Skip to main content
Join the Community
Add as a preferred source on Google Opens new window Join the Community Join the Community

Bradley Clifford

VP of Finance

Running a business without clear financial visibility is one of the fastest ways to make expensive mistakes. I’ve spent 15+ years helping growth-stage companies build the finance infrastructure, forecasting tools, and decision-support frameworks that turn raw numbers into something leadership can actually use.

I’m currently VP of Finance at Black & White Zebra, where I am focused on building a more scalable and insight-led finance function. This includes improving financial reporting and forecasting, strengthening cash and liquidity management, and creating clearer links between operating activity and financial outcomes. I have also led work to improve finance systems and processes, including FP&A tooling, payroll and HRIS improvements, and billing and collections process redesign.

Before Black & White Zebra, I was Senior Director of Finance at Rewind, a $20M+ ARR SaaS company, where I helped reduce annual cash burn from roughly $11M to $2M while the business maintained 25-30% year-over-year growth and navigated a $65M Series B financing and a $15M debt facility. Prior to that, I spent nearly six years at Stack Overflow, joining as the company’s first European finance hire, and supported the business as revenue scaled from approximately $20M to over $100M until its eventual $1.8B acquisition by Prosus.

I hold a Fellow designation from ACCA (FCCA) and an MSc in Professional Accountancy from the University of London. I started my career training as a Chartered Accountant, working across audit, restructuring, and insolvency at Baker Tilly and Moorfields Advisory, which gave me a strong foundation in accounting quality, controls, risk assessment, cash flow, and business viability.

Finance can often be seen as backward-looking or compliance-focused, but the most valuable part of the work is connecting the numbers to the underlying business drivers. I enjoy helping leadership teams understand what is really happening in the business, where the risks and opportunities are, and what choices they need to make as a result.

My Areas of Expertise:

  • Accounting, financial reporting, and controls
  • Strategic finance and executive decision support
  • Financial planning, forecasting, and scenario modelling
  • Cash management, liquidity, and financial operations
  • Scaling finance functions in growth-stage companies

More About Me:

Originally from London, UK, I now live on the Sunshine Coast in British Columbia, with my wife and two young children. Outside of work, I enjoy golf, skiing, playing guitar, and following far too many sports teams, including Tottenham Hotspur, the Vancouver Canucks, and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. I also recently joined the Board of Directors of the Sunshine Coast Youth Soccer Association, where I support the organization’s finance and governance work.

What’s in My Tech Stack:

  • Accounting and financial reporting
    • QuickBooks Online: Used for core accounting, financial records, month-end close, and management reporting support.
  • FP&A and forecasting
    • Runway: Used for budgeting, forecasting, scenario planning, headcount planning, and connecting financial performance to operating drivers. I value tools like this because they help move finance away from static spreadsheets and toward more collaborative, driver-based planning.
  • Spend management, expenses, and accounts payable
    • Float Financial: Used for corporate credit cards, expense management, approvals, and accounts payable workflows. It supports better spend visibility, stronger controls, and a more scalable approach to managing company expenses.
  • Treasury, FX, and payments
    • Corpay: Used for foreign exchange and payment-related workflows. It supports more disciplined management of FX exposure, payment execution, and treasury planning.
  • Spreadsheet modelling and analysis
    • Microsoft Excel and Google Sheets: Used for financial modelling, ad hoc analysis, scenario planning, variance analysis, and operating metrics. Even with dedicated FP&A tools, spreadsheets remain useful for flexible analysis and quick decision support.
  • Business intelligence and data analysis:
    • BigQuery, Google Analytics, and Datorama: Used to understand revenue performance, traffic trends, marketing data, and other operating drivers that influence financial results.
  • CRM and revenue operations
    • HubSpot and Zoho: Used to support visibility into customer, sales, pipeline, billing, and revenue-related data. These tools are important for connecting commercial activity to financial outcomes.
  • Payroll, HRIS, and people operations
    • Rippling: Used for payroll, employee data, headcount visibility, and workforce-related finance processes. This is particularly relevant for forecasting, cost management, and financial controls.
Bradley Clifford

710+ published articles on The CFO Club