Run the Numbers

CJ Gustafson

Run the Numbers is a business podcast about financial metrics and business models for CFOs, aspiring CFOs, finance leaders, and ambitious people operating tech startups. Hosted by CJ Gustafson, CFO and writer of Mostly Metrics, the show shares lessons, frameworks, and operator insights from the trenches as a tech exec. Think of it as a playbook for the things CJ wishes he knew earlier in his career, covering SaaS metrics, annual budgeting, forecasting, headcount, equity, dilution, fundraising, and the decisions that drive performance and growth.

  1. vor 7 Std.

    How to Tell a Demanding Founder They’re Wrong

    On this special episode of Run the Numbers, CJ Gustafson revisits standout moments from past conversations with Alex Immerman, Curt Sigfstead, Daniel Kang, Adam Ante, and David Laptor. Together, their advice reveals how great CFOs earn trust, challenge founders, speak up when the data says something is wrong, and become true strategic partners without relying on the power of the purse strings. — SPONSORS: Anrok is the sales tax platform that watches your exposure everywhere, automates compliance, and flags risk before it turns into a surprise back-tax letter from a state you've never set foot in. Companies like Anthropic, Notion, and Vanta already trust Anrok to stay ahead of rules that move faster than any spreadsheet can. Talk to a sales tax expert for a personalized exposure estimate at https://www.anrok.com/rtn RightRev is an automated revenue recognition platform that lets your product team ship new pricing without asking finance for permission, and your sales team close deals without creating downstream chaos. Check out their free tool at calculator.rightrev.com It scores your rev rec process, shows what's exposing you to risk, and tells you exactly where to focus before it bites you in the rear end. Check it out at https://calculator.rightrev.com Pulley is an equity management platform that lets you issue options, model dilution, and complete 409As without your cap table turning into a spreadsheet disaster. Founders raising, hiring, and scaling use Pulley to keep equity clean and stay focused on building. Learn more or request a demo at https://pulley.com/mostlymetrics Rillet is an AI-native ERP built for modern finance teams that want to replace NetSuite and close faster. With revenue recognition, close management, multi-entity support, and native Stripe and Salesforce integrations, Rillet helps scaling companies run their finance stack in one place. Hundreds of teams, including Windsurf and Mercor, use Rillet to make the zero-day close real. Book a demo at https://www.rillet.com/cj Maximor is an autonomous finance platform that runs order-to-cash, procure-to-pay, the close, cash management, and reporting on self-learning agents instead of a dozen disconnected tools. One PE-backed customer cut their close in half, took audit findings from seven to zero, and cut back-office costs by 70% in six months. You pay for outcomes, not seats. See it at https://www.maximor.ai/ Brex is an intelligent finance platform with AI-powered agents that capture expenses automatically, enforce policy before the spend happens, and close your books in minutes instead of weeks. 35,000+ companies like OpenAI, Coinbase, Anthropic, and DoorDash already run on Brex. It's time to get Brex AF. Learn more at https://www.brex.com/metrics — LINKS:  Mostly Talent: https://mostlymetrics.typeform.com/to/cLTxtAsN CJ: https://www.linkedin.com/in/cj-gustafson-13140948/ Mostly metrics: https://www.mostlymetrics.com — TIMESTAMPS: 0:00 Preview and Intro 3:27 Alex Immerman's favorite CFO interview question 4:54 What a weak answer looks like 5:26 When the hard calls actually matter 6:37 Walt and Roy Disney 7:36 Liked even when making unpopular calls 8:43 Sponsors — Anrok | RightRev | Pulley 11:35 Curt from Clio: ego in the bottom drawer 13:52 CFO as supporting cast 15:10 Backbone vs. ego: when to use each 16:23 Daniel Kang: don't use the purse strings as power 17:36 Earn the seat, don't demand it 18:52 Money is one arrow, not the whole quiver 20:39 Sponsors — Rillet | Maximor | Brex 23:54 Adam Ante: finance people pigeonhole themselves 26:46 The CFO can sit in any meeting 27:30 First 90 days: listen before suggesting 28:46 David Laptor: listen, observe, think, speak 30:50 Build a culture where speaking up is welcomed 31:51 Curt from Clio: don't come in as a know-it-all 33:08 Earn trust through curiosity 33:46 Beware of all-green dashboards 35:28 What would CJ say to Ballmer? 37:14 Parting thoughts from Ben 38:00 Credits

    How to Tell a Demanding Founder They’re Wrong

  2. vor 4 Tagen

    The Four Stages of World-Class FP&A with Datadog’s AJ Ljubich

    On this episode of Run the Numbers, CJ sits down with Datadog SVP of FP&A AJ Ljubich to break down the four stages of a world-class finance team. — SPONSORS: Brex is an intelligent finance platform with AI-powered agents that capture expenses automatically, enforce policy before the spend happens, and close your books in minutes instead of weeks. 35,000+ companies like OpenAI, Coinbase, Anthropic, and DoorDash already run on Brex. It's time to get Brex AF. Learn more at https://www.brex.com/metrics Anrok is the sales tax platform that watches your exposure everywhere, automates compliance, and flags risk before it turns into a surprise back-tax letter from a state you've never set foot in. Companies like Anthropic, Notion, and Vanta already trust Anrok to stay ahead of rules that move faster than any spreadsheet can. Talk to a sales tax expert for a personalized exposure estimate at https://www.anrok.com/rtn RightRev is an automated revenue recognition platform that lets your product team ship new pricing without asking finance for permission, and your sales team close deals without creating downstream chaos. Check out their free tool at calculator.rightrev.com It scores your rev rec process, shows what's exposing you to risk, and tells you exactly where to focus before it bites you in the rear end. Check it out at https://calculator.rightrev.com Pulley is an equity management platform that lets you issue options, model dilution, and complete 409As without your cap table turning into a spreadsheet disaster. Founders raising, hiring, and scaling use Pulley to keep equity clean and stay focused on building. Learn more or request a demo at https://pulley.com/mostlymetrics Rillet is an AI-native ERP built for modern finance teams that want to replace NetSuite and close faster. With revenue recognition, close management, multi-entity support, and native Stripe and Salesforce integrations, Rillet helps scaling companies run their finance stack in one place. Hundreds of teams, including Windsurf and Mercor, use Rillet to make the zero-day close real. Book a demo at https://www.rillet.com/cj Maximor is an autonomous finance platform that runs order-to-cash, procure-to-pay, the close, cash management, and reporting on self-learning agents instead of a dozen disconnected tools. One PE-backed customer cut their close in half, took audit findings from seven to zero, and cut back-office costs by 70% in six months. You pay for outcomes, not seats. See it at https://www.maximor.ai/ — LINKS:  Mostly Talent: https://mostlymetrics.typeform.com/to/cLTxtAsN Guest: https://www.linkedin.com/in/aj-ljubich-cfa-727ab912/ Company: https://www.datadoghq.com/ CJ: https://www.linkedin.com/in/cj-gustafson-13140948/ Mostly metrics: https://www.mostlymetrics.com — TIMESTAMPS: 0:00 Preview and Intro 2:42 FP&A as a product team 4:53 The five pillars of AJ's team 6:39 How far FP&A has come 7:33 How do you know you're doing a good job? 10:20 FP&A as the dashboard, not the engine 10:20 Sponsors — Brex | Anrok | RightRev 13:18 The four-stage FP&A maturity model 16:00 Can you reach all four stages at Series B? 16:45 Why AJ holds weekly forecast meetings 18:24 How often to actually change the forecast 21:42 Sponsors — Pulley | Rillet | Maximor 24:49 Single source of truth: still on the vision board 26:12 AI and the self-serve data risk 26:21 CAC payback over LTV to CAC 29:39 Inside sales vs. enterprise payback comparison 31:47 Finance as the yes, but people 34:02 FP&A vs. IR: which is harder? 36:14 How IR makes you a better FP&A leader 37:19 Is the IR profile shifting? 42:01 IPOs are branding events, not finish lines 43:27 The Datadog IPO during the WeWork meltdown 45:15 Career philosophy: do great work where you are 49:52 Datadog didn't have a role for AJ when he started 52:16 Lightning round 52:24 Screwed up: forgot the currency guy 54:37 Finance software stack 56:16 Advice to younger self 57:13 Credits

    The Four Stages of World-Class FP&A with Datadog’s AJ Ljubich

  3. 20. Juli

    Dave McClure and Aman Verjee on Angel Investing at Scale, 500 Startups, and Practical VC

    On this episode of Run the Numbers, CJ sits down with Dave McClure and Aman Verjee of Practical VC to talk about the evolution of startup investing — from the PayPal mafia and Founders Fund era to 500 Startups, YC-style scale, and today’s secondary market. — SPONSORS: Rillet is an AI-native ERP built for modern finance teams that want to replace NetSuite and close faster. With revenue recognition, close management, multi-entity support, and native Stripe and Salesforce integrations, Rillet helps scaling companies run their finance stack in one place. Hundreds of teams, including Windsurf and Mercor, use Rillet to make the zero-day close real. Book a demo at https://www.rillet.com/cj Maximor is an autonomous finance platform that runs order-to-cash, procure-to-pay, the close, cash management, and reporting on self-learning agents instead of a dozen disconnected tools. One PE-backed customer cut their close in half, took audit findings from seven to zero, and cut back-office costs by 70% in six months. You pay for outcomes, not seats. See it at https://www.maximor.ai/ Brex is an intelligent finance platform with AI-powered agents that capture expenses automatically, enforce policy before the spend happens, and close your books in minutes instead of weeks. 35,000+ companies like OpenAI, Coinbase, Anthropic, and DoorDash already run on Brex. It's time to get Brex AF. Learn more at https://www.brex.com/metrics Anrok is the sales tax platform that watches your exposure everywhere, automates compliance, and flags risk before it turns into a surprise back-tax letter from a state you've never set foot in. Companies like Anthropic, Notion, and Vanta already trust Anrok to stay ahead of rules that move faster than any spreadsheet can. Talk to a sales tax expert for a personalized exposure estimate at https://www.anrok.com/rtn RightRev is an automated revenue recognition platform that lets your product team ship new pricing without asking finance for permission, and your sales team close deals without creating downstream chaos. Check out their free tool at calculator.rightrev.com It scores your rev rec process, shows what's exposing you to risk, and tells you exactly where to focus before it bites you in the rear end. Check it out at https://calculator.rightrev.com Pulley is an equity management platform that lets you issue options, model dilution, and complete 409As without your cap table turning into a spreadsheet disaster. Founders raising, hiring, and scaling use Pulley to keep equity clean and stay focused on building. Learn more or request a demo at https://pulley.com/mostlymetrics — LINKS:  Mostly Talent: https://mostlymetrics.typeform.com/to/cLTxtAsN Guests:https://www.linkedin.com/in/davemcclure/https://www.linkedin.com/in/aman-verjee/ Company:https://practicalvc.com/ CJ: https://www.linkedin.com/in/cj-gustafson-13140948/ Mostly metrics: https://www.mostlymetrics.com — TIMESTAMPS: 0:00 Preview and Intro 3:00 Writing as a distribution strategy 5:17 How Dave's blog led to Founders Fund 7:24 Aman: writing at PayPal and law school 9:29 PayPal: the red pen of David Sacks 11:44 Sponsors — Rillet | Maximor | Brex 14:59 500 Startups: the original thesis 16:22 The volume strategy: more shots on goal 18:44 Twilio, Lyft, Sendgrid, Credit Karma 20:15 60x returns: right place, right time 23:07 Sponsors — Anrok | RightRev | Pulley 25:58 Accelerator ecosystem evolution 28:42 500 vs. YC: scale as a weapon 32:52 Globalizing the accelerator model 35:04 Seed to secondaries: how it happened 37:00 Scratching their own itch for liquidity 38:10 The secondary market explained 40:50 Types of secondaries 43:29 Why would a VC sell a winner? 46:07 Managing DPI as a late-stage manager 47:02 The five horse framework 49:15 Skipping the J curve 51:44 Imperfect information as a feature 55:22 Landmines: fraud, mismarked valuations 57:00 VCs lie about valuations three ways 57:58 Forward contracts and counterparty risk 1:00:29 Credits

    Dave McClure and Aman Verjee on Angel Investing at Scale, 500 Startups, and Practical VC

  4. 16. Juli

    Cumberland Farms S-1 Breakdown: Fuel, Snacks, and Debt

    On this episode of Run the Numbers, CJ breaks down Cumberland Farms’ IPO filing and the surprising business behind it. — SPONSORS: RightRev is an automated revenue recognition platform that lets your product team ship new pricing without asking finance for permission, and your sales team close deals without creating downstream chaos. Check out their free tool at calculator.rightrev.com It scores your rev rec process, shows what's exposing you to risk, and tells you exactly where to focus before it bites you in the rear end. Check it out at https://calculator.rightrev.com Pulley is an equity management platform that lets you issue options, model dilution, and complete 409As without your cap table turning into a spreadsheet disaster. Founders raising, hiring, and scaling use Pulley to keep equity clean and stay focused on building. Learn more or request a demo at https://pulley.com/mostlymetrics Rillet is an AI-native ERP built for modern finance teams that want to replace NetSuite and close faster. With revenue recognition, close management, multi-entity support, and native Stripe and Salesforce integrations, Rillet helps scaling companies run their finance stack in one place. Hundreds of teams, including Windsurf and Mercor, use Rillet to make the zero-day close real. Book a demo at https://www.rillet.com/cj Maximor is an autonomous finance platform that runs order-to-cash, procure-to-pay, the close, cash management, and reporting on self-learning agents instead of a dozen disconnected tools. One PE-backed customer cut their close in half, took audit findings from seven to zero, and cut back-office costs by 70% in six months. You pay for outcomes, not seats. See it at https://www.maximor.ai/ Brex is an intelligent finance platform with AI-powered agents that capture expenses automatically, enforce policy before the spend happens, and close your books in minutes instead of weeks. 35,000+ companies like OpenAI, Coinbase, Anthropic, and DoorDash already run on Brex. It's time to get Brex AF. Learn more at https://www.brex.com/metrics Anrok is the sales tax platform that watches your exposure everywhere, automates compliance, and flags risk before it turns into a surprise back-tax letter from a state you've never set foot in. Companies like Anthropic, Notion, and Vanta already trust Anrok to stay ahead of rules that move faster than any spreadsheet can. Talk to a sales tax expert for a personalized exposure estimate at https://www.anrok.com/rtn — LINKS:  Mostly Talent: https://mostlymetrics.typeform.com/to/cLTxtAsN CJ: https://www.linkedin.com/in/cj-gustafson-13140948/ Mostly metrics: https://www.mostlymetrics.com — TIMESTAMPS: 0:00 Preview and Intro 2:57 Key metrics 4:28 Europe now out-earns America 5:01 $5.8B debt at 8x leverage 6:20 TLDR: snacks, gas, borrowed money 7:58 Fuel vs. inside: the gross profit photo finish 8:58 COCO, CONCO, and OTHER explained 10:57 Sponsors — Maximor | Brex | Anrok 14:02 Why scale matters: four reasons 16:02 The US convenience store market 17:42 EVs: long the birth rate 18:05 Back to the debt 19:10 The sale leaseback 20:24 Sponsors — RightRev | Pulley | Rillet 23:26 Does the deleveraging math work? 24:27 The growth thesis 25:06 600–700 stores become Cumberland Farms 26:16 The chicken fryer ROI 27:00 Coffee and loyalty: 6M members in 13 months 28:15 Red flag 1: five-for-five COSO failures 28:41 Red flag 2: entire C-suite is new 29:04 Red flag 3: lending to their own parent 29:42 Red flag 4: Big Tobacco funds loyalty 29:57 Red flag 5: foreign issuer, Cayman charter 30:10 Red flag 6: one supplier is 31% of costs 30:32 Red flag 7: balance sheet is stale 30:45 Cap table: TDR Capital and the Issa brothers 31:55 Casey's vs. ARCO 33:47 Goldman got bumped 34:08 Massachusetts banned the pump clip until 2015 34:57 No health insurance disclosure for 16K US workers 35:30 Robert Swan (ex-Intel CEO) is on the board 36:08 Credits

    Cumberland Farms S-1 Breakdown: Fuel, Snacks, and Debt

  5. 13. Juli

    Token Economics, AI ROI, and the Future of Investment Banking with Rahul Rekhi

    In this episode of Run the Numbers, CJ sits down with Rogo president Rahul Rekhi to unpack what AI actually changes in investment banking and finance. They dig into token economics, why adoption without ROI is a trap, how vertical AI wins, and why domain expertise still matter. — SPONSORS: Pulley is an equity management platform that lets you issue options, model dilution, and complete 409As without your cap table turning into a spreadsheet disaster. Founders raising, hiring, and scaling use Pulley to keep equity clean and stay focused on building. Learn more or request a demo at https://pulley.com/mostlymetrics Rillet is an AI-native ERP built for modern finance teams that want to replace NetSuite and close faster. With revenue recognition, close management, multi-entity support, and native Stripe and Salesforce integrations, Rillet helps scaling companies run their finance stack in one place. Hundreds of teams, including Windsurf and Mercor, use Rillet to make the zero-day close real. Book a demo at https://www.rillet.com/cj Maximor is an autonomous finance platform that runs order-to-cash, procure-to-pay, the close, cash management, and reporting on self-learning agents instead of a dozen disconnected tools. One PE-backed customer cut their close in half, took audit findings from seven to zero, and cut back-office costs by 70% in six months. You pay for outcomes, not seats. See it at https://www.maximor.ai/ Brex is an intelligent finance platform with AI-powered agents that capture expenses automatically, enforce policy before the spend happens, and close your books in minutes instead of weeks. 35,000+ companies like OpenAI, Coinbase, Anthropic, and DoorDash already run on Brex. It's time to get Brex AF. Learn more at https://www.brex.com/metrics Anrok is the sales tax platform that watches your exposure everywhere, automates compliance, and flags risk before it turns into a surprise back-tax letter from a state you've never set foot in. Companies like Anthropic, Notion, and Vanta already trust Anrok to stay ahead of rules that move faster than any spreadsheet can. Talk to a sales tax expert for a personalized exposure estimate at https://www.anrok.com/rtn RightRev is an automated revenue recognition platform that lets your product team ship new pricing without asking finance for permission, and your sales team close deals without creating downstream chaos. Check out their free tool at calculator.rightrev.com It scores your rev rec process, shows what's exposing you to risk, and tells you exactly where to focus before it bites you in the rear end. Check it out at https://calculator.rightrev.com — LINKS:  Mostly Talent: https://mostlymetrics.typeform.com/to/cLTxtAsN Guest: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rahulrekhi/ Company: https://www.rogo.ai/ CJ: https://www.linkedin.com/in/cj-gustafson-13140948/ Mostly metrics: https://www.mostlymetrics.com — RELATED EPISODES: A CFO Explains the Stock Exchanges https://youtu.be/pooOE6ZNGR4 A CFO Explains Marketplaces https://youtu.be/LpbH9GpBrSY — TIMESTAMPS: 0:00 Preview and Intro 2:44 Why finance was first to verticalize AI 6:28 What the president title means at Rogo 9:55 Sponsors — Pulley | Rillet | Maximor 13:02 The problem Rogo is solving 16:16 Token maxing is not transformation 17:43 Why ROI is so hard to measure 19:39 Sponsors — Brex | Anrok | RightRev 22:37 ROI is business-unit specific 24:03 Budgeting tokens like a benefits load 25:00 AI incentives aren't aligned to efficiency 26:26 The model broker function 32:03 Not all token spend is equal 37:14 Who owns AI efficiency? 40:59 The forward deployed banker 43:00 Domain expertise: the Interstellar analogy 49:21 Lightning round 49:28 Screwed up: DCF error in a live deal 51:13 Will new grads have the spidey sense? 53:03 Meeting Pope Francis 55:04 Fact-checking jobs numbers at the White House 57:39 Advice to younger self 59:21 Credits

    Token Economics, AI ROI, and the Future of Investment Banking with Rahul Rekhi

  6. 9. Juli

    Jersey Mike’s S-1 Breakdown: How a $4.2B Sandwich Machine Works

    On this episode of Run the Numbers, CJ breaks down Jersey Mike’s S-1 and the franchise machine behind more than $4 billion in sandwich sales. He explains how an asset-light royalty model works, why franchise economics can be so powerful, what Blackstone saw in the business, and what the filing reveals about growth, margins, and the real money behind the subs. — SPONSORS: RightRev is an automated revenue recognition platform that lets your product team ship new pricing without asking finance for permission, and your sales team close deals without creating downstream chaos. Check out their free tool at calculator.rightrev.com It scores your rev rec process, shows what's exposing you to risk, and tells you exactly where to focus before it bites you in the rear end. Check it out at https://calculator.rightrev.com Pulley is an equity management platform that lets you issue options, model dilution, and complete 409As without your cap table turning into a spreadsheet disaster. Founders raising, hiring, and scaling use Pulley to keep equity clean and stay focused on building. Learn more or request a demo at https://pulley.com/mostlymetrics Rillet is an AI-native ERP built for modern finance teams that want to replace NetSuite and close faster. With revenue recognition, close management, multi-entity support, and native Stripe and Salesforce integrations, Rillet helps scaling companies run their finance stack in one place. Hundreds of teams, including Windsurf and Mercor, use Rillet to make the zero-day close real. Book a demo at https://www.rillet.com/cj Maximor is an autonomous finance platform that runs order-to-cash, procure-to-pay, the close, cash management, and reporting on self-learning agents instead of a dozen disconnected tools. One PE-backed customer cut their close in half, took audit findings from seven to zero, and cut back-office costs by 70% in six months. You pay for outcomes, not seats. See it at https://www.maximor.ai/ Brex is an intelligent finance platform with AI-powered agents that capture expenses automatically, enforce policy before the spend happens, and close your books in minutes instead of weeks. 35,000+ companies like OpenAI, Coinbase, Anthropic, and DoorDash already run on Brex. It's time to get Brex AF. Learn more at https://www.brex.com/metrics Anrok is the sales tax platform that watches your exposure everywhere, automates compliance, and flags risk before it turns into a surprise back-tax letter from a state you've never set foot in. Companies like Anthropic, Notion, and Vanta already trust Anrok to stay ahead of rules that move faster than any spreadsheet can. Talk to a sales tax expert for a personalized exposure estimate at https://www.anrok.com/rtn — LINKS:  Mostly Talent: https://mostlymetrics.typeform.com/to/cLTxtAsN CJ: https://www.linkedin.com/in/cj-gustafson-13140948/ Mostly metrics: https://www.mostlymetrics.com — TIMESTAMPS: 0:00 Sell $4B in subs, own none of the stores 0:33 Origin story: Peter Cancro buys a sub shop at 17 1:47 It's a royalty business 2:42 Key metrics 6:07 What you're actually buying 6:42 The three revenue streams 7:19 The franchisee's P&L 10:00 Sponsors — RightRev | Pulley | Rillet 13:02 Corporate P&L: 47% EBITDA margins 13:33 The Blackstone math 14:38 $2.1B whole business securitization 15:09 Full EBITDA bridge 16:00 The CEO buying back the 2% 17:10 Red flag 1: Up-C structure 18:11 Red flag 2: tax receivable agreement 18:45 Red flag 3: controlled company governance 19:05 Red flag 4: sponsor already took $500M 19:29 Red flag 5: charitable donations added back 20:13 Red flag 6: cheap debt maturing in 2029 20:52 Sponsors — Maximor | Brex | Anrok 23:56 Valuation: $10–12B 24:32 Peer comparison 25:27 How do you underwrite $12B? 25:58 Misc: quantum attack on the provolone 26:28 The hidden 53rd week 26:57 No drive-thru is a feature 27:13 Verdict 27:56 Credits #RunTheNumbersPodcast #IPO #Investing #BusinessStrategy #FinanceLeadership

    Jersey Mike’s S-1 Breakdown: How a $4.2B Sandwich Machine Works

  7. 6. Juli

    The CFO Who Was “Ill Equipped” to Save Lehman Brothers

    What actually prepares someone to become a CFO? CJ revisits Erin Callan’s short, brutal run as Lehman Brothers CFO and pulls lessons from past guests on operational reps, simple communication, fast-moving bad news, budget mistakes, and why great finance leaders can’t just report the numbers, they have to shape them. — SPONSORS: Anrok is the sales tax platform that watches your exposure everywhere, automates compliance, and flags risk before it turns into a surprise back-tax letter from a state you've never set foot in. Companies like Anthropic, Notion, and Vanta already trust Anrok to stay ahead of rules that move faster than any spreadsheet can. Talk to a sales tax expert for a personalized exposure estimate at https://www.anrok.com/rtn RightRev is an automated revenue recognition platform that lets your product team ship new pricing without asking finance for permission, and your sales team close deals without creating downstream chaos. Check out their free tool at calculator.rightrev.com It scores your rev rec process, shows what's exposing you to risk, and tells you exactly where to focus before it bites you in the rear end. Check it out at https://calculator.rightrev.com Pulley is an equity management platform that lets you issue options, model dilution, and complete 409As without your cap table turning into a spreadsheet disaster. Founders raising, hiring, and scaling use Pulley to keep equity clean and stay focused on building. Learn more or request a demo at https://pulley.com/mostlymetrics Rillet is an AI-native ERP built for modern finance teams that want to replace NetSuite and close faster. With revenue recognition, close management, multi-entity support, and native Stripe and Salesforce integrations, Rillet helps scaling companies run their finance stack in one place. Hundreds of teams, including Windsurf and Mercor, use Rillet to make the zero-day close real. Book a demo at https://www.rillet.com/cj Maximor is an autonomous finance platform that runs order-to-cash, procure-to-pay, the close, cash management, and reporting on self-learning agents instead of a dozen disconnected tools. One PE-backed customer cut their close in half, took audit findings from seven to zero, and cut back-office costs by 70% in six months. You pay for outcomes, not seats. See it at https://www.maximor.ai/ Brex is an intelligent finance platform with AI-powered agents that capture expenses automatically, enforce policy before the spend happens, and close your books in minutes instead of weeks. 35,000+ companies like OpenAI, Coinbase, Anthropic, and DoorDash already run on Brex. It's time to get Brex AF. Learn more at https://www.brex.com/metrics — LINKS:  Mostly Talent: https://mostlymetrics.typeform.com/to/cLTxtAsN CJ: https://www.linkedin.com/in/cj-gustafson-13140948/ Slacker Stuff: https://www.slackerstuff.com/ Ben on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/slackerstuff/ Mostly metrics: https://www.mostlymetrics.com — RELATED EPISODES: Steve Isom https://youtu.be/a4lEdrgFW5E Jake Kornreich https://youtu.be/GKo0B1w4bo4 Manu Diwakar https://youtu.be/J0J4Rfne54E Dan Bettes https://youtu.be/b4w_OHpSNNw Alan Imberman https://youtu.be/UD9lYhkfA6U — TIMESTAMPS: 0:00 Erin Callan: Lehman's CFO Set up to Fail 5:48 Steve Isom: broadcaster vs. team captain 9:37 Be in rhythm with the business 11:15 Sponsors — Anrok | RightRev | Pulley 14:07 Jake Kornreich: title vs. impact 18:23 Get into the room where decisions are made 22:08 Sponsors — Rillet | Maximor | Brex 25:23 Dan Betts: don't church it up 27:11 The higher up you go, the simpler it gets 29:04 Dan Betts: the many faces of EBITDA 30:39 Understand what success means to them 32:07 Jake Kornreich: the $5M budget bust 33:04 Bad news travels fast 35:01 Alan Imberman: the $100K coffee tab 38:15 ROI on perks 40:25 Alan Imberman: long-term vs. short-term investors 43:28 Would you take the Lehman job? 45:44 Credits #RunTheNumbersPodcast #CFO #FinanceLeadership #StartupGrowth #FinanceHistory

    The CFO Who Was “Ill Equipped” to Save Lehman Brothers

  8. 2. Juli

    How Finance Teams Are Actually Using AI | Opendoor, Datadog, PwC

    In this episode of Run the Numbers, CJ goes live from Rillet Recon with Dana Decker (VP of Finance at Opendoor), AJ Ljubich (SVP, FP&A at Datadog), and Micah Richard (Principal, AI at PwC) to unpack how finance teams are actually using AI. — SPONSORS: Brex is an intelligent finance platform with AI-powered agents that capture expenses automatically, enforce policy before the spend happens, and close your books in minutes instead of weeks. 35,000+ companies like OpenAI, Coinbase, Anthropic, and DoorDash already run on Brex. It's time to get Brex AF. Learn more at https://www.brex.com/metrics Anrok is the sales tax platform that watches your exposure everywhere, automates compliance, and flags risk before it turns into a surprise back-tax letter from a state you've never set foot in. Companies like Anthropic, Notion, and Vanta already trust Anrok to stay ahead of rules that move faster than any spreadsheet can. Talk to a sales tax expert for a personalized exposure estimate at https://www.anrok.com/rtn RightRev is an automated revenue recognition platform that lets your product team ship new pricing without asking finance for permission, and your sales team close deals without creating downstream chaos. Check out their free tool at calculator.rightrev.com It scores your rev rec process, shows what's exposing you to risk, and tells you exactly where to focus before it bites you in the rear end. Check it out at https://calculator.rightrev.com Pulley is an equity management platform that lets you issue options, model dilution, and complete 409As without your cap table turning into a spreadsheet disaster. Founders raising, hiring, and scaling use Pulley to keep equity clean and stay focused on building. Learn more or request a demo at https://pulley.com/mostlymetrics Rillet is an AI-native ERP built for modern finance teams that want to replace NetSuite and close faster. With revenue recognition, close management, multi-entity support, and native Stripe and Salesforce integrations, Rillet helps scaling companies run their finance stack in one place. Hundreds of teams, including Windsurf and Mercor, use Rillet to make the zero-day close real. Book a demo at https://www.rillet.com/cj Maximor is an autonomous finance platform that runs order-to-cash, procure-to-pay, the close, cash management, and reporting on self-learning agents instead of a dozen disconnected tools. One PE-backed customer cut their close in half, took audit findings from seven to zero, and cut back-office costs by 70% in six months. You pay for outcomes, not seats. See it at https://www.maximor.ai/ — LINKS:  Mostly Talent: https://mostlymetrics.typeform.com/to/cLTxtAsN Guests: https://www.linkedin.com/in/aj-ljubich-cfa-727ab912/ https://www.linkedin.com/in/dana-decker/ https://www.linkedin.com/in/micah-richard-64a53238/ Companies: https://www.datadoghq.com/ https://www.opendoor.com/ https://www.pwc.com/ CJ: https://www.linkedin.com/in/cj-gustafson-13140948/ Mostly metrics: https://www.mostlymetrics.com — TIMESTAMPS: 0:00 Preview and Intro 2:27 Panel intros: AJ, Micah, Dana 4:00 FP&A a year ago vs. today 6:45 Opendoor: default-to-AI company 7:40 Leadership being in the weeds 8:30 Building a daily P&L view with Claude 9:39 Sponsors — Brex | Anrok | RightRev 12:38 Forecasting at Datadog: consumption model 14:20 AI picks up seasonality, misses customer context 15:10 Semantic layer and blessed queries 16:35 Self-serve data: how far can you go? 20:10 Best-in-class adoption: build over buy 20:23 Sponsors — Pulley | Rillet | Maximor 23:30 Does a 2-year head start matter? 24:10 Build vs. buy criteria haven't changed 25:10 Evaluating vendor roadmaps 26:20 Procurement shifting toward build 28:00 Data access controls and RBAC 31:00 Token usage: haves and have-nots 32:50 Encouraging tokens across the org 34:40 ROI metrics haven't changed 35:45 90-day advice: just start 36:55 Leadership has to pull the red tape 38:05 Get the data right first 39:07 Credits

    How Finance Teams Are Actually Using AI | Opendoor, Datadog, PwC
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Run the Numbers is a business podcast about financial metrics and business models for CFOs, aspiring CFOs, finance leaders, and ambitious people operating tech startups. Hosted by CJ Gustafson, CFO and writer of Mostly Metrics, the show shares lessons, frameworks, and operator insights from the trenches as a tech exec. Think of it as a playbook for the things CJ wishes he knew earlier in his career, covering SaaS metrics, annual budgeting, forecasting, headcount, equity, dilution, fundraising, and the decisions that drive performance and growth.

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    2024 - 2026
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