FinPod

Meeyeon (00:11)
hi everyone and welcome to another episode of CFI's FinPod. Today we're doing a member spotlight. One of my favorites is we get to know members of our own community and I'm so excited to have Ayesha Zain here on our podcast. So welcome Ayesha.

Ayesha Zain (00:29)
Thank you, we're happy to be here.

Meeyeon (00:32)
And Ayesha joins us all the way from Amsterdam, right? From Rotterdam.

Ayesha Zain (00:36)
From Rotterdam. But,

from Rotterdam. The Netherlands, indeed.

Meeyeon (00:42)
And I'm so excited to have you on because you are a lot of, think the people that I get to speak to are not as like kind of like active, I think in the social media kind of space. And I found you through LinkedIn and you had taken our CFI FMVA program and I saw that you've taken that photo with your certificate and I just absolutely loved it. And as I went through your profile and everything, I noticed someone that is just like,

so bright, so energetic, and I could just tell from just the type of content that you have, you're a really positive, energetic, ambitious person. And I definitely wanted our listeners to be able to hear about you, how you're doing, and everything that you have gone in your career journey so far. So I wanted to open it up by asking you.

How did you get your interest in finance? Because that's what I see about you, that's what you're currently pursuing. And did you initially get exposure to finance through your parents or a general interest in high school? Did you pursue it academically in university? Yeah, just take us through how you got your interest, how you got started in finance.

Ayesha Zain (01:37)
Mm-hmm.

Yeah, it's actually, I would say that it's very recent that I developed an interest in finance. Well, my background is in public administration and philosophy. So I was basically a social science student. I barely had any numbers during my university years. I only had like two statistic classes, but like dad said. So zero, by the way, we're talking about zero finance knowledge whatsoever. And then...

I remember it was last year, because I graduated bachelor last year, 2024, and then I was like really trying to apply for jobs here in the Netherlands and I'm like, okay, shit, what can I do to make my bargaining position better in the eyes of employers? Because apparently if I, because I study public administration, a lot of the job vacancies for that major.

they require people who can speak Dutch. Which I unfortunately don't speak Dutch yet, but I'm learning. That's why I'm like, oh okay, it's because it's qualitative, you're talking to people, public sector, consultants, something like that, so you have to be able to speak Dutch. They prefer someone who can speak Dutch, so I'm like, okay, what can I do more so that I have a better position in the eyes of an employer? And I'm like...

And one of my mentors, he is a financial analyst, actually. He's a financial analyst here at a real estate firm. And then he's like, why don't you try to learn finance, to study finance? And I'm like, nah, I accounting is so dry. I never liked accounting and I'm like, Excel, whatever. don't think I will like it. And I just started, I just started and...

I was, it was pretty difficult for me though when I started because I had really zero zero knowledge and and then I just like studied every day because I genuinely like studying. I genuinely like learning something new and and and so that when I did CFI, the FMVA, I was like, the process from not knowing to like knowing it's such a great feeling.

for me, so yeah. And I'm like, this is such a great experience, so yeah, I went for it.

Meeyeon (04:32)
so you mentioned that you got to know, you got kind of guided into a path through a mentor. And mentorship is something that we talk a lot about. And a lot of the people that I connect with, whether it's our member spotlight or careers in finance, always speak to the importance of having a strong kind of network building, sincere, genuine connections. But oftentimes some people wonder, you know, like, how do you, how do you kind of like, how do you meet your first mentor? Like, how did you meet your mentor that got you into?

Ayesha Zain (04:58)
Mm-hmm.

Meeyeon (05:01)
into finance.

Ayesha Zain (05:04)
so, we met at university. so there's a, what's it called? Like an Indonesian student association in Rotterdam. so he's also Indonesian and, yeah, I was also, I was very active in that association and student organizations and everything. And he was the president of that association. And then we talk and then we work together and everything. So.

Meeyeon (05:07)
Okay.

Ayesha Zain (05:29)
Yeah, I think it's super great as well if you just, if you put yourself out there and try to be active because you never know. I'm so grateful that I met him that he is like, you should try this. And then I finished it and then, well, I'm talking to you now. I think it's really great.

Meeyeon (05:45)
So he's the one that directed you to, is it CFI? my goodness. And when you started going through the CFI FMVA program, how did you find it? I'm looking for something like, this is like genuine feedback, I guess at this point, and it's a little bit on the spot, but I think I would be curious to understand from your educational background in social science, you are coming in.

Ayesha Zain (05:48)
Yes. Yeah. Yeah. It is.

Yeah. Yeah, yeah.

Meeyeon (06:14)
with no business background to, what is a fairly kind of like intense online educational program? How did you find it? Did you find it to be like challenging in the best of ways? Cause like you're also balancing it with like a full-time job and whatnot.

Ayesha Zain (06:17)
Yeah, at all.

Yeah, exactly. Well, would say that, well, the content itself, we were talking about, it was pretty challenging for me because again, like zero financial knowledge. didn't know what DCF valuation, whatever. I've had no idea. But one thing that I really, really like, also like genuine, honest feedback, by the way, is how the content and the videos are everything are very structured.

So it's so easy. It's so easy to follow for people who have like zero zero finance knowledge. So I feel like everything is so easy to follow. It's very organized and structured, be it from the presentation slides, the videos, and the editing is so good, by the way. I really like the editing as well. So then it makes me

know, like more motivated to study because it's clear, it's a clear path and at the end of the course there's always a test, right, to test your knowledge and then you can earn like a certificate and everything so I think it's really good. I really like the structure. It's one thing that I really have to emphasize.

Meeyeon (07:48)
And you started, I think it's a fairly recent role, you're at a venture company now, right?

Ayesha Zain (07:55)
Yes, true, at venture capital.

Meeyeon (07:59)
Tell us about how you got there because that's going to be that's for a lot of learners. They want to either get into VCs or they like that. That is kind of like what they're targeting currently or aspiring to be. And it's not as if, you know, there's like a thousand jobs out there for everyone interested in VC. So I would love for you to kind of share with us how you got that role and how you're finding it today.

Ayesha Zain (08:18)
you

Yeah, so I'm currently a Deal Flow and Investment Fellow at a venture capital in Amsterdam. It's called AC Ventures and we're a sector agnostic VC. And how I got it, was like, because I'm in investment, I was, you know, before I got into that VC, I'm like, okay, you're gonna be dealing with a lot of financial modeling and everything. And at the time,

when I had an interview with them, I was like halfway through my FMVA certification. But it's also something that I mentioned to them. Like I just said that, my background is perhaps not like a traditional background that most people in VC's have, because perhaps some of them, they do business or economics or something like that. But I studied public administration. I studied philosophy.

Plato and everything. So, but that's what I said to them. But I'm currently trying to learn finance. I'm trying to deepen my finance knowledge and I'm doing it. they appreciated the effort and they're like, yeah, yeah, no worries, it's fine. So it's a really great point, I would say, that I'm taking that because not that I...

I'm doing a lot of financial knowledge now, like I'm not doing like a lot of it or anything, but it just shows to them that I'm willing to take like an extra effort, so to say, to do better in the role. So yeah, it's ending.

Meeyeon (10:04)
And how did you apply for the role?

Because I find that a lot of people that aspire to either break into finance or kind of pivot from what they are in currently find it very difficult to actually just get the interview to begin with. Did you go through an application process? Were you able to network and leverage that?

Ayesha Zain (10:18)
Yeah.

Yeah, yeah. I think when it comes to VC's specifically, it's a pretty small network, I would say. you again, I think networking skill is important because your network is your net worth in my opinion. So yeah, I think network with a lot of people. I think I was already connected with a few people from the firm itself before. But yeah, I think also here,

Meeyeon (10:40)
Ha ha ha.

Ayesha Zain (10:53)
In Amsterdam, in the Netherlands, there's a really cool organization called Female X Finance, which I'm also a part of currently. And what they're doing is basically connecting young people, like women, to the financial sector. And I think with that kind of platform, it can help you better to get a job in finance, I believe so.

Meeyeon (11:21)
And

so for us at least, I guess I'm most familiar with like North America, the United States and Canada. VentureCap is a fairly, I would say like a well-established and fairly kind of like saturated industry to be in. There's lots of VCs out here on the West Coast of North America. And there's lots of huge names, of course, like they're like Sequoia out here in California. But what is it like in the Netherlands?

Ayesha Zain (11:37)
Okay.

Mm-hmm.

Yes, for sure.

I yeah, it's, well, it's really, it's, we have a lot of like VC firms as well, but also like different rounds of funding, like different stages, right? So yeah, some VCs in pre-seed, some VCs in seed, some VCs invest in more series, ABC, whatever. So it's.

a lot of them, but I would say that they're small in the sense of like, everyone knows each other. And everyone is sort of like helping each other. if there's, you know, also in the case with the VC that I'm working for right now, if there's a really good startup that we think is really good potential, but because we're a pre-seed, by the way, and we think that they can fundraise better with like,

other feces for like seed stage series A or whatever, we like refer them to like other infestors and something like that. So yeah, I think it's pretty, it's a lot. I won't say that it's too, it's saturated. No, it's a lot, but it's also pretty small in a sense of like, we know each other in a way. So yeah, if that makes sense.

Meeyeon (13:05)
And so how

long have you been with Asset Ventures now?

Ayesha Zain (13:11)
Yeah, I started in October, actually, in November. I started in November, yeah, first of November. So how many?

Meeyeon (13:19)
And so

you've been with the company for about like four months now, it? So like November, summer, January.

Ayesha Zain (13:24)
for non-spoopy

reasons as well.

Meeyeon (13:26)
Tell us about what your day to day is like. How is the first four months been? What do you do like first day kind of in the role?

Ayesha Zain (13:32)
Yeah.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. I'm usually assigned by several deals by my investment director. And what I usually do, it's actually a lot of calling, like calls with founders. So the first call, the second call, and then the business plan call. then, yeah, for me, it's a lot of calling, a lot of due diligence as well. So a lot of desk research and everything.

Meeyeon (13:59)
Mm-hmm.

Ayesha Zain (14:04)
Yeah, actually, I'm not doing the, like, what's it called? The heavy financial modeling checks or legal checks KYC and whatsoever. So it's still pretty much qualitative, like the due diligence that I'm doing so far. So, yeah, that's, I think what I like the most is really talking to founders because sometimes they have ideas that are, I think, out of the box and...

I don't even, I didn't even think, I never thought of it like before, you know? So I think that's pretty cool, the exposure.

Meeyeon (14:41)
And so does the firm generally have like maybe like four general partners and then a couple of operating partners that are lending their kind of expertise to the companies? And then do you support the partners in their due diligence of companies that they would like to kind of potentially invest in?

Ayesha Zain (15:01)
Yeah,

exactly. It's like that. But we're also sector agnostic. when it comes to, I don't know, let's say, AI or something like that, well, we don't really have someone who really, really, really understands AI in and out, something like that. So we also need like...

Meeyeon (15:09)
Mm-hmm.

Ayesha Zain (15:26)
either the knowledge of our network, the network of our LPs, let's say, of our limited partners, to also help contribute with expertise and everything. Because for me, as one of the analysts, I'm also very new. So I obviously don't have the expertise in any sector, I would say. But yeah, it's a steep learning curve, I would say.

Meeyeon (15:49)
So once upon a time, I've done a contract for a local venture company out here in Vancouver. And that company was generally like renewable energy focused as well as sustainable consumer products. And I remember we had, I say two or three funds and at least two active funds. And the kind of due diligence process, the thing that really kind of struck me about it is how there is,

such a, I would say like evenly weighted balance between qualitative analysis as well as quantitative. The quantitative I found that at a venture company, so being on the investor side and we were not pre-seed, we were more looking at companies that had kind of ARR of like $5 million a year minimum, fairly well established. But the big thing was we do an enormous amount of due diligence on the management team.

Ayesha Zain (16:40)
That's huge.

Yeah.

Meeyeon (16:49)
And when it comes to looking at their operating performance, we look for companies that already kind of have a solid financial record. And so we do a lot of kind of auditing of their financial models. And so with the FMVA, what I found was that as we have built that as our flagship product at CFI, you learn a lot of building kind of from the ground up. But

Ayesha Zain (16:58)
Yeah.

Meeyeon (17:17)
such an important skill that I find is that over the years, learning to audit other people's models is such a huge skill. Have you found that as, is that becoming a part of your work so far? I mean, I understand you've been in the role for four months, but that's probably gonna be something that you're gonna be heavily relied on for. Do you find yourself kind of excited for the challenge, a little bit nervous?

Ayesha Zain (17:24)
Mm.

Yes, yes. Well, I haven't done it yet, actually, like in practice. But am I excited? Yes. Like I really want to try like in real life. OK, like I learned a lot about like financial modeling and FMVA, the certification and everything. And I'm like, how do we actually do it in real life? It's something that I've never done before. And let's put it into practice, right? The knowledge that I have. So but also what I really like about the

about the certification itself is that I think a lot of cases that are being used as examples are not real life cases, but like close to real life. know, so it's like, it's nice, it's applicable, I would say, because I feel like in university, a lot of examples that our professors use are very...

and not ideal, let's say. It's like very, what's it called? It's just not ideal. In real life, it's not gonna be like that. I cannot say an example, but if you get what I mean. So I think the...

Meeyeon (18:54)
Mm-hmm.

Yeah, it's like when

you do like, let's say like some sort of math example where they're going to say, let's use round numbers, whole numbers, like that kind of thing where it's like everything is idealized. And so you don't have like the complexity that comes with looking at like a real deal. So more like case-based examples are a lot more helpful because they take, you know, real life into context.

Ayesha Zain (19:00)
Exactly.

Always. Exactly.

Is that?

Exactly. Yeah,

and then so that you won't be as surprised, I guess, when you like really see that in real life. So that's very good.

Meeyeon (19:28)
And so one thing that I want to bring up, and hopefully you're okay with me bringing this up, is that you have, I think I love the fact that you have a social presence. So you've created YouTube videos, you put yourself out there, which I think is the ultimate example of networking in modern day. So for example, four or five years ago, Zoom meetings was not a thing, and they only became very much.

Ayesha Zain (19:32)
Mm-hmm.

Meeyeon (19:55)
part of everyday business, like business as usual, post coronavirus. Before then, it'd be like, hey, let's meet up, let's talk about something, whether it was for networking purposes or part of work. If you ask someone to join a video meeting, it was kind of weird. Whereas now it's very, very mainstream to be able to have a conversation like this, or if someone is just busy, just to be able to log in to Google Meet, Microsoft Teams.

Ayesha Zain (20:11)
Yeah.

Yeah.

Meeyeon (20:23)
Zoom, it's just much more a part of the regular day process. But that said, now, like networking kind of goes beyond meeting the people that you can just via video or in person. And you've kind of established your way of kind of like networking by putting yourself out there on YouTube and like social media. And because you share yourself in that way, I'm so curious, like what is what do you have in your plans kind of for the next?

year, like next three years, you seem like a really ambitious go-getter and planner. And I'd love for you to share with everyone that's listening at CFI what your plans are for the next kind of three years of your career.

Ayesha Zain (21:03)
Yeah, that's so interesting. No, indeed. So I would actually

really like to pursue a master's degree in the US actually so I really like Europe and I really like living here but I just want to try like something else that's a really good education school and I really want to do master's in education also because I have a non-profit organization as well it's called Gauras Tanay by the way shout out yeah but also like master's hopefully soon next year but also

Also, I really want to make more educational content, be it from Gen Z nowadays, scrawl, they like doomscrawling, right? So a lot of Instagram reels and everything. So I really want to sort of maximize and really use my platform that way. Because again, I remember when I shared...

to my network, to my Instagram that I just finished the certification FMVA. Literally, my DMs were full, by the way. I'm not gonna lie.

Meeyeon (22:11)
Including me

Ayesha Zain (22:14)
I'm not gonna lie, I have the screenshot and everything and everyone was like, hey, can I have your notes and everything? I'm also, don't have a finance background whatsoever, but I really wanna break into finance. I really wanna try CFI and everything. Insane, and all those girls, and I'm like, what? This is very interesting. See, there are so many people out there that they really wanna try as well, but.

Meeyeon (22:33)
Yeah.

Ayesha Zain (22:39)
they just don't do it because they don't have a role model, let's say. They just like, I don't know, I'm too scared. I don't know if I'm good enough. I don't know if I can do financial modeling. I don't know if I can do finance and whatever. So that's really how I wanna use my platform, be it like YouTube or like Instagram, whatever, in any way, in any form, but.

But that's the plan, just produce more educational content and hope to get more people inspired.

Meeyeon (23:10)
And you want to do a master's, I thought you were going to say you wanted to do an MBA, but you want to do a master's of education.

Ayesha Zain (23:16)
Not yet.

An MBA later in five years, something like that. But I would really love to do something with education. Yeah.

Meeyeon (23:25)
And so do you see yourself still in finance, you think, after pursuing an education degree?

Ayesha Zain (23:34)
100 % yes, I feel like it's a, think like finance, like knowledge and finance skills and everything, it goes beyond more than just like studying or like working, I feel like. Even if you're like not working, you're like a housewife or everything, I feel like to be, to have a finance knowledge and finance is very important to manage the money of the family, the household. And how can you,

How can you like spend money wisely if you don't know how hard it is to like, I don't know, to earn money and you just, you don't know, you know? I feel like that's still important. Like accounting is still important. What for? Not for the company, but for myself. Just for my household, my family, I feel like so. For sure, 100%. But again, I feel like the education is more of the sector and like the passion.

But I also really want to work still at FeeCee and everything more in like finance. yeah, education is really something that is really close to my heart because of my nonprofit organization once again. So yeah.

Meeyeon (24:46)
It's okay. I have ask you, so what is the nonprofit organization? I'm very curious, because a lot of people that I've spoken to, so for example, one of my favorite people, his name was Antoine Batts, shout out if you're listening, he loves volunteering his time. He keeps busy, like he's always very, very busy, but he loves to give back. He loves to give back to his community, and he's always kind of looking for a cause to connect with. And so I would love to hear what your nonprofit is about.

Ayesha Zain (24:50)
Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Yeah, for sure. It's called, it's a little bit hard to pronounce, but it's called gores denai. Basically what we're doing is it's a G-O-R-E-S like gores, gores, and then denai is D-E-N-A-Y, sorry A-Y, A-I, denai, yeah.

Meeyeon (25:24)
How do you spell that?

Got it. Okay.

And what is

the non-for-profit? Tell us what it's about. Why did you find it? I'm just curious to know.

Ayesha Zain (25:48)
Yeah, for sure. So what we're doing is basically we're trying to help young Indonesians to gain international exposure and maximize global opportunities. Because I'm from Indonesia, by the way, originally born and raised from Jakarta. And while I studied here, I came to the Netherlands three years ago to study, but it's such a privilege because not a lot of people in my country

half the privilege or half the exposure or half the information to, you know, just be able to go abroad because they also don't, not a lot of them speak English well, let's say. So there's like a really like a huge information gap and skill gap. And what we're doing is basically we're trying to be a role model for them and we're trying to guide them about like uni application.

So really reifies, let's say their motivation letter. We also have our annual mentorship program, really inspired them to go abroad, to study in really good universities abroad. So also one of our mentees just got into Stanford last year. It's amazing. And she wrote a lot about Godas and I in her personal statements.

Meeyeon (27:04)
my gosh, that's amazing.

Ayesha Zain (27:13)
It's so beautiful. then a shout out to Aural, by the way, you're amazing. She's also, she's working for a good SNI as well right now. And also the admission officer, like the Stanford admission officer literally emailed her that, Hey, what you're doing is amazing. And congratulations for her. So we were, were basically, we were awarded by the, with the Dine Award. And the Stanford admission officer was like,

Yeah, congratulations for the work with the organization that you're working with. I think it's amazing and blah, blah, So, you know, it's amazing. That's all I can say.

Meeyeon (27:48)
And so how

did, okay, so just as an aside, how did you learn English and how, because clearly you have a great command of the English language, you're proficient in it. How did you learn English and how did you get the idea that you wanted to leave Indonesia and be where you are today?

Ayesha Zain (28:04)
Yeah, so I was an MUN-er. I don't know if you have heard about Model United Nations.

Meeyeon (28:11)
Yes, I remember that in high school.

Ayesha Zain (28:14)
Exactly in the US right like that's so popular I think in the US or Canada like basically North America But it's not the case like in my country. So when I was in high school, I Joined a lot of MUN competitions also like abroad, but it wasn't very popular back then now it's more popular, which is good It's better. But like three years ago, we're talking about it's it's it's not that popular so and then I joined a lot of MUN competitions and

well you have to speak English right for the competition otherwise yeah it just didn't work out if you don't speak English and everything so yeah and I started yapping because of that and blah blah blah yapping and debate blah blah blah so and that's how I got into English as well but also since I was very young my mom is a flight attendant by the way and she's still flying so every time she she always like brought us like books always books like English

Meeyeon (29:11)
my

goodness, that's amazing.

Ayesha Zain (29:13)
English books, I did not know how to read English, but I don't care because the visuals are amazing in the book. So that started pretty early on, you know. That's sort of how I got the exposure. then I started to learn English, read the books and everything, and more yapping, and then eventually went abroad for bachelor.

Meeyeon (29:40)
Okay, so I'm so glad that we got to explain about what your nonprofit is about because we have a lot of CFI learners that, you know, it is a very, we have a very global user base, but we've never been able to kind of target it so directly to especially our younger audience to say that, you know, if you want to kind of venture out to a big metropolitan city, if you want to understand how to get there, a lot of, I think our listeners,

will listen and see our podcast and say, I wanna be where Ayesha is in a couple of years, or like the job that she has now, the place that she is in today, like that is my goal. And to be able to share a concrete way that they might be able to go there is like, for example, Goddess and I, these organizations, I'm sure that there are similar ones out there.

So if you're listening and your goal is to be like Ayesha where she is today, reach out to her not-for-profit. We'll link it in the description of our podcast. And I think it's just such a great example of especially a young person to not just be kind of like networking for yourself and to, you know, further your career, but also to kind of like take everyone with you kind of through that journey.

The way that you network, I think, is very interesting in that it's not just straightforward, like, I'm going to meet more people to further my career, but more of like, I'm putting myself out there and letting people find me and also allow people to kind of develop and grow with me. I haven't met anyone that has had a not-for-profit and to be so education-focused. And so I think that's really wonderful. And I really wanted to kind of spotlight that.

Ayesha Zain (31:34)
That's so sweet and yeah, I think that's amazing. That's all I can say.

Meeyeon (31:35)
Yeah.

So I'm super

happy for your mentee that's been able to go to this wonderful school. Stanford is a wonderful school and she's gonna have such, she, right? Yeah, so she's gonna have an amazing, amazing network when she gets out there. It's a great school and from there she's gonna have so many opportunities that are gonna be so difficult to come by, because the admissions rates are very, very low there.

Ayesha Zain (31:48)
Yeah

I know she will exactly.

insane.

Yeah.

Meeyeon (32:07)
but yeah, that's an amazing accomplishment that you have there. I personally can't think of a better note to close the podcast out on, but I would love for you to, if you have any final kind of like anecdotal things that you wanna drop for our audience, especially ones that are listening and saying like, wanna be Ayesha in the next like X years, like that's my goal. What would you say?

Ayesha Zain (32:33)
Yeah, I would say that sometimes a lot of people are just too scared to start and all I can say is just do it. Really, just do it. Sometimes you think too much, just do it. And yeah, the rest will follow. The rest would be, I'm not gonna say that it's gonna be easy, it's gonna be tough, but you need to have the grit. But yeah, just start and be...

have a really full confidence on yourself. when I first started everything in the beginning, I also didn't know anything. And we just also figured out along the way, so just do it.

Meeyeon (33:15)
I love that message. So yeah, if I'm gonna wrap it up, I'm gonna say, if you are looking to start something, if you wanna start to pursue your dreams, whatever that might be, put yourself out there. Don't be afraid. There's always gonna be a first step. And embrace the cringey moments, right? Like when you start something, there's always gonna be a bit of cringe, but embrace those moments. And yeah, that's been it for our podcast today from Member Spotlight. I hope to see you all again.

Ayesha Zain (33:31)
Exactly.

Meeyeon (33:43)
see and hear you all in our next podcast. for now, thank you for joining us on this episode and we will see you all next time.

Ayesha Zain (33:56)
Yeah