Run the Numbers

CJ Gustafson
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Run the Numbers is a twice-weekly podcast about financial metrics and business models, designed for ambitious people operating tech startups. It's a collection of things host CJ Gustafson (CFO at Partstech and writer of Mostly Metrics) has learned and thought about in the trenches as a tech CFO. This show is meant to serve as a playbook of sorts for the stuff CJ wishes he knew earlier in his career, both from experience and from copying people smarter than himself. Topics frequently touch upon Startup SaaS Metrics, Annual Budgeting, Financial Forecasting, Headcount, Equity, Dilution, and Fundraising – and how all of these drive business performance and growth.

  1. Inside Figma’s Financial Playbook with CFO Praveer Melwani

    8 HR AGO

    Inside Figma’s Financial Playbook with CFO Praveer Melwani

    In this episode of Run the Numbers, CJ sits down with Praveer Melwani, CFO of Figma, to unpack the financial model behind one of tech’s most iconic product-led companies. They cover viral growth, forecasting without a traditional sales pipeline, AI credit pricing, margin tradeoffs, and the metric Praveer believes matters most in the long run: free cash flow per share. — SPONSORS: EY works with high-growth tech companies to navigate the messy realities of scaling—from regulatory requirements to IPO readiness. By helping teams get it right early and often, EY lets founders stay focused on building while reducing risk as they grow. Learn more at https://www.ey.com/techstartupsSpendHound is a SaaS spend management platform built for finance and procurement teams that want visibility and leverage in every deal. By tracking all your software, benchmarking pricing across thousands of vendors, and surfacing contracts and renewals, SpendHound helps you stop overpaying and negotiate with confidence. Trusted by teams at ZoomInfo and Hootsuite. Get started at https://www.spendhound.com Brex is an intelligent finance platform that combines corporate cards, built-in expense management, and AI agents to eliminate manual finance work. By automating expense reviews and reconciliations, Brex gives CFOs more time for the high-impact work that drives growth. Join 35,000+ companies like Anthropic, Coinbase, and DoorDash at https://www.brex.com/metrics Aleph is a modern FP&A platform built for teams that want more than another planning tool. By connecting your ERP, CRM, and other systems into one trusted data layer with AI workflows, Aleph helps you move faster with real-time insights. Get a personalized demo at https://www.getaleph.com/run RightRev is an automated revenue recognition platform built for teams that have outgrown spreadsheets and billing tool workarounds. It handles high-volume subscriptions, usage-based contracts, and mid-cycle upgrades, so you can scale without scrambling at month-end. For RevRec that keeps your books clean, visit https://www.rightrev.com/CJ Rillet is an AI-native ERP built for modern finance teams that want to close faster without fighting legacy systems. Designed to support complex revenue recognition, multi-entity operations, and real-time reporting, Rillet helps teams achieve a true zero-day close—with some customers closing in hours, not days. If you’re scaling on an ERP that wasn’t built in the 90s, book a demo at https://www.rillet.com/cj — LINKS:  Mostly Talent: https://mostlymetrics.typeform.com/to/cLTxtAsN Guest: https://www.linkedin.com/in/praveer-melwani/ Company: https://www.figma.com/ CJ: https://www.linkedin.com/in/cj-gustafson-13140948/ Mostly metrics: https://www.mostlymetrics.com — TIMESTAMPS: 0:00 Preview and intro 1:21 Welcome and guest intro 2:55 From banking to Dropbox to Figma 5:04 Inflection points: building trust early 8:36 TAM expansion thinking 10:31 Sponsors — EY | SpendHound | Brex 13:38 Two-thirds of Figma users aren't designers 14:36 Forecasting product led growth 16:22 Cohorts and NDR discovery 17:39 LTV to CAC philosophy 18:57 Product signals for account expansion 20:22 How Figma achieved hypergrowth with 90%+ margins 22:14 AI expands TAM: time to hit the gas 23:22 AI credit pricing model 24:50 Sponsors — Aleph | RightRev | Rillet 28:13 Outcome based pricing consideration 29:00 Where AI margins settle: gross profit dollars 30:08 Free cash flow per share as north star 31:04 NDR and pricing volatility 32:13 Bundled vs. unbundled seats 34:50 Being engaged in sales to understand admin pain 35:17 IPO day experience 36:27 Keeping employees focused beyond the stock price 37:19 Employee stock pressure and lockup reality 39:37 Kitchen cabinet of advisors 41:44 How to ask better questions of advisors 41:47 Lightning round 41:50 Advice to younger self 42:47 Finance software stack 44:09 Claude WTF moment: forecasting model throughput 45:13 Craziest expense story: the haircut 45:59 Credits

    46 min
  2. Wealthfront’s CFO on Automation, Compounding Growth, and Going Public

    3 DAYS AGO

    Wealthfront’s CFO on Automation, Compounding Growth, and Going Public

    In this episode of Run the Numbers, CJ sits down with Wealthfront CFO Alan Imberman to unpack automation as a strategy, the compounding power of retention and trust, and how to balance elite profitability with continued investment. They also discuss why Wealthfront went public earlier than many peers and what’s really happening in fintech right now. — SPONSORS: Rillet is an AI-native ERP built for modern finance teams that want to close faster without fighting legacy systems. Designed to support complex revenue recognition, multi-entity operations, and real-time reporting, Rillet helps teams achieve a true zero-day close—with some customers closing in hours, not days. If you’re scaling on an ERP that wasn’t built in the 90s, book a demo at https://www.rillet.com/cj EY works with high-growth tech companies to navigate the messy realities of scaling—from regulatory requirements to IPO readiness. By helping teams get it right early and often, EY lets founders stay focused on building while reducing risk as they grow. Learn more at https://www.ey.com/techstartupsSpendHound is a SaaS spend management platform built for finance and procurement teams that want visibility and leverage in every deal. By tracking all your software, benchmarking pricing across thousands of vendors, and surfacing contracts and renewals, SpendHound helps you stop overpaying and negotiate with confidence. Trusted by teams at ZoomInfo and Hootsuite. Get started at https://www.spendhound.com Brex is an intelligent finance platform that combines corporate cards, built-in expense management, and AI agents to eliminate manual finance work. By automating expense reviews and reconciliations, Brex gives CFOs more time for the high-impact work that drives growth. Join 35,000+ companies like Anthropic, Coinbase, and DoorDash at https://www.brex.com/metrics Aleph is a modern FP&A platform built for teams that want more than another planning tool. By connecting your ERP, CRM, and other systems into one trusted data layer with AI workflows, Aleph helps you move faster with real-time insights. Get a personalized demo at https://www.getaleph.com/run RightRev is an automated revenue recognition platform built for teams that have outgrown spreadsheets and billing tool workarounds. It handles high-volume subscriptions, usage-based contracts, and mid-cycle upgrades, so you can scale without scrambling at month-end. For RevRec that keeps your books clean, visit https://www.rightrev.com/CJ — LINKS:  Mostly Talent: https://mostlymetrics.typeform.com/to/cLTxtAsN Guest: https://www.linkedin.com/in/alan-imberman-cfa-aab2371/ Company: https://www.wealthfront.com/ CJ: https://www.linkedin.com/in/cj-gustafson-13140948/ Mostly metrics: https://www.mostlymetrics.com — TIMESTAMPS: 0:00 Preview and intro 1:37 Welcome and guest intro 3:11 Wealthfront overview 4:38 Automation as core philosophy 6:50 55K clients per support rep example 7:45 90% gross margins and $1M revenue per employee 8:46 Optimization vs. exploration framework 9:58 Data flywheel: the Path product 10:43 Cash account insight from customer data 11:26 Home lending insight from wire data 13:33 Sponsors — Rillet | EY | SpendHound 16:45 Product led growth and referrals 18:11 Incentives vs. paid marketing 20:46 Compounding philosophy and 120% NDR 22:07 Long term thinking vs. public market pressure 22:40 No guidance decision 26:26 Sponsors — Brex | Aleph | RightRev 29:44 Serving the wealth builder: 80/20 in wealth management 31:45 Decision to go public at $339M revenue 33:46 Does size matter for IPOs? 34:46 Fintech's moment: Chime, Klarna, Circle 36:49 Non-monetary benefits of going public 38:30 Memos over slides 40:31 Hedge fund early career: spreading 10-Ks in Excel 46:45 Don't lose the forest for the trees in modeling 48:31 Lightning round 48:43 Screwed up: de-annualizing a fee rate 49:55 Advice to younger self 50:32 Finance software stack 51:14 Craziest expense story: $100K coffee tab 53:11 Credits #RunTheNumbersPodcast #CFO

    54 min
  3. How Strategic CFOs Get It Wrong

    9 APR

    How Strategic CFOs Get It Wrong

    On this week’s Run the Numbers, CJ sits down with Steve Isom of Bloomerang to break down what a “strategic CFO” really is. They cover the shift from reporting to operating, why customer orgs drive SaaS value, and how AI is reshaping the finance role.  — SPONSORS: RightRev is an automated revenue recognition platform built for teams that have outgrown spreadsheets and billing tool workarounds. It handles high-volume subscriptions, usage-based contracts, and mid-cycle upgrades, so you can scale without scrambling at month-end. For RevRec that keeps your books clean, visit https://www.rightrev.com/CJ Rillet is an AI-native ERP built for modern finance teams that want to close faster without fighting legacy systems. Designed to support complex revenue recognition, multi-entity operations, and real-time reporting, Rillet helps teams achieve a true zero-day close—with some customers closing in hours, not days. If you’re scaling on an ERP that wasn’t built in the 90s, book a demo at https://www.rillet.com/cj EY works with high-growth tech companies to navigate the messy realities of scaling—from regulatory requirements to IPO readiness. By helping teams get it right early and often, EY lets founders stay focused on building while reducing risk as they grow. Learn more at https://www.ey.com/techstartups SpendHound is a SaaS spend management platform built for finance and procurement teams that want visibility and leverage in every deal. By tracking all your software, benchmarking pricing across thousands of vendors, and surfacing contracts and renewals, SpendHound helps you stop overpaying and negotiate with confidence. Trusted by teams at ZoomInfo and Hootsuite. Get started at https://www.spendhound.com Brex is an intelligent finance platform that combines corporate cards, built-in expense management, and AI agents to eliminate manual finance work. By automating expense reviews and reconciliations, Brex gives CFOs more time for the high-impact work that drives growth. Join 35,000+ companies like Anthropic, Coinbase, and DoorDash at https://www.brex.com/metrics Aleph is a modern FP&A platform built for teams that want more than another planning tool. By connecting your ERP, CRM, and other systems into one trusted data layer with AI workflows, Aleph helps you move faster with real-time insights. Get a personalized demo at https://www.getaleph.com/run — LINKS:  Steve on LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/steveisomjr Company: https://bloomerang.com/ CJ on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/cj-gustafson-13140948/ Mostly metrics: https://www.mostlymetrics.com — TIMESTAMPS: 0:00 Preview 1:25 Intro 2:55 Welcome Steve Isom 3:13 CFO to COO promotion 5:02 Having a pulse on every function 6:51 Defining "strategic CFO" 7:19 Tying strategy to value creation 9:27 Being embedded in the rhythm of the business 10:55 Finance leaders as commentators vs. team captains 12:25 Sponsors — RightRev | Rillet | EY 15:33 Killing projects as a core skill 18:14 Activity doesn't equal impact 19:16 Project Steve killed 20:39 Taking over the customer org at Bloomerang 22:18 Why acquisition is a cash-losing exercise 23:07 LTV lives post-sale 24:39 Most vulnerable area: customer success 25:24 Ruthless CSM segmentation 26:30 Nonprofits don't think about your software 29:21 Sponsors — Spendhound | Brex | Aleph 32:43 CFO running ops 35:52 Metrics vs. humans 37:18 Skip levels and what they reveal 39:01 Incentives drive the wrong outcomes 40:22 Customer-introduced delays as a key sub-metric 40:27 Unit economics become tangible when you're accountable 42:17 Going deep on AI 45:13 Motivating your team to experiment with AI 46:02 AI for personal projects 47:05 Resource allocation in a vibe-coding world 48:42 Does AI efficiency just mean more work? 50:32 What excites Steve about the future of finance leadership 52:08 Finance leaders who don't use AI won't get hired 52:13 Credits #RunTheNumbersPodcast #CFO #StrategicFinance #SaaSFinance #FinanceLeadership #CFOtoCOO

    53 min
  4. CFO Explains: The Rise of Secondaries and the Death of the IPO Path

    6 APR

    CFO Explains: The Rise of Secondaries and the Death of the IPO Path

    Secondaries aren’t a niche anymore — they’re the main event. In 2025, the secondary market hit $233B, outpacing IPOs 5:1. This episode breaks down how we got here, why companies stay private longer, and how employees, investors, and CFOs actually navigate liquidity. From Facebook’s wild west to structured tenders and continuation vehicles — this is the new playbook. — SPONSORS: Aleph is a modern FP&A platform built for teams that want more than another planning tool. By connecting your ERP, CRM, and other systems into one trusted data layer with AI workflows, Aleph helps you move faster with real-time insights. Get a personalized demo at https://www.getaleph.com/run RightRev is an automated revenue recognition platform built for teams that have outgrown spreadsheets and billing tool workarounds. It handles high-volume subscriptions, usage-based contracts, and mid-cycle upgrades, so you can scale without scrambling at month-end. For RevRec that keeps your books clean, visit https://www.rightrev.com/CJ Rillet is an AI-native ERP built for modern finance teams that want to close faster without fighting legacy systems. Designed to support complex revenue recognition, multi-entity operations, and real-time reporting, Rillet helps teams achieve a true zero-day close—with some customers closing in hours, not days. If you’re scaling on an ERP that wasn’t built in the 90s, book a demo at https://www.rillet.com/cj EY works with high-growth tech companies to navigate the messy realities of scaling—from regulatory requirements to IPO readiness. By helping teams get it right early and often, EY lets founders stay focused on building while reducing risk as they grow. Learn more at https://www.ey.com/techstartupsSpendHound is a SaaS spend management platform built for finance and procurement teams that want visibility and leverage in every deal. By tracking all your software, benchmarking pricing across thousands of vendors, and surfacing contracts and renewals, SpendHound helps you stop overpaying and negotiate with confidence. Trusted by teams at ZoomInfo and Hootsuite. Get started at https://www.spendhound.com Brex is an intelligent finance platform that combines corporate cards, built-in expense management, and AI agents to eliminate manual finance work. By automating expense reviews and reconciliations, Brex gives CFOs more time for the high-impact work that drives growth. Join 35,000+ companies like Anthropic, Coinbase, and DoorDash 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 Ben on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/slackerstuff/ Slacker Stuff: https://www.slackerstuff.com/ — RELATED EPISODES: IPOs Are Being Replaced https://youtu.be/oGuZf83pdRE The $10T Question: Who Needs Wall Street?" | Scott Voss https://youtu.be/szCIZmTs3SQ Driving revenue without selling | Greg Henry of 1Password https://youtu.be/f5FsNoG8A3E Finance vs. Marketing: Who’s Really Right About ROI? | Brandon Sullivan https://youtu.be/ivcht5N7uRQ Do the things spreadsheets can’t do | SeatGeek’s Teddy Collins https://youtu.be/jn0L5KkmMI4 — TIMESTAMPS: 0:00 The $233B market replacing IPOs 2:57 What is a secondary? 4:24 The dot-com hangover 5:48 The wild west era 8:58 Sponsors — Aleph | RightRev | Rillet 12:21 Why companies stay private longer 13:56 The three stakeholders 18:57 When is it too early? 20:42 How to run one of these things 23:57 Sponsors — EY | SpendHound | Brex 27:04 Not all shares are created equal 31:08 The good, the bad, and the ugly 34:23 GP-led continuation vehicles 36:19 The whole game changed 37:34 Credits #RunTheNumbersPodcast #PrivateMarkets #SecondaryMarkets #VentureCapital #CFO

    38 min
  5. Fanatics CFO on CAC, LTV, and Capital Allocation Across Verticals

    2 APR

    Fanatics CFO on CAC, LTV, and Capital Allocation Across Verticals

    In this episode of Run the Numbers, CJ sits down with Glenn Schiffman, CFO of Fanatics. They break down the economics of sports IP, how Fanatics approaches CAC, LTV, and capital allocation across merchandising, collectibles, and betting, and the negotiation lessons Glenn learned from decades in investment banking and leading finance at IAC. — SPONSORS: Brex is an intelligent finance platform that combines corporate cards, built-in expense management, and AI agents to eliminate manual finance work. By automating expense reviews and reconciliations, Brex gives CFOs more time for the high-impact work that drives growth. Join 35,000+ companies like Anthropic, Coinbase, and DoorDash at https://www.brex.com/metrics Aleph is a modern FP&A platform built for teams that want more than another planning tool. By connecting your ERP, CRM, and other systems into one trusted data layer with AI workflows, Aleph helps you move faster with real-time insights. Get a personalized demo at https://www.getaleph.com/run RightRev is an automated revenue recognition platform built for teams that have outgrown spreadsheets and billing tool workarounds. It handles high-volume subscriptions, usage-based contracts, and mid-cycle upgrades, so you can scale without scrambling at month-end. For RevRec that keeps your books clean, visit https://www.rightrev.com/CJ Rillet is an AI-native ERP built for modern finance teams that want to close faster without fighting legacy systems. Designed to support complex revenue recognition, multi-entity operations, and real-time reporting, Rillet helps teams achieve a true zero-day close—with some customers closing in hours, not days. If you’re scaling on an ERP that wasn’t built in the 90s, book a demo at https://www.rillet.com/cj EY works with high-growth tech companies to navigate the messy realities of scaling—from regulatory requirements to IPO readiness. By helping teams get it right early and often, EY lets founders stay focused on building while reducing risk as they grow. Learn more at https://www.ey.com/techstartups SpendHound is a SaaS spend management platform built for finance and procurement teams that want visibility and leverage in every deal. By tracking all your software, benchmarking pricing across thousands of vendors, and surfacing contracts and renewals, SpendHound helps you stop overpaying and negotiate with confidence. Trusted by teams at ZoomInfo and Hootsuite. Get started at https://www.spendhound.com — LINKS:  Mostly Talent: https://mostlymetrics.typeform.com/to/cLTxtAsN Guest: https://www.linkedin.com/in/glenn-h-s-51440521/ Company: https://www.fanaticsinc.com/ CJ: https://www.linkedin.com/in/cj-gustafson-13140948/ Mostly metrics: https://www.mostlymetrics.com — TIMESTAMPS: 0:00 Preview and intro 1:13 Welcome and guest intro 2:38 Football at Duke and college businesses 5:40 Predecessor to DoorDash story 7:10 IP monetization explained 9:22 All deals are snowflakes 10:36 Partnership KPIs 13:21 Sponsors — Brex | Aleph | RightRev 16:40 Buy, bet, collect: CAC and LTV 17:15 Single view of the fan 18:39 Multi-business customers spend 4.7x 20:32 Fanatics credit card launch 22:13 AI for personalization 23:01 DTC vs. wholesale margin profiles 24:05 Budgeting process 26:07 Infinite vs. finite: focus on revenue 26:37 Sponsors — Rillet | EY | SpendHound 29:47 Starve your losers, feed your winners 32:58 Capital compounding: revenue, EBITDA, FCF 33:56 Buybacks at IAC 37:02 First negotiation at Lehman 39:17 Outlasting the other side 39:56 Listening in negotiations 40:03 Long-Ass Lightning Round 44:25 Credits #RunTheNumbersPodcast #CFO #SportsCommerce #CapitalAllocation #FinanceLeadership

    45 min
  6. AI Pricing and the Hidden Growth Lever Most CFOs Ignore

    26 MAR

    AI Pricing and the Hidden Growth Lever Most CFOs Ignore

    In this episode of Run the Numbers, CJ sits down with Kunal Agarwal, CFO of Gorgias, to unpack how AI is reshaping pricing and operations. They discuss outcome-based pricing, how to forecast LLM-driven costs, and why order-to-cash isn’t just back-office plumbing—it can be a true growth lever when designed correctly. — SPONSORS: Tabs is an AI-native revenue platform that unifies billing, collections, and revenue recognition for companies running usage-based or complex contracts. By bringing together ERP, CRM, and real product usage data into a single system of record, Tabs eliminates manual reconciliations and speeds up close and cash collection. Companies like Cortex, Statsig, and Cursor trust Tabs to scale revenue efficiently. Learn more at https://www.tabs.com/run Abacum is a modern FP&A platform built by former CFOs to replace slow, consultant-heavy planning tools. With self-service integrations and AI-powered workflows for forecasting, variance analysis, and scenario modeling, Abacum helps finance teams scale without becoming software admins. Trusted by teams at Strava, Replit, and JG Wentworth—learn more at https://www.abacum.ai Brex is an intelligent finance platform that combines corporate cards, built-in expense management, and AI agents to eliminate manual finance work. By automating expense reviews and reconciliations, Brex gives CFOs more time for the high-impact work that drives growth. Join 35,000+ companies like Anthropic, Coinbase, and DoorDash at https://www.brex.com/metrics Metronome is real-time billing built for modern software companies. Metronome turns raw usage events into accurate invoices, gives customers bills they actually understand, and keeps finance, product, and engineering perfectly in sync. That’s why category-defining companies like OpenAI and Anthropic trust Metronome to power usage-based pricing and enterprise contracts at scale. Focus on your product — not your billing. Learn more and get started at https://www.metronome.com RightRev is an automated revenue recognition platform built for modern pricing models like usage-based pricing, bundles, and mid-cycle upgrades. RightRev lets companies scale monetization without slowing down close or compliance. For RevRec that keeps growth moving, visit https://www.rightrev.com Rillet is an AI-native ERP built for modern finance teams that want to close faster without fighting legacy systems. Designed to support complex revenue recognition, multi-entity operations, and real-time reporting, Rillet helps teams achieve a true zero-day close—with some customers closing in hours, not days. If you’re scaling on an ERP that wasn’t built in the 90s, book a demo at https://www.rillet.com/cj — LINKS:  Mostly Talent: https://mostlymetrics.typeform.com/to/cLTxtAsN Guest: https://www.linkedin.com/in/agarwalk/ Company: https://www.gorgias.com/ CJ: https://www.linkedin.com/in/cj-gustafson-13140948/ Mostly metrics: https://www.mostlymetrics.com — TIMESTAMPS: 0:00 Preview and Intro 2:14 PE to venture incubator 4:39 Operational empathy from zero-to-one 4:45 First paying user feeling 5:40 Jet ski customer support story 8:49 Hanging with IC sales reps 12:24 Sponsors — Tabs | Abacum | Brex 15:44 Finance as the decision engine 17:36 Gorgias overview 20:20 Pricing structure and iteration 22:11 Outcome based / resolution pricing 24:48 AI success rate as key metric 25:33 Sponsors — Metronome | RightRev | Rillet 28:57 Pricing value split — $1 per resolution 31:17 Vertical specificity as AI moat 33:27 Managing LLM costs 35:41 Falling token costs and model mix 39:28 Order to cash as growth engine 43:31 Auditing order to cash at 25M ARR 44:09 Manual choke points 46:32 Learning density over titles 48:30 SurveyMonkey as the most formative period 50:07 Lightning round 50:17 Listening to respond vs. listening to learn 51:04 Advice to younger self 52:02 Finance software stack 52:45 Cortex — internal AI decision tool 54:21 Craziest expense story 54:52 Credits

    55 min
  7. What It Takes to Go Public Today | Inside the IPO Process with RBC’s Federico Acabbi

    23 MAR

    What It Takes to Go Public Today | Inside the IPO Process with RBC’s Federico Acabbi

    In this episode of Run the Numbers, CJ sits down with Federico Acabbi, investment banker at RBC, to break down what’s happening across cybersecurity, infrastructure, and the broader software market. They cover why horizontal software is under pressure while security spend holds up, what it really takes to go public today, and how the IPO process actually works behind the scenes—from diligence to pricing. — SPONSORS: Rillet is an AI-native ERP built for modern finance teams that want to close faster without fighting legacy systems. Designed to support complex revenue recognition, multi-entity operations, and real-time reporting, Rillet helps teams achieve a true zero-day close—with some customers closing in hours, not days. If you’re scaling on an ERP that wasn’t built in the 90s, book a demo at https://www.rillet.com/cj Tabs is an AI-native revenue platform that unifies billing, collections, and revenue recognition for companies running usage-based or complex contracts. By bringing together ERP, CRM, and real product usage data into a single system of record, Tabs eliminates manual reconciliations and speeds up close and cash collection. Companies like Cortex, Statsig, and Cursor trust Tabs to scale revenue efficiently. Learn more at https://www.tabs.com/run Abacum is a modern FP&A platform built by former CFOs to replace slow, consultant-heavy planning tools. With self-service integrations and AI-powered workflows for forecasting, variance analysis, and scenario modeling, Abacum helps finance teams scale without becoming software admins. Trusted by teams at Strava, Replit, and JG Wentworth—learn more at https://www.abacum.ai Brex is an intelligent finance platform that combines corporate cards, built-in expense management, and AI agents to eliminate manual finance work. By automating expense reviews and reconciliations, Brex gives CFOs more time for the high-impact work that drives growth. Join 35,000+ companies like Anthropic, Coinbase, and DoorDash at https://www.brex.com/metrics Metronome is real-time billing built for modern software companies. Metronome turns raw usage events into accurate invoices, gives customers bills they actually understand, and keeps finance, product, and engineering perfectly in sync. That’s why category-defining companies like OpenAI and Anthropic trust Metronome to power usage-based pricing and enterprise contracts at scale. Focus on your product — not your billing. Learn more and get started at https://www.metronome.com RightRev is an automated revenue recognition platform built for modern pricing models like usage-based pricing, bundles, and mid-cycle upgrades. RightRev lets companies scale monetization without slowing down close or compliance. For RevRec that keeps growth moving, visit https://www.rightrev.com — LINKS:  Mostly Talent: https://mostlymetrics.typeform.com/to/cLTxtAsN Federico: https://www.linkedin.com/in/federicoacabbi/ rbccm.com CJ: https://www.linkedin.com/in/cj-gustafson-13140948/ Mostly metrics: https://www.mostlymetrics.com — TIMESTAMPS: 0:00 Preview and intro 2:36 Software investability right now 6:46 Cyber — CFO's #2 investment priority 8:17 AI turbocharging attacks 9:08 DevOps disruption 10:30 Sponsors — Rillet | Tabs | Abacum 13:55 IPO landscape overview 14:33 Revenue and market cap benchmarks 19:24 Founder share sales at IPO 22:28 Secondary market vs. IPO market 23:14 How many IPOs can the market digest? 24:20 Investor mix for larger vs. smaller IPOs 25:04 Sponsors — Brex | Metronome | RightRev 28:23 Role of mutual funds in IPOs 30:00 What banks actually do on an IPO 31:49 Book building and allocation 32:43 Research coverage 35:52 NDRs and testing the waters 38:59 Roadshow format — then vs. now 40:41 Direct listings explained 43:57 How banks make money on IPOs 44:56 Fee splits between banks 47:36 IPO vs. M&A — which is more attractive? 51:02 Junior banking story — Nokia and the Vespa 54:31 Craziest expense story 56:08 Credits

    57 min
  8. The Anatomy of Financial Bubbles | Lessons From 200 Years of Market Panic

    19 MAR

    The Anatomy of Financial Bubbles | Lessons From 200 Years of Market Panic

    In this episode of Run the Numbers, CJ sits down with financial historian and PayPal Mafia member Aman Varejee to explore the recurring patterns behind economic bubbles. Drawing on research from his upcoming book “A Brief History of Financial Bubbles”, Aman explains what defines a bubble, the psychology that fuels speculative manias, and why major technological shifts—from railways to the internet to AI—often coincide with periods of extreme market speculation. — SPONSORS: RightRev is an automated revenue recognition platform built for modern pricing models like usage-based pricing, bundles, and mid-cycle upgrades. RightRev lets companies scale monetization without slowing down close or compliance. For RevRec that keeps growth moving, visit https://www.rightrev.com Rillet is an AI-native ERP built for modern finance teams that want to close faster without fighting legacy systems. Designed to support complex revenue recognition, multi-entity operations, and real-time reporting, Rillet helps teams achieve a true zero-day close—with some customers closing in hours, not days. If you’re scaling on an ERP that wasn’t built in the 90s, book a demo at https://www.rillet.com/cj Tabs is an AI-native revenue platform that unifies billing, collections, and revenue recognition for companies running usage-based or complex contracts. By bringing together ERP, CRM, and real product usage data into a single system of record, Tabs eliminates manual reconciliations and speeds up close and cash collection. Companies like Cortex, Statsig, and Cursor trust Tabs to scale revenue efficiently. Learn more at https://www.tabs.com/run Abacum is a modern FP&A platform built by former CFOs to replace slow, consultant-heavy planning tools. With self-service integrations and AI-powered workflows for forecasting, variance analysis, and scenario modeling, Abacum helps finance teams scale without becoming software admins. Trusted by teams at Strava, Replit, and JG Wentworth—learn more at https://www.abacum.ai Brex is an intelligent finance platform that combines corporate cards, built-in expense management, and AI agents to eliminate manual finance work. By automating expense reviews and reconciliations, Brex gives CFOs more time for the high-impact work that drives growth. Join 35,000+ companies like Anthropic, Coinbase, and DoorDash at https://www.brex.com/metrics Metronome is real-time billing built for modern software companies. Metronome turns raw usage events into accurate invoices, gives customers bills they actually understand, and keeps finance, product, and engineering perfectly in sync. That’s why category-defining companies like OpenAI and Anthropic trust Metronome to power usage-based pricing and enterprise contracts at scale. Focus on your product — not your billing. Learn more and get started at https://www.metronome.com — LINKS:  Mostly Talent: https://mostlymetrics.typeform.com/to/cLTxtAsN Aman: https://www.linkedin.com/in/aman-verjee/ https://practicalvc.com/ Aman’s book: https://bigbubbletrouble.com/ CJ: https://www.linkedin.com/in/cj-gustafson-13140948/ Mostly metrics: https://www.mostlymetrics.com — TIMESTAMPS: 0:00 Preview and intro 1:38 Welcome and guest intro 3:48 Defining a bubble 6:03 Cognitive biases behind bubbles 10:27 Sponsors — RightRev | Rillet | Tabs 13:56 Do bubbles produce breakthroughs? 14:35 Dot-com bubble — winners and losers 16:00 UK railway bubble 21:24 Bubble warning signs 25:30 Sponsors — Abacum | Brex | Metronome 28:47 Do bubbles attract grifters? 31:11 Role of government in bubbles 35:59 Bubble duration vs. severity 37:32 2008 — roots go back to 1992 40:27 Are bubbles connected through time? 43:38 Are we in an AI bubble? 45:06 Nvidia vs. Cisco valuation comparison 46:52 Circular finance in AI 49:16 FP&A at PayPal under Thiel and Musk 52:02 PayPal's referral campaign and LTV/CAC 54:40 Book plug 55:09 Credits #RunTheNumbersPodcast #Fintech #EconomicBubbles #FinanceHistory #CFO

    56 min
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About

Run the Numbers is a twice-weekly podcast about financial metrics and business models, designed for ambitious people operating tech startups. It's a collection of things host CJ Gustafson (CFO at Partstech and writer of Mostly Metrics) has learned and thought about in the trenches as a tech CFO. This show is meant to serve as a playbook of sorts for the stuff CJ wishes he knew earlier in his career, both from experience and from copying people smarter than himself. Topics frequently touch upon Startup SaaS Metrics, Annual Budgeting, Financial Forecasting, Headcount, Equity, Dilution, and Fundraising – and how all of these drive business performance and growth.

Information

  • Creator
    CJ Gustafson
  • Years Active
    2024 - 2026
  • Episodes
    280
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    © CJ Gustafson
  • Show Website
    Run the Numbers

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