How a CFO Saved <span class="case-study_highlight">$500k</span> by Building an Entire Accounting Team with Near

CyberFortress is a global cybersecurity and data recovery company serving organizations of all sizes. In 2022, it doubled its headcount over a 12-month span. They turned to Near to hire financial and accounting talent, including three managerial-level hires.

Summary

• Problem: CyberFortress needed new high-performing talent at speed to support its rapid expansion.
• Challenge: The general shortage of talent in the US made hiring a challenge. Finance and accounting candidates who fit the specific needs of CyberFortress were especially hard to find.
• Solution: Near found great candidates, and in the rare event the talent wasn’t 100% ideal, Near’s recruiter found new candidates who were a better fit.‍
• Tangible Results: CyberFortress hired 12 people through Near, including 3 managerial positions, saving the company an estimated $500,000 in annual salaries.

The Challenge

In 2021, Jungle Disk acquired several business units and became CyberFortress. The 18 months following this move were a notoriously difficult time finding talent in the US. CyberFortress was growing rapidly, and finding people aligned with their culture and needs was a struggle. In particular, as a startup, CyberFortress needed flexible talent and people who were willing to do a little bit of everything. Fluency in English was an important qualification.

We hired 12 team members who share our core values: great attitude and desire to learn, resourcefulness and adaptability. Near’s team was very responsive and the easygoing communication made for a smooth process.

Seema Chacko

CFO of CyberFortress

Solution

Seema Chacko, the company CFO, had worked with teams from Europe, India, and the Philippines. She was familiar with the advantages of hiring overseas. Latin American talent had a strong appeal because the time zone difference wasn’t as large as with hires in Europe or Asia.

After reaching out to Near, Seema was impressed by Near’s easygoing yet highly responsive communication style.

CyberFortress provided Near with a few basic job descriptions and Near was able to find strong candidates. When someone wasn’t a 100% fit, Natasha, a recruiter for Near, refined the search to bring in candidates who were a better match.

In the end, Near provided 12 hires for CyberFortress, including three managerial positions:

A Director of Accounting and Financial Reporting:

• They have a postgraduate degree in Management Skills
• 15+ years of experience
• Graduate IFRS and local GAAP
• This new hire was formerly CFO at Botbit, and Treasury and Finance Manager for LATAM at RedCloud Technologies

The new Accounting Team Lead:

• Has a Master's degree in International Business
• 20+ years of experience
• Operational Lead and Supervisor for US GAAP Teams
• Former Head of Accounting and Tax at CGA S.A.
• Worked 8 years at Accenture, where they held various positions for the Google account  

A Manager of Global Tax:

• Holds a Master’s in International Accounting
• A former Assistant Manager at Ernst & Young
• 11 years of accounting experience
• Has also worked for Exxon Mobil  

In addition to having impressive resumes, all of these hires have proven to be resourceful, adaptable, and willing to learn. Due to their multinational and entrepreneurial experience, they understand the nuances and challenges of working in a startup with operations in multiple countries. This extra insight shortens the learning curve, enables them to solve problems quickly, and makes them more valuable to CyberFortress.

CyberFortress has been able to move faster since all twelve of their new hires were able to hit the ground running, with very little hand-holding necessary.

Results

Compared to hiring in the USA, CyberFortress has saved an estimated $500k by hiring Latin American talent through Near.

With the help of Near hires, CyberFortress has been able to offload some of their specialized work, which has opened up time and resources in many areas. As a result, their closing timeline has gone from 15 days to ten, and their CFO expects to bring it down to seven. They were able to craft a board package for the first time in a year.

Simply having a complete team has enabled CyberFortress to resolve issues that were struggles until recently.

Takeaways

• Latin America has a large talent pool, including candidates for upper-level positions, at significant savings
• Latin American talent includes many people with multinational and entrepreneurial experience, who can adapt and learn new tasks and roles
• New, rapidly growing companies can build efficiency and capacity, while alleviating growing pains, by hiring Latin American talent with Near

If you are a fast-growing company and would like to learn more about hiring top talent while saving hundreds of thousands of dollars every year, book a free consultation.

To learn more about CyberFortress, visit CyberFortress' website.

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