Bill Koefoed, the new CFO of AI software delivery company Harness, said in a recent interview with CFO Dive that his top priority is to ensure the company builds a 'suitable financial profile' for a potential future public listing.

Koefoed, who previously worked at Microsoft and HP, officially took over as the financial head of this AI software delivery platform earlier this month. Although the company has not set a specific timeline for going public, an IPO remains a goal for Harness and its founder and CEO, Jyoti Bansal.

To that end, Koefoed is focused on preparing the finance team for a potential initial public offering, such as guiding the team to pay attention to areas like 'usage-based billing' that may not have been covered before. At the same time, he is also working with the sales team to prepare for upcoming product launches, striving to balance 'efficient growth' with the financial discipline required for going public.

'You want to invest for growth, but obviously, when you start thinking about becoming a public company, you also need to ensure you present a financial profile with good profitability,' Koefoed told CFO Dive when discussing this balance.

Riding the AI trend

Less than a month into the role, Koefoed admitted he is still 'catching up' and familiarizing himself with the company's business, products, and operations. He served as CFO of software company OneStream for six years starting in 2019, and according to his LinkedIn profile, he recently joined this San Francisco-based AI company, which helps engineering teams test, build, and deliver software.

Koefoed's past experience also includes CFO roles at online high-end jewelry retailer Blue Nile, software company Puppet, and BCG Digital Ventures, a subsidiary of Boston Consulting Group. He also spent eight years at Microsoft, where he served as CFO of the Skype division.

When asked about his reasons for leaving OneStream, he said, 'I wanted to go through it again, to another interesting, exciting, and fast-growing company.' He added that another reason for accepting this CFO position is 'I want to work with people who have the agility to see where the industry is going.'

The AI market continues to attract the attention of corporate executives and investors, and Koefoed noted that investors are 'betting on the CEO.'

When Koefoed first met Harness's CEO, Bansal was serving as CEO of AppDynamics. Bansal founded that company in 2008 and sold it to Cisco for $3.7 billion in 2017, according to a press release at the time. According to Bansal's LinkedIn profile, he later founded Harness in 2017 and API security company Traceable in 2019.

Koefoed said that Bansal's 20 years of experience in the technology and software industry, his expertise, and his 'agility in foreseeing industry trends' were important factors in his decision to join Harness. Additionally, their 'philosophies on efficient growth are very similar.'

The question of AI ROI

Since becoming CFO, Koefoed's discussions with Bansal have mainly focused on achieving the perfect balance between growth and profitability, which is particularly critical for companies in the active AI industry. Koefoed noted that as the company considers going public, public markets have been 'very harsh' on software companies.

Part of the reason is that the evolution of AI continues to attract capital and attention, but the market has not yet determined the 'winners and losers' in the AI space—Koefoed believes the market may begin to rationally adjust this in the coming years.

Although the company is well-positioned to be a winner and is well-funded—having completed a $240 million Series E funding round led by Goldman Sachs in December—the rapid changes in the AI market make building a financial profile even more critical. Koefoed has also communicated with the sales team to 'help them think about how to showcase the best ROI and best output.'

As the AI ROI question increasingly draws CFO attention, Koefoed is also strengthening financial discipline within the company.

'CEOs and CFOs are looking at what they're spending on AI and seeking a return on investment. You can write a lot of code, but unless that code is deployed into your infrastructure, it's worthless,' he said.