B2B martech software company Terminus, which now employs over 115, has added a new CFO to its rapidly-expanding executive team. Cathy Chandler has joined the company following its designation in the Atlanta Business Chronicle’s 2017 Pacesetter Awards as the fastest growing software company in Atlanta, with 170 percent growth trailing 12 months.
Chandler’s career has been rife with successful SaaS technology exits. She previously served as CFO of video CMS platform ClearLeap, which was acquired by IBM in 2015. She was also CFO of Whiptail, acquired by Cisco in 2013, and Vitrue, acquired by Oracle in 2012.
Despite her extensive experience at rapidly-scaling companies, Chandler says Terminus is in its own category in terms of growth.
“Terminus has seen an incredible trajectory. The company is only about three years old and at an earlier stage than the other companies I helped to exit,” says Chandler.
“My prior startups had been around longer, and some launched before the Great Recession in 2008. Many of those companies took longer to come to fruition. It speaks highly of those brands that they survived the economic downturn to have successful exits. But the rate of growth at Terminus is significantly higher than other startups I worked with. What Terminus has accomplished so early is extraordinary.”
Terminus, which has been around for less than three years, has over 1,000 users employing its account-based marketing (ABM) B2B software platform. Over its lifetime the company has raised just under $20 million to grow, with a $10.3 million Series B closed earlier this year that saw participation from HubSpot in the enterprise’s first venture investment.
Co-founder and CEO Eric Spett says the CFO hire came after an “extensive search.”
“We needed a CFO who has experience with this type of growth and the decisions required to continue—and even accelerate—our momentum. The Chief Financial Officer is one of the most important hires a CEO will ever make,” says Spett. “Fortunately, we have no shortage of exciting ideas about where to invest to help us grow. Our CFO needs to manage and analyze all this energetic ideation to create the right financial plan. In addition, we needed a CFO who has experience with capital formation and M&A.”
“When growing this fast, a CFO is much more than a financial expert; they must also be an operator. This is where finding someone with a command of your business model and deep operational experience make all the difference,” says Spett.
Chandler says she’ll initially be spending the balance of her time getting to know the company from an operational and culture standpoint, before thinking ahead to the future.
“My first 90 days will be spent getting immersed in what the company has accomplished so far— what has worked and what hasn’t — so I can fully appreciate what every ‘Terminator’ does as well as what we need to do to get to the next level,” says Chandler. “It’s important as a CFO to learn the business from the ground up — not only the financial numbers, but also to get to know people, create relationships, and understand our team’s potential as we continue to scale rapidly.”
“From there, I can work with the leadership team at Terminus to determine how we can best move things forward. This is how I’ve been successful in the past and how I can help Terminus continue its incredible momentum.”
Terminus has spent the last year stacking its executive team. Other additions included Chief Product Officer Bryan Brown, co-founder of Vtrenz, acquired by Silverpop and subsequently IBM; and Todd McCormick, an SVP at Silverpop during the IBM acquisition.
“We’ve scaled our executive leadership team to continue our momentum as the category leader. Our greatest strength is our people, and our entire executive team has B2B marketing technology domain expertise,” says Spett.
