By the Numbers: Why I Joined Drivepoint to Build the Future of Strategic Finance

By Alex Hoimes, VP, Finance & Operations at Drivepoint

I’m a numbers guy. I’ve spent my career in finance, first in investment banking and then leading various finance functions to scale the world’s largest beauty subscription brand.

In my new role as Drivepoint’s VP of Finance & Operations, I thought I’d use some numbers to share why I joined Drivepoint and why I’m so energized about the future of strategic finance for consumer brands.
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Understanding the finance challenges of scaling a consumer brand

Diving into our first numbers:

1 AND $1 BILLION

I was finance hire #1 at IPSY, working across FP&A, strategy, and corporate development for six years as we scaled the company to a $1 billion global beauty brand.

Navigating the many financial turns that come with launching new products, expanding into new geographies, and profitably scaling the business gave me first-hand experience in the challenges consumer brand founders and finance teams face today.

4 ROADBLOCKS

When it comes to the strategic finance function, there were four common roadblocks we (and many others) ran into as we grew.

1. ‍Financial data is scattered: Wrangling data for financial analysis is too often a manual and time-consuming process. The opportunity for automation is enormous.
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2. Multiple sources of truth = no source of truth: When different teams use different financial systems and metrics, that misalignment can kill profitable growth. It’s impossible to build a truly accurate forecast for the business.
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3. FP&A can’t operate in a silo: FP&A and data analytics often operate as separate entities, even though they rely on and inform each other. A flexible model and automated insights are critical here.
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4. Dashboarding and reporting is too manual: Building the right reporting tools to get everyone–from marketing to operations to the board of directors–the real-time data they need to make smarter business decisions is a huge burden on small finance teams.
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Why Drivepoint is building the best strategic finance toolkit for consumer brands

Smart strategic finance helps companies plan and grow far more efficiently. You can have the best product in the world but if you spend too much or too little on inventory, marketing, headcount, or anything else, you can quickly fail.

Ultimately, companies need to have a clear vision of where they want to be and how they plan to get there. Which brings me to the next number…

1/6TH THE COST

That clear vision traditionally comes at a high cost: expensive analyst teams, fractional CFOs with misaligned incentives, and valuable time lost manually exporting, cleaning, analyzing, and reporting on business data. Early on in a company's life, the founding team cannot and should not allocate their limited capital here.

Drivepoint is delivering all the value of a world-class strategic finance team at ⅙ the cost of an internal team.

It’s made possible through intelligent automation and a strategic finance platform that clears away so many of the roadblocks I experienced while scaling IPSY. When the founder of a brand like Earth Breeze asserts that “Drivepoint has massively over-delivered on a price to value basis,” that says it all.

250% GROWTH

A key factor in my decision to join Drivepoint was the company’s clear momentum, to the tune of 250% revenue growth this year alone. With customers like Geologie, Oats Overnight, Immi, and Bright Cellars on board, the team is on to something big.

The rush of growing revenue consistently is something that the best consumer brand operators out there know well. And in my new role, I’m thrilled I get to help accelerate Drivepoint’s growth by accelerating our customers’ growth, building a strong SaaS business and countless strong consumer brands in the process.

We win together.

If you’re interested in learning how Drivepoint can help turn strategic finance into a competitive advantage for your brand, book a demo or send me a note and let’s talk.

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