# Suraj Jain

**Chief Financial Officer & Capital Allocator** — New York City, NY, United States

> Operator-first CFO and dealmaker with 15+ years building and scaling companies through buy-and-build M&A, FP&A infrastructure, and value creation. Built Begin's finance function from the ground up while scaling the company from $1MM to $75MM peak ARR and structuring $370MM+ in financing and five acquisitions totaling $220MM+ in enterprise value.

Career Archetype: **All-Terrain Navigator** (HB-DG) — One of the first All-Terrain Navigators on Saywise

## Links

- LinkedIn: https://linkedin.com/in/suraj757

## Experience

### Chief Financial Officer, Begin (2025-07 – present)
New York, NY · Partner with CEO and board on capital allocation, financing, and M&A strategy. Own treasury, multi-entity US and international reporting, and consolidated financial planning across five P&Ls. Built an AI-enabled finance stack and reduced cloud operating spend 45% through infrastructure optimization. Lead a 15-person finance organization spanning FP&A, accounting, data analytics, and fulfillment.

### Vice President, Strategy and Corporate Development, BEGiN (2014-10 – 2025-06)
Greater New York City Area · • Created and led cross-functional growth teams that owned A/B Testing across iOS, Android, and our Website • Shifted monetization model from freemium to free trial, which improved conversion rates by 220% • Supported marketing and BD partnership goals of adding subscribers and improving conversion rates • Led an agile scrum team to optimize conversion and retention • Launched a major app redesign featuring personalized pathways that improved conversion, increased retention by 35%, and delivered better learning outcomes for kids (while being more fun for them too!) • Tested onboarding flows, landing pages, referral program, new features, brand positioning, etc. that resulted in industry-leading mobile conversion according to Apple benchmarks

### Finance & Operations Manager, ClassPass (2014-03 – 2014-09)
New York City Metropolitan Area · Ran finance and operations through Series Seed and Series A fundraising as the team scaled from 9 to 80+ employees. Owned the operating model, budgeting, and projections. Redesigned cancellation policy which cut fee incidence 80% and lifted gross margin 4 percentage points.

### Co-founder and Head of Business Operations, FinLit.com (2012-10 – 2014-03)
New York City Metropolitan Area · Co-founded a financial education startup for young adults. Built the product strategy and business model from the ground up.

### Investment Banking Analyst – Financial Restructuring, Houlihan Lokey (2009-07 – 2012-10)
New York, New York · Led debtor- and creditor-side restructuring mandates, equity raises, and M&A work including Six Flags' $2.4B restructuring as an advisor to the Board. Built DCFs, LBOs, 13-week cash flows, and liquidation analyses across multiple complex transactions.

### Summer Analyst, Houlihan Lokey (2008-06 – 2008-08)

### Management Intern, GEICO (2007-06 – 2007-08)

### Staff Member, Virginia Beach Leadership Workshop (2005-01 – 2005-01)

## Education

### BS in Commerce with a Concentration in Finance and Management, University of Virginia (2005-01 – 2009-01)

### B.S. in Commerce with a Concentration in Finance and Management, University of Virginia, McIntire School of Commerce

## Skills

Executive Development, Capital Allocation, Fundraising, Financial Forecasting, E-Commerce, Scenario Planning, Financial Oversight, Operations Management, M&A Execution, SaaS Metrics, Financial Planning and Analysis (FP&A), Deals, Prioritization, Teamwork, Product Strategy, Cross-functional Team Leadership, Strategic Planning, Deal Sourcing, Market Analysis, Financial Structuring, Buy-and-build, Equity financing, Debt financing, Operating model, Monthly close, GAAP accounting, Audit coordination, Treasury management, 13-week cash forecasting, Multi-entity consolidation, Pricing strategy, Unit economics, Cohort analysis, LTV/CAC, Retention analysis, Contribution margin, Channel economics, AI product economics, Cost-to-serve analysis, Post-merger integration, Deal structuring, Earnouts, Seller notes, Revenue-based financing, Business valuation, DCF analysis, LBO analysis, Product-led growth, P&L management, Data analytics, NetSuite, Databricks, International reporting, Transfer pricing, Covenant compliance

## AI Fluency

- **Claude** — My daily driver for finance workflows (https://claude.ai)
- **Codex** — My daily driver for finance workflows (https://developers.openai.com)
- **Gemini** — occasionally for deep research (https://gemini.google.com)

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Source: https://saywise.com/member8584 (last modified 2026-10-05T22:21:42.801Z)