Nicole Della Cava, Director of Finance

6 a.m. (EST)

It’s Monday morning and I’m startled awake by something that is not my alarm clock. Unsure of the time, I hold still, waiting to see if the noise continues. There it is again, soft gurgles that come from the baby monitor, filling my bedroom — growing louder and more demanding. 

I take in the image on the monitor and see my 10-month-old, Charlotte, standing in her crib, which lets me know it’s time for me to get up, too. I look at the clock. To my relief, it is 6 a.m.; not 4 a.m. I tip-toe into her room and scoop her up.

6:15 a.m.

After Charlotte’s belly is full and her diaper is changed, Miss Independent pushes out of my arms, and heads off in search of her toys and pushcart. She babbles and waves to me when she finds what she’s looking for: her favorite stuffed animal, who will serve as her trusty sidekick this morning. I follow her as she journeys around the kitchen, leaving no stone-unturned or cabinet door unopened.

7:45 a.m.

When we have exhausted the downstairs space, and the living room looks like a tornado has blown through, I strap her into her car seat, and we venture over to our favorite local café where I get a large coffee and a “homemade” soup for lunch later in the day.

8:30 a.m.

Our nanny has arrived, which means it’s now my turn to embark on my own daily journey as Red Cell’s Director of Finance. Sipping coffee, I sit at my desk and start checking my calendar for the week. As a member of the finance team, my department and I manage the annual budgets and long-term strategic plans across Red Cell’s 13 incubations and internal platform team — a cross-functional group that provides wraparound services like finance, operations, legal, product and engineering, talent, and marketing for our companies. This week (and most others), my day starts with an Excel spreadsheet where I make updates to investor models for a couple of incubations. I will also take some time to prepare for next week’s quarterly strategy session known as the ROPR or the Rolling Operation Plan Review. This is where Red Cell department and platform leadership will gather to discuss budget and performance as well as objectives and key results (OKRs).

With a few hours to go before my first meeting, I focus on the investor model for one of our newest healthcare incubations. Over the past week, Sophie Stalker, Red Cell’s Healthcare Operations Director, and I have met to document the assumptions for this company’s 5-year growth plan, which include everything from unit costs and flow of funds to annual recurring revenue targets and fundraising milestones. Armed with new information, I begin pulling data points into a blank financial model.

Despite being heads down on this project, in the corner of my screen I see my Slack messages building up. I take a break from the model to read them and call Paige Morschauser, Red Cell’s Head of Operations, who wants to discuss the Ops ROPR asks for next week’s meeting, such as new software subscriptions and the plan for the firm’s summer internship program.

11:30 a.m.

Before I know it, it is time for the Finance Department’s Directors’ sync. Elyse Rossi, Director of Finance Operation; Oscar Rivera, Corporate Controller; and I have regular meetings with Barrett Yates-Mack, Red Cell’s CFO, to discuss our overlapping priorities for the week. This time serves as an opportunity for essential communication among department leads in accounting, finance operations, and Financial Planning & Analysis as we provide updates from the previous week, and prioritize new requests that have made their way across our desks so far this morning.

12:00 p.m.

I run downstairs to quickly warm up my soup and give Charlotte a big hug. There has not been a day where her toothless smile and flapping arms haven’t brightened my day, even if it’s started off on the wrong foot. Luckily, those days are rare for me at Red Cell. While I eat, I wrap up investor model inputs and call Sophie to show her the progress I’ve made so far. Her feedback will be used in further iterations, but that is a task for tomorrow.

1 p.m.

The next meeting is the weekly Keystone Forum where each EIR provides a status update on their incubations. I take notes on any comments that will impact their financial projections.

2 p.m.

This one-hour window will be used to prepare the ROPR slides which involves completing a variance analysis for each department, isolating differences and addressing potential breaks compared to actuals. After identifying areas that require further attention, I reach out to Oscar, who verifies and clarifies details in the draft results of our actuals. Oscar and the accounting team are strong partners during this process.

3:00 p.m.

Anuhya Sundadi, Red Cell’s Strategic Finance Associate, and I join our monthly finance and funnel meeting with a Red Cell Entrepreneur n-Residence, who’s leading another one of our healthcare startups, and Operations Analyst Lucy Stalker. We discuss the progress that we’ve made to the company’s fundraising model so far and strategize how the summary metrics will feed into their pitch deck.

3:50 p.m.

When the meeting wraps up, Anuhya and I quickly align on our take-aways from the call and discuss what is on her plate so far this week.

4:00 p.m.

I join the platform sync for another one of our startups to run through the incubation playbook, which establishes our strategies for supporting our companies. The operations, finance, legal, marketing, HR, and Talent teams weigh in on the current priorities necessary to continue to stand up the company.

I usually work with two to six incubations on any given day. Though it’s time-consuming to work across all the incubations, I truly find it rewarding to see them grow into mature companies and know that I’ve done all that I can to help set them up for financial success. 

4:30 p.m.

After attending my last meeting for the day, I catch up on emails. I see there are documents that require my review, so I take a read and provide feedback.

5:30 p.m.

Our nanny is ready to head out so it’s time for me to take a break. This block of time is the perfect opportunity for us to Facetime with our relatives and get outside for an early evening walk or run.

6:40 p.m.

My husband calls when he leaves the office. He always prioritizes bath and bedtime. When he gets home, we catch up on each other’s day as Charlotte splashes around in the tub.

8:00 p.m.

The baby is asleep, and the house is quiet.

After some downtime, I am back online for the next two hours, analyzing department budgets, with the hope that I can provide the first draft of the year-end RCP results before Friday. The sooner I can get the draft 2024 and 2025 financials to Red Cell President David Silverman and Barrett, the better they are able to make informed decisions on the ROPR asks and determine if spend needs to be re-allocated, and whether we are tracking toward our strategic goals.

10:00 p.m.

My eyelids are heavy. I make a note to work on the investor model tomorrow morning and then proceed to shut my computer down for the evening. I get in bed and check the Nanit baby monitor to see Charlotte sound asleep, unsure, as always, what time my day will start tomorrow.