The Second Act - Magazine - Page 22
BUILDING
ON CHANGE
for funding, their finance departments were such
a mess. They didn’t know what a SAFE or a priced
round was, didn’t know how to raise funding,
they didn’t know how to write grants properly, or
if they knew, they were doing it wrong, and it was
creating delays.”
DAVID BUREAU
CEO & Founder, Finalytics
Next 36, 2015
“You have to want to change
something.” This was the first
response when we asked NEXT Alum
David Bureau what it takes to be a
serial entrepreneur.
Written By
KERN CARTER
I
t’s the perfect response for someone
who didn’t grow up dreaming of living
this life.
Bureau’s family was split into two: his
mom’s side was more entrepreneurial,
and his father’s side was more traditional,
which Bureau thought would be his path.
But when a professor suggested that
David try entrepreneurship, he took a leap
and never looked back.
2 2 | GRIT MA GA Z I NE
After starting three businesses while still
in university, Bureau founded Finalytics in
2019, a service-based company offering
fractional CFO services to tech startups
ranging from pre-seed to series B stages.
He noticed a gap in the industry when he
previously worked as a consultant and
saw an opportunity to add value.
“What I noticed was, whether it was our
portfolio companies or companies looking
In three short years, Finalytics has grown into
what David describes as an “outsourced finance
& accounting department” because they saw the
need for not just CFO services but realized these
companies needed bookkeeping, accounting,
controller, financial analysis, grant writing,
financing services, and the list goes on! This
speaks to Bureau’s first point that entrepreneurs
should instinctively want to make a change. And
it doesn’t need to be a big change. Bureau is
adamant about new entrepreneurs focusing on
building a profitable business, whatever that
business may be. In Bureau’s mind, mom-andpop shops are just as valuable as any unicorn.
And while he acknowledges that there is a
rare occasion when scaling quickly should be
prioritized, in most instances, growing gradually
and organically makes for a more sustainable
business.
But growing organically takes networking and
relationship building, which Bureau says is the
most critical skill an entrepreneur should possess.
When we asked David what homework he would
give a class of new entrepreneurs, he said the
following:
“I would ask them to put themselves in the
very uncomfortable position of reaching out to
multiple people they think they could never get
to, like Bill Gates or Elon Musk.”
For an extrovert like Bureau, that assignment