“‘Operations’ in venture capital can encompass a very broad spectrum of responsibilities, and can even shift depending on who is in the role and the needs and stage of the fund can include investor relations, HR & people, marketing, events and platform, and even cover some compliance and investment processes," said Zosia. Tara Perillo, who works as an operations advisor to emerging managers and fractional Chief Operating Officer at early-stage VC firms, added, "It can be somebody who’s responsible for internal systems and community management. It’s developed into this catch-all for everything that happens in a VC firm outside of making investments. Finance, in my opinion, is a piece of that.” Tara also drew a distinction between “soft ops” and “hard ops”, the former being functions like community engagement and portfolio support, while the latter covering functions like finance, investor relations, and compliance.
Finance and operations must work together closely on certain tasks, particularly in the areas of risk management, compliance, fundraising, and portfolio management. These shared responsibilities are critical to the firm’s success but require clear boundaries to avoid confusion and inefficiency.
For example, risk management responsibilities are divided between finance and operations. The finance team handles financial risks such as cash management, while operations is responsible for data protection, particularly regarding investor information. Similarly, in compliance and regulations, both teams adhere to legal requirements, but finance focuses on tax compliance, while operations ensures HR and other internal procedures meet regulatory standards.
"It is not only understanding your role, but also prioritizing your responsibilities based on impact and leveraging productivity tools where you can," Lauren and Zosia emphasized. Communication and collaboration are critical across both finance & operations functions to ensure budget and resources are allocated effectively, no matter the size or structure of the teams. “It’s important to go back to the overall strategy and priorities of the fund, and make sure that operations and finance are working together in order to keep the budget accurate and allocate working capital in the right buckets," said Tara. To reach fundraising goals, for example, your firm might prioritize spending more on marketing and events over other capital expenditure. Tara recommends that her clients run at least quarterly check-ins to align on priorities and help finance maintain balance in the long run.
Many firms achieve a careful balance by outsourcing key functions like fund administration or tax services instead of hiring full-time employees. This approach is often more cost-effective, especially for smaller firms, while internal hires offer deeper insights into firm-specific nuances. “A similar outsourcing trend is common in operational and finance oversight roles within venture capital as firms can get a lot of bang for their buck. The need for a full-time hire may not be necessary to meet the needs of the firm, but the skillset of an industry expert is invaluable,” said Lauren.
Outsourcing makes sense for small firms where handling tasks like fund administration or tax filing in-house would be prohibitively expensive or time-consuming. Specialized external service providers offer high-level expertise without the long-term commitment of hiring, training, and retaining full-time employees. For instance, fast-growing firms often benefit from working with a fund administrator as an extension of their internal team. This collaboration helps finance connect better with operations and manage the added complexity that comes with growth.
Attendees at LTO weren’t unfamiliar with having to do more with less, regardless of their role. This brought up an argument for a FinOps generalist to better maintain the choreography of the tango: someone who, while working in a defined role, has a working understanding of the overlapping parts of both finance and operations.
“There is so much overlap in responsibilities, but not a lot of people that can fill both components,” Tara said. “I started my career doing community engagement events, portfolio support: soft ops. Once I actively sought out education around finance, it changed my career trajectory entirely. It provided the context for all of the work I had been doing in operations because I was now able to understand more acutely how the portfolio needed support and was able to talk to founders in a very different way. So I am constantly preaching to people earlier on in their operations careers to learn finance.”
While Tara is not suggesting operations professionals learn how to dissect a cap table or read financials, she did stress that understanding the vocabulary and basic portfolio construction means you’re likely to become exponentially more effective in your role and valuable to your firm.
When it comes to evaluating long-term career growth, Lauren and Zosia highlighted the importance of understanding your current role. Defining where the gaps in your expertise are and investing time into professional development to be a strong “jack of all trades” is crucial. They also recommended investing in relationships with outside service providers (like fund admin, tax, audit, etc.) so you can cash in on your “phone a friend” lifeline as you fine-tune skills in disciplines that may not be encompassed in your existing role.
Achieving balance between efficiency and growth in finance and operations requires careful coordination. By clearly defining roles, strategically leveraging outsourcing, and prioritizing risk management and compliance, firms can streamline their processes. This allows them to focus on what truly matters—supporting GPs and building robust portfolios. Zosia finished the presentation with the metaphor, “The beauty of dance is not in the steps or movements, but in the way they synchronized to create a seamless story.”
“The right team with the right swim lanes will be able to take as much off the plate from the GPs as possible,” Tara said. “Good FinOps teams can focus on chasing down documents and overlooking the financials, picking out edits, and managing communications so that GPs can focus on their main priority: making good investments.”
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