Beyond Numbers: How Love, Bonito's CFO Takes a People-First Approach to Fundraising & Expansion

In our first episode of CFO Talks, we sit down with Will Vaya, CFO of Love, Bonito who shares not only the tale of Love, Bonito's regional expansion, but also opens up about his personal journey to leading finance at one of Asia’s fastest growing e-commerce companies.

Join us as we delve into the invaluable lessons he's learned from Love, Bonito's remarkable US $50 million Series C funding - the intricacies of investor relations, tips on asset allocation and the art of successful fundraising in the middle of a tech downturn. 

Will’s perspective on the cross-functional nature of CFO role

“The CFO role is not just a numbers role. I would hope that the numbers part should be relatively straightforward to figure out. 

It’s more of a people's job. You're in the business of influencing people and for the most part, they don't report to you, and they don't have the financial acumen that you do. Your job is to educate these people for them to become their own CFO.” 

On how financial leaders should approach fundraising and investor relations

“The key to fundraising and investor relations is balancing a pretty diverse range of motivations across a large party of people. Every investor has a different motivation and risk tolerance. There is no one size fits all and you have to balance that within the context of how you plan to grow the business as well.”

How Will puts on his “investor” hat when it comes to managing resource allocation at Love Bonito

“As a previous investor, I got the training to understand how to compare the different kinds of projects and assets in a standardised way. Because that’s what an investor does. You’re looking at various kinds of business models, but you have finite capital. So you’re trying to make sense on where to put your money.”

Listen to the podcast here: