On this episode, CJ interviews Adam Swiecicki, CFO at Rippling and former CFO at Brex. They cover valuable strategies that have fueled Rippling's growth as a “Compound Startup” in the competitive HR, Finance, and IT space. Adam also shares lessons from being a short seller that he applies to being a company CFO, the ROI on R&D investment, capital allocation decision making frameworks and how to avoid CFO burnout. If you're looking for an ERP head to NetSuite: https://netsuite.com/metrics...

In this episode, CJ interviews Jack Greco, the co-founder of ACV Auctions, a publicly traded B2B marketplace for automobiles. Greco is now a prolific Angel investor. In this conversation they cover the human element necessary in any marketplace business, setting up make-good budget for mistakes, business seasonality, and how the auction model affects supply and demand liquidity. This is truly a masterclass in all things marketplaces and valuable for anyone who is interested in businesses...

In this episode, CJ is joined by Matt Gallatin, CFO of Stack Overflow, the largest online community for developers and one of the most popular websites in the world. They cover the impact of doing SaaS 101 learning sessions with departments across the org, how CFOs can get involved in customer lifecycle reviews, CFO career stories that demonstrate high stress decision-making in action, and more.  If you’re looking for an ERP platform, check out our sponsor, NetSuite:...

Today CJ welcomes back Jim Cook, a renowned coach to chief financial officers throughout Silicon Valley via his company BenchBoard Advisory -- and a co-founder of Netflix. Jim takes us through a number of frameworks for decision making and communication, including the three eras of CFO requirements, the concept of disagreeing, but still committing as a management team, challenging the problem, not the person, how the most valuable skill CFOs can learn is communication, the leadership SECS...

On Today’s episode, CJ welcomes Chad Gold, the CFO of G2 and the former CFO of Salesloft. Gold shares valuable insights on the role of finance in startups and the qualities that set you on the path for a successful CFO career in venture-backed ecosystems. Chad has raised money from some of the best investors in the business, including Vista Equity, Permira, Accel, IVP, and Insight. And he’s built world class finance teams for hypergrowth. On this episode we cover  * The concept of building...

In this episode, CJ welcomes Andre Retterath, investing partner at Earlybird Venture Capital. This is a masterclass on AI where they cover the different levels of the AI tech stack and how to implement AI across tech organizations in the months and years ahead. They also cover how AI is changing back office functions for finance and operations folks, why large language models aren't necessarily built to deal with numbers, and Andre’s favorite decision-making frameworks. If you’re looking for...

In this episode, CJ welcomes Dan Zhang, the CFO of ClickUp for a highly tactical and transparent conversation about getting–and staying– in the CFO seat. They cover her time at Amazon, her personal finance philosophy, and important frameworks for decision-making such as the Trust Formula and the Empty Boat Test.   If you’re looking for an ERP platform, check out our sponsor, NetSuite: https://netsuite.com/metrics -- SPONSORS: NetSuite provides financial software for all your business needs....

Listen now on: * Apple * Spotify * YouTube In this episode, CJ dives into the complexities of IPOs and acquisitions with Philip Watson, the CFO of Paddle. Philip covers acquisitions for tech versus acquisitions for revenue, what it's like to operate within debt covenants and how to track them as an FP&A professional, FP&A's role in the IPO process, picking which metrics you'll disclose, frameworks for decision making and communication, and much more. If you’re looking for an ERP...

In this episode, CJ is joined by Lee Kirkpatrick, the former CFO of the cloud communications platform, Twilio. Lee shares his journey of leading Twilio through its 2016 IPO, shedding light on the preparations, roadshows, and decisions (bankers, soundtrack, tv appearances) made at different stages of the process. This is inside baseball to taking your company public - a must listen.  If you’re looking for an ERP platform, check out our sponsor, NetSuite:...

Today CJ hosts Dave Yuan, the founder and partner at Tidemark — a legend in the world of vertical SaaS. Dave has been investing, advising, and building technology companies for over 20 years. Before founding Tidemark, Dave spent 15 years as a general partner at Technology Crossover Ventures (TCV), where he was fortunate to invest in and help 25 companies scale and win. Twelve companies have gone public, and eight have been acquired. Today’s conversation covers key heuristics, what’s wrong...

Tony Kim, Managing Director at Blackrock, joins CJ this week to touch on the secrets of durable businesses, why TAM is an unreliable measure of potential, competitive moats and 2nd/3rd acts as necessary means for sustainable growth, and more. Supercharge your financial operations with Maxio. Request a demo at www.maxio.com/runthenumbers for 10% off your first year. --- SPONSORS: Maxio | Tropic | Thoropass Maxio is the only billing and financial operations platform that was purpose built for...

Jonathan Becker, CEO of Thrive Digital, breaks down learnings from his 12+ years of running data-led marketing campaigns for top startups like Uber, Asana, and Square. Supercharge your financial operations with Maxio. Request a demo at www.maxio.com/runthenumbers for 10% off your first year. --- SPONSORS: Maxio | Tropic | Thoropass Maxio is the only billing and financial operations platform that was purpose built for B2B SaaS. They're helping SaaS finance teams automate billing and revenue...

Sebastian Duesterhoeft, partner at Lightspeed Ventures, returns to the pod to talk about anything and everything startup operators need to know about Competitive Moats aka the durable competitive advantage of a company. Supercharge financial operations with Maxio. Request a demo at www.maxio.com/runthenumbers for 10% off your first year. --- SPONSORS: Maxio | Tropic | Thoropass Maxio is the only billing and financial operations platform that was purpose built for B2B SaaS. They're helping...

In this episode, Hubspot SVP of RevOps Sid Kumar discusses the most crucial aspects of revenue operations, the importance of data strategy, perspectives on rep productivity and commission structures, discounting, and more. The conversation also touches on how the lines between go-to-market and product strategies are increasingly blurring. Sid also gives us his take on comp plan design. Supercharge financial operations with Maxio. Request a demo at www.maxio.com/runthenumbers for 10% off your...

CJ welcomes the president of the Boston Celtics, Rich Gotham. Rich discusses his journey in the NBA and provides insight into the business side of one of the world's most recognizable sports brands. He highlights the emphasis placed on embracing digital technology, retaining fans, creating effective partnerships, and the importance of community involvement for the team. Rich also talks about the increasing role of data in managing team operations and addresses the famous Paul Pierce incident...

In this episode, Bonfire VC partner Brett Queener, who was also the first sales ops and sales strategy person at Salesforce, shares insights on staffing ratios and building sales capacity. Brett unleashes his wisdom on driving alignment and setting sales quotas, forecasting revenue for new products, targeting existing customers vs. net new, the importance of sales enablement, expanding product offerings and TAM, the risks of predicting revenue for new products, long-term forecasting and...

Matthew Newcomb, the CFO of Chime, joins host CJ Gustafson to delve into the complex world of the payments ecosystem. Matthew demystifies the business model of neobanks, different types of transactions, as well as how unit economics plays a key role in a neobank's business model and strategy. CJ's intro is about the controversy at Carta. Supercharge financial operations with Maxio. Request a demo at www.maxio.com/runthenumbers for 10% off your first year. --- SPONSORS: Maxio | Tropic Maxio...

Your most pressing questions are answered today by CJ Gustafson and Kurtis Hanni. They tackle Q's such as how best to scale the finance department for startups, what keeps them up at night, and predictions for how the CFO role will change in the near future. They also offer advice about cold emailing, relating to money, and dunking. Kurtis Hanni is a SMB CFO and writer of Frameworks & Finance (https://www.kurtishanni.com/blog) 🎧 Run The Numbers has a new Spotify and Apple show link....

Today we're flipping the script: CJ is the guest, and he's demystifying annual planning on The Role Forward podcast. CJ and host Joe Michalowski dive into the intricacies of annual planning, the practical steps of strategic planning (breaking down the process into digestible stages), and the complexities of financial forecasting in the startup ecosystem. Tropic is the next-generation Procurement Platform that’s helping modern CFOs take control of their budgets and bottom line, head to...

In this episode James Currier the founder and General Partner at venture capitalist firm NFX, guides CJ on the inner workings of marketplace businesses and network effects. He shares insights on the importance of finding a 'white hot center' when starting a marketplace, strategic ways to tackle the trademark chicken and egg problem, and the significance of retention as a metric. Tropic is the next-generation Procurement Platform that’s helping modern CFOs take control of their budgets and...

In this episode, CJ Gustafson interviews creator and writer Kyla Scanlon about the role of the Federal Reserve and its impact on the economy. They discuss the concept of the 'Vibecession' which refers to the disconnect between consumer sentiment and economic data. The conversation also touches on the Fed's communication strategies and the challenges of understanding and predicting market reactions. Kyla also gives her take on crypto and offers advice for content creators wanting to break...

In this episode, CJ Gustafson interviews Ryan Wash the Founder and CEO of RepVue whose mission is to help sales pros find the best companies to work for and ensure they're paid fairly. Ryan gives CJ a data-driven inside look into sales capacity, planning models, and sales rep commission plans. Tropic is the next-generation Procurement Platform that’s helping modern CFOs take control of their budgets and bottom line, head to www.tropicapp.io/metrics --- SPONSORS: Tropic is the...

In this episode, CJ Gustafson interviews Alex Clayton of Meritech Capital who leads the firm’s enterprise software, infrastructure, and fintech practices. They discuss the most important metrics used in the software industry, including ARR per employee, average contract value (ACV), net dollar retention (NDR), and valuation multiples. Alex also goes deeper into understanding market structure as a crucial factor to consider when evaluating whether a company will go to IPO. Tropic is the...

On the 21st episode of Run The Numbers, CJ sits down with Andy Raskin, a prominent Strategic Narrative consultant to venture-backed CEO and leadership teams. They discuss the importance of strategic narrative in conveying the value of a company and tell a powerful story to investors, highlighting the approach of naming the old game and the new game, interpreting transitions in the market as 'life and death' stakes, demonstrating how old tools weren't built for the new challenges, and how to...

On the 20th episode of Run The Numbers, CJ sits down with Rohit Divate, Head of Corporate Finance at Gusto. Rohit Divate has seen Gusto 10x in terms of revenue and headcount in his six years at the company. He and CJ discuss headcount planning, countermetrics, how to set up scalable decisionmaking in hyperscaling startups, and more. Tropic is the next-generation Procurement Platform that’s helping modern CFOs take control of their budgets and bottom line, head to...