Cin7 CFO Erik Rothschild on scaling finance under private equity

Operating finance under private equity ownership comes with a distinct set of expectations. For Erik Rothschild, who is four months into his CFO role at the cloud-based inventory management firm Cin7, that means being both highly strategic and deeply operational and ready to take direction, but also confident enough to say no when needed.

Rothschild credits a strong relationship with Cin7’s controlling PE sponsor, Rubicon, for creating a collaborative environment where alignment on goals streamlines decision-making. He says the dynamic shifts depending on the business moment: sometimes it’s daily conversations during things like acquisitions, other times communication is lighter touchpoints when doing things like planning and executing strategy.

That mix of intensity and autonomy requires structure so Rothschild leans on recurring check-ins, clear KPIs and a focus on data-driven communication to keep investors informed without losing time to unnecessary updates. Recently, Rothschild’s team has taken part in launching a new embedded payments product, scaling operations and onboarding alongside other new executives. He also details how maintaining a relationship with a CFO he worked under in a previous role led him to join the company in 2023.

Erik Rothschild

CFO, Cin7

First CFO Position: 2025

Notable previous employers:

• Social Native
• Sovrn Holdings
• PEAK6 Investments

This interview has been edited for brevity and clarity.

ADAM ZAKI: CFOs under PE need to be ultra-strategic, know when to say no and know when to take direction. Do you expect day-to-day, weekly or monthly communication with these investors, and how do you evaluate your autonomy?

Our main controlling private equity sponsor, Rubicon, is great to work with. That highlights the importance of having a strong relationship and seeing eye to eye on most things, which makes the job easier. I can imagine if you didn’t have that alignment, the role would look quite different day to day. I’ve found that maintaining a healthy leadership structure starts with a good board and investor relationship.

The level of interaction depends on what we’re working on. If we’re in the middle of an acquisition, like we were this time last year, it’s daily conversations and ongoing email threads around diligence and deal execution. Or, if we’re renegotiating debt or working through capital structure adjustments, the communication also becomes more frequent.

When we’re just focused on improving the business and executing strategy, they’re more hands-off. We’ll still have quarterly board check-ins and monthly operating reviews with them. That gives them a high-level view through a suite of KPIs and metrics. It allows for efficient pre-reads, follow-up questions and streamlines the message through quantitative data.

I don’t have a broad range of experiences across every PE firm, but in my prior roles, I worked more in traditional venture capital-backed environments. In those, the board’s power is more dispersed. With PE, because they hold the controlling interest, they’re deeply invested in the outcome and willing to roll up their sleeves and go through things with you. VCs, on the other hand, typically serve on many boards and can’t be as involved day to day. I think that level of support is a real advantage in PE that doesn’t get talked about enough.

You’re about four months into the CFO role after being promoted from senior vice president of finance and accounting. How much different is the day-to-day?

Very little, to be candid. The prior CFO at the time was taking on a larger, expanded role in a president/chief operating officer capacity. So the impetus for me coming in originally was to oversee the areas he used to handle on the CFO side. There was already a logical transition for a lot of those key work streams to shift to me. During the transitory period, he still maintained some oversight, but over the last year or so, everything has since moved over to me.

The last few months haven’t brought a lot of change. We’ve managed to hire some other executive-level talent, which has helped all of us focus more on specific areas. For me, that’s finance and accounting, and also consulting with the rest of the management team on the strategic financial impact on the business. Bringing on a strong chief revenue officer and a few internal promotions allowed us to flourish more in our respective areas.

What parts of your finance function’s tech stack do you appreciate most, and can you identify any areas that may need improvement?

We’ve been maturing as an organization when it comes to tooling. When I got here, the business was running on multiple versions of QuickBooks and Xero integrations. We’ve since consolidated everything under NetSuite, which has helped.

Right now, we’re implementing a sales tax tool, which we think will streamline that process. We also have plans for tools to manage expenses, reimbursements. The underlying goal is just to cut down on the recurring manual work our team does. That way, we can focus more on high-value, strategic tasks. I always push the team to reduce time spent on low-value recurring tasks and instead spend more energy on work that drives impact. 

Across the broader organization, we’re seeing promising AI applications, especially in sales and support. We’re using AI to aggregate insights across sales calls and customer interactions. In Zendesk, we have chatbots and AI-driven insights across support tickets and interactions. My focus is not just about cutting costs when it comes to technology, it’s about improving productivity and efficiency as well.

Are there any business areas you’re particularly interested in collaborating with?

One area I’m leaning into is our new payments product. We just launched to a wide group of customers across our network. It’s powered by Stripe and offers a global footprint and competitive rates. The embedded nature of it also removes friction for customers, which is exciting for us.

Because it’s a financial workflow and comes with a robust, quantitative dataset, finance naturally plays a big role in analyzing and optimizing it. I’m excited to work with the rest of the leadership team to help grow and improve that product as it launches and scales.

Do you have a resource in your network you rely on, someone you can ask the questions you feel you “should” already know?

Definitely. When I left the investment world and moved into corporate, I joined Sovrn Holdings, a programmatic ad exchange in Boulder, Colorado. I was the first FP&A hire there. The CFO who hired me, Nolan Smith, was incredibly supportive of my growth, and we had a great working relationship from 2015-2018.

He left after a few years and ended up coming here to Cin7. He was the CFO and is now COO and president. I’ve leaned on him during tough spots in past roles, and he’s always been supportive of people’s careers and growth. What it comes down to is that he’s just a great person, and I know firsthand how lucky we are to have him as an organization.

How do you plan on maintaining the demands of your personal life while you navigate the challenges of your first CFO role?

There are two angles here. First, when you take certain CFO or finance roles, you know what you’re signing up for. There are lifestyle-friendly gigs out there, and there are high-growth, high-stress jobs, particularly in private equity or venture-backed environments. So, the first piece is choosing your place on that spectrum.

Second, within any role, you have to think ahead. If you’re just reacting to what’s in front of you, you’ll never improve systems, never hire ahead of demand, never get ahead of the curve. That’s part of why I emphasize automation and smarter processes. I say that for the team and myself. It allows us to manage those workload peaks and valleys better and protect some level of balance.