Background & Role

Earlier this month, we announced Brian Szeto as our new CFO. With more than two decades of finance experience, Szeto will manage and oversee the company’s financial and growth objectives, including financial planning and strategy, investment and risk management, and mergers and acquisitions.

We chatted with Brian to learn more about his background, why he chose to come to Axiad, his leadership style, his goals for the company, trends he’s seeing in the market as well as what he enjoys doing when he’s not working. Below is our conversation.

Will you tell us a bit about your background before coming to Axiad?

I joined Axiad to help complete our recent $25M fundraising round from Invictus Growth Partners. Before joining, I worked for another cybersecurity company – a global leader in mobile enterprise security called Zimperium – where I was the CFO. Before that, I spent seven years in enterprise software, three as the VP of finance for ThoughtSpot, a search and AI-powered analytics software company, and four leading various finance teams supporting product, corporate, and marketing for Workday. Prior to that, I was the business unit controller for routing and software/security products at Juniper Networks, where I spent nearly a decade. I have a decent background in cybersecurity and enjoy it, so I’m glad to be back in this space.

Why did you choose the CFO role at Axiad?

I truly believe that every career move is for a reason. I chose to be part of the Axiad team for multiple reasons that have largely been consistent across the last three companies I have worked for. These include the people, technology differentiation that solves a true business need, and a compelling company vision.

First, the leadership and investing team are both a great fit for my style. Take our CEO, David Canellos, for example. He readily shares and asks for ideas, and we both believe in giving candid opinions on each other’s thoughts. He also understands the critical need for me to establish not only a collective, but an independent relationship with our board and investors.

Second, there’s no doubt in my mind that Axiad’s technology innovation solves a critical need in identity lifecycle management that’s currently missing from the market, and that’s the growth driver that I’m most excited about. I’m truly looking forward to seeing the company’s products evolve and expand in the coming year.

Finally, Axiad has a clear company mission that I’m seeing the team and market embrace, so now it’s primarily about focus and execution.

What is your leadership style?

My style of leadership is three-fold: observation, data-driven decisions, and empowerment. The first key aspect of my leadership is observation. It’s critical as a leader to observe what’s important to the company – things like its values, culture, and processes. Additionally, this applies to individuals regarding what is important to them and how they prefer to work. Only after a period of observation should a leader evaluate these critical elements to affect any necessary change that they believe will benefit the organization. After I feel like I’ve gotten a good handle on how the company and its individuals work, I then take a hands-on approach.

Secondly, while having a developed instinct is key and offers a lot of value, as a financial leader, I believe strongly in data-driven decisions. I don’t ever want data to slow down decision making, but I think it’s imperative in the process. As CFO, I’m also uniquely positioned for broader visibility across the company. I like to leverage that opportunity to access the data required to inform and influence the company’s focused execution.

Thirdly, effective leaders empower the people they work with across the organization. I think having clear lines of communication, sharing information, and ensuring clarity of the company’s mission are all key elements needed to empower a great team. In my opinion, intentional empowerment leads to more scalable success.

Planning & The Future

How do you plan to align the Axiad’s finance department with the company’s strategic goals?

The finance department is intimately aligned with the company’s strategic goals. At Axiad, we have a very clear mission and want to build with impact because there is a real market need for the technology we’re innovating – comprehensive credential management systems that secure digital identities across users, machines, assets, and interactions for enterprises and public-sector organizations. Delivering on this mission is our primary goal as a business.

Also, there must be clarity and internal alignment about our desired outcome. For example, is it to be a standalone company that grows to a certain scale? Or is it a company that exits in the public market or gets approached for its IP? Depending on the answers to those questions, the company will determine where to focus in the short and longer term.

What are your short-term and long-term goals for Axiad?

For the short term, it’s understanding, simplifying, and optimizing the company’s existing infrastructure. Like any company, Axiad has a plethora of information, systems, processes, and people. So, first, it’s understanding all these areas and then determining what we can leverage and optimize now, what may no longer be relevant, and what we may need to add.

For the long term, it’s looking at running self-sustainably and profitably. And by that, I mean having a clear path and a deliberate plan for investment and growth that focuses on the technology innovations that we will be delivering to the market.

What financial trend do you believe has and will continue to play a role in the business?

There has been and continues to be plenty of money and investors looking for new and great ideas to bring to market. The issue with that is, while there are new ways to solve lifelong problems, if companies continue to add to new technologies with no underyling stragegy, it can create confusion and introduce risk. Assessing and simplifying existing infrastructures is something all customers need to do.

Aside from the historic upswing almost immediately following the pandemic, over the last 18-24 months, the investor community has indexed to more measured growth, over making a lot of big bets on great ideas. And there’s never a shortage of great ideas.

So, because there’s been more of an expectation of measured growth, I think the healthy rhythm that’s established is consistent feedback to your investors and a testing of the thesis along the way. And I’m not talking about micromanaging it from a company perspective. However, I think keeping investors informed about where we think we’re going and what we’re seeing along the way is imperative. I also think that as CFO, that will play a huge part in helping both Axiad as well as its investors stay focused and aligned.

The Personal Side

What do you do for fun outside of the office?

First, I love spending time with my family. We are very active and particularly enjoy spending time outside – everything from camping, hiking, biking, and floating the river to simple city-meanders. We also appreciate good food and discovering new restaurants when we travel. Individually, I enjoy golf and running (nowadays, it’s walking the dog). I think it’s important to not only do something social and fun, but also to have an activity where it’s quiet to gather yourself and clear your head, and that’s what “running” does for me.