The Sovereign Debt Market Ignores Fundamentals
Mich Chandlee, CFO, Fanatics
Fanatics is a privately-held online retailer of sports equipment, sportswear, and related merchandise.It is one of the few companies to make itself “Amazon-proof,” thanks to its exclusive deals with sports leagues and teams.Mich joined Fanatics in 2019, after a distinguished career with Nike.Following are highlights from my conversation with Mich.
Jack McCullough: What were the biggest challenges you faced in 2020?
Mich Chandlee: One of the biggest challenges I personally faced as the new CFO of Fanatics (coming in right before the pandemic hit) was balancing the time it usually takes to fully immerse yourself into a new role with developing an unprecedented plan for success as all sports shut down.Fanatics is a company that moves FAST — even in the face of a pandemic we found opportunities to grow and never took our foot off the gas.
Another huge challenge this year was being a supportive and present husband and father to seven children during a global pandemic lockdown.It’s always difficult to find that perfect work/life balance and this year made it even trickier.
McCullough: Fanatics had a great year.How were you so successful?
Chandlee: Fanatics has created a versatile culture around our vertical commerce model that gives us flexibility to pivot as needed and allowed us to be opportunistic, in terms of bringing new categories to market and adding new capabilities through acquisitions, while still executing big sports moments throughout the season.
Our omnichannel capabilities ensured we could meet the demand of more fans shopping from home.
McCullough: Few CFOs are as focused on their teams as you are.
What can you share about your leadership and team-building philosophy?
Chandlee: For me, it’s personal.I want to be in the trenches with my team and I like to surround myself with enterprise thinkers who understand how finance fits into the broader company ecosystem.I also look for those who can be team players and manage through times of adversity, which is exactly what it took to get through this year.I consider everyone on my team to be an athlete who is functionally excellent in their role, but at the same time I have a sense of humor and roll with the punches.
McCullough: How did you inspire confidence in your team, your fellow executives, and investors during the crisis?
Chandlee: The first order of business was locking arms with my team and building a go-forward plan focused on the most important priorities.
I wanted to inspire confidence that we had the best team built for this crisis and would get through this together.I also wanted the team to feel empowered.I had only been at Fanatics a short time before the pandemic hit, but I knew I could trust my fellow executives, as we have extremely smart and experienced leaders.I asked a lot of questions, and we had open and honest dialogue about how we would align our priorities and move forward together.
For the investors, it was all about consistent communication focused on our competitive strengths and how we were leveraging our agile business model, which allowed us to excel at this time.What I most wanted to instill in all key stakeholders throughout the year was authenticity, honesty, and the ability to be agile to meet the ever-changing needs that came with the pandemic.
I asked Doug Mack, the CEO of Fanatics, for his thoughts on Mich, which he shares below:
“Mich’s global experience in building teams, planning financial scenarios, allocating resources, and creating strong finance processes all came to bear in 2020, where we not only significantly strengthened the finance organization – but the entire company.
Through his leadership, agility, and experience, Mich played a vital role in keeping us on offense through the pandemic, setting up strong financial momentum and strength heading into 2021.”
Jason Warnick, CFO, Robinhood
Robinhood ranks among the world’s hottest startups, having developed a mobile app Jason Warnick joined Robinhood as its CFO in 2018.Robinhood
that allows individuals to invest for free in stocks, ETFs, and crypto currency.It is a regulated broker-dealer as well, so the company is in both the financial services and technology spaces.
Jason joined the company in 2018 after a 20-year career at Amazon, where his final role was as VP of finance and chief of staff to the CFO.
McCullough: What were some of the biggest challenges you faced in 2020?
Jason Warnick: I’m proud of our teams’ accomplishments this year, and particularly the personal resilience shown by each of our Robinhood employees.2020 presented many new challenges as we abruptly transitioned to work from home, and I’m impressed with how we’ve been able to deliver for customers, build our teams, and stay true to our mission and culture through these unusual times.
As an organization, 2020 saw the business take a significant leap forward.We’ve scaled operations rapidly to ensure we continue to deliver the best investing experience for our growing customer base and identified areas for continued improvement.
I am proud of the finance organization’s role in delivering on Robinhood’s larger business priorities — simplifying investing by removing the barriers of high-trade commissions, archaic platforms, and account minimums.We remain committed to making our financial products and services accessible to our customers, whether they are new or experienced investors, and to continuing to grow with our customers and serve them at different points of their journey.
McCullough: Robinhood had a great year.
How have you been so successful?
Warnick: Our mission to democratize the financial system resonates with our customers.We believe the financial system should work hard for everyone and that barriers to access should continue to fall.We are proud to welcome customers from all backgrounds and financial positions, and I think this message is being heard, and the response has been truly inspiring.
Customers are also responding to the improvements we are making in our product.
Whether it’s introducing fractional shares or recurring investments or adding educational content for our customers to learn and improve, I think our customers see they are on a journey with us where Robinhood will never be done adding more value for customers.
On a more personal level, I’m impressed each day by the depth and breadth of the talent we’ve been able to attract to this company that is focused on delivering for our customers.I feel lucky to work with such an intelligent and hardworking group of people.
I’ve leaned on and learned from a strong finance team throughout my time as CFO.
McCullough: What is your philosophy on team building?
Warnick: I am only as good as the team I surround myself with.I’m a big believer in hiring people with diverse backgrounds, experiences, and specialties, and then creating an environment of trust where they can thrive.
As a leader, one of the most important skills is the ability to listen and to change your mind.This approach empowers your team to lean into decisions, speak up when they see change is needed, and to trust that their voice is heard.I think this kind of environment builds upon itself and creates a flywheel that attracts even more amazing people to the team over time.
McCullough: What is the business accomplishment you are most proud of from 2020?
Warnick: I am incredibly proud we introduced fractional shares to our customers this year.Fractional shares enable customers to build a diversified portfolio on any budget.We want our customers to thrive over the long term and build positive financial habits that set them up to achieve their goals.
I think fractional shares empowers them to do just that.
McCullough: How did you inspire confidence in your team, your fellow executives, and investors at the start of the crisis?
Warnick: Focus on the inputs and trust that the outcomes will follow.My message to the team was to stay focused on customer experience, double-down on the investments we were making in our platform, and to recognize that we will accomplish great things if we stay focused on working together as a team.It was necessary in 2020 to prioritize more than we ever had previously, and I am proud of the decisions we made.
Leaders inspire confidence through teamwork and trust — the shared experience of having navigated through previous challenges and creating an environment where everyone feels empowered to share in those successes and express concerns.
Across the organization, we continually ask ourselves, “What are the things that customers care about?” We use that to guide our day-to-day and long-term priorities.
Robinhood’s CEO and cofounder Vlad Tenev shared with me the following observation on Jason:
“Since joining Robinhood, Jason has played an integral role in scaling the business by continuing to establish financial controls and building a strong team.His exceptional judgment, integrity and focus on our customers will continue to serve Robinhood well.”
While Mich and Jason took different paths to their current role, they share many similarities.
Both come from two of the best companies in the world (Nike and Amazon), both are excellent communicators and strategic thinkers, and both have invested considerable time in developing world-class teams.We will explore this further tomorrow as we honor two public-company CFOs..
