Hightouch CFO Cherry Miao has seen the company’s value and growth story from all sides of the table, having been both a customer and angel investor in the business before she worked there.
Since 2022, the data activation platform has expanded rapidly, selling software that helps organizations connect information from their data warehouses directly into business systems across sales, marketing and finance. The company has reached a $1.2 billion valuation, reflecting strong demand and a disciplined approach to investment.
Now leading finance, legal, data and revenue operations, Miao applies that outsider-turned-insider perspective to how Hightouch scales. In a recent interview with CFO.com, she discusses building a finance team that accelerates rather than restricts growth, the tradeoffs between speed and precision in data-driven decision making and how proactive planning can help companies invest ahead of demand.
Cherry Miao
CFO, Hightouch
Notable previous employers:
- Headway
- Accel
- Lightspeed HQ
This interview has been edited for brevity and clarity.
ADAM ZAKI: Hightouch’s valuation has climbed fast since 2022. What role did finance play in that growth?
CHERRY MIAO: I think of my role, or at least a key part of it, as identifying speed limits inside the business. We have these two incredibly visionary co-founders and our CTO, and a huge part of our growth comes from what they’ve built in product and how closely they listen to our customers. My job is to figure out what is slowing us down inside the business, whether we know it or not.
That can mean operational things like two teams not talking to each other, which most people don’t see as a CFO issue. But I spend a lot of time ironing through that because misalignment between orgs can slow growth more than any financial constraint.
“A big piece of what’s driven our growth has been our willingness to invest ahead of what might look financially advisable on paper.”
Cherry Miao
CFO, Hightouch
In a more traditional sense, finance’s job is identifying what will hold the company back as we look ahead. The annual planning process gets dismissed as busy work, but every budget is wrong the moment you finish it. The point isn’t accuracy, it’s simplification. A budget forces you to distill a multidimensional business into something you can act on.
A big piece of what’s driven our growth has been our willingness to invest ahead of what might look financially advisable on paper. If we really believe in the plan, we shouldn’t artificially limit ourselves. It’s about giving ourselves a chance to win.
You oversee finance, legal, data and rev ops. How does that mix shape your decision-making and make you a “strategic CFO”?
It’s definitely an unusual combination, but it works really well for us. It goes back to how we define the role of finance and G&A. I knew from day one that to make finance impactful here, I had to build it in the same image as our product — fast, iterative and collaborative.
We don’t call ourselves finance. The team that reports to me is called Acceleration. It includes strategic finance, accounting, data, rev ops and legal. The name matters because it reframes our mission. We’re not here to slow the company down or impose red tape. We’re here to help everyone move faster, smarter and with more alignment.
When I hire, I look for people who believe in that idea. That mindset creates different behaviors. Just before this call, I was on with a salesperson, structuring a contract. They reached out not because they expected a no, but because they knew I’d help them find the right way to yes. We talked about what the customer wanted, what incentives we each had, and how to balance it all. Those are the moments that tell me the team is doing its job.
Being cross-functional also helps us break silos between functions that traditionally report to different executives. Data informs finance, finance informs rev ops and legal supports both. Having all of that under one umbrella lets us move as a single unit in pursuit of growth.
You have some serious enterprise customers like the NBA, Plaid and Ramp. How do those relationships influence your go-to-market strategy and shape where you invest for growth?
When I joined, I was actually a customer at another startup. We paid in the tens of thousands a year and used Hightouch as a horizontal solution — moving data from A to B. In the three years since, we’ve evolved into a much more sales-driven company with multiple customers paying over a million dollars annually.
That shift didn’t happen by accident. It came from our customer-centric culture. We think of customer investment almost like marketing spend. When we deliver a great experience, people talk. A lot of our biggest wins come from referrals or executives who used Hightouch at one company and bring it to their next.
That mindset has allowed us to work with brands that are much bigger than we are. When a company like the NBA or Plaid trusts us, it validates that our technology and service scale to enterprise standards. It also teaches us how to operate at that level.
It shows up in our numbers, too. Our net revenue retention is extremely strong because we’re able to prove ROI to customers. A team might start with one business unit, see measurable results and then expand across departments.
One of our long-time customers is a large apparel company that found out about us through a small sporting goods retailer we worked with. That’s how network effects happen in this space. Doing right by every customer, big or small, compounds over time.
Our growth strategy is simple. Serve existing customers so well that they become your best salespeople.
You’re also an angel investor in Hightouch. How do you balance being a proper skeptic with being personally invested?
Being an investor gives me a different perspective on what drives valuation and what creates long-term value. One thing we think about constantly, and something I really respect our founders for, is how to build a business that creates a life-changing financial event for as many people here as possible.
That’s not just talk. We acted on it. Early in our company’s life, we ran a broad tender offer that gave employees an opportunity to participate in liquidity much earlier than most startups would. It was a meaningful event for a lot of people, and it reflected our philosophy that success should be shared.
“Speed and directionality matter more than precision. I’d rather make a 90% correct decision today than a perfect one three weeks from now.”
Cherry Miao
CFO, Hightouch
That also affects how I approach risk and growth. Our main job as a finance team is to grow the business in a way that keeps that opportunity alive. I spend time staying close to how markets think about valuation and capital structure, using my personal network and our board as sounding boards. Understanding how investors view the business helps us make smarter internal decisions about spending and prioritization.
Having skin in the game also keeps me aligned with our employees. When I talk about how headcount planning or margin tradeoffs impact long-term enterprise value, it’s not theoretical. It’s personal. It’s the same lens I’d have as any other investor.
It’s also about balancing optimism with realism. There are always moments where the numbers say we should be cautious, but being part of this business means believing in its potential. My role is to make sure we have the structure, data and discipline to go after that potential in a sustainable way.
I find CFOs often think about the tradeoff between data precision and decision speed. What do you think about that balance?
There’s a balance, but it depends on the type of data. There are metrics you absolutely can’t get wrong, like revenue recognition. When it comes to financial statements and audits, you need precision. We’re in our first audit right now, and we’re doing well because my team knows that accuracy for that data is nonnegotiable.
But for most other business data, speed and directionality matter more than precision. I’d rather make a 90% correct decision today than a perfect one three weeks from now. The key is clarity. Everyone needs to understand which data sets must be perfect and which ones just need to point us in the right direction.
That distinction saves an enormous amount of time. It keeps people from over-engineering dashboards or delaying decisions while chasing accuracy that doesn’t move the business forward.
Because I lead both finance and data, I get to set that standard. We’re explicit about what’s directional and what’s definitive. When people know the rules of engagement, they act faster and with more confidence.
It also creates a cultural shift. At Hightouch, we’re comfortable making decisions with imperfect data as long as we know the limits of that data. We document where it might be off and keep iterating. That approach has let us scale without becoming paralyzed by analysis.
How do you spot finance people who think like growth partners?
The stereotype of finance is someone who always says no. ‘You can’t hire. You can’t spend.’ But the most productive relationships I’ve built here have been the opposite. We’ve told teams, ‘You’re underinvesting. You’re trying to do too much with too few people.’
That’s a moment that builds trust because they realize we’re not here to punish spending, we’re here to maximize ROI. Sometimes that means stepping on the gas. We’ve looked at business unit plans and said, “You asked for two headcounts, but the numbers show you need five.”
Those conversations make finance a growth partner instead of a gatekeeper. Teams start to bring us in earlier to think through staffing plans, new product launches and investment tradeoffs. That’s what I look for, an accelerator — someone who can think beyond controlling costs and focus on deploying capital in ways that unlock growth.
It also requires comfort with ambiguity. We’re constantly balancing prudence with speed. Being an accelerator means understanding that money is a tool, not a brake pedal.
