The interview began by having Saaya talk about her passion for working with entrepreneurs and founders, explaining her approach to meeting and evaluating them. Saaya emphasized her “personal-first, professional-second” networking style, highlighting that founders should trust their gut when choosing an investor partner. With so many firms out there, she believes a strong personal connection is crucial, as founders and investors are in it together for the long haul through ups and downs – and should seek a partner willing to get in the trenches with them.

Diving into her investment focus, Saaya described her interests in the application layer, specifically:

• Risk and compliance-related workflows
• Workflow automation for legacy functions within the CFO suite
• Verticalized SaaS and workflow solutions

Together, they explored how AI could transform the CFO’s role in today’s corporate finance landscape. Saaya noted that AI holds the potential to improve decision-making quality and speed—a key factor as CFO roles expand cross-functionally and become more strategic. AI’s impact on corporate finance could manifest in two significant ways:

1. Data Processing: One of the biggest challenges for finance teams is managing and processing large volumes of data. AI can alleviate this by quickly gathering and analyzing data, enabling teams to make better use of it. Many finance professionals, she noted, feel overwhelmed by data, lacking the time or resources to make sense of it.
2. Proactive Decision-Making: AI empowers finance leaders to shift from reactive to proactive decision-making. AI and large language models (LLMs) allow teams to run complex scenarios and uncover insights and patterns that might be missed otherwise, enhancing decision-making with advanced technology.

They wrapped up by discussing how CFOs can begin integrating AI into their workflows. Saaya sees AI as a powerful tool for automating tasks in areas like spend management, cloud cost management, and cash flow management, while also helping CFOs access deeper insights for better decision-making. These new AI-powered tools are designed to work seamlessly, without requiring extensive back-end infrastructure adjustments.

Listen to the full episode here to find out her favorite Excel formula.