Silvia Borzini’s journey into finance and leadership began in college with hands-on experience as an intern in the accounting and treasury departments at Rio Tinto. “Rio Tinto was formative for me, building my analytical foundation and the detail orientation necessary in financial reporting”.
Post college, Silvia transitioned into management consulting, helping to shape her critical thinking and problem-solving approach. In this demanding environment, she mastered financial modeling and creating frameworks to tackle complex strategic business questions. Consulting also sharpened her skills in strategy, stakeholder engagement, and project management. “Those early experiences taught me to value structured, process-driven approaches to problem-solving—skills that are indispensable when managing the intricacies of finance and operations at a growth-stage company”.
When the opportunity to join Office Timeline arose, Silvia saw a perfect match for her expertise and ambitions. The company operates within a niche of the $10 billion project management software sector, offering a unique value proposition to a large and loyal customer base. “What stood out to me was the financial strength of the business—it was a ‘rule of 80’ company, something that’s almost unheard of today,” she shares. Beyond the financials, she recognized immense potential for growth both within its current niche and in adjacent markets.
The people at Office Timeline also played a crucial role in her decision. “The team was a huge draw for me. They are kind, fun, and incredibly open to external perspectives and new ideas,” Silvia says. “I felt confident that I could contribute meaningfully and drive positive change.”
Silvia’s unique experience of having worked at both startups as well as larger corporations equips her to lead in a fast-growing environment like Office Timeline. Start-ups taught her adaptability and the need to wear multiple hats—an essential trait in dynamic workplaces. “In start-ups, you can’t afford to stay strictly in your lane. That flexibility has been key here,” she notes. Her experience with larger organizations, meanwhile, has helped her introduce SaaS best practices and implement scalable processes. Together, these experiences have allowed her to develop a mature finance and operations function that supports Office Timeline’s rapid scaling.
Strategic Leadership
As Chief Financial Officer of Office Timeline, Silvia plays a pivotal role that extends far beyond managing numbers. She oversees a broad range of functions, including finance and accounting, operations, analytics, and HR, while also contributing significantly to the company’s strategic direction. Her approach is deeply rooted in data, using analysis and insights to guide decision-making across all areas of the business, from strategy to execution.
This ethos can be seen in Office Timeline’s budgeting and planning processes. The process begins with leadership planning sessions to review and drive executive team alignment on strategy. Each leader prepares for these sessions by conducting their own business review for their function, sharing trends, wins, challenges, and their priorities for the upcoming year. From an overall company perspective, Silvia works closely with Office Timeline’s CEO to review overall company performance, distill information into critical insights, and conduct analysis to inform strategy development.
“This process gives us a ‘north star’ for where we want to be in 3-5 years’ time. With that in mind, we can work backwards to identify short-term priorities that will move us towards our long-term growth ambitions,” she explains. From there, the team agrees on a set of strategic initiatives and OKRs for the upcoming year. The collaborative approach creates a shared sense of ownership over OKRs and initiatives, so that the team is all rowing in the same direction. “There’s no point setting OKRs and a budget if the leadership team, who ultimately needs to deliver on that budget, aren’t bought in.”
With her strategy skillset, Silvia works closely with functional leaders to evaluate investment needs, ensuring that they are backed by strong business cases and provide a clear ROI. “It’s not always about saying no. Sometimes, I’m challenging priorities, other times I’m pushing the teams to think through potential capability gaps and highlighting hiring needs,” she says.
For Silvia, being data-driven is not just a preference but a necessity, especially in the fast-paced SaaS industry. She believes modern finance leaders must move beyond traditional number-crunching to influence broader business decisions. “The role of a CFO today is about extracting meaningful insights to guide strategy and then supporting the business to succeed in that strategy.”
Collaborating with Private Equity for Sustainable Growth
Office Timeline’s partnership with Gearbox Capital, a private equity firm, has been instrumental in shaping its growth strategy. Silvia is a strong advocate for PE-backed companies, appreciating the balance between growth expectations and disciplined resource allocation. “Our investors deeply understand the business and work closely with us. It’s not about chasing unrealistic targets; it’s about building the foundation for sustainable growth,” she notes.
With private equity owners, every investment is rigorously scrutinized, with a clear payoff expected within two to three years. This disciplined approach has created a strong balance sheet, giving the company the flexibility to invest in growth, both organic and through mergers and acquisitions.
Metrics That Matter
Silvia’s data-driven mindset is evident in how Office Timeline tracks performance. For Silvia, it doesn’t stop at the budget. Equally important to strategy and planning is defining a key set of critical operational metrics that allow the company to monitor performance on an ongoing basis.
Office Timeline tracks traditional SaaS metrics like traffic and conversion rates, retention indicators such as gross revenue retention (GRR) and net revenue retention (NRR), and unit economics like the lifetime value (LTV) to customer acquisition cost (CAC) ratio. However, Silvia is also passionate about identifying relevant “leading indicators” so that she can closely monitor impact of specific initiatives, identify challenges early, and course correct as needed.
“Say we identified churn as a significant area of improvement and priority for the business and tasked the Customer Success team with developing a program to reduce first-year churn. If we just focus on churn rates, we would need to wait a full year before we could measure the effectiveness of that program. Monitoring Monthly Active Users (MAUs) and key feature usage, however, gives us an insight into a customer’s engagement with the Product and therefore, their likelihood of churning. The Customer Success team can track changes in usage patterns to quickly measure the effectiveness of their program and iterate as needed.”
Another way Silvia’s team supports the business is through project management of major cross-functional initiatives. “We keep an eye on project status, look for dependencies and blockers, and help to facilitate cross-functional communication to help keep things on track.” This focus on operational excellence allows Silvia to maintain alignment across departments, fostering cross-functional collaboration and informed decisions that keep the company moving cohesively toward its goals. “To thrive in the complex tech landscape, every part of the business must work harmoniously towards shared goals. As a finance leader, you can’t afford to stay behind the scenes. One of the most impactful ways I can serve the business is by helping my colleagues excel as a unified team.”
Optimizing Pricing and Packaging
One of the company’s recent successes was a pricing and packaging strategy that addressed challenges in customer acquisition. Silvia led a study analyzing user growth and identified previous price and plan changes as a major contributor to the recent trends. As a result of this study, a cross-functional pricing and packaging optimization initiative was launched. The team combined product telemetry data with customer surveys and persona insights to re-allocate key features across product plans. “This initiative ultimately allowed us to align our offerings with what customers truly value, ensuring our packages resonate with their needs, including ensuring customers aren’t paying for advanced features they’re not using,” Silvia shares. This customer-centric approach ensures that financial decisions support customer satisfaction and long-term loyalty.
Fostering a Culture of Collaboration and Appreciation
At Office Timeline, a unique and deeply rooted culture sets the company apart—a culture that emphasizes collaboration, fun, and social responsibility. Silvia is passionate about preserving this spirit even as the company evolves. “We’ve worked hard to ensure that the values Office Timeline was built on don’t get lost following a shift to private equity ownership,” she shares. One way the company maintains this culture is through its quarterly “GIVE” program, which supports charitable causes and strengthens its commitment to social responsibility.
To further enhance team dynamics, Office Timeline is rolling out a peer-to-peer recognition program. “This allows everyone to practice appreciation and giving within the organization,” Silvia explains.
Building a Finance Function from the Ground Up
When Silvia joined Office Timeline, she faced the formidable task of building a finance function from scratch. As the company transitioned from a founder-owned, bootstrapped operation to a private equity-backed organization, new reporting and compliance requirements and expectations arose. “One of my first priorities was establishing a robust accounting team, including hiring a strong controller,” she says.
This transformation included shifting the business from cash-based accounting to GAAP, meeting more detailed financial reporting requirements, and implementing systems to support GAAP revenue recognition. She tackled data quality issues from homegrown systems, implementing new tools to track Annual Recurring Revenue (ARR) data—an area where visibility had been limited. Silvia also leveraged technology to streamline financial processes, improve data accuracy, and enhance decision-making. Under her leadership, innovative financial products and services were introduced, contributing to the company’s growth and competitive edge.
“Maintaining the right balance between data-driven decision-making while maintaining business agility is tricky,” she admits. For Silvia, a critical part of this balancing act was building the right data infrastructure to collate data across systems and automate reporting into company dashboards.
“These changes have provided transparency and insights that weren’t possible before. It’s been a massive effort, but it’s positioned us for long-term success,” she reflects.
Empowering Leadership with High Expectations
Silvia describes her leadership style as empowering yet demanding. She believes in giving her team the autonomy to solve problems while providing guidance and regular check-ins. “I always take the time to explain the ‘why’ behind any request I make. It’s important that my team understands the context, so they can learn to answer questions for themselves, eventually tackling complex challenges independently,” she says.
This approach fosters ownership and encourages team members to think strategically. “I am the first to admit when I’ve made a mistake. I want my team to know it’s ok to not always get the right answer on the first try. I care about them taking the time to break down problems and propose solutions. Whether those solutions are ‘right’ is of secondary importance,” she says. Silvia’s focus on clear communication and high expectations, coupled with her approachability, creates an environment where her team can challenge themselves and thrive.
Silvia is also passionate about promoting diversity and inclusion and empowering women and minorities within the organization. Over 70% of Office Timeline’s leadership team consists of women and ethnic minorities. “I am proud of the diversity of our team and feel so fortunate to work with people who bring a unique set of experiences and perspectives and I’m passionate about supporting the next generation of leaders
She is dedicated to preparing future leaders within the organization, ensuring they are equipped to tackle complex challenges independently.
Vision for the Future
Silvia’s vision for Office Timeline’s financial strategy is bold yet grounded in pragmatism. The company aims to double its ARR over the next 3 years, leveraging a combination of organic growth and strategic acquisitions. To get there, the company plans to invest significantly in product development and marketing while exploring M&A opportunities that align with its long-term objectives.
“Maintaining a disciplined approach will be critical,” Silvia states. Every investment will be carefully evaluated to ensure it contributes meaningfully to the company’s overarching growth goals. With a focus on innovation, collaboration, and strategic planning, Silvia is steering Office Timeline toward a future defined by sustained success and impactful growth.
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