Run the Numbers

CJ Gustafson
  • 0,0 (0)
  • GESTÃO
  • DUAS VEZES POR SEMANA

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 Mostly Media: The Team Behind Run the Numbers

    -1 DIA

    Inside Mostly Media: The Team Behind Run the Numbers

    CJ turns the mic on the people behind Mostly Media for a special behind-the-scenes episode of Run the Numbers. Michelle, Callie, Sarah, Matthew, Ben, and Steve share what it’s like building the company, scaling media, talent, sales, production, and operations, and dealing with CJ’s scooter lore, calendar quirks, and chaos along the way. — 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 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/cj 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 CJ: https://www.linkedin.com/in/cj-gustafson-13140948/ Mostly metrics: https://www.mostlymetrics.com — TIMESTAMPS: 0:00 Preview and intro 2:44 Show intro: meet the Mostly Media team 3:37 Michelle Finn: accounting and ops 4:28 Parts Tech days: CJ's first CFO role 7:21 How the newsletter convinced Michelle to join 9:02 Sponsors — Rillet | EY | SpendHound 12:11 Callie Spillane: talent director 13:17 Callie's background: HubSpot, Sneak, Superhuman 13:40 Why Callie was hard to hire 15:37 Snyk hypergrowth: 150 to 1,500 people 16:59 Zero to one vs. one to ten 18:20 9 of 20 roles filled: how it's going 23:24 Sponsors — Brex | Aleph | RightRev 26:58 Sarah Bousquet: media op 27:45 Stay at home mom to ops lead 33:48 CJ's schedule: American Psycho 34:43 Matthew Mozzocchi: sales and partnerships 35:41 Going full time with a newborn 36:20 Product market fit signal 38:07 Fewer, bigger bets on creators 41:00 Podcast is the air game, newsletter is the ground game 43:56 Ben Hillman and Steve Cerasoli: production 47:46 Media in service of a product vs. the product itself 48:37 Run the Numbers vs. Mostly Growth 51:25 Where are we in three years? 52:40 Credits #RunTheNumbersPodcast #CreatorEconomy #MediaBusiness #Entrepreneurship #ContentBusiness

    53 min
  2. Diamonds, De Beers, and the Death of Artificial Scarcity | A CFO Explains Diamonds

    -4 DIAS

    Diamonds, De Beers, and the Death of Artificial Scarcity | A CFO Explains Diamonds

    In this episode of Run the Numbers, CJ Gustafson breaks down the diamond industry as a business model: how De Beers controlled supply, engineered demand, and built one of the most powerful pricing machines in history. From the Central Selling Organization to “A Diamond Is Forever” to the rise of lab-grown diamonds, this episode unpacks monopolies, scarcity, pricing power, and what happens when technology forces transparency. — 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 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 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/cj 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:  Mostly Talent: https://mostlymetrics.typeform.com/to/cLTxtAsN CJ: https://www.linkedin.com/in/cj-gustafson-13140948/ Mostly metrics: https://www.mostlymetrics.com — RELATED EPISODES: Why Uber Drivers Can’t Escape the 30% Cut https://youtu.be/LpbH9GpBrSY — TIMESTAMPS: All verified. Here are the timestamps: 0:00 Blood Diamond 1:55 Show intro 2:15 Diamond history: ancient India and riverbed origins 3:56 Brazil supply shock and the mining era 4:39 De Beers: Cecil Rhodes and the PE rollup 6:47 Sponsors — RightRev | Rillet | EY 9:49 The Central Selling Organization (CSO) 10:39 The site system: invite-only, take-it-or-leave-it auctions 12:22 Diamonds are more abundant than gold 13:01 NW Ayer, Bernays, and engineering demand 14:17 "A Diamond is Forever" campaign 15:13 Lab grown diamonds: 20% of US purchases 16:32 De Beers collapses: $3.1B operating loss 17:18 Sponsors — SpendHound | Brex | Aleph 21:07 Lesson 1: Rollups are powered by capital 21:39 Lesson 2: Distribution beats mining 22:11 Lesson 3: Artificial scarcity unravels 22:55 Lesson 4: Price opacity is a temporary moat 23:39 Lesson 5: Demand engineering 24:30 Lesson 6: The real product was risk smoothing 26:30 Credits #RunTheNumbersPodcast #BusinessStrategy #FinanceHistory #Pricing #Monopoly

    27 min
  3. The North Face Former CFO: How Finance Builds Iconic Brands

    27/04

    The North Face Former CFO: How Finance Builds Iconic Brands

    In this episode of Run the Numbers, CJ Gustafson sits down with Angela Chen, former CFO of The North Face and Mars Veterinary Health, to unpack how finance leaders build and scale iconic consumer brands. Angela shares how to measure brand equity, why the CFO should act as an architect of growth, and how capital, talent, and strategy connect inside a scaling business. They also get into humanistic leadership, consumer-margin tradeoffs, and what a 39-cent Taco Bell taco can teach finance teams about growth. — 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/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/cj 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 Guest: https://www.linkedin.com/in/angelachensf/ Company: https://sku.is/ CJ: https://www.linkedin.com/in/cj-gustafson-13140948/ Mostly metrics: https://www.mostlymetrics.com — RELATED EPISODES: Minted’s CFO: Half the Year Happens in One Month https://youtu.be/hD4-exunKMo — TIMESTAMPS: 0:00 Preview and intro 2:45 Measuring brand equity 5:09 CFO as architect of growth 7:11 Connecting money, ideas, and talent 7:52 North Face vs. Mars: where to invest 10:52 Sponsors — Aleph | RightRev | Rillet 14:14 Scaling North Face 5x without diluting the brand 16:31 From technical brand to lifestyle brand 19:30 Quality of revenue 21:49 Seasonality and Q4 concentration 24:01 Sponsors — EY | SpendHound | Brex 27:14 Retailers shouldn't own factories 31:30 Supply chain and 18-month product cycles 33:23 Humanistic leadership in finance 34:32 Purpose and profit are mutually reinforcing 36:15 Purpose vs. profit in public companies 38:05 Playing to Win framework 39:47 Operational cadence and the gas gauge 43:02 Killing bad projects: the battery jacket story 44:16 Taco Bell and 39-cent margins 47:10 Lightning round 47:36 Screwed up: hiring on credentials 48:27 Advice to younger self: network is the work 50:07 Craziest expense story: snowcat ski trip 50:50 Credits

    51 min
  4. How Great Deals Are Found, Evaluated, and Won | PSG’s Chris Nesbitt

    23/04

    How Great Deals Are Found, Evaluated, and Won | PSG’s Chris Nesbitt

    In this episode of Run the Numbers, CJ sits down with PSG Managing Director Chris Nesbitt to unpack how great deals are actually found, how investment decisions are really made, and why narrative often matters more than most investors admit. They also dig into forecasting, boardroom authenticity, simple vs. complex models, and the roles of market, product, and leadership in driving outcomes. — 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/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/cj — LINKS:  Mostly Talent: https://mostlymetrics.typeform.com/to/cLTxtAsN Guest: https://www.linkedin.com/in/christophersnesbitt/ Company: https://psgequity.com/ CJ: https://www.linkedin.com/in/cj-gustafson-13140948/ Mostly metrics: https://www.mostlymetrics.com — TIMESTAMPS: 0:00 Preview and intro 2:44 PSG origin story 4:01 Growth to 30B AUM 5:07 Strategy: small software at scale 5:50 Vertical SaaS treasure hunting 8:10 Ministry Brands: software meets payments 9:28 Sponsors — Brex | Aleph | RightRev 12:46 Early M&A work and rollup strategy 15:52 Sourcing is more competitive now 18:28 Smoke signals and relationship sourcing 21:22 Does brand get you in the room? 22:15 Authenticity as a sourcing edge 22:52 Sponsors — Rillet | EY | SpendHound 26:09 Brand name of investor or deal partner? 27:44 Investors are narrative driven animals 29:18 Market, product, then execution 31:26 Danger of falling in love with the narrative 33:40 Operator AI pivot story: GRC company 34:51 Keep it simple: one tab, five key inputs 39:21 Forecasting confidence beyond 12-18 months 41:51 What makes a useful board meeting 45:01 Build vs. buy: the payments decision 47:45 ARR vs. EBITDA multiples 50:30 Lightning round 50:34 Board materials: send 3 days in advance 51:03 LTV to CAC and cap software debates 51:32 First deal at PSG 52:35 What young investors get wrong 54:04 Credits

    55 min
  5. Why Health Tech Doesn’t Operate Like SaaS | Manu Diwakar, CFO of Virta Health

    20/04

    Why Health Tech Doesn’t Operate Like SaaS | Manu Diwakar, CFO of Virta Health

    In this episode of Run the Numbers, CJ sits down with Manu Diwakar, CFO of Virta Health, to unpack why health tech breaks traditional SaaS thinking. They get into the realities of running a business where outcomes matter, half the company are medical professionals, and efficiency can’t come at the expense of care. It’s a conversation about sustainable scaling, smarter reinvestment, and building for durability over hype. — SPONSORS: 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/cj 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 — LINKS:  Mostly Talent: https://mostlymetrics.typeform.com/to/cLTxtAsN Guest: https://www.linkedin.com/in/manu-diwakar-1aa578/ Company: https://www.virtahealth.com/ CJ: https://www.linkedin.com/in/cj-gustafson-13140948/ Mostly metrics: https://www.mostlymetrics.com — TIMESTAMPS: 0:00 Preview and intro 1:18 Welcome and guest intro 3:02 What sector is health tech? 4:34 Virta go to market explained 7:01 B2B to B2C model 9:00 Value based care and ROI guarantees 9:18 Half the company are medical professionals 10:36 Sponsors — SpendHound | Brex | Aleph 14:03 Annual planning process 16:42 Shape of the curve 17:33 TAM: metabolic health is massive 20:45 Fee for service vs. value based care 24:16 Sponsors — RightRev | Rillet | EY 27:24 Unique costs of health tech: billing, compliance 30:54 Corporate practice of medicine 31:44 North star: members under management 32:43 The flywheel: $250 charge, $500 saved 33:28 Early stage CFO job is easy 35:28 Bad habits baked in during high growth 38:02 Choosing not to profit vs. not turning a profit 41:15 Running a VC-backed business for sustainability 42:07 People, tech and process framework 44:31 Hiring philosophy: hard work, learning, curiosity 48:26 Athletes vs. experts in hiring 50:03 Clock hands interview question 50:49 Lightning round 51:09 Screwed up: having hard conversations late 51:57 Advice to younger self 52:15 Finance software stack 52:42 Craziest expense story 53:47 Credits

    54 min
  6. Inside Figma’s Financial Playbook with CFO Praveer Melwani

    16/04

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

    13/04

    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
  8. How Strategic CFOs Get It Wrong

    9/04

    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
Ver tudo (285)

Sobre

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.

Informação

  • Autoria
    CJ Gustafson
  • Anos em atividade
    2024 - 2026
  • Episódios
    285
  • Classificação
    Explícito
  • Copyright
    © CJ Gustafson
  • Site do programa
    Run the Numbers

Talvez também goste