#9 Add then Multiply with David B Horne

David B Horne is a CFO who has written a best selling business book, “Add then Multiply”. The book describes his FACE methodology for growing and exiting a business, and is great reading for CEOs and CFOs alike. He trained as a chartered accountant with PWC in Canada. Because he can speak fluent German, he wanted to work in a German-speaking office and so he went to Switzerland. From there, he got offered a job by his biggest clients and then transferred with them to London. These days he works as a portfolio CFO advising clients undertaking major transactions. Add then Multiply David B Horne is a CFO who has written a best selling business book. His book “Add then Multiply” was published in July 2019 and went to no. 1 on Amazon. In March 2020 Add then Multiply won the business self development category at the  business book awards. You can buy Add then Multiply on Amazon Who is Add then Multiply for? CEO’s and CFO’s who want to fundraise and grow quickly through acquisition. Are you frustrated by the challenges of growing your business organically? Have you ever wondered if there was a way to grow exponentially? Fast? There is a better way but you’ll need to break a few rules in your thinking about business. This book shows you how. What Add then Multiply all about? Add then Multiply describes David’s FACE methodology: Fund Acquire Consolidate Exit The FACE methodology is about getting step-by-step exponential growth in your business. It’s about selling and buying businesses for growth and development. F is for Fund This is all about the process by which you raise money. How do you go about doing that? What do you have to prepare and what are the different types of investors (family and friends for early stage, angels, and then more institutional means like venture capital). A is for Acquire Acquire within David’s framework is for more established businesses who want to scale up. The fastest way is through acquisition. David wrote many case studies for this in his book. The key point is that, if you’ve never done this before, don’t try do it on your own. There are minefields out there. You need professional people who know what they’re talking about there with you. C is for Consolidate Putting two businesses together. The key challenges are values and culture. The value destruction that comes after a small company and big company are acquired and merged is almost like night follows day for some. But, David does have some examples where it worked. E is for Exit Realising your dreams. Begin with the end in mind. A lot of entrepreneurs start off because they’ve never really though about their ‘why’ and the drive that pushes you in your endeavours. David shares his advice for first time CFOs David’s first CFO role was in a very acquisitive PR group. He learned a huge amount about fast growth through acquisition in. a cash rich company. He learned many other lessons in a big step up from a no2 role Listen to advice from peers or coaches and mentors. We explored the importance of this on a previous episode of the GrowCFO Show The need to form strong relationships with the rest of the c-suite. David found he needed to change his attitude to many people. He learned to say sorry and apologise for behaving badly. This leads to gaining trust and the ability to work collaboratively. Some of these relationships can last through an entire career, and usually they are the relationships you might thin are the least important at the time. The importance of networking. People can introduce you to people. Relationships are really important. David & Kevin first met via LinkedIn to record an episode of “The Next 100 Days Podcast“ Fundraising during Covid-19 David is fundraising right now. There’s money still there, but it’s a little harder to access. Funders are looking closely at valuations, and looking at risks of recession. Some funds couldn’t invest early in 2020, so to some extent deals that weren’t done are now being caught up. Investors have money, they are just being cautious. The fight for fairer funding David is thrilled to be the opening speaker at TEDxPCL on 9 October 2020. His talk “The Fight for Fairer Funding” is all about the challenges that female and diverse entrepreneurs face when raising capital to grow their businesses. In 2017 for every £1 funded, only 1p went to all female teams David ran Funding-focus.com last year and will repeat this year as an online event. This told some great stories about female entrepreneurs, bur revealed the inequality isn’t just in the UK, its global. Ethnic minorities of both genders face these inequalities too. “The Fight for Fairer Funding” is set to be the title of Davids second book, where he explores the reasons behind the inequality. All female and mixed gender founders win a disproportionately low percentage of pitches. We highlighted cognitive bias from white male dominated equity houses as a major reason, but it isn’t the only one. It promises to be a great read. Do you want to reach out fo David? You can find him on LinkedIn or in the GrowCFO community