Fp&A/Strategic Finance Lead

FP&A/Strategic Finance Lead

Location:San Francisco Bay Area*

About the Company

We believe it should be easy for pet parents to do the right thing. At Pawlicy Advisor, personalized advice from the most trustworthy experts ensures pets get the best care possible.

Pawlicy Advisor is a fast-growing, venture-backed startup focused on helping pet owners around the country find the right health products for their pets, starting with pet health insurance. Pet insurance’s popularity is growing rapidly as pet owners seek protection from the high cost of veterinary care. Our pet insurance marketplace takes into account a pet’s breed-specific health risks to help people find the right policy for their pet. We also save pet owners money by analyzing pricing differences and premium increases over the lifetime of an animal.

We market to pet parents through a number of channels, but the partners we value the most are veterinarians. Vets love pet insurance because it increases that chance a pet parent will be able to afford the cost of treatment, but vets don’t know what providers to recommend and don’t want the liability associated with recommending a specific brand. Pawlicy Advisor helps thousands of vet offices across the US by simplifying the treatment financing conversation.

*Although we are currently a remote company, we intend to establish permanent offices in San Francisco and NYC following our next major round of funding. The CFO, this position, and future permanent finance and accounting hires will reside in the San Francisco Bay Area. We currently use WeWork offices on a part-time basis. This position will be required to meet in person in downtown San Francisco 1-2 days per week.

>>> San Francisco Bay Area location is a job requirement

About our finance function and this role

This will be the second finance hire for the company, reporting directly to the CFO. The CFO joined the company in October 2023 and recently led the leadership team through Pawlicy’s first budgeting and strategic planning exercise for 2024. You will be inheriting the foundation that is already built. 

Strategic finance

We have a unique GTM channel partnering with veterinarians. Each vet office partnership opens up exposure to potential consumer customers (who we call pet parents :) where we educate customers on pet insurance. When customers buy pet insurance policies we are entitled to a commission from the insurance carriers. 

Thus, our financial model includes dozens of complex assumptions around vet acquisition economics, customer education outreach cadences, funnel conversions and policy retention. Your work will support a great number of trade-off decisions such as product road-map prioritizations. 

Based on individual vet office partnerships closed today, we project cash flow for the next ten years. This requires substantial judgment given that the company is very young and Pet insurance is still a niche industry in the US. If complex assumptions around big data sets excites you, this is the role for you. 

Your work will also support decisions around structuring and negotiating future partnership agreements beyond our D2C and vet channels live today. 

Core FP&A

This includes the essential blocking and tackling of regularly updating a rolling forecast and informing department heads of their opex spend relative to budget and the latest forecast. In mid/late 2024 you will lead the process to plan for the 2025 budget. We are in a dynamic mid-growth stage, you will need to develop a flexible style to incorporate several moving variables as the business evolves and matures. 

Financing

You will support the CEO and CFO on future debt and equity financings.

Other

If you crush everything above and still have room, there are many other things you can take on. For example, 

• Support to Director of Carrier Relations on insurance commission economics
• Sales ops support
• G&A tech stack mgmt. Currently QBO, Justworks, Brex, Wells Fargo. 
• Financial statement audit preparation/support
• Business Insurance
• New company benefit plan research
• Other compliance - 401k, taxes, state registrations etc. 

Requirements

• Excel three-statement modeling You will take complete ownership of our operating model, full stop. This will be a focus of the interview. 
• Budgeting/Forecasting - You must have experience as a finance business partner to multiple department heads, if not the entire leadership team, through several budgeting/forecasting cycles.
• Operating experience in a dynamic, high growth environment ( 2-5 years*) - you must have experience with the operational rigor of running a company, specifically establishing and refining recurring processes, collecting/analyzing data from various company systems, periodic budget to actual reporting, etc. *There is not an explicit number of years of experience required, though generally qualified candidates will have 2-5 year's experience in a similar capacity.
• Analytical, data/detail oriented workstyle - This is a very quant heavy role. You need to operate fluently at 50,000 feet, in the weeds of data, and everything in between.
• Communication skills - you will relied upon by many people to boil down complex financial scenarios into clear actionable decisions. Your stakeholders will cover all business functions and seniority levels.
• Legally authorized to work in the United States without sponsorship
• Reside in the San Francisco bay area

Preferred

• Investment banking or consulting experience
• Insurance industry experience (carrier or brokerage side)
• Pet health care industry experience
• Marketplace and/or cloud technology experience
• MBA
• Bachelor's degree in finance, accounting or economics
• Basic G/L accounting chops

Benefits

• Competitive market salary (range $120,000 - $180,000)
• Equity grants
• Flexible (currently unlimited) vacation. We’re focused primarily on your output.
• Top tier health, dental, vision insurance
• Full 3% 401k employer contributions
• The chance to be an early hire at a well-funded, venture-backed startup and help build a billion-dollar business focused on helping pets.

FAQs

Where is the Pawlicy Advisor team located?

Pawlicy is headquartered in NYC and currently the majority of the team operates remotely with a few focused work places around the country. We meet up for company offsites on a regular basis where we fly the whole team out to a fun destination and spend a few days team building. Our last few involved paddle boarding, ropes courses, horse riding, and some early morning yoga. We can’t wait for the next one :)How large are you as a business?

At the time this job post was written, we’re 28. By the end of 2024 we expect to be at approximately 35. Happy to talk more about it in person but below are few stats to get you excited:

●     1000’s of veterinarians are using our product every day to help educate their clients about treatment financing options

●     We account for a meaningful percentage of the total new pet insurance selected in the US

●     We’ve raised >$19M in venture capital to dateHow does Pawlicy Advisor make money?

We're a licensed insurance agency so we get paid a commission by the pet insurance company when we help pet parents buy a plan for their pet. These commissions are already priced into the cost of pet health insurance so they’re not paying extra to work with us.