Women on Top

Photo By Todd V. Wolfson

Ellen Wood: All Business

There aren't too many businesses out there that measure their success by how many clients they lose.

Virtualcfo (www.virtualcfo.com), started by former CPA and UT graduate Ellen Wood with partner Tommy Deavenport in 1996, may be one of the only companies, in fact, for which getting rid of customers is a hallmark of achievement. Once a client, usually a start-up company going into its first major round of funding, gets too big for Virtualcfo's services -- usually after six to nine months -- that client is out the door.

Wood and Deavenport designed their business that way for a reason: They wanted to help early-stage companies get off the ground, by providing services they need in their initial stages -- like chief financial officers, office managers, and controllers -- without charging as much as it would cost to contract all those services separately. (Hourly rates start at around $60.) And although it sounds like a rather dry business to the outside observer, the concept has taken off -- so much so that Virtualcfo has expanded from just a few employees to 40 in under five years. (Wood bought out Deavenport's share in the company in 1998, and has used her own money to finance the business.) The company's client base has also swelled, from a scant handful to more than 125. Virtualcfo's offices, located in northwest Austin on Spicewood Springs Road, are lushly furnished and modern, with nary a hint of the crowding and visible overhead wiring often seen at hastily furnished start-ups.

Wood, a former CFO for a telecommunications company who worked with two start-ups herself before starting Virtualcfo, never planned for the company to grow as much as it has; initially, she says, "I was thinking of working with two or three companies at a time." The company started out serving exclusively as CFO to its clients, which included prominent names like Garden.com, Motive Communications, and Girl Games. Later, they realized that companies needed other services, like controllers, human resource managers, and office management. The one "guiding principle," says Wood matter-of-factly, was "to really consider what's best for the client. We don't try to be what's not right for them. If we're not right for them, we tell them that."

While a few other companies were providing CFO "outsourcing" -- essentially serving as companies' CFOs from afar -- Wood says Virtualcfo was the first in Austin to provide all the services early-stage start-ups need. Their clients range from the semi-prominent -- notHarvard.com, Connect South, and ClearCommerce have all used Virtualcfo's services -- to those still on the outskirts of public awareness, like WhisperWire, Celion Networks, and DataWeaver, profiled in this issue.

Since the company was privately funded by Wood, Virtualcfo never had to ask investors for money. That has given them the freedom to run the company the way they want to, Wood says; it also meant Wood didn't have to enter the notoriously prickly world of venture capital fundraising. She's heard all the horror stories -- about venture capitalists who tell women their ideas aren't solid enough, or suggest that they see what their husbands think before seeking money in the future -- but says venture capitalists, and the business world in general, have never intimidated her.

"I have to tell you, my personal philosophy is, I have never let being a woman be a problem for me. ... I think that if you're confident of what you know and what you're doing, the fact that you're a woman should not make a difference. And for me personally, it really hasn't made a difference." But Wood hasn't gotten this far, she says, by trying to be "one of the boys": "I don't feel like I have to go golfing with the guys and all that stuff," Wood says. "I just do my own thing and I'm very comfortable with it. ... If you're confident in what you know and what you're doing, you don't have to be one of the guys to be successful."

In fact, Wood says, she's found being a woman an advantage, not a liability. "The approach that women take to problem solving and issue resolution is definitely different, and I don't know that that's a bad thing. I have personally found it to be an advantage to be able to step back and perhaps not be quite as combative about it, to actually look for the best solution."

Company: Virtualcfo

Web Site: www.virtualcfo.com

What It Does: Provides CFO, human resources, office management, and other services to small start-up companies.

Year Founded: 1996

How It Was Funded: Privately funded