E2: When COVID Hits and You are CFO at Instacart with Sagar Sanghvi
In this episode, Sasha sits down with Sagar Sanghvi, Current Partner at Accel and former CFO at Instacart. They discuss how Sagar drove the change in financial culture at Instacart and adapted rapidly to Whole Food’s acquisition by Amazon, scaling Instacart during the COVID pandemic, the balance between growth at all costs and unit economics, Sagar’s transition from CFO at Instacart to being Partner at the venture firm Accel, and much more. This show is a part of the Turpentine podcast network. Learn more: www.turpentine.co --- SPONSORS: Attio is the next generation of CRM. It’s powerful, flexible and easily configures to the unique way your startup runs, whatever your go-to-market motion. The next era deserves a better CRM. Join ElevenLabs, Replicate, Modal and more at https://bit.ly/attioturpentine --- Recommended Podcast: Company Breakdowns Each episode of Company Breakdowns dives into S-1s and series B-and-beyond companies, interviewing founders and investors to break down the companies. First episode is on Rubrik - which just IPO'd. Coming up this season: Databricks, Reddit + more, Spotify Apple 📈 ECON 102 W/ NOAH SMITH - Keeping econ entertaining - Noahpinion author Noah Smith and Erik Torenberg break down business news and politics every week. Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/3Mos4VE3figVXleHDqfXOH Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/id1753399812https://podcasts.apple.com/id1753399812 --- This show is produced by Turpentine: a network of podcasts, newsletters, and more, covering technology, business, and culture — all from the perspective of industry insiders and experts. We’re launching new shows every week, and we’re looking for industry-leading sponsors — if you think that might be you and your company, email us at erik@turpentine.co. --- LINKS: https://www.accel.com/people/sagar-sanghvi X/SOCIAL: @sashaorloff (Sasha) @spsanghvi4 (Sagar) @turpentinemedia CONTACT: sps@accel.com TIMESTAMPS: (00:00) Preview and Intro (02:30) Sagar's time at Instacart (04:29) Training from Goldman and KKR (06:58) When to transition to unit economic focus instead of growth at all costs (08:31) The process of changing a financial culture at a company (10:57) Advice for CFOs in driving culture with a founder where financial discipline is not present yet (13:39) Sponsor: Attio (14:55) How do you bring colleagues from other functions into alignment (17:22) Amazon's acquisition of Whole Foods and Instacart's internal dynamics (20:17) Signs that Amazon's acquisition of Whole Foods was a positive infection for Instacart (21:43) Instacart's wartime and tactical parts of Sagar's job during wartimes (24:04) Size of Instacart's finance team (25:10) What Sagar would have done differently in response to the acquisition (27:54) Sagar's VP of Strategy transition to CFO at Instacart (30:13) Balancing growth versus profitability (36:27) Instacart during COVID and lockdown (40:41) Sagar's transition to Accel and VC (44:59) Advice for CFOs positioning themselves to VC (47:34) What gets Sagar excited about a deal? (49:58) Wrap