Episode description

This week, we welcome Naeem Ishaq, CFO of Boxed Wholesale, onto the show to discuss "SaaS Churn Management In Early-Stage Sales Orgs." Boxed Wholesale is an eCommerce company focused on delivering the "big box club" experience (bulk grocery a la Sam's Club or Costco) direct-to-consumer online. We recorded the session live at the Bowery Capital CFO Summit 2016, where Naeem joined us as a panelist on the topic of "Maximizing Customer Retention & Managing Churn" alongside Antonia Pitney (CFO of Handshake) and Bart Hacking (CFO of Bettercloud). In this podcast, Naeem discusses how he has tackled SaaS churn at his various roles, from Salesforce to Square. We also explore the churn issues any early stage founder or CXO should expect to face, and the various quantitative approaches one should use to best measure and manage retention.

Naeem Ishaq has 15 years of experience as a finance and strategy professional in the tech industry, from Fortune 50 companies to early-stage startups. Prior to assuming his current role as CFO of Boxed Wholesale, he spent 4 years at Square, where he most recently served as the company's Head of Finance, Strategy & Risk. Before that position, Naeem spent nearly 5 years at Salesforce, ascending to Senior Director of Finance & Strategy. Naeem cut his teeth in finance at Intel where he spent 6 years, following a brief role at Chevron where he began his career. In addition, Naeem has also advised several startups along the way, including eero, a consumer electronics startup aiming to reinvent the home WiFi system. Having worked across many software business models at 5+ top-tier technology organizations, Naeem brings an excellent perspective on how to think about, measure and manage SaaS churn. Tune in now to hear his thoughts on how to stay ahead of churn and ensure the right people on your team become retention pros.