SoundCloud has appointed Holly Lim as its first ever Chief Financial Officer.
San Francisco-based Lim joins from Google, where she has worked for the past four years, most recently as Business Operations, Cloud Platform & Network Operations.
Before joining Google in 2012, she was CEO of American heritage brand Stetson.
Lim’s appointment as CFO comes six months after SoundCloud hired a Chief Revenue Officer in New York-based Alison Moore.
SoundCloud CEO Alexander Ljung said: “SoundCloud exists in a world where the competitive context is complex – with the addition of Holly to the executive team, she will guide our financial strategy and help us establish a long-term view around how we maintain SoundCloud’s financial health and capitalise on new opportunities for growth”.
He added: “Holly has a distinguished track record in financial and business leadership, and brings not only a deep understanding of the dynamics at work in companies with high growth potential, but also a sense of what is needed to scale globally.”
The task of ‘maintaining SoundCloud’s financial health’ is not an easy one.
The Berlin-based streaming service lost €39.14m ($44.19m) in 2014 on revenues of just €17.35m ($19.14m) – without any significant royalty payments to rights-holders.
Within those figures, administrative expenses (staff and other business basics) grew 67.8% to €47.74m ($52.7m), as headcount grew by 21% to 236 people – with an average annual wage of €79,980 ($82,253).
Lim said: “I’m excited to work with the entire executive team at SoundCloud as a strategic business partner and lead the company’s finance strategy. This new role presents an opportunity to not only help a burgeoning company grow – but develop the company vision and strategy with an entrepreneurial executive team”.
She will officially begin the CFO role on September 6.Music Business Worldwide
