Jeff Epstein is an operating partner at Bessemer Venture Partners leading its CFO Council where he helps CEOs and CFOs at their 200- portfolio company share best practices. Epstein, one of the most famous names in finance, is former executive vice president and chief financial officer of Oracle, with a market value of over $200 billion. Prior to joining Oracle, Jeff served as CFO at public and private companies, including DoubleClick (acquired by Google), King World Productions (acquired by CBS), and Nielsen’s Media Measurement and Information Group. Earlier in his career, he was an investment banker at The First Boston Corporation.  In this episode: From Wall Street to first-time CFO  Running finance at Wheel of Fortune, Jeopardy and Oprah-TV hitmaker King World The skills needed to be a top CFO The 3 routes to CFO: Auditors, Wall Street or FP&AWhat Andy Gove OKR setting can teach us about budget setting  What is the right percentage of time to hit budget goals? Balancing between Elon Musk (Papa Bear) and Charlie Munger (Mama Bear) in setting targets  Giving people the opportunity to overachieve  Best case/worst case/base case at Oracle strategy  The delicate balancing act of Wall Street guidance  Using a stagger chart  Why FP&A is so critical; how  the biggest strategic decisions involve FP&A adviceRevisiting the  processes as Oracle bought Sun Microsystems Merger integration strategy worked on our sales compensation Truck drivers and sales commission – a must-listen to story How in 1983 at the Washington Post I learned from Warren Buffet and ended up scrambling to buy 4 shares of Berkshire Hathaway. Guess much it’s worth now? Show notes  Forecasting 101 and how to build a Stagger chart Jeff Epstein: How CFOs build a Goldilocks “just-right” budget Working Backwards: Insights, Stories, and Secrets from Inside Amazon Winston Churchill: My Early Life  Andy Grove: High Output Management