In 2019, he became CFO.
In 2026, he’s set to become the CEO of the $106 billion giant.

Here’s a big lesson if you’re a finance professional and you want to scale your career:
🎯 Think beyond finance.

Fiddelke didn’t rise to the top just by mastering accounting entries or delivering perfect forecasts.

He rotated through merchandising, operations, supply chain, and strategy.
He learned how the business actually works.

That’s the part most finance professionals miss.
Here’s what thinking beyond finance actually looks like:

1) Understand how money moves. 

Go beyond the P&L. Learn where value is created, where it leaks, what slows revenue down, and what accelerates it.

2) Speak the language of operators.

Talk in customer impact, velocity, margin, and growth. When you translate numbers into business outcomes, influence goes up.

3) Build cross-functional trust. 

The best insights live with the people closest to the work. When they trust you, they’ll tell you what the spreadsheet never will.

4) Drive decisions.

Executives don’t need more data, they need clarity. Frame trade-offs, recommend a path, make decisions easy to act on. Then you’re a strategic partner, not just a reporting function.

5) Solve problems outside finance

Fixing bottlenecks in GTM, product, or ops grows your impact far faster than polishing another report.

The truth is simple:

You don’t grow your career just by getting better at finance.
You accelerate when you become more valuable to the business. 💡

That’s the shift Fiddelke made early.

And it’s exactly the shift high-growth finance professionals need to make now.

P.S. After 15+ years in the C-suite, 4 exits, and 2 IPOs, I now coach finance leaders on strategic storytelling, board communication, and executive leadership. If you’d like to explore working together, send me a DM.

12 career principles I’ve learned as a C-suite leader and 4x Board Director that I wish I knew on day one:

👇

1) Become the go-to person for hard problems. Solve what others avoid and you become impossible to replace. 💡

2) The best communicator wins.
It’s not the idea - it’s your ability to get others to believe in it.

3) You don’t get what you deserve. You get what you negotiate. Closed mouths don’t get promoted.

4) No one gets promoted for “doing their job.” Growth comes from stretching beyond your job description.

5) Make other people look good. If you help them win, they’ll pull you up with them. 🤝

6) Soft skills pay the highest ROI. Selling, influencing, navigating tough conversations - that’s leverage.

7) Speed matters. Fast movers get more opportunities because they create momentum.

8) Grow by being the least experienced person in the room. If you’re always the expert, you’re not learning anymore.

9) Being right isn’t enough. If you can’t persuade, you can’t lead.

10) Your first decade is about skills, not salary. Chase learning. The comp follows competence. 🎯

11) Reputation compounds. Every action builds or erodes your future opportunities. Protect it.

12) People don’t follow titles. They follow value. Become someone worth listening to.

What’s one lesson you wish you knew earlier?
Let me know in the comments.

My CEO once said in frustration, “Cameron, can’t we just agree for once?”

We were prepping board materials, and I kept pushing back on his assumptions.

Early in my career, I saw moments like this as conflict.
Now, I see them for what they really are - trust being tested. 🤝

The best CEO–CFO relationships aren’t built on harmony.
They’re built on truth.

My job isn’t to match the CEO’s optimism or nod along.
It’s to protect clarity.

Here’s what great partnership actually looks like:

🧩 Challenge privately, align publicly It builds credibility in both directions.

🎯 Speak in tradeoffs, not turf wars “What’s the cost?” and “What’s the upside?” are the real questions.

📊 Push for facts, even when it’s uncomfortable

Respect grows when you bring precision, not politics.

A good CFO manages numbers.
A great CFO manages tension.

Alignment doesn’t mean agreement.

It means friction delivered with respect - and clarity that elevates the whole company.

P.S. If you’re a finance or operations leader trying to build this kind of trust with your CEO, I coach leaders through exactly that shift. DM me if that’s where you want to grow.

If you’re a CFO getting labeled “too cautious” or “too tough,” here’s the real story:

You’re doing exactly what the business needs.

Here’s why:

1) You protect the company from bad spending

When the world expected Apple to chase splashy acquisitions, CFO Luca Maestri stayed disciplined. No wasteful M&A. No undisciplined expansion.

A focus on efficiency, capital returns, and precision in R&D.
Instead, he doubled down on operational efficiency, capital returns, and precision in R&D spending.

✅ Result: Apple’s stock value grew approximately 800%, and its cash reserves now exceed $160 billion giving it the freedom to innovate that no competitor can match.

2) You ask the questions no one wants to answer.

When Ruth Porat joined Google as CFO in 2015, she immediately started asking uncomfortable questions about spending priorities and accountability.

She cut unnecessary moonshot projects and demanded clarity on ROI for each initiative.
Critics said she was “too strict” for Google’s free-spending culture.

✅ Result: Google’s market capitalization soared from $384 billion to nearly $3 trillion during her tenure, and she set the standard for financial focus in Big Tech.

3) You choose integrity over popularity.

As a finance leader and later CEO, Indra Nooyi resisted pressure to optimize only for short-term profits. She pushed PepsiCo toward healthier categories.
A move Wall Street initially hated.

✅ Result: PepsiCo evolved into one of the most diversified and future-ready CPG portfolios while competitors played catch-up.

The traits people criticize in CFOs are often the ones that keep companies resilient when things go wrong.

Leadership isn’t about being liked. It’s about being responsible.

After 15 years in the C-suite, 3 M&A exits, and 2 IPOs, I now help VPs of Finance and incoming CFOs sharpen their leadership, communication, and board presence. If you want to operate like the strategic partner every CEO wants, DM me.

3 weeks into my new job, a team member said I was “killing the vibe” of the office.

I was the company’s first CFO.

Right after joining, I introduced spend discipline and tight budgets. 💸

Which meant most people thought I was there to stop the spending party.
I’ve seen this pattern many times.

First-time CEOs often feel like they’re handing over the keys to someone who’s going to slam on the brakes.

My strategy?
Lead with empathy. 🤝

Founders and executives are all trying to grow the business and maximize value.

We just see it through different lenses:

- Marketing wants to scale the brand.
- Product wants more engineers to build faster.
- Sales wants more headcount to close more deals.

And finance?
Finance wants to make sure there’s a runway long enough to make any of those things possible.

Strong CFOs are strategic partners.

⏳ We don’t just track burn; we extend runway.
🎲 We don’t just manage budgets; we back the right bets.
📊 We don’t just report numbers; we shape the investor story.

In the end, the vibe isn’t about unchecked freedom.

It’s about shared direction.

I'm there to support the business go spend on what matters most.

I’m there to help the business spend on what matters most. 

That’s how speed becomes sustainable.

PS: After 15 years in Silicon Valley, 3 M&A exits, and 2 IPOs, I now coach CFOs and Heads of Finance to lead with influence, drive strategy, and operate with executive clarity. DM me if that’s where you want to grow next.

There have been moments in my career as a board director where I’ve looked around the table and realized I was the only one with my hand up.

And I felt a familiar hesitation → “Is it just me?”

But here’s what experience teaches you:

Board work isn’t about avoiding disagreement.
It’s about protecting the decision.

Asking the lone question isn’t a sign you’re out of sync.

It’s often a sign you’re seeing something others haven’t processed yet.

Here’s why those questions matter:

1) Timing matters → early questions prevent late surprises.

In the early 2000s, LEGO was near bankruptcy after expanding into too many unrelated products.

The board asked a pivotal question: “What business are we really in?”

Refocusing on core brick-based play laid the foundation for their turnaround. 🎯

2) Discomfort matters → the best questions feel awkward before they become necessary.

When a question feels risky, it’s usually because it challenges an assumption the group has quietly accepted as truth.

That’s when a board earns its keep - by seeking a truer picture, not a more comfortable one.

3) Conviction matters → if it sits in your mind, it deserves airtime. 🔁

In the 1980s, Intel was still clinging to its memory-chip business even as Japan dominated the market.

Andy Grove kept asking why Intel was fighting to save a business it had already lost.

That conviction drove Intel to pivot to microprocessors -A decision that shaped the next 30 years of computing.

4) Perspective matters → fresh eyes catch what familiarity filters out.

Teams closest to a decision stop seeing its weak points. 🧩

A question from someone less entangled can break the certainty loop and reframe the entire discussion.

Remember:

Board work isn’t about perfect alignment.
It’s about pressure testing the decision until it’s truly sound.

And sometimes the most valuable person in the room is the one willing to raise a hand when no one else does.

One of the most important leadership lessons I’ve learned is this:
Hire for capacity, not comfort.

I learned that 15 years ago at Goldman.

I had years of capital markets experience - but not the traditional investment-banking background.

A Partner hired me anyway.

She wasn’t optimizing for familiarity.
She was optimizing for growth.

→ She saw trajectory, not gaps
→ She saw velocity, not pedigree
→ She saw how fast I could scale, not what I hadn’t done yet

And she didn’t shelter me from the work.

From day one, I was staffed on the hardest deals:

📈 70-hour weeks absorbing the pace of banking
📊 High-stakes negotiations with seasoned clients
⏳ Tight deadlines building and defending complex models

It was intense, uncomfortable, and career-defining.

But that experience shaped how I evaluate talent today - as a CFO, as a board director, and as a leader of teams:

- Who learns fastest under pressure?
- Who can operate at altitude before they feel “ready”?
- Who grows into stretch, not away from it?
- Who has the judgment to scale into bigger roles?

Capacity is the real differentiator.

Not resume lines.
Not prior roles.
Not perfect pedigree.

The leaders who bet on capacity build organizations that outperform.

The leaders who hire for comfort build teams that stall.

I’ve seen $500M+ companies crash post-IPO.
On the other hand, I’ve seen $100M companies thrive.

At Goldman, I helped evaluate IPO candidates and prepare them for the public stage.

In Silicon Valley, I was Head of FP&A at Sunrun and Box through their IPO journeys.

I’ve sat on both sides of the table.

And the brutal lesson is always the same:
Maturity beats size.

Most CEOs and CFOs nail the table-stakes metrics:

✅ Revenue growth rates
✅ Market size projections
✅ Competitive positioning

But the real predictors go deeper.

Here are the 5 signals that separate IPO-ready companies from the rest:

1) Consistent Performance → Six or more quarters of steady execution, hitting guidance even when markets shift.

2) Operational Discipline → 5-day close or less, SOX-ready controls, teams that thrive under investor scrutiny.

3) Narrative Clarity → CEO and CFO can articulate the growth story in one sentence - and analysts can repeat it.

4) Leadership Alignment → Management and the board united on strategy, numbers, and messaging.

5) Market Pull → Analysts already tracking and investors leaning in before the S-1.

Here’s the truth:

💪 IPO ≠ graduation ceremony
🎯 IPO = starting gun for quarterly judgment

The companies that thrive don’t just prepare for a financing event.
They build the muscles of a public company long before they ever file.

The real question isn’t: “Have we hit $X in revenue?”
It’s: “Are we mature enough to deliver quarter after quarter?”

P.S. I advise CEOs, CFOs, and boards on IPO readiness, governance, and financial strategy, drawing on 20+ years across Wall Street and Silicon Valley, 3 M&A exits, and 2 IPOs.

If your company is preparing to go public, now is the time to build those muscles.

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