FP&A · Corporate planning
Planning the finance and corporate team ahead of an IPO
Context
Japanese HR-tech startup, about three years before a planned IPO. I advised management remotely from London on FP&A and corporate planning.
Situation
The back office was run by a very small team. Management needed to know which corporate functions it would need before an IPO, what they would cost, and how to keep people costs in line with revenue.
What I did
- Designed the target corporate structure (finance, HR, general affairs and legal, IT, internal audit) and the pay bands for each grade.
- Built a people-cost model by department (sales, marketing, engineering), with each budget set as a share of revenue.
- Owned the ~£3.3M annual budget and built LTV/CAC and cash-flow models.
Result
A 5% (~£165K) cost reduction, operating margin lifted to 9.2%, and runway extended by three months.
Client name is not published. GBP figures are converted from JPY.