This week, Sasha Orloff and Worldpay Chief Product Officer Cindy Turner explore the shifting digital payments landscape—from stablecoins and agentic tech to global trends in account-to-account payments, regional behaviors, regulatory influences, and innovations like buy now, pay later. -- SPONSORS: Notion Boost your startup with Notion—the ultimate connected workspace trusted by thousands worldwide! From engineering specs to onboarding and fundraising, Notion keeps your team organized and effici...
Jun 12, 2025•42 min
In this episode, Sasha Orloff talks with Jean-Denis Greze, Co-founder and CEO of Town, about building an AI-powered tax solution for SMBs, exploring the startup’s origin, the balance between automation and human expertise, strategic market targeting, funding insights, and the transformative potential of AI in tax preparation. -- SPONSORS: Notion Boost your startup with Notion—the ultimate connected workspace trusted by thousands worldwide! From engineering specs to onboarding and fundraising, No...
May 21, 2025•54 min
This week, Sasha Orloff sits down with Jaspar Carmichael-Jack, Founder & CEO of Artisan, about how their AI employees like Ava are transforming sales and workflows by integrating software into cohesive ecosystems, highlighting breakthroughs in AI capabilities, the balance between automation and human input, and the future of work. -- SPONSORS: Notion Boost your startup with Notion—the ultimate connected workspace trusted by thousands worldwide! From engineering specs to onboarding and fundra...
Apr 30, 2025•35 min
In this episode, Sasha Orloff is joined Alan Imberman, CFO of Wealthfront, about how a client-first philosophy, transparent access, innovative products like S&P 500 Direct Indexing, and strategic use of machine learning have helped Wealthfront grow to $80 billion in assets and 1 million customers, while delivering lower fees, better rates, and sustainable wealth-building strategies. -- SPONSORS: Notion Boost your startup with Notion—the ultimate connected workspace trusted by thousands world...
Apr 23, 2025•40 min
This week, Sasha Orloff is joined by Wouter Born, a finance, AI influencer, and General Partner at Born Capital to discuss how AI is reshaping the CFO role and financial tech stack, drawing lessons from Netflix’s rise over Blockbuster, emphasizing innovation, practical AI adoption, and financial storytelling. -- SPONSORS: Notion Boost your startup with Notion—the ultimate connected workspace trusted by thousands worldwide! From engineering specs to onboarding and fundraising, Notion keeps your t...
Apr 16, 2025•44 min
This week, Sasha Orloff sits down with Megh Gautam, Chief Product Officer of Crunchbase, to explore the company’s evolution into an AI-driven intelligence platform, discussing its 95% unicorn prediction accuracy, AI-powered user experiences, pricing challenges, and insights for founders, investors, and job seekers. -- SPONSORS: Notion Boost your startup with Notion—the ultimate connected workspace trusted by thousands worldwide! From engineering specs to onboarding and fundraising, Notion keeps ...
Apr 09, 2025•41 min
This week, Sasha Orloff sits down with Ben Cohen, Head of Data from Deel to discuss the company's 2025 Global Hiring Report, covering trends in Gen Z salaries, rising demand for finance roles, global workforce management challenges, domestic hiring shifts, employee termination rates, and the tools Deel provides to support global hires, with an emphasis on trust and asynchronous decision-making for productivity. -- SPONSORS: Notion Boost your startup with Notion—the ultimate connected workspace t...
Apr 02, 2025•41 min
This week, Sasha Orloff is joined by Kash Ali, Founder and CEO of TaxGPT, who shares how a personal tax issue led to the platform’s creation, its rapid growth after Greg Brockman’s GPT-4 demo, investor interest from Marc Cuban and Jason Calacanis, its shift from a consumer tool to a B2B AI assistant for accountants, its unique advantages over general AI, and his own journey from Pakistan to Silicon Valley, culminating in Y Combinator and a vision for the future of AI-driven tax assistance. -- SP...
Mar 27, 2025•45 min
This week, Sasha Orloff sits down with Donald Gossen, CEO of Nevermined, to explore the future of AI-driven payments, highlighting the company's vision for AI agents with independent accounts and transaction protocols, the challenges of dynamic payment systems, the role of blockchain in security, and Nevermined's journey in enabling decentralized AI-to-AI transactions. -- SPONSORS: Notion Boost your startup with Notion—the ultimate connected workspace trusted by thousands worldwide! From enginee...
Mar 19, 2025•35 min
This week, Sasha Orloff is joined by Ankur Dahiya, CEO and founder of Fifteenth, a B2B fintech startup using AI to modernize the tax industry, as they discuss his journey from navigating complex stock options at Flexport to transforming CPA services, the challenges of scaling a tax-focused business, the role of AI in automating tax processes, and his vision for more efficient, accessible tax advisory following a successful funding round. -- SPONSORS: Notion Boost your startup with Notion—the ult...
Mar 12, 2025•36 min
In this first episode of Season 2, Sasha Orloff is joined by Matt Tait, CEO of Decimal, to discuss the rise of AI in accounting, Decimal’s recent acquisition of KPMG Spark, and their new strategic partnership with Puzzle. Matt also covers his journey building Decimal, the balance of human expertise in a tech-driven world, and the industry’s future. -- SPONSORS: Puzzle 📈 No more waiting for month's end. No more manual reconciliations, just financials that keep up with you. Puzzle is leading a ne...
Feb 06, 2025•49 min
In the final episode of season one, Sasha Orloff is joined by David Hartley, a seasoned CPA with over 30 years of experience, as they explore the evolution of accounting from the 15th century to today's AI-driven landscape and discuss how the profession adapts to technological change while preserving its core value of trust. — 🙏 Help shape our show by taking our quick listener survey at https://bit.ly/TurpentinePulse. — Highlights from the Episode: Accounting profession is facing its most signi...
Dec 19, 2024•52 min
In this episode, Sasha Orloff is joined by Andrew Gazdecki, founder of Acquire.com, who shares his expertise on successfully selling companies, maximizing exit value, and key lessons from his own acquisition experiences, with over $500 million in closed deals. — 🙏 Help shape our show by taking our quick listener survey at https://bit.ly/TurpentinePulse. — Highlights from the Episode: Creating a competitive process with multiple potential buyers is crucial for maximizing exit value - "if you hav...
Dec 12, 2024•37 min•Season 1Ep. 38
This week, Sasha Orloff sits down with JustPaid founders Daniel Kivatinos, a successful YC founder behind the first iPad medical records company, and Anelya Grant, a Kazakhstan immigrant who built an accounting practice for YC startups, about how their unique backgrounds inspired them to tackle the critical challenge of accounts receivable automation with an AI-powered platform. For full show notes, visit: https://highlightai.com/share/309bb91f-34ee-4052-88e5-28718a9101da — 🙏 Help shape our sho...
Dec 05, 2024•52 min
Today, we’re sharing a special episode from our friends at the Webby Awards-honored CRAFTED. podcast. In this conversation, Dan Blumberg interviews growth expert, SYSTM founder, and former PayPal leader Matt Lerner about his book 'Growth Levers,' offering actionable strategies for startups to identify the 10% of efforts that drive 90% of growth. They discuss common startup pitfalls, the mindset shift to customer-centric thinking, JTBD-style interviewing, and the importance of rapid experimentati...
Nov 26, 2024•38 min
This week, Nicolas Boucher, a finance influencer with nearly a million LinkedIn followers, shares his journey from corporate finance to becoming a content creator and educator, discuss the impact of AI on finance jobs, and how he uses platforms like LinkedIn to share valuable financial insights. For full show notes, visit: https://highlightai.com/share/af10e152-f30a-403e-805f-d234eb40109a — 🙏 Help shape our show by taking our quick listener survey at https://bit.ly/TurpentinePulse. — RECOMMENDE...
Nov 21, 2024•49 min
This week, Sasha Orloff is joined by Andrés Ugarte to explore the rise of Copilot Money after Mint's shutdown announcement, sharing his journey from frustrated user to founder of a privacy-focused personal finance app, and discussing the challenges of building a product-driven company in a shifting financial landscape. For full show notes, visit: https://highlightai.com/share/31895f5b-d783-4eaa-ab11-ac3214b21ddb — RECOMMENDED PODCAST: Unpack Pricing Dive into the dark arts of SaaS pricing with M...
Nov 14, 2024•51 min
In this episode of Turpentine Finance, host Sasha Orloff sits down with Paul Barnhurst, a passionate FP&A educator and content creator who shares insights on financial planning & analysis, teaching methodologies, and the evolution of financial tools. For full show notes, visit: https://highlightai.com/share/1823b417-abe8-49bb-8f00-d673e24077b1 -- 📰Be notified early when Turpentine drops new publication: https://www.turpentine.co/exclusiveaccess -- RECOMMENDED PODCAST: Unpack Pricing Div...
Oct 31, 2024•50 min
In this episode, host Sasha Orloff interviews Brad Wiskirchen about his journey with Kount, the AI-driven fraud prevention company he bootstrapped and sold to Equifax for $640 million, while sharing insights from his experience as a founder and now a partner at CVC Capital Partners. For full show notes, visit: https://highlightai.com/share/eec1be56-ae04-4afc-bb24-7ed8523b2176 -- 📰Be notified early when Turpentine drops new publication: https://www.turpentine.co/exclusiveaccess -- RECOMMENDED PO...
Oct 24, 2024•56 min
In this episode, Sasha Orloff is joined by Aneal Vallurupalli, CFO at Airbase, who drops insights on modern spend management and his journey from M&A to leading finance at a Paylocity acquisition target. Aneal discusses his career trajectory, the impactful role of a CFO in spend management, and how Airbase revolutionizes non-payroll spends in the AI era. Aneal also offers essential advice to CFOs navigating today’s dynamic financial landscape. 🔥 Apply to join over 400 Founders and Execs in ...
Oct 17, 2024•48 min
In this episode, Sasha Orloff sits down with Blake Hutchison, CEO of Flippa, the leading platform for buying and selling online businesses. Blake shares insights from his career (Xero, Lonely Planet, Good44), and explains how Flippa operates as the ‘investment bank for the 99%,’ providing a marketplace for subscale business transactions. The episode dives into the opportunities presented by the marketplace, key deal characteristics, and the different buyer segments. They also discuss the importa...
Oct 10, 2024•52 min
In this episode, Sasha Orloff welcomes Jane Lee and Aditya Reddy of Sapphire Ventures to unpack their paper, “Rise of the Next Gen CFO,” which features a market map of CFO tools and identifies key trends and predictions. Jane and Aditya discuss how finance roles are transforming, the convergence of finance and data science, the influence of AI, and emerging investment strategies in this fast-paced sector. Nothing presented within this podcast is intended to constitute investment advice, and unde...
Oct 03, 2024•46 min
In this episode, Sasha Orloff is joined by Eugene Spevakov, the Treasurer and Head of Corporate FP&A at 6sense, treasury expert, and veteran CFO. Sasha and Eugene dive deep into the Treasury function: how it differs across industries, how a scaling startup will know when it’s time to hire for the role, how to structure the function, and what separates a great treasurer from merely good. Eugene offers a masterclass on leveraging treasury to drive growth, improve cash flow, and allocate risk s...
Sep 26, 2024•53 min
In this episode, Sasha Orloff sits down with Camille Ricketts, former Co-Head of Marketing at Notion, Editor of First Round Review and Elon’s comms manager at Tesla, to talk about the ROI of content as a growth driver. Camille, currently a partner at XYZ Venture Capital, played a key role in persuading Sasha years ago to invest in content as a revenue channel. In this episode she shares her invaluable insights from her roles at Notion, Tesla, and First Round Review. Tune in to hear Camille’s com...
Sep 19, 2024•51 min
When Y Combinator's Paul Graham released his viral essay "Founder Mode," it sparked a firestorm in the tech world. Based on a private talk by Airbnb's Brian Chesky and endorsed by the likes of Elon Musk and Patrick Collison, the piece garnered over 20 million views. Enter Jim Cook, legendary Silicon Valley CFO (Netflix, Intuit, Mozilla) who just wrote a counterargument to set the record straight. Cook challenges the simplistic notion of founder supremacy — where only 10% succeed — and offers a d...
Sep 12, 2024•58 min
In this episode, Sasha Orloff is joined by Chris Sands, Head of Jobs at The F Suite, to discuss the landscape of finance leadership and career advancement in 2024. Sands unpacks the changing role of CFOs and how to navigate compensation from the vantage point of CFOs (and the CEOs hiring for the role). This episode offers invaluable insights on how to stay relevant, adaptable, and ahead of the curve in your finance career. 🔥Apply to join over 400 Founders and Execs in the Turpentine Network: ht...
Sep 05, 2024•56 min
In this episode, Sasha Orloff is joined by Valerie Burman, CFO of Sugar Bowl Resort in Lake Tahoe and former VP at Workday and SAP, shares her unique journey from being an executive at Silicon Valley tech companies to becoming the CFO of a ski resort. Valerie talks about her philosophy on building the dream team, the importance of understanding business acumen in a CFO role, and strategies for achieving long-term liquidity. She also reflects on hard won lessons from multiple M&As and corpdev...
Aug 29, 2024•51 min
In this episode, Rishi Garg, former Head of Corporate Development at Twitter and Square, shares insider knowledge on tech acquisitions. He explains when companies should start considering M&A and the three key approaches: tops down, bottoms up, and strategy influence. Rishi reveals how he managed up to 15 deals in 12 months and why integration is crucial for M&A success. He debunks common M&A misconceptions and discusses the "sins of omission" - deals he regrets not making. The conve...
Aug 22, 2024•1 hr 7 min•Season 1Ep. 20
In this episode of Turpentine Finance, Sasha sits down with Eric Ries, author of "The Lean Startup" and founder of the Long-Term Stock Exchange (LTSE). Ries shares the challenging journey of creating a new national securities exchange designed to promote long-term thinking in public companies. He discusses the obstacles faced in gaining SEC approval, the misconceptions about corporate governance, and why many companies struggle with balancing short-term pressures and long-term vision. Ries offer...
Aug 15, 2024•1 hr 6 min•Season 1Ep. 19
In this episode, Sasha sits down with Jody Padar, the Radical CPA, 3x author, to discuss the incentive misalignment in accounting firms, and how radical pricing can solve it. Jody shares her insights on the evolving landscape of accounting, discussing the need for firms to adapt to new technologies, embrace value-based pricing, and shift from traditional hourly billing models. She emphasizes the importance of redefining the accountant-client relationship in the digital age, advocating for a more...
Aug 08, 2024•52 min•Season 1Ep. 18
