From CFO to CEO and everything in between: How Francine Geist’s leadership culminated in a milestone acquisition for LiveAction

LiveAction CEO Francine Geist has always been a go-getter. “I decided in my freshman year of high school that I wanted to be the class valedictorian, so I put in the time and effort to make it happen.”

After college, Geist got a job with Deloitte in the mid-90s, becoming an auditor. “But I decided pretty quickly that I didn’t want to stay in client service,” she reveals. “I didn’t like being on the outside, looking in.”

The job exposed Geist to multiple high-growth, innovative businesses. It’s fair to say she caught the bug. “When I told the firm I was going to leave, they said, ‘Why? You’re on the partner track’, and I said, ‘No way! I’m not interested in accounting after the fact; I want to run the business.”

A first-time CFO

Over the next two decades, Geist’s career took some unexpected turns. After leaving a startup that struggled during the dotcom crash, she earned an MBA from Wharton, graduating in 2003.

She resisted the lure of banking or consultancy and pursued a career in the B2B software space instead. She spent 10 years working her way up at commercial data giant Dun & Bradstreet, followed by tenures at hospitality insight specialist TravelClick, and then shipping e-marketplace INTTRA.

Sector agnostic, Geist has always sought out roles where she could make an impact. “I have always loved the intersection between finance and operations,” she explains. “I’m not a technical person, I’m not an infrastructure person, but I know how to leverage my finance background to make a big impact operationally.”

By 2019, Geist felt ready for her first CFO role. “I had been deputy CFO at INTTRA, and when that business was sold, I started looking for new opportunities.”

INTTRA was bought by Insight Partners’ portfolio company, E2open, which led Geist to connect with Insight’s executive talent team. Keen to find her next role at a high-growth company, Geist and the team discussed possible opportunities within Insight’s network. They landed on LiveAction.

“It ticked all the boxes,” says Geist. She felt that LiveAction would allow her to leverage both her financial and operational background, amplifying her overall impact. “It was the right size — not so big that it would be beyond my capability as a first-time CFO, but big enough for me to use all my experience. Everyone loved the product, and we had an enviable enterprise customer base. But it was struggling from an execution perspective, and I knew I could help.”

LiveAction, founded in 2007, helps companies monitor and secure large networks by turning complex network data into clear, useful, and actionable insights. Organizations worldwide use its software to anticipate network performance and security issues before they can affect applications, customers, and business services.

Stepping into the CEO role

“My first priority was to move LiveAction’s business model from one-off, perpetual deals to a recurring revenue model,” she says. In a phased approach, this strategy helped the business to run more efficiently and to scale. “Whether I am CFO, COO, or CEO — that is always my focus.”

While she was CFO, the company also made a strategic acquisition that positioned LiveAction soundly at the intersection of security and networking markets, acquiring CounterflowAI in 2021.

As Geist notes, LiveAction was a successful growth stage company, with a product that was beloved by customers and already supporting large-scale enterprise and federal customers. After serving as CFO from 2019 to 2020, Geist acted as COO and CFO from 2020 to early 2022, then President until June 2022. When the business needed a committed and passionate CEO to drive it forward at scale, Geist was the right choice for the job. She was named CEO of LiveAction in mid-2022.

“I’m always doing 12 jobs at once,” she admits. “I have held every job function in this company.”

As a result, Geist understands the value that every role brings to the business. She leans into learning and seeking out people who can teach her. “It’s kind of the foundation. What you do with that knowledge is what takes you forward.”

She also credits several individuals across Insight Onsite — a dedicated team of 130 professionals to help fuel growth across multiple domains — for supporting her transition from CFO to CEO and helping her recalibrate the business.

“Pablo [Dominguez] from Onsite has been a strong partner,” she notes. “But there are too many people to name, from marketing to talent acquisition.”

“I’ve always been able to turn to Insight and say, ‘Any words of advice?’.”

“Having partnered with LiveAction on several go-to-market work streams since we first invested, we have a keen understanding of their growth journey and where they needed to go,” says Dominguez. “Working with Francine in her various roles, the Onsite team and I were confident and excited about her ability to drive the company forward as CEO,” continues Dominguez.

For Geist, rewards come from trusting her gut instincts. “Insight made me feel very comfortable doing things my way,” she says. “I never ask anyone to do a job I won’t do myself.”

The investor POV

“Every time Francine encountered a problem, she rolled up her sleeves and found solutions.”

Insight first invested in LiveAction in 2016, leading its $36M Series B. Michael Triplett, managing director at Insight, recognized LiveAction’s innovation, industry leadership, and the completeness of their network management platform, which drove strong customer loyalty and advocacy.

Insight went on to support LiveAction through three key acquisitions: France-based software development company LivingObjects in 2017, leading packet capture and analytics company Savvius in 2018, and, as mentioned, CounterflowAI in 2021.

“As soon as Francine arrived at LiveAction, she started making an impact,” says Managing Director Philine Huizing, who became involved with LiveAction when Geist became CFO. “She shepherded it through a major transition to a subscription model, built out an FP&A team, and helped to drive results across almost every operational area in the business. There was already a strong team at LiveAction, and people appreciated Francine rolling up her sleeves.”

“Given Francine’s approach to leadership and operations, it really felt as though she had her arms around the business. We needed a CEO who could get in the weeds, diagnose problems, identify opportunities, and position the business for growth at scale. Francine was in a position to be able to do that and became the natural choice for CEO.”

According to Geist, Huizing is her “partner in crime” and has been since the two started their journeys at LiveAction.

“As Francine moved into a CEO role, we connected her to other CEOs in our portfolio,” says Huizing. “We wanted to make sure she had access to people who had been in her shoes, and who could be a mentor in a way that a board member or investor can’t.”

Huizing admits she initially had reservations about Geist’s desire to roll up her sleeves and tackle every challenge personally: “Usually, you would recommend that a CEO hires in that talent.”

But Geist never wavered and displayed remarkable bandwidth, she says. “She has won the respect of everyone around her by really getting into the weeds to understand what’s working and what’s not.”

And with Insight as a partner, Geist has felt empowered to do things her way. “Not everything I’ve done has been a success, but I’ve failed fast and got back up again to try something different the next day.”

Just 25% of U.S. tech companies boast a female CEO, and Geist is proud to be a role model. “I don’t want people to see me as a female versus a male CEO.  I just want people to see me as a damn good CEO,” she explains.

“It means we can do even more for our customers”

Under Geist’s stewardship as CFO, COO, President and ultimately CEO, LiveAction went from generating just a fifth of sales through annual recurring revenue to 100%. “We have seen 300% growth during my tenure,” Geist reveals.

The focus is now on continued growth and scale for the business. To achieve this mission, in October 2024, LiveAction entered into a strategic partnership: acquisition by the network specialist BlueCat. “I feel like my mission was to really bring LiveAction to where it needed to be and then find the right home for the future. And I feel like we did that.”

“As part of BlueCat, we can leverage the synergies across a much larger business,” Geist says. “It’s the right home for us and presents a great opportunity for us to continue to scale. It means we can do even more for our customers.”