For Christian Fadel, it’s critical to think like his firm’s customers. He is CFO of 8am, a company based in Austin, Texas, that provides a business management platform for lawyers, accountants and other professional services firms. “These are people who typically have limited resources and must manage their clients’ money with precision—and they expect the same from us,” he says.
“I don’t believe in layers of complexity for the sake of complexity. If we’re not making it easier for a customer to do their job or manage their practice, then we’ve missed the point. Customers don’t have time for fluff. They want tools that work and support they can count on.”
Fadel shares his strategies for cutting through the noise, delivering value and maintaining growth.
At 8am, your customers are professionals like lawyers and accountants, many of whom are also small business owners. What have you learned from serving this group that has shaped how you lead finance?
Working with professionals like lawyers and accountants teaches you to focus on the things that really matter. These are people who typically have limited resources and must manage their clients’ money with precision—and they expect the same from us.
That expectation has shaped how I approach my role. I aim to keep things straightforward and focus on the things that are going to drive the greatest outcomes. I don’t believe in layers of complexity for the sake of complexity. If we’re not making it easier for a customer to do their job or manage their practice, then we’ve missed the point. Customers don’t have time for fluff. They want tools that work and support they can count on.
That mindset carries over into how I lead our finance team. We focus on being practical, transparent, intentional and useful and not just to the business, but to the people we serve.
What role do you believe CFOs should play in ensuring their company’s product and pricing strategies deliver real, measurable value to customers?
I spend time listening to customer feedback, joining cross-functional conversations and asking the hard questions, because pressure-testing ideas is part of the job. I want to be sure that the value we’re delivering matches what we’re asking people to pay. If we get that wrong, the financial model doesn’t matter and the business won’t last.
CFOs are often expected to be gatekeepers, but increasingly, they need to be enablers of growth. How do you bring a customer-first lens to financial decision-making, whether it’s budgeting, resource allocation or product investment?
I’ve always believed the best financial decisions start with the customer in mind. You can chase margin all day, but if you’re not helping the customer succeed, the growth won’t stick. So when we make decisions around budget or headcount or where to invest, I ask questions like: “Does this make life easier for our customer? Does this help us deliver faster, serve more effectively, support better?” There’s a balance between being cautious and being bold. My job is to find it.
But when the customer is at the center of the discussion, the trade-offs get a lot clearer. You stop chasing short-term wins and start building something that actually lasts.
The CFO role today goes far beyond the numbers. How do you partner with other functional leaders, like product, customer success or marketing, to help grow strategically and sustainably?
The numbers obviously matter, but the numbers are simply an output of how we treat our customers and employees and the products and services we deliver to our customers. To really move the business forward, I have to stay connected to the teams closest to our customers. That includes product, customer success and marketing.
We talk openly, and I don’t show up with a spreadsheet and a red pen—I show up with questions and potential solutions so I can look for ways finance can help. That might mean enabling a new hire, fast-tracking a tool or pulling data that helps shape a new campaign.
Growth doesn’t come from one department. It comes from people working together toward the same goal. My job is to help make that possible without adding red tape. When we’re aligned on what matters, the numbers tend to follow.
