VP of Finance & Strategy

VP of Finance & Strategy

Location: Remote U.S. (Boston preferred)
Reports to: CEO
Stage: ~$5M ARR SaaS, Low burn, targeting ~100% YoY growth

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About Rocket

Rocket Alumni Solutions builds SaaS + services for interactive recognition displays (donor walls, halls of fame, alumni and employee recognition) for schools, universities, athletics, and donor-driven organizations. We sell into education and related institutions via:

• Direct Sales (BDRs & AEs)
• Channel Partners (hardware / ecosystem partners)
• Customer Success, Marketing, Design, Data Entry, and Operations

This role is the financial and strategic counterpart to the CEO across all of those motions.

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Mission

Be the CEO’s primary business partner. Own the plan, the metrics, and the economics across Sales, Partners, Customer Success, Marketing, Design, Data Entry, and Operations - while keeping a lean, GAAP-compliant finance foundation in place.

Rough split: ~70% growth & strategy / ~30% finance foundation.

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What you own

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1) Company plan & metrics

• Build and maintain a driver-based model (leads → opportunities → signed contracts → ARR → cash).
• Define a small, clear KPI set for the whole company (ARR, GRR/NDR, CAC, payback, gross margin, installs/live screens, runway, etc).
• Run the operating cadence in conjunction with VP of Ops.
  
  • Weekly: KPI review and key actions.
  • Monthly: business review with each department
  • Quarterly: planning and resource allocation.

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2) Sales (BDRs & AEs)

• Design quota and territory models based on Rocket’s sales cycle (schools, districts, athletics, development offices).
• Build capacity plans: how many BDRs/AEs are needed to hit ARR targets.
• Set pricing and discount guardrails and deal-approval rules grounded in payback and margin.

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3) Partner (channel ecosystem)

• Define which partners matter most (hardware, design firms, fundraisers, scoreboards, consulting firms, etc) and why.
• Build partner economics (rev share, attach rate, services) and simple scorecards.
• Shift a meaningful % of new ARR to partners where unit economics are equal or better than direct.

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4) Customer Success

• Model CS capacity versus onboarding volume and active screens/customers.
• Tie retention and expansion plays (new modules, additional locations, new use cases) to NDR targets.
• Help prioritize CS focus: which accounts, cohorts, or products move GRR/NDR most.

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5) Marketing (outbound, inbound, paid)

• Own the marketing budget from a return-on-spend perspective.
• Compare outbound, inbound, and paid channels on CAC, payback, and pipeline quality; shift spend accordingly.
• Make sure Sales has enough high-quality pipeline by segment (K–12, higher ed, athletics, donors) to hit targets.

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6) Design, Data Entry, Operations

• Design: Align design workloads to revenue and retention priorities; define simple SLAs.
• Data Entry: Track ROI and identify where automation is worth investing.
• Operations: Shorten time from “deal closed” to “screen live”; track cost-to-serve and fix margin leaks in deployment and support.

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7) Capital allocation & finance foundation

• Collaborate with the VP of Operations to identify, track, and surface key metrics that drive informed, data-based decisions.
• Prioritize projects (hires, campaigns, partner programs, product bets) based on payback and ROI, not intuition alone.
• Support fundraising, debt, and board/investor relations with clean SaaS metrics, cohesive narratives, and simple scenario trees.
• Ensure GAAP, ASC 606, and a clean close via a Controller (fractional or in-house): close ≤15 business days, integrated systems (QBO, billing, payroll, AP) feeding your models and dashboards.

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Profile

• 8–12+ years in B2B SaaS across FP&A / strategy / biz-ops; have owned a company-level plan, not just a departmental budget.
• Clear track record of outlining and achieving growth roadmaps.
• Clear track record of moving numbers: improved CAC/payback, NDR, gross margin, or successful pricing/packaging changes.
• Strong modeling skills (Excel/Sheets; SQL/BI a plus) and comfortable simplifying complex data for non-finance leaders.
• Hands-on with SaaS metrics (ARR, NDR, payback, cohorts) and comfortable tying them to day-to-day decisions in Sales, CS, Marketing, and Ops.
• Comfortable running GAAP and ASC 606 both alone and with a team.
• Bonus: experience with education, public sector, or donor-driven organizations; building partner ecosystems; fundraising or debt.

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To Apply:

• Email chase@rocketalumnisolutions.com. We will then schedule an intro Zoom call.

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