Run the Numbers

CJ Gustafson
  • 4.9 (68)
  • Management
  • Updated Semiweekly

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. 2d ago

    Robinhood's CFO on Refounding & the Art of Capital Allocation | Shiv Verma

    In this episode of Run the Numbers, CJ sits down with Shiv Verma, CFO of Robinhood, to unpack the company's 2022 "refounding". They dig into why Shiv personally signs off on every headcount and marketing dollar at a $100B+ company, and how Robinhood's capital allocation philosophy — no loss leaders, minimal variable costs, and a hard $100 million ARR bar for new products — shapes everything from prediction markets to private-market investing. — SPONSORS: RightRev is a revenue recognition platform built for the AI economy, helping finance support usage-based pricing, credits, hybrid contracts, seats plus consumption, and whatever commercial model comes next. It gives product teams the freedom to keep innovating without outdated revenue systems slowing them down. Learn how RightRev can help at https://rightrev.com/cj Fidelity Private Shares gives founders the structure and simplicity to focus on what actually matters - building your company. If your startup needs a little extra support (and let’s be honest, who doesn’t need a little help now and then), then you’re in for a pleasant surprise with Fidelity. If you stay investor ready, you don’t have to get investor ready. Check out www.fidelityprivateshares.com 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 Cloud Capital helps you say goodbye to on-demand rates for cloud. Committing more cuts the rate you pay for cloud infrastructure by 20–60%. Commit wrong and you pay for capacity you'll never use. Cloud Capital underwrites that risk, so you capture the savings of deeper commitments without locking in architecture or putting engineers on it. Go to www.cloudcapital.co 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 Abacum puts your actuals, forecasts, models, and business context in one place, so you can update the plan, run scenarios, and answer "why did this change?" without rebuilding the story from six spreadsheets and a Slack thread. Connect your source systems, keep models and assumptions aligned, and give leaders trusted answers while decisions are still being made. Go to abacum.ai/mostly-metrics. 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: linkedin.com/in/shiv-verma-6408249 Company: www.robinhood.com CJ: https://www.linkedin.com/in/cj-gustafson-13140948/ Mostly metrics: https://www.mostlymetrics.com — TIMESTAMPS: 0:00 Intro 2:21 The 2022 Refounding 8:46 Using NPS 17:53 Moving to a GM Model 19:58 Finance Partners 17:49 Killing Committees for DRIs 20:04 Headcount Requests 27:02 RPM Teams and Efficiency 32:27 The Art of Capital Allocation 33:34 Core, Scaling, and New Seeds 37:07 Funding a New Idea 38:17 Killing OKRs 44:59 No Loss Leaders 48:36 Building Prediction Markets Fast 51:26 Why Shiv Hates Variable Costs 53:37 Market Share Over Revenue 55:59 Forecasting a Volatile Business 59:53 Shiv's Biggest Mistake 1:02:03 Lessons from the Oakland A's 1:04:04 Advice to His Younger Self 1:04:48 Finance Tech Stack 1:05:30 Craziest Expense

    Robinhood's CFO on Refounding & the Art of Capital Allocation | Shiv Verma

  2. 4d ago

    Token Series Part 1 | How AI Created a New Budget

    This is Part 1 of our new Token Series with Tabs. CJ calls up Ali Hussain to dig into one of the fastest-growing, least-understood line items on the P&L: AI inference and token spend. They debate whether AI costs ultimately belong to the CTO or the CFO, why the shift from "experimentation budgets" to real operating costs is forcing companies to rethink ownership, what's actually different about AI spend compared to the early cloud transition, and how tools like OpenRouter (acquired by Stripe) and Ramp's new offering are approaching the problem from opposite ends of engineering vs. finance. — 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 — LINKS:  Mostly Talent: ⁠https://mostlymetrics.typeform.com/to/cLTxtAsN⁠ Guest: ⁠linkedin.com/in/ali-hussain786 Company: ⁠www.tabs.com CJ: ⁠https://www.linkedin.com/in/cj-gustafson-13140948/⁠ Mostly metrics: ⁠https://www.mostlymetrics.com⁠ — TIMESTAMPS: 0:00 Cold Open 1:11 From Experimentation Budgets to Real AI Costs 2:43 Who Owns AI Spend Inside a Company? 4:12 Lessons from the Cloud Transition 5:55 Why AI Costs Are Different from Cloud 7:51 AI as "Electricity Through the House" 8:42 Paying for 5 to 10 LLM Providers 9:58 OpenRouter vs. Ramp: Two Approaches 11:47 What the Finance Stack for AI Spend Should Look Like 13:34 Passing AI Costs on to Customers

    Token Series Part 1 | How AI Created a New Budget

  3. 5d ago

    Why Owning Your Data Is the New Moat | Primary Venture's Emily Man

    In this episode of Run the Numbers, CJ sits down with Emily Man of Primary Ventures to map out where value actually accrues in the AI economy. They break down the 5 layers of the AI stack and why Emily believes the next era of AI adoption will be driven by diffusion through apps rather than smarter models alone. — SPONSORS: Abacum puts your actuals, forecasts, models, and business context in one place, so you can update the plan, run scenarios, and answer "why did this change?" without rebuilding the story from six spreadsheets and a Slack thread. Connect your source systems, keep models and assumptions aligned, and give leaders trusted answers while decisions are still being made. Go to abacum.ai/mostly-metrics. RightRev is a revenue recognition platform built for the AI economy, helping finance support usage-based pricing, credits, hybrid contracts, seats plus consumption, and whatever commercial model comes next. It gives product teams the freedom to keep innovating without outdated revenue systems slowing them down. Learn how RightRev can help at https://rightrev.com/cj Fidelity Private Shares gives founders the structure and simplicity to focus on what actually matters - building your company. If your startup needs a little extra support (and let’s be honest, who doesn’t need a little help now and then), then you’re in for a pleasant surprise with Fidelity. If you stay investor ready, you don’t have to get investor ready. Check out www.fidelityprivateshares.com 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 Cloud Capital helps you say goodbye to on-demand rates for cloud. Committing more cuts the rate you pay for cloud infrastructure by 20–60%. Commit wrong and you pay for capacity you'll never use. Cloud Capital underwrites that risk, so you capture the savings of deeper commitments without locking in architecture or putting engineers on it. Go to www.cloudcapital.co 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 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: linkedin.com/in/emily-man-02a1a486 Company: https://www.primary.vc/ CJ: https://www.linkedin.com/in/cj-gustafson-13140948/ Mostly metrics: https://www.mostlymetrics.com — TIMESTAMPS: 0:00 Cold Opens 1:12 Meet Emily Man, Primary Ventures 2:01 What's Exciting in Venture Right Now 3:09 The 5 Layers of the AI Stack 4:08 Where Funding Has Focused So Far 5:54 Diffusion Through Apps 9:30 "Enough" Intelligence 17:11 Payroll vs. Compute Ratio 23:01 Alex Karp and "Owning Your Weights" 24:05 On-Prem vs. Cloud, Again? 30:53 Models vs. Loops 32:34 Software Goes Headless 34:14 Pre-2022 SaaS Companies 36:29 The Roadkill Bucket 41:42 The Vibe-Coding Backlash 44:55 Objectivity vs. Subjectivity 48:03 When AI Agents Talk to Each Other 49:43 Creating Alpha Without Being AI-Native 51:01 Better Questions, Brought to You by EY 51:16 The Future CFO Tech Stack #RunTheNumbersPodcast #AIforCFOs #FinanceLeadership #Zuora #GoingPrivate

    Why Owning Your Data Is the New Moat | Primary Venture's Emily Man

  4. Oct 1

    Zuora’s COFO On Going Private and Pricing AI | Todd McElhatton

    In this episode of Run the Numbers, CJ sits down with Todd McElhatton, CFO of Zuora, for a deep cut on pricing, packaging, and value in the age of AI. They dig into how companies are figuring out whether to charge for AI at all, why token-based budgets are starting to sit alongside headcount budgets, and why AI may be increasing — not decreasing — the value of deep expertise. — 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 Abacum puts your actuals, forecasts, models, and business context in one place, so you can update the plan, run scenarios, and answer "why did this change?" without rebuilding the story from six spreadsheets and a Slack thread. Connect your source systems, keep models and assumptions aligned, and give leaders trusted answers while decisions are still being made. Go to abacum.ai/mostly-metrics. RightRev is a revenue recognition platform built for the AI economy, helping finance support usage-based pricing, credits, hybrid contracts, seats plus consumption, and whatever commercial model comes next. It gives product teams the freedom to keep innovating without outdated revenue systems slowing them down. Learn how RightRev can help at https://rightrev.com/cj Fidelity Private Shares gives founders the structure and simplicity to focus on what actually matters - building your company. If your startup needs a little extra support (and let’s be honest, who doesn’t need a little help now and then), then you’re in for a pleasant surprise with Fidelity. If you stay investor ready, you don’t have to get investor ready. Check out www.fidelityprivateshares.com 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 Cloud Capital helps you say goodbye to on-demand rates for cloud. Committing more cuts the rate you pay for cloud infrastructure by 20–60%. Commit wrong and you pay for capacity you'll never use. Cloud Capital underwrites that risk, so you capture the savings of deeper commitments without locking in architecture or putting engineers on it. Go to www.cloudcapital.co 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: linkedin.com/in/todd-mcelhatton-2140761 Company: www.zuora.com CJ: https://www.linkedin.com/in/cj-gustafson-13140948/ Mostly metrics: https://www.mostlymetrics.com — TIMESTAMPS: 0:00 Intro 1:15 Meet Todd 2:24 Debating Price 7:33 Is Software "Going Headless"? 9:18 Is AI Increasing the Value of Experts 9:58 Hiring Specialists vs. Generalists 16:49 Rethinking the Budget Envelope 26:56 Time to Value 31:20 Forward-Deployed Engineers 35:20 Parallels Between On-Prem-to-Cloud 36:10 Rethinking Strategy 37:07 Avoiding the Sunk Cost Trap 38:58 The Art of Pivoting 40:12 VMware 41:31 Experimenting With AI 42:33 What Private Boards Bring 43:13 Short-Term Pain 43:45 One-Way Doors vs. Two-Way Doors 44:57Long-Ass Lightning Round 45:04 Biggest Career Mistake 45:36 Advice45:56 Finance Tech Stack 46:43 The Craziest Thing Expense #RunTheNumbersPodcast #AIforCFOs #FinanceLeadership #Zuora #GoingPrivate

    Zuora’s COFO On Going Private and Pricing AI | Todd McElhatton

  5. Sep 28

    LiveRamp’s CFO Rebuilt Pricing From Scratch | Lauren Dillard

    CJ sits down with Lauren Dillard, CFO of LiveRamp, whose path to the CFO seat ran through investor relations, communications, and even a year as interim CMO. They dig into why storytelling and influence matter as much as technical finance chops, how LiveRamp tore down and rebuilt its entire commercial model — collapsing 25+ usage metrics into 5 and inventing the "token" along the way. — 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 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 a revenue recognition platform built for the AI economy, helping finance support usage-based pricing, credits, hybrid contracts, seats plus consumption, and whatever commercial model comes next. It gives product teams the freedom to keep innovating without outdated revenue systems slowing them down. Learn how RightRev can help at https://rightrev.com/cj 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 posts 98% of transactions directly to its ERP, with the remaining 2% routed to a human for review. You pay for outcomes, not seats. See it at https://www.maximor.ai/ 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/lauren-russi-dillard-25502424/ Company: https://www.liveramp.com CJ: https://www.linkedin.com/in/cj-gustafson-13140948/ Mostly metrics: https://www.mostlymetrics.com — TIMESTAMPS: 0:00 Cold Open 1:18 Intro 1:29 Meet Lauren Dillard 4:48 Lauren's Path to CFO 5:06 The "Wrong" Career Move 7:48 Why Storytelling Matters 9:41 Turning the Answer Into Action 10:33 People Plus AI 14:50 Pricing Is a Strategy Exercise 16:43 Rebuilding a Commercial Model 22:29 Simplifying Quote-to-Cash 23:29 Where the "Token" Came From 28:48 Selling a New Pricing Model 29:27 Balancing New Logos 30:17 Upmarket or Downmarket? 34:17 Where Finance and HR Disagree 36:07 The Biggest Mistake 38:23 Will It Make the Boat Go Faster? 42:27 Lessons from the NBA 44:25 Lauren's Biggest Misstep 46:27 Finance Tech Stack 47:42 Craziest Expense #RunTheNumbersPodcast #AIforCFOs #FinanceLeadership #MasterworksArt #ContextEngineering

    LiveRamp’s CFO Rebuilt Pricing From Scratch | Lauren Dillard

  6. Sep 24

    The NScale IPO | A Neocloud S1 Breakdown

    Nscale just filed its S-1 to go public on the NYSE — and it might be the wildest IPO filing of the year. This UK-based "NeoCloud" is only 2 years old, is gross margin negative, started life as a crypto miner, and has somehow locked up over $100 billion in contracted value from Anthropic and Microsoft. CJ breaks down the entire S-1 line by line: what a NeoCloud actually is, how Nscale's "power to token" strategy works, why Nvidia shows up as its supplier, investor, guarantor, AND customer, and whether this is a durable business or a well-timed arbitrage on the AI compute shortage. — SPONSORS: 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 posts 98% of transactions directly to its ERP, with the remaining 2% routed to a human for review. You pay for outcomes, not seats. See it at https://www.maximor.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 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 a revenue recognition platform built for the AI economy, helping finance support usage-based pricing, credits, hybrid contracts, seats plus consumption, and whatever commercial model comes next. It gives product teams the freedom to keep innovating without outdated revenue systems slowing them down. Learn how RightRev can help at https://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 — LINKS:  Mostly Talent: https://mostlymetrics.typeform.com/to/cLTxtAsN Company: https://www.nscale.com/ CJ: https://www.linkedin.com/in/cj-gustafson-13140948/ Mostly metrics: https://www.mostlymetrics.com — TIMESTAMPS: 0:00 Cold Open 0:53 Intro: Nscale Files to Go Public 2:40 WTF Is a NeoCloud? 4:11 The 5 Layers of the AI Stack 5:55 Landlord vs. Hotel: Nscale's Two Businesses 7:21 How Take-or-Pay Contracts Work 8:28 Sponsor Break 11:43 Breaking Down the Financials 15:37 What's a Contract Actually Worth? 18:45 Is This Just Nvidia Vendor Financing? 20:58 Sponsor Break 22:54 Medium-Term Arbitrage or Durable Company? 24:30 5 Potential Red Flags 27:08 How Does the CEO Get Paid? 28:04 Who's on the Board? 28:26 Is This the CoreWeave of the UK? 31:09 Miscellaneous Filing Oddities 33:31 Final Take #Nscale #IPO #NeoCloud #S1Breakdown #AIInfrastructure

    The NScale IPO | A Neocloud S1 Breakdown

  7. Sep 21

    How Media Actually Makes Money | Blake Saunders

    In today’s Run the Numbers, CJ sits down with Blake Saunders, founder and managing director at Core Advisors (an investment bank focused on media) and founder of The Joint, to go deep on how media companies actually make money — and how that's changing fast. If you're anywhere near advertising, media, or content monetization, this one's a masterclass. — 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 posts 98% of transactions directly to its ERP, with the remaining 2% routed to a human for review. You pay for outcomes, not seats. See it at https://www.maximor.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 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 a revenue recognition platform built for the AI economy, helping finance support usage-based pricing, credits, hybrid contracts, seats plus consumption, and whatever commercial model comes next. It gives product teams the freedom to keep innovating without outdated revenue systems slowing them down. Learn how RightRev can help at https://rightrev.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: linkedin.com/in/blakesaunders Company: https://coreadvs.com/ CJ: https://www.linkedin.com/in/cj-gustafson-13140948/ Mostly metrics: https://www.mostlymetrics.com — TIMESTAMPS: 0:00 Cold Open and Intro 1:17 Welcome Back: Meet Blake Saunders 3:11 What Does "Media" Even Mean Today? 3:24 AI and LLMs 6:13 How Media Companies Make Money 7:32 Subscriptions vs. Ads vs. Events 8:54 Why Events Are the Riskiest Ad Dollar 9:48 B2B vs. B2C 14:25 Why Advertising Gets Such a Bad Rap 17:58 The Hulu Paradox 20:50 Built to Hold vs. Built to Sell 27:10 Content Decay and the Monetization Mismatch 29:08 Are IP Libraries Becoming Valuable 34:39 How Big-Name Podcast Deals Get Structured 37:50 Bundling, Unbundling, and Subscription Fatigue 39:08 The Bending Spoons Trade 40:20 Inside a Private Equity Value Creation Plan 41:56 The Content-to-Commerce Playbook 44:50 How Narrative-Driven Is Media M&A? 46:49 7 Moments a Deal Feels Dead 49:00 Farewell

    How Media Actually Makes Money | Blake Saunders

  8. Sep 17

    How to Sell Your Company: A Multi-Time CFO's Full Playbook | Rick Smith

    CJ sits down with multi-time CFO Rick Smith, founder of Bonfire Advisory and author of Six Months to the Sale, to break down what actually happens when you sell a company. They cover why buyers value some businesses on ARR and others on EBITDA (and why being slightly profitable can hurt you), how to negotiate banker fees, what buyers find when they dig into your balance sheet, and why every cap table Rick inherits is wrong. — SPONSORS: RightRev is a revenue recognition platform built for the AI economy, helping finance support usage-based pricing, credits, hybrid contracts, seats plus consumption, and whatever commercial model comes next. It gives product teams the freedom to keep innovating without outdated revenue systems slowing them down. Learn how RightRev can help at https://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 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 posts 98% of transactions directly to its ERP, with the remaining 2% routed to a human for review. You pay for outcomes, not seats. See it at https://www.maximor.ai/ Brex is an intelligent finance platform with AI-powered workflows that enforce expense policies at the point of sale, match receipts automatically, and reduce month-end close from weeks to hours. Thousands of companies, including Anthropic, Coinbase, and DoorDash, already run on Brex. Stop asking A-level finance talent to do B-level admin work. 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 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: linkedin.com/in/rick-smith-906939 Company: https://www.linkedin.com/company/bonfire-advisory CJ: https://www.linkedin.com/in/cj-gustafson-13140948/ Mostly metrics: https://www.mostlymetrics.com — TIMESTAMPS: 1:21 Meet Rick Smith and "Six Months to the Sale"2:44 Why Teach M&A Through Fiction4:26 CEO/CFO Tension7:08 Botching the Announcement8:15 How Staff Really React9:18 When Personal Life Collides With a Deal13:50 ARR vs. EBITDA17:58 What to Optimize Before a Sale18:50 Churn and Contract Renewal20:43 Strategics vs. PE27:46 Investment Banker Fee Structures29:09 What's Negotiable29:56 The Realtor Problem34:53 Big 4 vs. Regional Firms for Audit and QoE35:47 Negotiating Accounting Fees37:47 Deferred Revenue41:23 Warrants, Options, and Carta Cleanup44:02 QSBS: What CFOs Need to Know45:28 Quality of Earnings: Who Pays and Why47:44 What a QoE Actually Digs Into51:22 Why Deal Momentum Is So Hard to Stop53:47 The Waterfall58:19 Who Keeps Their Job61:31 Why Selling CFOs Feel Intimidated62:56 Prospect Theory65:28 Where to Find the Book #RunTheNumbersPodcast #MandA #CFOLife #SellingACompany #QualityOfEarnings

    How to Sell Your Company: A Multi-Time CFO's Full Playbook | Rick Smith
See All (327)

4.9
out of 5
68 Ratings

About

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.

Information

  • Creator
    CJ Gustafson
  • Years Active
    2024 - 2026
  • Episodes
    327
  • Rating
    Explicit
  • Copyright
    © CJ Gustafson
  • Show Website
    Run the Numbers

You Might Also Like