The modern CFO wears many hats and utilizes many skills beyond just finance (especially for startups and SMBs). The different areas of focus and data analysis for a CFO often include sales, marketing, business development, and general operations.
This video has an interesting interview with a startup CFO talking about the challenges in balancing different challenges:
“At the end of the day you need to have cash to pay for things, and the CFO should always win out in that relationship,” he says. “At the same time, at a startup revenue is the most important piece, so it’s important to keep that in mind at the CFO level.”