We recently connected with Andrea Marzullo and have shared our conversation below.
Andrea , looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. I’m sure there have been days where the challenges of being a business owner force you to think about what it would be like to just have a regular job. When’s the last time you felt that way? Did you have any insights from the experience?
Honestly, I feel fulfilled with my job I dont take it us a “job”, for me is a lifestyle. I found a way to see problems as opportunities for learning. I do recognize that as a Leader I´m far away from perfection, but that is what helps to keep myself challenged all the time. Its a career to improve myself, to be better, to help others to find joy and greatness in what they do everyday.
It is hard. Sometimes i feel a pressure in my chest when things doesn’t go well. I take many thoughts to discuss with my pillow. I think that to be a founder you need to feel it in your guts, if not it is very difficult to go on when things get hard. And trust me, things are going to be hard eventually. And if you are not confident and truly believe in what you are building, in why you do it, then it is hard to wake up feeling positive.
The last few months have been very challenging for us, and indeed for the entire entrepreneurial ecosystem of Latin America, as we’ve closely experienced the post-pandemic impact with a recession in investment opportunities.
Even though we managed to consolidate the team, our client portfolio didn’t grow to the level we expected. It was very difficult for us; we even sacrificed the founders’ salaries to sustain the team. It has been months of hard work, trying different approaches, and always reminding ourselves why we chose to bet on founders.
As founders, we know the ups and downs that can affect teams, and often the context becomes even more challenging. Nevertheless, we believe that we never stopped seeking, always trying to develop new services, work with new partners, train the team, and improve everything within our reach. This has put us in a more competitive position today and has led us to develop connections and partnerships that we may not have considered before. And now, they are key drivers of our growth.
Andrea , before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?
For those who don’t know me, I have a beautiful child, Alfonsina. I’m Argentine, a lover of horses and dogs, of barbecue and good wine, of friends and good stories. If I had to choose a place in the world, it would be the Argentine Patagonia. Today, I live in Miami, but whenever I can, I try to go back.
I have always been an entrepreneur. I’ve worked in different industries always trying to lead the business to its highest performance. However, getting into the professional service business and VC backed startups has a bit of a love story. I started getting closer to the venture capital ecosystem when I met my current husband, a great entrepreneur whom I am very proud of. In one of his many challenges and difficult moments, he asked me if I could help him solve a management problem in one of his companies. And that scenario of chaos, lack of control, and absence of processes was precisely what motivated me to embark on entrepreneurship. I knew I could bring order even in the midst of chaos.
And beyond the chaos of the beginning, it was an incredibly intense learning process. I believe that during those months, I learned more than in my entire career. The connections I lived forming with colleagues, who are now friends in the ecosystem, were strong. It was motivating to see the hopeful faces of founders who approached us for advice, even if they didn’t fully understand how we could help them. Listening to them passionately talk about their projects (even though I admit, at first, they all seemed impossible to me!) made me want to assist them in any way possible. Whether through our services, those of others, or by inventing new ones! But always with the spirit of contributing to making their dreams a little more achievable.
By training, I am an accountant. That’s why if there was one thing we could help with, it was providing support to manage their financial, accounting, and tax affairs as efficiently as possible. Thus, we developed solutions understanding the challenges and dynamics specific to their companies, which bear little resemblance to more conventional industries or small and medium enterprises. They may be SMEs, but with complexities very similar to those of a multinational corporation.
Today, at CFOStartup, we are comprehensive advisors and strategic allies, enabling startups to be investment-ready. From pre-seed to exit, we provide the support they need to scale and expand from their home country to anywhere in the world.
Just to mention a few of our solutions, we offer compliance services, international taxes, soft landing, CFO services such as Controller Latam and CFO as a Service, transaction services, valuation analysis, virtual data room, fundraising, due diligence, legal services, and red flag analysis.
Additionally, we have developed a network of partners throughout the region, including service providers, VCs, accelerators, incubators, and organizations supporting the entrepreneurial ecosystem across the region. We are highly active in the entrepreneurial ecosystem and continuously offer mentorship, workshops, and training to our partners’ communities.
Our focus is to provide comprehensive guidance that goes far beyond the service or solution founders may need at a specific moment. We see ourselves as strategic allies who can also connect them with key players and support them in all their challenges as they grow.
Any advice for growing your clientele? What’s been most effective for you?
Trying to provide the best service to our clients is our priority. The vast majority of our clients come through referrals from other clients and through the relationships we cultivate within the ecosystem. If there’s one thing I’m proud of, it’s being part of such a generous and collaborative ecosystem.
How’d you meet your business partner?
The co-founder of CFOStartup is my current husband, whom I met at university while we were both studying to be a public accountant . Today, he is exclusively dedicated to developing his new company (Lazo), which actually emerges as a spinoff of CFOStartup. I like to surround myself with people whom I deeply admire. Juan is one of those people who breathes his project 24/7 and lives it with a contagious passion. But I believe that beyond that initial spark which is the beginning of everything, in a way, everyone who has worked at CFO, even those who are no longer with us, are part of co-founding this great project.
Contact Info:
- Website: cfostartup.la
- Instagram: @cfostartup
- Linkedin: https://ar.linkedin.com/company/cfostartuplatam
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@CFOStartup