Bet on the Jockey, Not the Horse: A 35-Year CFO's Guide to Backing Winners | Chris Thomajan, Ep 42
Episode Summary
Chris Thomajan, a CFO with 35 years of experience across 100+ startups, discusses his career path from English major to finance leader in Boston's biotech ecosystem. He shares frameworks for evaluating founding teams, navigating venture capital cycles, and preparing companies for IPO, emphasizing that betting on the right 'jockey' matters more than the business idea itself.
Pull Quotes
On the reality of board governance in startups
“Nine out of ten boards need to be managed away. They don't add value. They just cause disruption.”
On the current venture capital liquidity crisis
“One of my VC friends summed it up beautifully. I think he said, 'Chris, I've got too many capital calls and not enough distributions.'”
“You can get a pretty good product to market with a great jockey, but there's no way you'll be able to do anything with a pretty good jockey unless you're super lucky.”
On the division of labor in biotech companies
“The PhDs who are progressing the science have no idea what I'm doing and by contrast I have very little idea what they're doing either. I get some by osmosis but there's this real need for both of those things, which illustrates how a company should operate.”
“Fear works as a management tool. I've seen it over and over again. It works for a minute and then it doesn't, and then when it doesn't, it's really bad. It crumbles. The whole thing crumbles.”
Transcript
Hi, welcome to Tales from the Sky Lounge. It's a podcast about business, consulting, and venture investing. We get out there in the world, we talk to people who are making it happen, and we get their stories. If you can like and subscribe, it makes producer James very happy. So today's guest in the Sky Lounge is Chris Tomagan. Hi, Chris.
Hey Todd, thanks for having me.
Yeah, it's good to see you. So Chris, who are you and what are you working on?
So I've been a finance guy for most of my career, but before that I went through the well-trodden path of getting an English major and then converting into a CFO. So there was some twists and turns along the way. I got out of college with the English major, wondered what the heck I was going to do. So I traveled for about a year or two. I worked in a disco in London for a year, which was a blast. And then I came back and I had to find a professional route. So I threw on a suit and I worked in a law firm which I hated every single second of, and that actually kind of steered me to business school. I ended up going to Columbia Business School and getting a business degree, great two years of my life, and then for about the last 35 years I've been a CFO mostly with small startups.
So English, hospitality, lawyer, MBA, finance, now you're home. Clear as mud. So it's fun how the universe kind of puts you on the path you're supposed to be on. You know, it just takes you a minute, right?
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