CFOO (Chief Financial & Operations Officer)

Smiler is the world’s first, online photography matching marketplace. Professional photographers meet people at iconic travel locations for adhoc photoshoots. Smiler recently expanded to offer more than fifty global cities to choose from. Now, the CFOO will scaleup Smiler’s continued growth with a solid financial strategy and their expertise in expanding operations.

About Smiler

During a once-in-a-lifetime trip to New York City, travelers want to capture their special moments as perfectly as possible. Ideally with beautiful photos they can frame and proudly display at home, rather than settle for many disappointing selfies. Many years ago, Smiler founders — Martine Rooth and Kaspar Middelkoop — stood in Times Square themselves when they recognized this new opportunity and had a business epiphany.

That’s how the idea for Smiler was born. In 2020, Martine and Kaspar launched their business with headquarters in Amsterdam, to match professional photographers with consumers online — from international tourists to people enjoying a day out — in an ad-hoc way. They meet each other for a professional photography shoot in an experience that’s available to anyone.

People visit the online site Smiler.co and browse through hundreds of iconic landmarks and locations and then book photographers to capture their special moments and memories.

Photographers create and develop flattering, professional photos their clients can take home and cherish anytime. Today, the Smiler team continues to expand and represents people from more than fifteen different nationalities. 

Since its launch, Smiler has made it even easier, and more financially beneficial, for photographers and tourists to connect at iconic locations. By focusing on popular destinations in high-traffic areas, photographers can very quickly complete multiple client sessions at the same location. This lowers the price, which makes individual photoshoots more affordable, based on a large group of bookings by consumers. And this increases revenue potential for photographers, all while Smiler offers consumers with an unforgettable travel experience, professionally captured, high quality photos they can enjoy for years to come.

“ The process of starting your own photography business, self-promotion, and generating bookings traditionally requires significant effort, connections, and a bit of luck. Smiler simplifies this entire process for photographers. ” – Kasper Middelkoop, CEO and co-founder of Smiler

Smiler has recently secured funding through Octopus Ventures. The London-based firm is a leading investor and Smiler is now ready to expand their ambitious international expansion strategy. Their goal is to become the only global consumer photography brand in the market.

Vacancy: CF&O Officer 

The Chief Financial and Operations Officer (CFOO) will join the Executive Team and work closely with Smiler’s three founders. The CFOO provides data-driven guidance to the organization, based on key financial information, solid operational analytics, pricing strategies and excellent financial modeling. They also champion accountability and culture across the company.

CFOO Responsibilities
The CFOO leads Smiler’s financial operations with a clear, strategic vision, while managing supply and demand operations that align with its long-term financial strategy and execution plans. Together with the CEO, the CFOO drives the company towards its next round of funding.

The Officers’s scope will span operational controls, administrative and reporting procedures, as well as people and culture systems and processes. In a nutshell, the CFOO oversees Finance, HR, Legal, and Operations. Their mission is to ensure Smiler can successfully scaleup globally, while maintaining its financial strength and operational efficiency.

The CFOO owns the financial model, which will be their starting point to build a strategy, and guide and support the Supply and Demand teams. They will use key data to propose and steer strategic decisions within the management team, and company-wide.

The CFOO’s main focus will be to finance and develop operations, with a Financial Administrator and a Finance Operations Manager as direct reports, and will be supported by an external accountant. In addition, the CFOO works on projects with several stakeholders within the organization, to help structure processes, implement effective standardization, put KPIs in place, and build teams.

In addition, the CFOO’s responsibilities will be to:

• Monitor and manage budgets, funding, liquidity, and cash management
• Prepare Smiler for the next funding round — minimum ten million euros within eighteen months
• Structure demand operations at scale, based on financial modeling
• Fire up the marketplace engine: global expansion of locations, photographer supply acquisition, and develop repeatable processes of consumer demand operations

The successful candidate
This role will offer significant experience in international consumer marketplaces and fast-paced scale-ups. They have previously held a C-level position and can build and implement financial models. The CFOO embraces data-driven decision-making. They are also process-driven, understand the power of standardized ways of working to better enable decision-making processes and international expansion. This Officer is an enthusiastic people leader, who stimulates professional growth and ownership within the team.

For this role to succeed, they must have an innate, proactive curiosity: dive into challenges and learn along the way. In personal communications, they fit seamlessly within the Smiler culture: professional, friendly, empathetic, approachable, energetic, and persuasive.

This role is an exciting opportunity and now is time to scale up a unique business model and achieve a global brand presence.

Smiler invented the concept of a marketplace for photography-on-location and has the potential to lead this untapped market. The CFOO joins Smiler in a C-level position with a diverse, cultural team. Meanwhile, everyone shares the same enthusiasm and eagerness to grow and thrive in a fun, ambitious, and dynamic atmosphere.

Interested?

Smiler is working with Top of Minds to fill this vacancy.
To express your interest, please contact Vivian Linker at vivian.linker@topofminds.com .