Grace Noto
5 min read
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Finance chiefs are still facing a murky macroeconomic environment, but the age-old challenge of the role remains the same: finding that key balance between risk and reward.
Hitting that mark means finance chiefs may need to grow more comfortable with the risk side of the equation: global payroll and HR platform Remote, for example, is investing in “where we see that customers will want us to be in three years,” even though it’s still unclear what that future will look like, CFO Michiel Boere said. That approach includes releasing products early to see if they are “really filling a customer need,” and then adapting accordingly, he said.
Remote is investing “quite a bit” in product developments that are not part of its core business; the bulk of its R&D spending is funneled to “parts of the business where only a minority of revenue is currently coming from,” Boere said in an interview.
The company provides payroll and HR solutions for global employees, including an AI-powered job platform. Boere, who is based in the Netherlands, joined the platform in April 2023 as its CFO, according to his LinkedIn profile. Previously, he served a seven-year tenure at rideshare Uber in roles such as VP finance, global CFO delivery (Uber Eats). His past experience also includes serving as CFO for Netherlands-based greeting card firm Greetz, as well as various roles at consulting firm McKinsey.
At the HR platform, Boere is taking what he described as a “risk-on” approach, a term which typically indicates “investing in something with an uncertain outcome,” Boere said. At his past employer Uber, for example, the company had been funneling money toward its Uber Eats product, “even though that was deeply unprofitable at the time when I joined,” he said.
Boere joined the company in 2016, approximately a year after the launch of its Uber Eats app, as its head of CRM & marketing analytics, EMEA, per his LinkedIn profile. Uber Eats’ restaurant delivery service reached profitability for the first time in Q3 2021, CFO Dive sister publication Restaurant Dive reported at the time. Uber overall, which faced years-long scrutiny over its cash burn, reached profitability for the first time in 2023, the Verge reported.
“We were tolerating quite a bit of initial losses, and doing a lot of investment; not blindly burning money as it might have looked from the outside because we knew ultimately, it was a good underlying business,” Boere said of Uber Eats’ development.
