Lightning-fast, secure and sustainable managed WordPress hosting - that's what the RAIDBOXES website says. The founding team planted the seed of this idea back in 2013, followed by the first prototype in 2014. Then came learning, growing, developing, until in 2016 Europe's largest early-stage investor, High-Tech-Gründerfonds, stepped in with a seed investment.
With this investment and the commitment of the team, RAIDBOXES succeeded in becoming the No. 1 WordPress hosting specialist in the D-A-CH region. From our point of view, the sustainability approach of RAIDBOXES is particularly noteworthy. Climate-positive hosting is what it says on the website. RAIDBOXES states that for every WordPress site hosted, a tree is planted!
We spoke to Johannes Benz, one of the founders of RAIDBOXES and CFO of the company, about Cash position and the challenges of being CFO.
Hello Johannes, you are CFO at RAIDBOXES. RAIDBOXES deals with "Managed WordPress Hosting"! Would you like to tell us briefly what this is all about?
RAIDBOXES gives our customers more freedom by taking the work out of managing their WordPress websites with our software. At the same time, websites are almost twice as fast on average after a free move.
You are the CFO of a fast-growing company in the high-tech sector. What special challenges does this business model pose for you as CFO?
As CFO, two things are particularly important for me. On the one hand, I need good budget control, because marketing expenses in particular are noteworthy and here the team members need an overview of how much budget is still available to them.
On the other hand, I need a good overview of the company's Cash position at all times in order to be able to make financial decisions at any time. This is particularly relevant when we are approaching break-even, but just as relevant when unplanned budgets need to be created.
You closed a financing round at the beginning of the year. Congratulations again! Can you please tell us briefly how this process went from the CFO's point of view?
Thank you! The process from a CFO perspective is probably always annoying. A lot of time always has to be invested in fundraising processes, which you miss in your day-to-day business and in your work with clients. Without a good team behind you, everything would come to a standstill.
And how important is Cash position for you? I guess there is a time before and after the financing round?
That's right. Liquidity management is always important. It is of course more critical before the financing round, as there is the potential for a hard cash-out. Here, Cash position must be managed to the letter.
After a financing round, it is more important to determine how much leeway there is to fully exploit unexpected positive developments in the form of a higher marketing budget in order to achieve maximum growth without overstretching oneself.
What advantages do you see for RAIDBOXES by using COMMITLY?
COMMITLY is indeed the tool I have wanted for four years. I have always wondered why there is no suitable liquidity software for SMEs.
For us, COMMITLY has the advantage of greater accuracy in liquidity management and a great time saving in making financial decisions.
You had intensive contact with our support, especially at the beginning. How would you describe your experience here?
The experience was consistently positive. There are very few companies that can do support properly. Since outstanding support is one of the hallmarks of RAIDBOXES, I can judge this well. Product feedback was acted upon extremely quickly, response times were good and a bug in the software was fixed within a short period of time, allowing us to work quickly.
For whom do you think a tool like COMMITLY can be important?
From my point of view, it is very important for all small and medium-sized enterprises worldwide. Especially, of course, for business owners. Each of you can make much better decisions, which means that entrepreneurial potential can be used much better, but also that sometimes serious dangers can be averted.
Thank you very much for the interview!
Credits: Photo by RAIDBOXES
