Stack Overflow, an online community for software developers, named Matt Gallatin as chief financial officer after it was acquired by European tech giant Prosus NV for $1.8 billion last month.
Mr. Gallatin joined the New York-based company, whose legal name is Stack Exchange Inc., on Aug. 16, the company said Tuesday. He previously served as finance chief for a little over one year at Reltio, a Redwood Shores, Calif.-based data management company, following earlier stints at technology firms Drawbridge Inc.—which was acquired in 2019 by LinkedIn—and OneLogin Inc. At Stack Overflow, Mr. Gallatin succeeds Jerry Raphael, who resigned in March after about a year in the role to become finance chief of cybersecurity startup Axonius.
Stack Overflow, which was previously backed by venture firms including Union Square Ventures and Andreessen Horowitz, operates a free question-and-answer site for developers. The site attracts about 100 million monthly visitors and generates a portion of its revenue through advertising, the company said. It raised $153 million before being acquired.
The company has benefited from the shift to remote work during the pandemic, according to Jeffrey Hammond, vice president and principal analyst at Forrester Research Inc., an advisory firm.
“It created an almost unexpected opportunity for the team at Stack Overflow to provide a lot of value,” Mr. Hammond said, referring to the shift among corporate employees to remote work.
Stack Overflow, which declined to provide financial figures, offers an enterprise subscription service that allows employees within a single company to collaborate on a private platform. About 5,000 companies use the service, which launched four years ago and now makes up about half of Stack Overflow’s revenue, the company said.
Matt Gallatin, CFO of Stack Overflow.
Photo: Matt Gallatin
The Prosus deal provides 13-year old Stack Overflow with the backing of a large, well-funded company to accelerate growth, including through potential acquisitions or corporate partnerships, said Chief Executive Prashanth Chandrasekar.
Stack Overflow is looking for its CFO to guide the company’s capital allocation decisions and improve the predictability of its financial results, Mr. Chandrasekar said. “One of our strategic priorities is predictable and reliable financial performance, which as a CFO is just everything I could hope for,” Mr. Gallatin said.
He said he plans to invest in data analytics within the finance function to enhance the company’s forecasting capabilities. Mr. Gallatin said he also plans to focus on employee retention and skills development within his department. The company has about 300 employees, including 16 in finance and accounting.
Stack Overflow expects its enterprise subscription business to generate a majority of its revenue within the next three years, Mr. Chandrasekar said. He said that the company was profitable in the three years before the acquisition.
Write to Kristin Broughton at [email protected]
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