Today’s guest went from being the CFO of a very large telecom company where he was meeting with ministers in Jordan to joining a team of just four people at a startup in Saudi Arabia. Abdullah Tahboub, CFO of Foodics, a cloud-based POS and restaurant management solution, joins CJ to talk about this leap and explain why he wishes he had joined the startup world sooner. The conversation delves into the differences between corporate and startup CFO roles. Abdullah also explores the rapid digital transformation in the food and beverage industry in the Middle East. He outlines Foodic's business model and evolution from cashier systems to payments, becoming a comprehensive fintech and SaaS company. He provides insights into the crawl-walk-run process of this business and how he balances growth in both the SaaS and payments aspects of the org.

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@cjgustafson222 (CJ)

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TIMESTAMPS:

(00:00) Preview and Intro

(02:27) Sponsor – RightRev | Planful | Brex

(06:12) Abdullah’s Bold Career Move & Why CFOs Avoid Risks

(09:58) Being a Corporate World CFO Versus a Startup CFO

(16:05) Digital Transformation in the Food and Beverage Industry

(17:56) Sponsor – Vanta | Tropic

(20:20) Food & Beverage and Tech in the Middle East and North Africa

(23:06) The Evolution of Foodics’ Business Model

(30:17) How Lending Works in This Industry

(33:37) Balancing Growth in SaaS and Payment Revenue Streams

(36:03) Forecasting for Payments

(39:12) Staffing for Both SaaS and Payments

(41:09) The Most Difficult Part of Adding Payments

(44:16) Long-Ass Lightning Round: Dealing with Underperformers

(46:21) Advice to Younger Self

(47:04) Finance Software Stack

(47:45) Craziest Expense Story

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From Massive Corporate to Tiny Startup: Foodics CFO Abdullah Tahboub on Making the Leap

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