Derek Hartlauer

Background

About Derek Hartlauer

I build companies. That's the simplest way to describe what I do and what drives me.I'm a finance leader who builds the infrastructure, drives operational transformation, and helps scale businesses toward meaningful exits. Over the past decade I've worked inside some of the most dynamic VC and PE-backed startups in SaaS, tech-enabled services, and InsurTech, from early stage through growth and beyond. I don't just report on the business. I help shape it.I'm equally comfortable leading financial strategy and FP & A, building and maturing financial infrastructure for scalable growth, guiding capital raises, and partnering on go-to-market execution. I bring a highly entrepreneurial mindset to everything I do, which means I think like a founder, act like an operator, and always keep the bigger picture in focus. My style is hands-on, relationship-driven, and always biased toward execution.Here are a few things I'm proud of: Scaled TaskEasy from $3M to over $100M in ARR within 6 years, growing from 25 to 500+ employees, and owned the financial architecture, operations, and infrastructure that kept the company exit-ready and ultimately enabled its successful acquisition by WorkWave Supported $65M+ in institutional capital raises across Series B, Series C, Follow-On Series C, and multiple venture debt rounds at TaskEasy, leading financial analysis, due diligence preparation, and investor reporting Built TaskEasy's finance function from scratch to 25+ professionals across 6 teams spread across 4 countries, while championing and implementing a highly robust financial and fintech infrastructure across a complex, high-volume operation, including NetSuite, Stripe, Avalara, Paylocity, Carta, Salesforce, Boomi, and more Conceived, built, and launched a new warranty automation product at Autto, scaled it across all operating regions, and grew it to over 50% of total company revenue within the first year, effectively creating an internal capital engine that funded growth without external equity dilution Leading a full financial and operational turnaround at a PE-backed vertical SaaS company, driving significant EBITDA improvement, bookings growth, and churn reduction Led the preparation and execution of a strategic exit process for a PE-backed SaaS companyI'm always open to connecting with founders, operators, investors, and executive recruiters building something great in the PE and VC-backed SaaS space.