Andy Ivanovich, the CFO of The Knot Worldwide, joins CJ to dissect the company’s business model. He sheds light on how The Knot, which functions like an operating system for weddings, has grown to expand its product suite and reach, and now touches two-thirds of adult Americans each year. Andy explains the five dimensions of the company’s transactions that make it so unique. He also breaks down The Knot Worldwide’s ICP (Ideal Customer Profile) and customer LTV (Lifetime Value), and how they opti...
May 27, 2024•59 min
In this episode, CJ interviews Guido Torrini, CFO of OneTrust and former CFO of Celonis, who has played a crucial role in shaping finance strategy and operations at two successful pre-IPO companies. Guido shares profound insights into managing his finance team more like an agile tech organization than a traditional planning function. He explains why he doesn’t believe in budgets, breaks down the V2MOM framework essential to his team’s success, and sheds light on how he ties company priorities ba...
May 23, 2024•55 min
In this, the first solo episode of Run the Numbers , our host CJ Gustafson gives a crash course in sales compensation. He explains how to go about designing sales rep comp plans, covering who’s involved in this process, getting the base to variable split right, on-target earnings ratios, how to baseline core achievement, the role of accelerators, what actually counts as a booking, and comp plan flaws, referencing Salesforce's early comp plans as a case study. He also delves into the art and scie...
May 20, 2024•46 min
Aneal Vallurupalli, CFO of Airbase, an AP automation, spend management, and procure-to-pay solution, joins CJ to discuss all things risk management. He explains the different categories of spend outside of payroll and the biggest pain points within them. Aneal does a deep dive into fraud and how to prevent it, explaining how Airbase's number one product is really trust. He covers the non-payment risks to your company, the need for stage and growth-appropriate risk, and the benefits of a risk roa...
May 16, 2024•55 min
In this episode, Ruslan Sergeyev, Managing Director of Hercules Capital gives CJ a masterclass in venture debt. He explains what venture debt is, its various types, and the potential benefits it can bring to your business. Ruslan sheds light on the current landscape and big players in venture dept. He provides insight on covenants, rates, warrants, and success fees in debt structure, and the difference between banks and funds. The discussion covers how much debt is appropriate for a capital stac...
May 13, 2024•55 min
Boris Wertz, the founding partner at Version One Ventures, a VC firm that invests in marketplaces and other startups, joins CJ to discuss the evolution and dynamics of marketplace models. Boris sheds light on his early years as a founder and operator at AbeBooks, and what he learned from selling the platform to Amazon during the dot-com boom. He explains the benefits of focusing on a niche instead of going too broad, how he solved the chicken and egg problem, and what it means to be a long-tail ...
May 09, 2024•54 min
In this episode, CJ is joined by Angela Winegar, Head of Growth Strategy at Carta and recovering venture capitalist. Having had an unconventional career path, Angela’s experience in the worlds of both marketing and investing gives her a unique perspective on growth. She and CJ discuss the parallels between marketing and investing and Angela explains how marketing is really a form of capital allocation. She sheds light on what the return on investment should be for media budgets and why CFOs shou...
May 06, 2024•52 min
Scott Haralson, CFO of Spirit Airlines, joins CJ in this episode to discuss the complexities of operating an airline business. He explains what it means to run an ultra-low-cost carrier model and what goes into calculating the operating costs per available seat mile, Spirit’s most important metric. He talks about the difficulty of forecasting for an airline, explaining the costs you may not think about, what goes into network planning, the challenges of hedging fuel prices, navigating capital in...
May 02, 2024•59 min
Silicon Valley veteran and early employee at Google, Facebook, and Quip, Molly Graham, joins CJ to discuss all things related to scaling startups, growing as a leader, and progressing in your career. Molly talks about her famous “Give Away Your Legos” talk and how this came about before she and CJ discuss the concept of “work grief” and how to get through it when you have to give up something that your identity is tied to. Having had a very non-linear career path and “stumbling sideways into thi...
Apr 25, 2024•1 hr 1 min
In this episode, CJ is joined by Lanny Baker, the CFO of Eventbrite, and former CFO of Yelp, Monster.com, and ZipRealty. Lanny has been a part of some incredible business transformations or pivots at each of these companies and has some profound insights to share on the topic. First, he explains some of the differences between consumer-facing internet businesses versus SaaS or B2B. He sheds light on Eventbrite’s unique creator and consumer model, the virtuous cycle of network effects it benefits...
Apr 22, 2024•1 hr 3 min
In this episode, CJ sits down with John McCauley, the CFO of Calendly. From his learnings under the leadership of Frank Slootman and Mike Scarpelli at ServiceNow to his first CFO role at Seismic, and his current position, John shares valuable insights from his career. He gives advice on hiring and getting promoted, why you should consider your value prop to your company, the benefits of seeking healthy confrontation, and why the CFO should take responsibility for overall company performance. Fro...
Apr 18, 2024•56 min
In this episode, CJ is joined by Jeff Cooper, the CFO of Guidewire, a publicly traded vertical software company serving the insurance industry. Jeff explains the strategic advantage Guidewire has in owning the control point within a customer's tech infrastructure and how they achieved this. He sheds light on the challenges and benefits of Guidewire's industry-specific business model, including long sales cycles, non-standard fiscal years, and the risks of burning through their market. He also di...
Apr 15, 2024•49 min
Today, CJ hosts Taylor Holiday, a legend in the e-commerce and D2C (Direct-to-Consumer) world. He is also the CEO and founder of Common Thread Collective, one of the leading marketing agencies for e-commerce brands. Taylor takes us on a deep dive into marketing best practices and shares profound insights from his years of experience in D2C and e-commerce businesses. He talks about bridging the gap between marketing and finance and what marketers often miss about monetization. He explains when to...
Apr 11, 2024•54 min
Jim Kelliher , the former CFO of PTC, LogMeIn, and Drift, and general CFO legend in Boston, joins CJ to discuss the secrets behind the success of these companies and the lessons he’s learned in his 35-year career. From the importance of product investment to how to navigate IPOs during economic downturns, Jim shares profound insights into how CFOs can drive growth rather than just manage budgets. He explains the importance of investing in product, how to vet budget requests, and how to build a w...
Apr 08, 2024•1 hr
This episode dives into the world of short-selling and activist investing with guest Edwin Dorsey, the writer behind The Bear Cave Substack. Edwin tells CJ the story of how he made a name for himself by exposing wrongdoing at Care.com and how this inspired his current writing career. He goes on to explain how short selling works and what differentiates it from long-only investing, before talking about how he researches corporate misconduct, the clues he looks for in consumer industry reports, an...
Apr 04, 2024•54 min
In this episode, CJ is joined by Jason Kap, the founder and CEO of Blue Rocket , a world-renowned pricing consultancy for top enterprise tech companies like Salesforce, Cisco, PagerDuty, Brex, and GitLab. Jason discusses the invaluable experience he gained working at Microsoft under Bill Gates in the early 2000s, including his role in the canonical antitrust case. Then he takes a deep dive into all things pricing, covering where in the organization pricing should sit, how often companies should ...
Apr 01, 2024•59 min
In this episode, CJ discusses the business of global payments and B2B fintech with Camilla Matias Morais, COO of Brex. Camilla came up in the FP&A world and is a stellar guide to Brex’s strategic bets and moats. Also covered is how she balances the COO role of risk management and company strategy while also being in the weeds with customer feedback. If you're looking for an ERP head to NetSuite: https://netsuite.com/metrics and get a one-of-a-kind flexible financing program until April 15th,...
Mar 28, 2024•1 hr 1 min
In this episode, CJ talks with the original duo of the Salem Witch Trials the HR Heretics podcast, Kelli Dragovich and Nolan Church about tech layoffs in 2024. Kelli and Nolan hold no punches and give straight answers to tough questions on layoffs, the job market, and employment best practices. If you're looking for an ERP head to NetSuite: https://netsuite.com/metrics and get a one-of-a-kind flexible financing program until April 15th, 2024. RECOMMENDED PODCAST: HR Heretics Join Nolan Church an...
Mar 25, 2024•55 min
In this episode CJ is joined by Fred Havemeyer, a leading sell-side equity analyst from Macquarie specializing in AI and software research within the US. They delve deep into AI’s impact on the near term role of a CFO. Fred offers an unparalleled analysis of how to quantify productivity gains with AI, the difference between the metrics the sell side uses versus operators and their day to day models. They also cover why company valuations are both an art and a science, and the difference in metri...
Mar 21, 2024•1 hr 1 min
Todd Rakow, CFO of Gladly joins CJ for this deep dive into usage-based revenue models, strategic finance leadership, and the complexities of managing growth at scale. Todd shares tons of tactical insights, including building out the usage-based model, forecasting customer usage patterns, commissioning sales reps, and teaching your teams to distinguish between reoccurring and recurring revenue. If you're looking for an ERP head to NetSuite: https://netsuite.com/metrics and get a one-of-a-kind fle...
Mar 18, 2024•54 min
Today CJ is joined by Cameron Hyzer, the CFO of ZoomInfo, one of the world's most successful publicly traded data businesses. Cameron is a master capital allocator and this conversation touches on why you should focus on quality versus reducing costs as a CFO, share repurchase programs 101, and frameworks for making resource allocation bets. If you're looking for an ERP head to NetSuite: https://netsuite.com/metrics and get a customized KPI checklist. — SPONSORS: Maxio is the only billing and fi...
Mar 14, 2024•46 min
Today CJ welcomes Dave Kline, a leadership coach and owner of the MGMT Accelerator to the pod. The discussion covers tactical advice for managers and leaders to develop high performance cultures among their current teams, including setting clear expectations, running productive 1:1s, and encouraging a compounding ownership mentality from direct reports. They also touch on Dave’s lessons from working at Bridgewater under Ray Dalio, whether a company can have a Dennis Rodman, and strategies to bet...
Mar 11, 2024•50 min
Today, the tables are turned as guest Alex Peterson, an expert in Financial Planning & Analysis (FP&A) – and CJ’s first hire – puts CJ in the hot seat. Tune in for two old friends sharing war stories and talking about performance reviews, net dollar retention rates, and Frank Slootman’s retirement. If you're looking for an ERP head to NetSuite: https://netsuite.com/metrics and get a customized KPI checklist. — SPONSORS: Maxio is the only billing and financial operations platform that was...
Mar 07, 2024•1 hr
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 and...
Mar 04, 2024•59 min
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 which d...
Feb 29, 2024•54 min
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: https://netsuite.com/metrics ...
Feb 26, 2024•51 min
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 talk, ...
Feb 22, 2024•50 min
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 lines,...
Feb 19, 2024•49 min
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 an...
Feb 16, 2024•1 hr 1 min
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. More t...
Feb 12, 2024•51 min
