Kevin Mcdonnell on startup finance
From Navigating Business Risks With Kevin McDonell · · Markester
“For startups, the biggest risk is running out of money, so you have to be very careful about how you spend money on things that increase value, like proving your product works and has customers.”
On , Kevin Mcdonnell, Senior Vice President & Chief Financial Officer at AEROVIRONMENT INC, spoke about startup finance during Navigating Business Risks With Kevin McDonell on Markester.
About Kevin Mcdonnell
Kevin McDonnell, senior vice president and chief financial officer at AeroVironment, appeared on two podcasts in 2023 and 2024. In a December 2024 episode focused on property investing, McDonnell discussed the concept of "no money down" property purchases, which he described as "buying property without money that you've earned in a job." He stated that "most people can't do property with their own money" and attributed the availability of such strategies to governments having "printed trillions of pounds in the last few years, especially during the lockdown." In a September 2023 podcast on business risk, McDonnell said that "at the end of the day you can only create value for any organization or even for yourself if you take risk." He described different risk profiles for companies, stating that for startups "the biggest risk is running out of money," while for mature companies "competition and environment are the biggest risks." McDonnell also discussed a risk he took at a previous company by overhauling its pricing scheme, which he said "tripled the company's profitability while keeping customers happy." He emphasized that organizations should "focus on the things that are going to get to their long-term objectives and not try to do everything that's a good idea."