Case Study
Stepping Out of the Finance Driver’s Seat
Company Overview
Maven Analytics is a data and AI training platform for professionals and enterprises. Based primarily in the US, Maven serves individuals and organizations across 180 countries.
Jason Russo is Maven’s CEO. The company has been in business for about seven years - bootstrapped the whole way.
The Challenge
Maven’s books were never the problem. Bookkeeping was solid, taxes were handled, and the same financial operations approach had carried the company for most of its life.
But as Maven started preparing for its next chapter - whether that meant outside funding or simply operating at a bigger scale - Jason realized clean books weren’t enough. He needed finance to actually inform the business.
“We were always solid from a straight bookkeeping and tax perspective, but really informing the business, and being more hands-on with what was happening in our finances, is what got us to want to evolve beyond where we had been.”
And Jason was the one holding it all together - wrangling an accountant and a bookkeeper, running internal processes and reporting out to advisors, on top of running the company.
The Solution
Jason was referred to a handful of firms and evaluated four. His criteria were clear: people who had been there and done that with companies at Maven’s size and where it was headed - a team that would lead and guide on the best practices he didn’t know he needed.
What set Scalability apart started in our initial conversation:
“Your approach was to really get to know us as a company, and not make it feel like I was fitting into this very rigid thing that you do. You really understood not only my business and what we were facing in that moment, but where we were headed.”
Scalability stepped in as Maven’s finance team - moving the books from a general corporate LLC setup to one built for the B2B-focused SaaS company Maven is. That meant restructuring the chart of accounts, getting into the weeds on payroll mapping, setting up the right tooling and integrations, and putting a consistent monthly close rhythm in place.
The Results
1. From Leading Finance to Contributing
The biggest shift wasn’t a new report - it was who was driving.
“I felt like a contributor and not leading. And that was such a massive change to my day-to-day, having been the person who was wrangling an accountant and a bookkeeper and internal processes and reporting out to advisors.”
Early on, Jason told Kate and Favour on the Scalability team: if I’m not doing what you need me to do, tell me. They took him at his word.
“They’re pinging me on Slack and saying, ‘Jason, I need this today in order for us to stay on schedule.’ That is an absolutely transformational experience in a matter of months compared to where I was with finances.”
2. Days Back Every Month
Finance work always seemed to land right when Jason should have been on a new client strategy or helping a team rethink how it works. Not anymore.
“I have days of my month back that I would have spent doing financial process.”
Just as valuable is the headspace - the peace of mind that finance is moving effectively and accurately without him having to drive it.
3. A Finance Function That Keeps Evolving
With the foundation in place, Jason isn’t reacting to what’s broken - he can see what’s next. Each step builds on the last, from clean books to the finance infrastructure behind them to the forward-looking planning a scaling company needs.
“Once you check one box, you have clarity to see, okay, well then this is what we could do next for the business.”
Final Thoughts
For Jason, this was about getting out of the driver’s seat on finance - and finally trusting it was being done right without him.
His advice to other founders:
“Simply put, I wish I had done this two years earlier. Founders are like, ‘We can get stuff done, my money is going to be better spent other places.’ I really wish in hindsight that I had freed up this time sooner.”
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