Greetings 👋. It's our June edition of No Half Sends. I’m writing this month’s post from 30,000ft and a Southwest flight attendant just sang a lovely rendition of Happy Birthday to two young ladies headed to Vegas. Everybody clapped and was smiling. Bring a little bit of joy to those around you today.

To frame our update: we help growth companies elevate their financial and operational data through tech-forward accounting, finance, and data services.

I received this email from a client last week:

Your team has had such a tremendous impact on our company in the past couple months since being onboarded. I am so appreciative of your support and expertise. You all have already added so much value in such a short amount of time. ~ $20M CPG Client

Oh, and we had only been working with them for 3 weeks! Our Director of Accounting, Kathy Chmiel, has been leading some massive changes in such a short amount of time. Amazing work!

Let’s Dive In 👇.

💥 TL;DR

1. Your CFO Should Own Your Data Strategy
2. Q1 2024 Data in VC
3. Hype and $50M in Capital Goes Up in Flames
4. Colorado Startup Scene for Foodies
5. Our Team Sending it in the Wild

☝️ The Office of the CFO should own the data strategy.

Our core mission at Full Send is to Elevate _______ Data. Elevate your financial, operational, sales, etc. data. It’s a lofty ethos, but we believe that we can make waves through a tech-forward approach, great people, and excellent client service

When we think about the future of the CFO, we immediately hone in on data. AI and automation will be central themes and explored in all that we do, BUT the efficacy of those tools is limited to the data infrastructure that lies underneath. Currently, very few large organizations have a Chief Data Officer (CDO) and virtually all SMB’s operate without a centralized data strategy.

This leads us to believe that until CDO’s become the norm rather than the exception, the office of the CFO will be responsible for managing, coordinating, and interpreting business data. Currently, most businesses operate in siloed data sets in disparate systems:

• Sales data in Hubspot
• Subscription data in Stripe
• Ecomm data in Shopify
• Accounting data in Quickbooks
• and the list goes on…

With a cohesive data strategy, the CFO is enabled to seamlessly provide cross-functional intelligence to the right departments at the right time. For example, if insights/KPI’s are commonly overlooked or ignored, the CFO can identify opportunities to embed analytics and metrics within a business process to reduce the time required to fetch and evaluate insights needed to operate intelligently.

More to come on this front, but it goes without saying that we’re bullish on data 🤘.

😐 Q1 2024 Venture Capital Data

Speaking of data… You can’t just ignore the data, but thanks to Carta for publishing it. Unfortunately, Q1 of this year was pretty rough on the venture front.

• The highest number of down rounds in the last 5 years.
• The number of priced seed rounds declined significantly.
• Higher liquidation preferences started becoming more prevalent.
• Valuations were stagnant, but volume was down 44%.

Alright, so what’s the takeaway? What do we do?

• Fundraising is Now Your Second Full-Time Job - Previously, beginning your fundraising process 6-9 months ahead of your next raise was fairly common place. In this environment, it’s non-stop.
  • Build strong investor relationships
  • Seek value-add investors - industry connections, operational support, or strategic guidance
  • Never stop networking and finding ways to get plugged in with new investors
• Strengthen Your Financial Health - Stagnant valuations force founders to focus on optimizing cash flow and runway extension. Identify opportunities to improve operational efficiencies and ensure that you are financially prepared for any and all investor conversations that arise - reporting, metrics, and an established data room.
• Sustainability - A 44% decline in deal volume in Q1 will force companies into fight or flight. Your decision making must prioritize sustainability at every turn. If a key decision does not support your movement towards profitability, it may be prudent to de-prioritize that initiative in favor of opportunities that improve your outcomes of staying alive.

Give us feedback on what’s working, what could use improvement, and how we can better serve our clients, community, and industry - howdy@fullsendfinance.com.

🚀 Need to know: Startups

> Hype, $50M in capital, and ~10M customers doesn’t guarantee success. Ever since SVB’s collapse in 2023, the banking-as-a-service (BAAS) space has seen wild growth. Synapse was the biggest middleman enabling technology companies to offer banking services and filed Chapter 11 bankruptcy and liquidated their assets in a recent fire-sale. The ripple effect of this collapse is huge. (a16z-Backed Fintech Goes Under)

> Change Brings Opportunity to the Accelerator Landscape. With the Techstars departure from key locations, including Seattle, a few folks are looking to fill the void in a unique way. There is tremendous value in bringing entrepreneurs together - who is going to do it in Colorado? (New B-Corp Accelerator in Seattle)

Are you fundraising/hiring? Know someone who is? We want to feature those in our network who are seeking capital, connections, or resources. Reach out to us at howdy@fullsendfinance.com for more information!

🏗️ Colorado Startups: Our Backyard

> Outdoor recreation moves out of Colorado, but the people stay to build. There is so much that Colorado has to offer the outdoor recreation industry. Incredible companies have been built here, but have moved out subsequent to M&A activity in search of “synergies“. One cool note in this article is the talent of Matt Giaraffa, Former Founder of Guerrilla Gravity, having stayed to continue to bolster the Outdoor Rec industry by joining our client, Supertramp Campers. They’re building incredible high-quality products for outdoor enthusiasts. (Acquired and Away, but Builders Stay)

> Here are 5 Colorado startups changing the food landscape (and a bonus one from me). Death and taxes are certain, but food, water, clothing, sleep, and shelter are critical for life. Startups operating in mission-critical spaces can be positioned to drive sustainability for all. Here’s one startup that isn’t mentioned in this article that’s having a big impact in our backyard - Goodie Bag Food Co. Here is their mission - We connect people to local shops' perfectly good unsold food at discounted prices for pickup. Download their app today! (Here are 5 Other Startups Solving Food Problems in Our Backyard)

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🏔️ Sending it in the Wild

> We publicly launched our Data Intelligence offering ✌️. Thrilled to expand our potential to positively impact client outcomes. Here is my overview on the launch!

> We welcomed Emily Drumm to the team as a Senior Manager in our finance practice! Emily brings a keen sense of detail, a joyful vibe, and a sense of adventure to the team 🤘.

> Our Intel team volunteered with Food For Thought Denver and packed hundreds of bags of food to deliver to school children around the Denver metro area.

Clickbait: A 600-year tradition… A cheese-rolling race in Gloucestershire, UK was held last week and won by a woman from North Carolina. Here’s the wild race that you have to see to believe.

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✌️ Roman @ Full Send

Why Full Send? We’re on a mission to elevate financial data through high quality accounting and finance services, building more knowledgeable and engaged team members, and engaging in our industry to move accounting and finance forward.

Send us your feedback at howdy@fullsendfinance.com and help us stay as sendy as humanly possible. We’re ready to listen.