The Future of Finance

Written By Ranger Woodland

My name is Ranger Woodland.

I grew up in Los Angeles, California.

My first career aspirations were to be a “money man,” or so I am told.

Then I watched Jurassic Park, and I wanted to be a paleontologist. Then a pilot. Then an aerospace engineer. Then a physicist. Then an investment banker. Then a professional poker player. And finally, I reverted back to my original ambitions to be a money man.

I graduated with a degree in Finance, a certificate in Quantitative Finance, and a minor in Math.

I was an entrepreneur, then worked in wealth management, corporate banking, VC backed startups, and have reverted back to entrepreneurship with my latest venture, Analyst House.

I started Analyst House to bring modern accounting, finance and data solutions to startups.

I’m passionate about solving humanity’s most pressing issues. I want to work with groundbreaking companies. But after 4 years working at a hyper-scaling VC backed startup, I was unsatisfied with the job of a “Senior Financial Analyst”.

  • I was tired of building 31 versions of the financial model for board approval

  • I was tired of sending 12 emails to outsourced accounting firms to make a small change to the accounting methods.

  • I felt underutilized, building the same, manual reports each month, without autonomy to discover new and more efficient tools to do my job.

I wanted free reign to explore the frontier of accounting and finance technology (CFOtech).

BECAUSE THE LANDSCAPE IS RAPIDLY EVOLVING.

Now, through Analyst House, I support 10 clients across a variety of industries, like:

  • Software (SaaS / Marketplace)

  • Consumer Packaged Goods

  • Sports Agencies

  • Manufacturing

  • Construction

  • Nonprofits

I live and breathe the latest accounting and finance tech. I’ve made it my life to discover and implement new systems to streamline financial operations.

And yet, I learn something new every day. New features on an old product, new products from an old company, and new companies altogether. There isn’t enough time in the day to learn them all.

So how are founders and finance teams across Startupland supposed to stay informed when there is work to be done??

I will be the conduit!

A brief history of CFOtech

Whenever new technology platforms emerge, accounting and finance technology are some of the first fields to be disrupted.

It’s probably because we’re dealing with 3rd grade mathematical concepts, and the concepts are not too difficult to build around. I think there were a handful of foundational technologies that served as inflection points for CFOtech:

  1. 1975: Personal Computers (Altaire 8800)

  2. 1979: Spreadsheet software (Visicalc)

  3. 1992: Double entry accounting software (Quickbooks)

  4. 1999: Cloud software (NetLedger / NetSuite)

  5. 2013: 3rd party app stores (QuickBooks Online)

  6. 2020s: Artificial intelligence (…)

Before I am written off by the AI connoisseurs, I will acknowledge that AI, specifically machine learning, has been around since the 1940’s. But the release of ChatGPT, and human-facing applications have brought AI, in all its flavors, into the public eye. New tech is being built on top of AI Models every day, and things are moving very quickly.

But before we get into the future, let’s spend a few minutes on the past…

Back when room-sized mainframe computers ruled the enterprise, Visicalc was developed and launched as the first ever spreadsheet in 1979.

Picture of Visicalc UI, the first spreadsheet software

The accounting software race had begun. A few more significant years in the history of CFOtech were:

  • 1975: First personal computer, the Altaire 8800, is launched

  • 1979: Visicalc launches, allows financial modelling

  • 1983: Intuit launches Quicken online bookkeeping

  • 1985: Microsoft Excel launches

  • 1992: Quickbooks launches first double entry accounting system

  • 1999: Netledger (becomes NetSuite) becomes first cloud accounting software

  • 2001: Quickbooks launches QB Online for cloud accounting

A few less foundational, but significant launches:

  • 1993: SAP Concur launches

  • 2006: Xero launches

  • 2012: Gusto Launches

  • 2013: Quickbooks launches 3rd party app store

  • 2017: Brex launches

Then the landscape went quiet… (not actually)

So, where are we headed?

It is impossible to predict how or when exactly finance functions will change.

What is easy to predict is that the abilities of software, specifically software enabled by AI, will revolutionize the role of humans in back-office departments.

I don’t like the word replace, it’s too scary, and quite far away. I prefer the word augment.

Software is becoming faster and cheaper to build. This progress is happening daily. I recently read a letter by Chris Paik describing the future of software, or as he calls it, The End of Software.

There will likely be an explosion of new CFOtech, in proportion to the explosion in software development in general.

Finance teams who adopt CFOtech will work 0.2x, then 2x, then 20x more efficiently than those who do not.

Nobody understands the timescale, although I would predict that somewhere between 10 and 100 years from now, the job of a finance team will look 95% different than it does today.

In my mind, the trick is to stay curious. Become an early adopter, not a laggard. Test new systems, so you can bring value to your business.

Start with systems to automate the boring stuff. So many of these exist, and are underutilized.

Next, with all your newfound free time, implement systems to improve reporting. Reporting financials with greater accuracy and speed allows a company to make faster, more data driven decisions.

Finally, when reporting is airtight, focus on systems that decentralize controls and decision making across an organization. This will speed up your business.

If CFOtech increases the decision velocity across a company, the finance department might just grow in influence, not diminish.

And as a proprietor of the Future of Finance, this is a future I like to imagine.

My Goals

So why am I writing this newsletter?

My goal is to create consumable content to educate startup founders on the latest CFOtech.

To accelerate the adoption of CFOtech.

I want to share what I learn along the way. I want to build a community of curious operators, eager to improve their businesses.

In this newsletter, we will report CFOtech news. We will test new systems and report back how they work. We will propose practical and tactical ways to implement new CFOtech, and explain how they generate ROI.

We will bring you up to speed on the Future of Finance

Think of me as the Huberman of Finance, or the Marques Brownlee of CFOtech.

I would be honored if you subscribed, and I’ll see you next time, at the #futureoffinance

Ranger Woodland