Sequoia-backed unicorn Faire just promoted an internal candidate to be its new CFO. Here’s how he stood out

Good morning. Unicorn Faire is shuffling its executive ranks, Fortune was the first to report. Lauren Cooks Levitan, who joined Faire in 2019 as its first CFO, will become the new president. The startup has also promoted an insider, Jason Lee, to become the next CFO.

Faire, based in San Francisco, is a wholesale marketplace that connects hundreds of thousands of independent, local retailers with global brands. Some of the product categories include food and beverages, apparel, home, and jewelry. Since its launch in 2017, the company has raised over $1 billion from investors such as Sequoia Capital, Forerunner, Founders Fund, Y Combinator, Khosla Ventures, and Lightspeed Venture Partners, reaching unicorn status. Faire reported a $12.4 billion valuation in 2021. It has over 900 employees.

Lee joined Faire about 18 months ago as VP of finance, after spending over a decade leading finance for Square and investor relations for Block. "Thank you Lauren Cooks Levitan for bringing me into Faire and supporting me, and the broader Faire leadership team for trusting me with this wonderful opportunity," Lee wrote in a LinkedIn post on Monday.

“I hired Jason with the expectation that he had the potential to be the future CFO of Faire; he has the perfect experience,” Levitan told me. Lee potentially becoming CFO was something that was discussed during his recruitment, and “part of the way we were even able to persuade him to join Faire in the first place,” Levitan added.

What were some of the qualities Levitan was looking for? “The first is being very mission-aligned,” she said. Lee has been supporting technology enablement for small and mid-sized businesses for virtually his entire career. Levitan also sought a person who had a level of familiarity and comfort with the complexity of a marketplace business, which “requires a very high-level analytical rigor,” Levitan said.

A CFO capable of both attracting high-quality talent and developing and retaining them, was also essential, she said. “I'd say that's a real strength and it's a critical strength for any executive-level leader,” Levitan said. That's something Lee has done over many years of his career, and at Faire, she added.

Although Levitan joined the startup as its first finance chief, she told me that she never really thought of herself as exclusively a CFO. “I’ve always seen my role as being a partner to the business, to the CEO, to the rest of the leadership team,” she said. “I think of myself as a business leader first, and then the financial expert on the leadership team, second.”

In her new role as president, Levitan is expected to focus on driving new business development opportunities, globally, to impact customers and the company’s future. She began her career on Wall Street as an equity capital markets analyst at Goldman Sachs. Levitan has more than 30 years of experience in retail. She joined Faire after serving as CFO of Fanatics.

Now taking on the role of president will provide a different lens to look at the business—and the trajectory of her career. “I think it helps me think through the range of possibilities for my future career as well,” she said. “It doesn't have to be specific to a finance swim lane.”

Sheryl Estrada
sheryl.estrada@fortune.com

This story was originally featured on Fortune.com