Head of Finance

About us

Our mission is to teach the next billion people English and become the de facto way people learn languages.

English is the global language of business, culture, and communication, and over 1.5 billion people around the world are actively trying to learn right now. The problem is that it's nearly impossible to learn to speak a language without constant access to a speaking partner. Grammar and vocab apps don't really help – you need to actually converse with someone.

Speak is on a journey to fix this. We're creating an AI-powered experience that replicates the flow of a conversation, without needing a human on the other end. The goal is to make it radically more accessible to be able to have conversations in English and eventually help hundreds of millions of people gain fluency who otherwise wouldn't be able to.

We started on this journey over four years ago and we've still got a long ways to go. We're thoughtfully adding new team members only when we think they can truly play a big role in our mission.

Speak is currently live in South Korea where we have quickly grown to become the top grossing education app in the country. We recently launched in Japan as well and are expanding to more markets in the coming months. The company is well funded, raising a recent Series B backed by investors like OpenAI, Founders Fund, Y Combinator, Khosla Ventures, Lachy Groom, Josh Buckley, and others. We’re a team of just under 40 based primarily in SF, Seoul, and Ljubljana.

About this role

We’re looking for a first Finance hire to own Speak’s finance strategy and operations. You will be responsible for assessing financial performance, evaluating risks/investments, and assisting with budgeting, forecasting, reporting, and decision-making alongside the leadership team. You will have an opportunity to work closely with teams across the company on strategic, high impact projects. A strong finance generalist with an ownership mentality and the desire to grow with our rapidly scaling company will excel in this role.

What you’ll be doing

• Own all financial aspects of the business and drive the company’s financial strategy and planning
• Lead strategic projects related to resource and capital allocation across finance, new market expansion, marketing, content, and other functions
• Drive monthly, quarterly, and annual company budgeting and projections
• Build and maintain models that measure and forecast business performance
• Lead efforts related to fundraising and corporate development
• Manage external finance/accounting partners and develop our in-house function over time
• Analyze trends to reduce risks associated with making investments or spending decisions
• Work closely with the leadership team to improve the financial health of the company

What we’re looking for

• 5+ years of experience
• You have experience in investment banking or in similar roles
• You have experience overseeing finance in a high growth startup and managing cash flow
• You have experience with venture capital fundraising
• You are scrappy, ambitious, willing to directly tackle or project manage any problem
• You are comfortable operating autonomously and analytically solving unstructured problems
• You are an expert at building financial models and forecasts, and are familiar with business analytics tools

Why work at Speak

1. Join a fantastic, tight-knit team at the right time: we're growing super quickly, we just raised our Series B from some of the top investors in the valley, and we've achieved product-market fit. You'd join at a magical time when a single person could significantly change the course of the company.
2. Do your life's work with people you’ll love working with: we care strongly about our craft and want every person at Speak to feel like they're growing every day. We believe in the idea that working with people you both enjoy and have respect for makes everything better. We hire thoughtfully and only work with people we admire deeply.
3. Global in nature: We're live in South Korea and Japan, and launching in a number of new markets soon. We have dedicated offices in San Francisco, Ljubljana, and Seoul, and you’ll have the opportunity to talk to users in each of these regions on a regular basis as well as travel.
4. Impact people's lives in a major way: Learning a language is one of the single most life-changing skills one can learn and right now 99% of people never achieve their goal because the process is broken. We’re helping millions of people achieve their goals and improve their lives.