One could say Joel Campbell, Senior Vice President and CFO of TreviPay and AFP board member, is the perfect person to ask about the differences between working in finance for public versus private companies.

“I worked in public companies for the first 27 years of my career, so there were some adjustments when I made the move to TreviPay in 2020,” said Campbell. After six years working with Corsair Capital Management, Campbell reflects on the differences.

AFP: You made the move from a public to a private equity-sponsored portfolio company, TreviPay. What is the biggest operational difference between the two?

Campbell: The first thing I learned about having a PE sponsor is that they do not emphasize GAAP financial statements. They still require it; we still do it, and we need to produce an unqualified audit by a reputable firm. But our conversations center around internal management reporting, KPIs and OKRs — they want to see reporting the way they think about the business, and that puts a heavy focus on developing and equipping the FP&A team.

When you think about private equity, it’s all about the metrics — how the business is performing and delivering on the investment thesis. They want the business analyzed from multiple angles, with increasingly clear explanations of what the data shows and why it matters. We build our reporting around what they are looking for. For example, they want to look at customer cohorts by year as specific slices of information; that requires a finance team that understands data structures, business operations and reporting best practices.

AFP: What do they do with all the data you send them? How are they adding value through that data?

Campbell: The PE sponsor takes our output and translates it into internal models for their own internal reporting. Sometimes they use the information we give them directly, but most of the time it’s plugged into a model they have already constructed for our company. Ultimately, the outputs are used to guide and direct our deal partners, their investment committee and management’s strategic priorities — all with a focus on value creation.

In many cases, we can anticipate the requests, but more often, we are somewhat reactionary because we are all learning as the company grows and evolves. They source ideas from other firms or through their investment committee, and it sharpens both their thinking and our own.

AFP: How is it working with your particular private equity sponsor?

Campbell: Every private equity firm is a little different. Corsair, who owns us, is not a micromanager; we run the business as the management team, and they provide strategic guidance and ask strategic questions about what we are doing and how we are doing it.

For example, building our annual plan starts with a top-down conversation with Corsair. We seek guidance on expectations based on our current outlook: Here’s the run rate, here’s where we expect to end the year, etc. Then we work on top-level alignment: What do you want to see next year, how much growth is achievable, how much of the new revenue do we want to fall straight through to EBITDA, etc.

Our FP&A team then works within our organization to build the plan from the bottom up to see if we can meet expectations. For any gaps between the top-down guidance and bottom-up estimates, we work to cover them with initiatives the management team believes we can achieve, or we challenge ourselves with stretch goals and then triangulate to get to achievable outcomes.

AFP: To what extent do you network with CFOs of other portfolio companies within Corsair or across PE sponsors?

Campbell: When Corsair buys a new portfolio company, they may ask, “Joel, can you and your team meet with their finance team and talk about how you report to us, the things we ask for, and get them up to speed?” Occasionally, I will get calls from other PortCo teams with questions like, “Corsair asked us about this. How do you guys do that? How do you build your OKR’s, etc.?”

AFP: How much bandwidth does your team have for professional development?

Campbell: Since I joined TreviPay, I have been pushing my team on continuing professional development. As evidenced by my role with AFP, I believe in investing in my team! My mandate to everyone in finance is that you have to do something every year — my goal is for each team member to actively participate in their own development and target 20 to 40 hours annually to keep their skills sharp, earn a certification or keep their license active.

AFP: Can you say which environment you prefer, public company or PE ownership?

Campbell: I have really enjoyed the switch from being an SEC registrant — and all the stuff that comes with being a public company — to being in a private company. I am able to focus so much more of my time on running the business, including being involved in strategy, M&A and go-to-market initiatives. Additionally, at TreviPay, the People & Culture team reports to me, so I now have responsibility for human capital and company culture, which many CFOs never get to have a hand in managing.

Just like a public company, we have a board of directors and all the requisite committees. However, the majority of my time as CFO is focused on running the business to a point where, after doing this for six years, if I were ever to look for something else, I'm not sure I could ever — or would ever want to — go back into a public company.