A Chat with Randy Wootton, CEO at Financial Operations Platform: Maxio

At Maxio, we help B2B SaaS companies unlock their next stage of growth. Our financial operations platform is designed to meet the unique financial challenges of B2B SaaS, including billing, subscription management, revenue and expense recognition, and SaaS analytics.

We believe that in order for SaaS companies to unlock their next stage of growth, their financial operations tech stack must strike the right balance between flexibility, which allows them to pivot quickly in an ever-changing market, and complexity, which supports them as they scale their business, operations, and monetization strategies.
 
 

 

How has the company evolved over the last couple of years?

 
Maxio is the merger of two companies that were each industry leaders in their own right: Chargify (B2B billing and subscription management) and SaaSOptics (financial operations and revenue management).

In April 2021, Battery Ventures made a joint investment in both companies with the goal of creating the first fully unified financial operations solution for B2B SaaS. Since then, the teams have been working tirelessly to create the Maxio brand and combine the best of each product into a single, seamless experience, which we launched on Sept 12th. In bringing these capabilities together, Maxio has successfully created the industry’s first extensible FinOps platform purpose-built to support B2B businesses’ quote-to-insight processes—a solution which is essential not just for CFOs, but also for CEOs, investors, and other SaaS business operators.

By helping SaaS leaders uncover the critical financial insights they need to run an efficient SaaS business today, Maxio helps them prepare for whatever comes tomorrow.
 

What do you think makes Maxio unique?

 
What makes Maxio unique really boils down to four things.

First, we are built specifically for B2B SaaS, which means our product’s capabilities are rooted in the key workflows that B2B finance professionals oversee, like:

• Compliant revenue management
• Expense and commission accounting
• Advanced billing capabilities to support a wide range of monetization strategies
• Automated collections processes

Our customers are some of the fastest-growing subscription companies in the world. The rate of change and innovation inside B2B SaaS is unlike most and the cost of getting key financial operations wrong can be the difference between proactive and reactive funding, successfully navigating due diligence rounds and stalling the process, and practising disciplined growth vs burning cash in an attempt to stay afloat.

Our due diligence attorneys gave a lecture on funding rounds. According to them, the #1 cause of failed deals are accounting errors. “Buyers look for companies based on all sorts of things, market factors, etc… but in the end, offers are always based on the financial results of the company.” Maxio helps customers automate their accounting compliance, get cash in the door quicker, and keep their feet on solid ground when it comes time to fundraise or sell the business.

Second, Maxio is the single source of truth from quote to insight. As the system of record for invoicing and billing, Maxio bridges the gap between two other systems of record that almost never match up—customer data (CRM and CS tech) and finance data (General Ledgers). Typically, reconciling these data costs companies both time and confidence in their operating metrics. But Maxio helps collate customer and company data into a single system of record that enables actionable insights. Specifically, we offer:

• Enriched business insights on bookings, billings, backlog, revenue, deferred revenue, and ARR
• Financial operations insights (invoicing, revenue, SaaS operating metrics, and cash forecasting)
• Click through ability to product-level detail for all metrics enables deep forensics on all metrics

Third, Maxio’s out-of-the-box configurability supports complex monetization strategies while enabling GTM agility and experimentation. This empowers companies to roll out any monetization strategy (usage, contract, tiers, prepaid, multiattribute, etc) while allowing finance teams to adjust pricing without requiring developer support.

Finally, Maxio’s extensible platform and commitment to data portability means our customers can integrate Maxio into their current FinTech stack without disrupting their broader monetization ecosystem.
 

What can we hope to see from Maxio in the future?

 
When I look to the future, I could not be more excited about the opportunities ahead for three reasons.

First, we are in a fascinating time in terms of macroeconomic trends. There are clearly going to be winners and losers. However, one thing is certain for all companies: they will need deeper insight into the metrics that matter when running their businesses today and when trying to raise money tomorrow.

Maxio is a critical system that provides the insights CEOs, CFOs, and investors need to better understand both what is and what is not working with a company’s monetization strategy and tactics. More importantly, these leaders can translate these insights into action immediately, so their companies can navigate with confidence through an ever-changing marketplace.

Second, after four months as CEO and having an opportunity to meet many of our employees, I could not be more impressed by the talent we have in place and the roadmap we have planned. With smart operations and world-class investors behind us, Maxio is in a position to change the way B2B SaaS businesses work by helping them operate more efficiently, scale faster, and reach more customers.

Third, I’m inspired by the wide range of businesses we are trying to help. I’ve now met many of our customers, and they aren’t giants like Snowflake. They are the companies that will grow into giants like Snowflake. We’re working with dreamers and innovators, giving them the tools they need to build game-changing B2B SaaS businesses.

I have been around tech for a while now, and I know how rare it is to find this unique convergence of talent, technology, opportunity, and broader industry trends. I strongly believe that because of all of these factors we have working for us, we’re going to be the number one financial operations platform in the industry by 2024.

As our team likes to say, “Let’s go, Maxio!”