Praveer Melwani from Figma

Praveer Melwani is the CFO of Figma.

Takeaways

• Joining Figma as employee 25 (now at ~3000)
• Scaling with Figma and moving into the CFO role
• Nuances to the CFO role at Figma
• Developing and learning from mentors
• How the CFO role is changing especially in high-growth tech companies
• Empowering and building a finance team
• The importance of understanding business drivers and key metrics as someone on the finance team
• How the finance team works with product and other teams, meetings, cadence and more
• What makes Figma such a special company and product
• Tools the Figma finance team uses
• Timing on building and hiring a finance team at a startup

Chapters

00:00 The Journey to Figma

04:12 Scaling with the Company

06:14 The CFO Role at Figma

08:04 Seeking Advice and Learning from Others

11:26 The Changing Role of the CFO

14:55 Empowering and Working with the Team

17:11 Communicating with Other Teams and Leaders

21:47 Working with Product and Other Teams

25:26 What Makes Figma Special

28:24 Exciting Tools in Finance

31:00 Hiring for the Finance Function

34:07 Timing and Building the Finance Function

36:34 Dealing with Hard Times

Keywords

Figma, CFO, journey, first principles, business gut, metrics, finance team, data tools, automation, intelligent people