Marc Linden — a five-time CFO with his recent appointment as finance helm of software firm Reputation — believes that financial leaders right now need to be flexible, vigilant and prepare for a variety of scenarios.
Given the current political and macroeconomic uncertainty, it’s particularly important for CFOs to keep track of what's actually happening in their markets and “listen creatively,” Linden said. Keeping an open mind is key, he said.
“You need to think about how you can be flexible as an organization — what if things are 10 or 20 percent worse than expected, what if they are 10 or 20 percent better?” he said in an interview.
Prior to taking the financial helm of San Ramon, Calif.-based Reputation, Linden was EVP and general manager at Sage Intacct, Inc. from October 2019 to December 2020, but he served as their CFO from 2008-2017. He was named CFO of the Year by the Silicon Valley Business Journal in 2015, according to his LinkedIn profile.
Before Intacct, Linden was CFO of Mirapoint, Inc. His resume includes three other CFO positions dating back to 1997.
After leading his alma mater Intacct beyond $100 million ARR he managed its sale to British enterprise software company Sage Group, according to the company statement.
Linden’s appointment comes a few months after Reputation announced a $150 million growth funding round and that it had surpassed $100 million in Annual Recurring Revenue (ARR), a key SaaS milestone.
“Marc is familiar with leading a $100MM business and growing it to hundreds of millions. This is the unrivaled experience that I’m excited to see Reputation take advantage of,” said CEO Joe Fuca in a company statement.
Linden said that his experience in seeing companies go beyond Reputation’s stage of growth will be especially beneficial. “You need to know where you’re going to build a solid foundation,” he said.
The market that Reputation is in is underserved, said Linden of the B2B2C software company that provides companies a medium to translate feedback data. “We’re in a huge market, it's super important and it's even more important as the world's gotten completely digital,” he said
