How Quizlet’s CFO is driving growth in the ‘freemium’ market
CFO.com, an Industry Dive publication ·CFO.com·Industry Dive
Adam Zaki
6 min read
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With a background in investment banking and a deep understanding of consumer technology, Ismail Orujov has played a key role in shaping study app Quizlet’s monetization strategy. He has helped scale its finance operations and supported its evolution as one of the most widely used learning platforms among students and educators worldwide.
Operating in the competitive freemium space, San Francisco-based Quizlet’s business model depends on expanding its user base and converting a portion of that audience into paying subscribers. Orujov sees finance as a strategic partner in that process that must collaborate across teams to analyze product-market fit, assess ROI on research and development and measure customer value. While his team continues to handle the core responsibilities of finance, Orujov emphasizes the importance of also being a thought partner to product and marketing leaders as the company scales its monetization efforts.
Ismail Orujov
CFO, Quizlet
First CFO position: 2017
Notable previous employers:
Barclays Investment Bank
Lehman Brothers
This interview has been edited for brevity and clarity.
ADAM ZAKI: Your company has grown on two significant fronts: user engagement and monetization strategy. What is finance’s role in succeeding while growing the user base and building monetization strategies in the freemium space?
ISMAIL ORUJOV: I view finance’s role as primarily being a thought partner to our cross-functional partners across the organization and providing input wherever we can. It differs depending on the team we’re working with. It could range from working with a product manager and doing a total addressable market analysis for a product they’re trying to build, to working with the marketing team to help measure lifetime value of different cohorts, or if you're doing some kind of research and development investment, figuring out what the ROI on that would be. That’s our main responsibility.
We partner well with different teams in the organization, and we’ve built a culture where they come to us if they need help, as an extra resource or set of eyes. That’s a big part of my team’s job.
And then there’s also the less sexy, more day-to-day blocking and tackling parts of finance — paying vendors, closing the books, the things that are table stakes for the function but need to get done correctly day in and day out. I believe a good finance team can do both of those things well.
Given that you come from the investment banking world, what’s your approach to delegating tasks in the finance function?
When I joined the company, I didn’t have a strong background in day-to-day operations. Investment banking teaches you certain areas of finance really well, but there are a lot of things CFOs do daily that I didn’t know how to do.
When I started, I was a team of one. A lot of it was about just rolling up my sleeves and doing the work. We had outsourced accounting, but much of the finance function was done by me. Then I slowly grew the team as we grew.
CFOs need to be curious about everything and learn, but also recognize there’s only a limited amount of time in the day. You can’t spend hours on things like accounting and let everything else go. You have to find that balance of understanding that portion of the business enough, then finding and bringing in the right people.
How has your approach to cybersecurity changed since the early days, given the amount you’ve grown, the importance of data and the reliance your business has on technology?
Conversations around cybersecurity have grown as time has gone on, and it’s my job to be actively involved and understand what precautions we’re taking and what systems we’re building that could come with potential threats. This applies to finance because a lot of attacks usually come in through accounting and finance.
That’s where we have to be careful and make sure our systems and processes are in place to prevent breaches. But as a consumer internet company, there’s also broader company-level risk, like data breaches and site outages. So I’ve focused on making sure we’re building the right security infrastructure on the engineering side.
“When I started, I was a team of one. A lot of it was about just rolling up my sleeves and doing the work. We had outsourced accounting, but much of the finance function was done by me.”
Ismail Orujov
CFO, Quizlet
And, back to the finance and risk awareness part of the CFO job, the last piece for me is making sure we have the right insurance protection in case things go wrong and there are costs associated with it.
Do you have any new, AI-driven technology in your finance function you can’t live without?
I don’t, unfortunately, and if you hear of one, let me know. Everybody is talking about AI, but I haven’t seen a good implementation in the finance function yet. I’m sure it’s coming, no doubt in my mind, but I don’t think it’s out there at the moment. Finance is conservative on this front. We’re probably one of the last functions to adopt new tools. We wait until they’re very robust.
I do use ChatGPT and similar tools day to day, though. For example, I might have a call with a tax advisor on a specific topic I’m not up to date on. Historically, they’d do some work, then we’d have a two-hour call explaining how things work. Now I can go to ChatGPT and ask for numeric examples. When I jump on the call, I’m already pretty informed.
Obviously, large language models can hallucinate, and you’ll get corrected in the conversation. But the pre-work it does for you is great. It would’ve otherwise taken a lot more time and cost more in consulting hours. Even things like building models — asking ChatGPT to simplify a formula — are a huge help. But in terms of a broader finance tool, we haven’t used anything yet.
If you were to take the organization public, how would you anticipate your role changing and how would you prepare?
My role would change significantly. There’s a lot more external-facing work. You need solid systems and processes just to meet the basic requirements. You need that alongside a solid growth trajectory and the ability to forecast and communicate that to investors. That’s not easy. You need strong forecasting capabilities and confidence in communicating them.
Throughout your career, what’s been the common denominator for people who succeed? What do you consider the “it factor”?
I think about it a lot, especially when interviewing, as we’ve grown and hired more people. The number one trait is curiosity. Do people want to learn more, no matter what they’re working on? Curiosity drives people to understand things better, like why things work a certain way. If you combine that with a good work ethic and the ability to grind, you’ve got a powerful combination. That’s something I’ve seen among people who’ve done well, and it’s something I look for in people I bring onto my team.
