The disruptions of Covid—and all the economic and political upheaval since—have taught Kevin Cooper, CFO of Atlanta-based fintech Momnt, a critical lesson: Finance chiefs are key to organizational agility.
“You can’t predict every disruption, but you can ensure the business is positioned to pivot quickly,” he tells CFO Leadership. “That requires a deep understanding of your financials and how each function contributes to performance and resilience.”
There has been a shift in the CFO role from only financial stewards to strategic partners in shaping business direction. How have you personally embraced this shift, and what advice would you offer to peers looking to expand their influence across the organization?
One area where I’ve seen this firsthand is with our sales organization. Sales and finance must work as a unified commercial engine. By building a strong partnership grounded in mutual respect, where finance brings data-driven insights and sales brings frontline customer knowledge, we’ve been able to drive aligned, strategic growth.
My advice to peers is simple: Understand the business from the ground up and encourage your team members to do the same. When finance professionals take the time to learn how revenue is generated, how operations serve customers and how product and engineering shape the company’s future, they become significantly more impactful. That level of understanding leads to better decisions and outcomes for the whole organization.
In today’s volatile environment, innovation is essential—but so is risk management. How do you personally approach this balance when evaluating new investment opportunities or financial strategies?
It sounds cliche, but balancing innovation and risk management starts with thoughtful assessment, not avoiding risk but understanding and sizing it relative to the opportunity. While you can never anticipate every possible outcome, you can evaluate the likelihood and magnitude of potential downsides. The key is determining whether the risk is manageable relative to the opportunity.
Having guided Momnt through a high-growth phase into a more mature stage in the consumer finance space, our team has seen firsthand how risk evolves across business cycles. We encounter risks across various departments of the business, and rather than being paralyzed by uncertainty, we work to quantify the risk and move forward accordingly. When you understand the potential exposure, you’re in a better position to make impactful, but responsible, decisions.
What are some unique qualities that are required of CFOs in the startup realm? How does this role differ from the CFO role at more established, larger organizations?
In my experience across mid-size organizations, a large accounting firm and now in the startup environment, it’s clear that the CFO role in early-stage companies demands a unique blend of adaptability, strategic breadth and hands-on leadership. Unlike in larger, more established organizations where CFOs often operate within well-defined financial boundaries and rely on fully built-out teams, growth stage CFOs must thrive in ambiguity and wear multiple hats daily.
In a growth stage, you’re not just the financial steward; you’re also a strategic partner across operations, legal, HR and more. There are no playbooks, and often no dedicated teams to lean on. For example, I’ve led internal legal initiatives while we were still building that function, something that would be far outside the scope of a traditional CFO role. You’re constantly filling gaps, solving problems in real time and building infrastructure from the ground up.
This environment requires a different kind of leadership, one that embraces uncertainty, moves quickly and sees every challenge as an opportunity to gain deeper insight into how the entire business operates. One where CFOs are comfortable navigating ambiguity. It’s about turning uncertainty into insight and using challenges to strengthen the business.
Looking back at the past few years of economic shifts, what’s one key takeaway that has reshaped how you lead as a CFO—and what should others in the profession take to heart as they prepare for what’s next?
One of the most important lessons I’ve taken from the past few years is the critical need for real-time financial clarity. As CFOs, our most fundamental responsibility is to understand the company’s financial position at all times, starting with something as simple, yet essential, as the cash position.
What’s become clear through events like Covid and rapid shifts in the interest rate environment is that agility is just as important as accuracy. You can’t predict every disruption, but you can ensure the business is positioned to pivot quickly. That requires a deep understanding of your financials and how each function contributes to performance and resilience.
For me, it’s less about predicting the future and more about building a foundation that allows you to adapt with confidence. The future will always bring uncertainty. Our job is to ensure the business remains ready to act, no matter what the future holds.
