Bob Finley

Bob Finley

Bob Finley joined FLG in 2020 and became a FINRA Registered Representative in 2022. As a Registered Representative, Bob can defer the bulk of his compensation until after a transaction closes through a success fee. This includes equity and debt raises, M&A and roll-ups. This allows clients to conserve their precious capital until a transaction closes and they get an injection of cash.

Bob has over 25 years of CFO experience in rapidly growing VC-backed companies. His work goes from pre-revenue start-ups to rapidly growing companies heading towards $100M or more in revenue. He has worked in many sectors: Consumer Product Goods, Cybersecurity, Hardware, Manufacturing, SaaS and Technology. He has set up operations domestically and globally.

As a CFO strategist, he helped a client avoid bankruptcy by advocating splitting the company in two: a faster-growing new HW company and an existing legacy R&D shop. The new company raised equity, then entered into an IP-royalty agreement and a shared services agreement with the R&D company, and the result is both companies avoided running out of cash.

One of the ways Bob adds value is working with Chief Revenue Officers to accelerate top-line growth; his mantra is: “Revenue cures all ills.” He will do anything that is legal and ethical to grow revenue faster. Sales teams love working with him.

Bob is very focused on optimizing the performance of finance and accounting teams. He quickly assesses the strengths of each team member, developing each one to their highest potential. His unplanned attrition rates are typically zero. If a team member is not a good fit, he works with that person to arrange a graceful exit.

Bob has worked with Exec Teams to raise over $100M in venture equity and debt. He enjoys translating numbers into compelling stories about a business’s value and potential, then working through the subsequent steps of investors’ Q&A, financial analysis, due diligence and closing. Bob has also participated in numerous M&A transactions, which have returned over $400M to investors, founders, and employees.

Bob’s career started at KPMG where he was an Auditor and later a Management Consultant, specializing in software development and implementations. After KPMG Bob worked at Citigroup and then AT&T. When one of Bob’s college friends made a ton of money at Netscape, Bob switched his career focus to VC-backed companies and has never looked back.

Bob earned a B.S. in Business Administration and an MBA, both from the University of California, Berkeley and is a CPA in California (inactive).