From CFO to COFO: Rydoo's Finance Leader on Role Expansion and Cross-Functional Leadership
Aidana Zhakupbekova of Rydoo officially assumed the role of Chief Operating and Financial Officer (COFO) in January 2026. In this exclusive interview, she shares the challenges of managing combined finance and operations, its impact on M&A integration, and why more growth-oriented companies will adopt the COFO model.
In 2025, CFO.com spoke withAidana Zhakupbekovawhen she was responsible for finance at travel and expense management platform Rydoo, while also overseeing several functions beyond traditional finance. At the time, shedescribedher financial leadership experience during the transition from a startup to a scaling company.
Now, this work has been recognized with a new title. In January 2026, she officially assumed the role of Chief Operating and Financial Officer, commonly known in the industry as COFO.
In a follow-up interview last month, Zhakupbekova discussed how the expanded role has changed her leadership approach and explained how overseeing both finance and operations has influenceda recent M&A deal. She also shared why she believes more scaling companies will adopt the COFO model.
Aidana Zhakupbekova
COFO, Rydoo
First served as CFO in:2023
Key previous employers:
- Board of Innovation
- HousingAnywhere
- Rockwell Automation
- Converse
This interview has been edited for clarity and brevity.
ADAM ZAKI:What has been the biggest surprise since adding operations to your remit? Which operational challenge did you underestimate?
AIDANA ZHAKUPBEKOVA:Actually, it's not as surprising as you might think. Finance and operations are deeply intertwined, so the shift felt more like a natural extension than a leap. The only real change is in pace. Finance follows reporting cycles, and everything eventually fits into neat spreadsheets; operations, on the other hand, demands faster decisions and quicker problem-solving, with much less data available.
The CFO role overall is becoming more strategic, and that transition provided good training for stepping into the COFO role. The operational challenge I underestimated most is the speed of the feedback loop. You quickly discover that certain things don't work, but you have to decide how to respond with far less data than you'd typically have. Adapting to that is probably the steepest part of the learning curve.
Did becoming COFO simply formalize what you were already doing, or did it fundamentally change how you allocate your time? Is there any advice you gave last year that you would update?
In many ways, it was a formal recognition of what was already happening. In high-growth companies, responsibilities often evolve before titles do. During my first year, finance, FP&A, business intelligence, revenue operations, and legal affairs gradually came under my remit, so by the time the title changed, I was already working across these functions daily.
What truly changed wasn't my schedule, but the stage the company was at. After completing the acquisition, we needed a leadership structure that reflected how the business actually operated. The COFO title acknowledged the increasingly close connection between finance and operations in integrating another company and continuing to scale.
That said, my perspective has evolved. I spend less time thinking about how to optimize individual functions and more time ensuring they work effectively together. I no longer ask, "How do I improve finance?" but rather, "How do finance, revenue operations, legal, and commercial teams work together to make better decisions, remove friction, and execute faster?" I believe the biggest impact lies there.
Last year, I talked a lot about building scalable finance. I still think that's crucial, but today I would broaden that advice.
As companies grow, the biggest challenges are rarely confined to a single department; they usually appear at the intersections between departments. Finance, revenue operations, product, sales, and legal all affect each other.
I encourage finance leaders to spend more time understanding how the business works end-to-end. The broader your perspective, the more effective you become, not just as a finance leader, but as a business leader.
Has overseeing operations changed how you think about financial decisions?
Absolutely. It has reinforced that financial decisions are rarely just financial decisions; they are also operational decisions.
Early in my career, the focus was naturally on ensuring strong financial results and disciplined capital allocation. Those priorities haven't changed, but now I spend more time thinking about how decisions will impact execution, customer experience, and the teams responsible for delivery.
In a scaling SaaS company, the best decisions are those that improve both financial performance and operational efficiency. Looking at both perspectives simultaneously leads to better long-term outcomes than optimizing either one in isolation.
Have you had to adjust your leadership style as more organizations report to you?
I think that with more of the business reporting to me now, I can't be as deeply involved in every decision as I was when I was CFO. I have to be more deliberate about which things need my personal attention and which should be fully owned by the teams. That means setting expectations and outcomes more clearly upfront, and then truly trusting the teams to achieve them in their own way.
Knowing the key people in both teams is more important than ever. Building relationships with them and understanding where each person's strengths lie is what makes this delegation truly work.
As COFO, how has overseeing both finance and operations influencedthe integration of Semine？
The COFO structure has a significant advantage here. When two companies merge, the challenges that often derail integration are rarely purely financial or operational; they usually sit at the intersection of both.
You constantly ask yourself: How do the teams work together? What is the combined roadmap? How do you reconcile two sets of processes without losing the strengths of each? Having visibility into both finance and operations allowed me to spot friction points early and adjust flexibly.
Do you think more companies will combine the CFO and COO roles, or is this only for certain businesses?
The size of the company and the leadership style do influence this decision. In large, complex organizations where operations is truly independent, there's a strong case for keeping the roles separate. The scope can be too large for one person to give each area the leadership attention it deserves.
This model is best suited for scaling companies where speed of decision-making is critical and the CFO is already informally working across the business. Formalizing it through the COFO structure removes ambiguity, increases accountability, and provides the CEO and board with a clearer picture of operations. As the CFO's strategic mandate continues to expand, I wouldn't be surprised to see more companies move in this direction.
Which operational KPI has become as important to you as traditional metrics like margin or cash flow?
Team capacity and how it's deployed. It sounds less quantitative than the metrics I usually focus on, but it's one of the most powerful indicators of business health. Understanding how much of the team's time is spent on strategic priorities versus reactive work, and whether people are stretched to the point of operational risk, is crucial.
As a CFO, you think a lot about capital allocation. As a COFO, you realize that human capital allocation is equally important and often harder to get right because it's less visible in the numbers. This has become one of my core areas of focus.
What is the biggest priority for the next 12 months?
Integrating Rydoo's and Semine's products to maximize value for customers is the top priority right now. The biggest priority for the next 12 months is turning the acquisition into a real growth opportunity, not just integrating two companies, but building a stronger business entity.
That means building a joint product vision, integrating teams and operations, and creating the right foundation for scaling. The real test of any acquisition is whether customers feel the benefit. If we do this well, customers will see a stronger product, broader capabilities, and a better experience, and internally we will have a more scalable organization that can continue to grow.