10 Questions for OwnCloud CFO Dan Curtis - mclawhornapigh1968

CFO Dan Curtis manages finances for OwnCloud, which manages the open-source project of the Lapplander name. Client firms rear host their own corrupt storage on the premises or remotely, for information and charge syncing, sharing, and viewing.

Name: Dan Curtis

Age: 56

Time with company: 8 months

Education: BS in business with an accounting focus from Boston College

Company home office: Capital of Massachusetts; Nuremberg, Germany

Countries of operation: U.S., Germany

Number of employees total: 10

CFO's areas of responsibility: Finance, HR, Information technology

About the company: ownCloud is the company behind the ownCloud ASCII text file project for information and file syncing, communion and wake. OwnCloud enables businesses to emcee their have, on premises or remote, cloud storage piece maintaining regulatory and compliance needs.

1. Where did you start in finance and what experiences led you to the job you have today?

I started at what is now PricewaterhouseCoopers in Boston in the unpunctual '70s and was there for non quite a four years. I did a stint with a Fortune 500 company after leaving PWC but real soon thereafter gravitated to smaller companies. I was drawn to smaller companies primarily because you could wealthy person a meaningful impact connected a regular basis because the expertise that you brought was not available in-house.

I've worked for a number of small companies that were venture-backed. In that location's a certain level of excitement that permeates these companies because in that respect's a collective belief that doesn't exist at bigger companies that the work you do will establish meaningful value, and the energy level is contagious.

2. Who was an authoritative boss for you and what lessons did they teach you about direction and leadership?

I'd have to say the ane person who has been most influential on me was not really a boss, but an uncle of mine named Ed Dailey who was also a public company CFO for a company called Warnaco in Connecticut that has since been sold. He went connected to a public company called Vitreous silica Brands, which was founded in Manhattan.

Even to this day, he has been for me the most influential person in patronage and he was too the most right person I've always famous. He took his ethics very seriously when he was a public company CFO and in the way he conducted his unit of time sprightliness. What I took away from him was that if you set the right example and treat populate fairly but also obtain them responsible, it will a great deal make good results.

3. What are the biggest challenges veneer CFOs today?

Big companies give their own sets of issues, but for the bitty company environment that I operate in, probably the biggest finance challenge is to come up with constructive, fanciful shipway to extend cash and manage milestones. That's particularly important when the venture markets are tight.

We've gone through cycles, specially back in the advanced '90s, when the floodgates were assailable and raising pretend money was not ticklish. In the finis 18 – 24 months, raising jeopardize money has sometimes been a challenge, though good companies with hard management testament still get funded.

4. What is a nifty day busy like for you?

I like to solve difficult problems and I like to be part of a squad that is resolution difficult problems whether they're operational or business, so to the extent that we can look at one some other and say, 'Job recovered done, we resolved this careful issue that was a roadblock,' that to me brings a great dispense of gratification.

5. How would you characterize your management style?

IT's sure collaborative. I'm a believer in background achievable but aggressive goals and then regularly measuring the forward motion against them. I think IT's important to enable people who are on your team to have a sense that they've had their own successes.

I also believe in giving much tolerance to try new ideas and approaches so that hoi polloi memorise what works and what doesn't. The best learning comes from mistakes and recuperation.

And information technology's often much creative to listen than to talk. I try to convey that to anyone that whole kit and caboodle for me equally well.

6. What strengths/qualities do you flavour for in job candidates?

I operate the 15-Aug that the job candidate has the requisite subject abilities, because that would have been screened.

Particularly in small companies, the chemistry is sol all important because you are with populate eight, 10, 12 hours a day so the chemistry has got to be on that point. I've been in situations where the alchemy hasn't worked, so I look to people who force out share the team chemistry, WHO are motivated to win, WHO commit the company's interests first and their own interests secondary. People who get that know that if the company is successful, they'atomic number 75 going to be purloined care for of.

I place a pile of emphasis along their references, but I also probe individuals to devote me their see of what others might tell active them. The references are departure to make all the right comments, so you have to get through that.

7. What are some of your tips on job interviewing for finance positions, and whole? When you are interviewing a campaigner, how do you have intercourse whether he or she is a good conditioned?

I separate the process into two portions, one being an initial speech sound call and the early being the live, face-to-face interview. The red flags I find are oftentimes times easier to see in the live interview, the trunk language, if they find out the questions to be things they're comfortable answering and thither's non a great make do of hesitation in the answer, and the ease and confidence they demonstrate in the consultation. It's more difficult to get that in the phone question — I use the phone call in the main As a test.

I also want to get a sense of their dedication because tiny company environments can be quite demanding. I've never worked at a small company where information technology was a 9-to-5 job, indeed I want someone who is willing to do bad much anything — a roll-up-their-sleeves attitude, a soul who has the energy point to do whatever is required.

8. What is IT about your current job, at this particular company, that sets it apart from other chief finance positions?

OwnCloud is apparently a very young company, so it's a bit of a green field in the gumption that the infrastructure is yours to mold from day one. The business model and go-to-market scheme are being developed from sugar. Assessing the information needs and developing a reporting social organization is evolving as the accompany grows.

And, generally speaking, entrepreneurs at technology companies are not financial people, then the value that someone look-alike I bring around ownCloud is meaningful in a numeral of different ways to the company. That's particularly strategic in the early stages of development.

At other companies, that are a bit farther on, you really don't get the chance to create this from scratch out.

And ownCloud is very exciting because of the space it's in. The value proposition of this hospitable-germ platform for IT managers is that they can use the storage they have but incorporate secure synch and share capableness, so they don't have to expand the storage. I think this model is incredibly expensive.

9. What do you do to unwind from a hectic day?

I've got three boys, one of whom is not yet off my payroll at home, indeed if the chance comes at the end of the day to knock a golf ball around with him, I real enjoy doing that. Anything with family — any family activities are always good to put things into a meaningful perspective.

10. If you weren't doing this job, what would you be doing?

That's a very interesting question. If you'd asked me this 25 years past I'd have said I'd love to go bring on the professional golf turn. But you ask ME this now and I'd say that if I weren't doing this, I would in all probability devote some clip to volunteer operate, mayhap acquiring involved with Habitat for Humanity. My uncle, Ed Dailey, who I mentioned early on, that's what he did. He retired to Florida and committed a fair amount of time helping to material body homes in depressed areas. He found that tremendously rewarding. I'd likely stay involved in the businessmen, credibly through circuit card activities.