Just two weeks into her role at smart water cooler and dispenser company Bevi, CFO Wajeeha Ahmed has a new job in an industry she’s never worked in. She is also the organization’s first CFO. Luckily for her, this is quite familiar territory.
After starting her career at Shell, she moved into media, holding several financial leadership positions at Time before taking on her first CFO position at Vice Media in 2018. A little under a year later, she left to become the inaugural CFO at Barstool Sports, where she held her longest CFO tenure of a little over three years. She then left for the same role at Hungryroot, a direct-to-consumer, subscription-based food company.
In her two most recent career moves, including to Bevi last month, the organization’s mission has become increasingly important. After raising a family, Ahmed says she wants to help build businesses that promote health and well-being, two things she cares deeply about. But before she can help drive the company’s mission, Ahmed is making sure her processes are scalable, her organizational communication is seamless and her data is ready to help determine the “anecdotes” that will drive growth.
Wajeeha Ahmed
CFO, Bevi
First CFO Position: 2018
Notable previous employers:
- Hungryroot
- Barstool Sports
- Vice Media
- Time Inc.
This interview has been edited for brevity and clarity.
ADAM ZAKI: You’ve been industry-agnostic in your career as you’ve moved around. Why?
AHMED: I think it was how I started my career and my initial training. Shell was a cradle-to-grave company. The week after I joined, I was 22 years old, and someone sat me down, put up a graph, and said, “You’re 22, and you’re going to retire at 60. This is what your next 40 years will look like.” And I was like — especially at that age — I don’t know what I am having for breakfast tomorrow!
At a company like Shell, you’re encouraged to take on different roles across different business segments — upstream, downstream, chemicals, and even in-house consulting. Early on, I learned that while strong finance and technical skills are essential, the ability to quickly understand and adapt to a new business is just as critical to earning a seat at the table.
When I left Shell, I knew I wanted to do something completely different because I still had that appetite to learn a new business. I moved to New York and got a chance to work at Time Inc., and that was amazing. I saw the transition from print to digital media to social media. Then I got a CFO position at Vice Media and then Barstool Sports — also media companies — but those were very different businesses that provided another really informative opportunity for me to do something new.
I then went to Hungryroot because I was really interested in their mission of healthy eating which resonated with me being a parent and wanting to feed healthy food to my family. It was also an opportunity to learn a different type of business — a direct-to-consumer subscription business. I had been in media for 12 years and this was an opportunity to learn something new.
What interested you in taking this job?
AHMED: It’s the mission. We want to eliminate the use of single-use water bottles. They’re bad for you, they’re bad for the environment. They take hundreds of years to degrade, and the microplastics end up in the water we are drinking and in our bodies. So when I heard this was the problem this company was trying to solve, I was really interested.
At this point in my career, I really want to do something important to me and support a mission I believe in. As I met with the CEO and the rest of the leadership team during the interview process, I was drawn to the company’s culture.
From my CFO brain’s perspective, the strong product market fit, impressive growth trajectory, healthy unit economics, and overall potential make this an exciting opportunity. There is margin with a mission here, which I also appreciate.
Have you had a chance to peek under the hood at the finance function yet and consider any tweaks or changes you’d like to make?
AHMED: This is the third time in my career I am the inaugural CFO at a company, and Bevi’s finance function is the most developed one I have stepped into. There aren’t any fires I have to put out here, so I can take my time to learn the operations, evaluate, and make any necessary adjustments over time.
A big part of my job here will be to make sure we have a solid financial and operational foundation so that if the business were to 5x or 10x, we could scale it pain-free in finance. I don’t want friction with growth, and that is something I am focusing on creating. I am sure that will come with some optimization — maybe some bolt-on systems I have used in my previous work — but those are things I am going to take my time thinking about in the beginning.
Your CEO is also fairly new. How do you see that relationship developing?
AHMED: I knew during the interview process that there was chemistry there!
The CEO-CFO partnership is crucial, and I’m excited to build a strong, collaborative relationship with Cathy. She is an open-minded and seasoned leader, and I’m confident we will work well together. Bevi has tremendous growth potential and a compelling mission, and I look forward to partnering with Cathy and the leadership team to drive success.
Given your product’s target market, are widespread return-to-office initiatives going to be part of your forecasts?
AHMED: Our growth ambitions go beyond the office. That’s where we started, that’s our sweet spot, and that’s where we are most penetrated today. Our goal, however, is to build out into other segments like hospitality, education, and airports, etc. — much more than the office segment. Our future is not return-to-office dependent by any means, but we definitely keep an eye on those trends.
You mentioned a bit about growth. What is finance’s role here, and are you more capital allocation-focused or lender/private equity-focused?
AHMED: Capital allocation for us is going to be a big piece, particularly how we take a data-driven approach to investment decisions. Do we invest more in marketing, more in sales, or product innovation? As CFO, I am also thinking about how I can unlock more growth capital for the company. Ultimately, it’s about finding pathways to long-term, profitable growth.
One year from now, how would you quantify your success?
AHMED: First, if finance is embedded as a true partner at every level in the business, not as an afterthought but an enabler. I will be partnering with the CEO and the leadership team, and want to see every person on my team working closely with counterparts on the business side.
Additionally, scalability within finance is essential. We must streamline processes and leverage automation to ensure that as the company grows 4x, we don’t need to quadruple our headcount. I’ve seen teams in high growth companies get overburdened, which ultimately becomes unsustainable. My focus will be on building a finance function that is both resilient and adaptable, capable of supporting the company’s long-term trajectory.
