Afleveringen

  • In this episode of Run the Numbers, CJ breaks down Lime’s S-1 as the scooter company heads toward the public markets. He gets into the $1.8B valuation, Wayne Ting’s turnaround playbook, Lime’s unit economics, the post-Covid recovery, and the debt wall that may be forcing the IPO window open.

    SPONSORS:

    SpendHound cuts your SaaS and AI spend by up to 30% using real pricing benchmarks across 10,000 vendors, so you always know what fair pricing looks like before your next renewal. Rated #1 on G2 in SaaS spend management, it's free forever for teams up to 1,000 employees. Sign up by June 12th and get $500 just for getting started. Go to https://www.spendhound.com/cj

    Brex is an intelligent finance platform with AI-powered agents that capture expenses automatically, enforce policy before the spend happens, and close your books in minutes instead of weeks. 35,000+ companies like OpenAI, Coinbase, Anthropic, and DoorDash already run on Brex. It's time to get Brex AF. Learn more at https://www.brex.com/metrics

    Aleph is a modern FP&A platform built for teams that want more than another planning tool. By connecting your ERP, CRM, and other systems into one trusted data layer with AI workflows, Aleph helps you move faster with real-time insights. Get a personalized demo at https://www.getaleph.com/run

    RightRev is an automated revenue recognition platform that lets your product team ship new pricing without asking finance for permission, and your sales team close deals without creating downstream chaos. Check out their free tool at calculator.rightrev.com It scores your rev rec process, shows what's exposing you to risk, and tells you exactly where to focus before it bites you in the rear end. Check it out at https://calculator.rightrev.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

    EY has been part of Silicon Valley since it was just a valley, helping the most successful names in tech go from startup to exit to megacap. With teams across strategy, tax, audit, and transactions, EY helps you get your financials right early, long before your investors start asking for it. You build the next big thing, and EY will help you build it right. Learn more at https://www.ey.com/techstartups

    LINKS:

    Mostly Talent: https://mostlymetrics.typeform.com/to/cLTxtAsN

    CJ: https://www.linkedin.com/in/cj-gustafson-13140948/

    Mostly metrics: https://www.mostlymetrics.com

    RELATED EPISODES:

    SpaceX S1 Breakdown

    https://youtu.be/AARjbTO8FKo

    TIMESTAMPS:

    0:00 Intro

    1:48 What Lime does

    2:47 Phoenix rising from the ashes

    3:53 Revenue: $887M, 29% growth

    6:38 Gross margin and the depreciation trick

    7:53 Adjusted EBITDA: $218M, up 42%

    8:27 Why the net loss got bigger

    9:54 Sponsors — SpendHound | Brex | Aleph

    13:08 Revenue per vehicle per day

    13:42 Marketing: only 2% of revenue

    14:01 Subscription mix: 28% and rising

    14:25 The debt: $821M but most converts

    15:37 The turnaround story

    16:42 What Wayne found taking over

    17:31 The three numbers he locked in on

    18:05 The warehouse overhaul

    19:31 Sponsors — RightRev | Rillet | EY

    22:33 The debt deep dive

    23:20 Why the net loss widened

    24:27 Post-IPO: nearly debt free

    25:07 Why more scooters make each scooter worth more

    28:43 How a scooter pays for itself

    30:43 The swappable battery

    32:39 Is this a real moat?

    34:14 Red flag 1: going concern

    35:11 Red flag 2: depreciation change before IPO

    36:11 Red flag 3: permits can disappear

    36:32 Red flag 4: Uber is everything

    37:24 Red flag 5: vehicles catch fire

    37:56 Valuation: under 2x revenue

    39:55 Comps: between Lyft and Uber

    40:55 Bull vs. bear

    41:52 Legal name is Neutron Holdings

    42:47 Credits

  • On this episode of Run the Numbers, CJ sits down with Confluent CFO Rohan Sivaram to talk goal setting, prioritization, consumption-based pricing, hybrid zero-based budgeting, and the frameworks finance leaders use to scale companies. Rohan shares why he carries his 12-month goals with him, how he evaluates opportunities through TAM, technology, and team, and why usage-based pricing changes the entire operating model.

    SPONSORS:

    EY has been part of Silicon Valley since it was just a valley, helping the most successful names in tech go from startup to exit to megacap. With teams across strategy, tax, audit, and transactions, EY helps you get your financials right early, long before your investors start asking for it. You build the next big thing, and EY will help you build it right. Learn more at https://www.ey.com/techstartups

    SpendHound cuts your SaaS and AI spend by up to 30% using real pricing benchmarks across 10,000 vendors, so you always know what fair pricing looks like before your next renewal. Rated #1 on G2 in SaaS spend management, it's free forever for teams up to 1,000 employees. Sign up by June 12th and get $500 just for getting started. Go to https://www.spendhound.com/cj

    Brex is an intelligent finance platform with AI-powered agents that capture expenses automatically, enforce policy before the spend happens, and close your books in minutes instead of weeks. 35,000+ companies like OpenAI, Coinbase, Anthropic, and DoorDash already run on Brex. It's time to get Brex AF. Learn more at https://www.brex.com/metrics

    Aleph is a modern FP&A platform built for teams that want more than another planning tool. By connecting your ERP, CRM, and other systems into one trusted data layer with AI workflows, Aleph helps you move faster with real-time insights. Get a personalized demo at https://www.getaleph.com/run

    RightRev is an automated revenue recognition platform that lets your product team ship new pricing without asking finance for permission, and your sales team close deals without creating downstream chaos. Check out their free tool at calculator.rightrev.com It scores your rev rec process, shows what's exposing you to risk, and tells you exactly where to focus before it bites you in the rear end. Check it out at https://calculator.rightrev.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

    LINKS:

    Mostly Talent: https://mostlymetrics.typeform.com/to/cLTxtAsN

    Guest: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rohan-sivaram-69007b7/

    Company: https://www.confluent.io/

    CJ: https://www.linkedin.com/in/cj-gustafson-13140948/

    Mostly metrics: https://www.mostlymetrics.com

    RELATED EPISODES:

    A CFO Explains Marketplaces

    https://youtu.be/LpbH9GpBrSY

    TIMESTAMPS:

    0:00 Preview and Intro

    2:26 Writing down 12-month goals and carrying them

    6:33 Rule of 168: 168 hours a week

    7:36 Delegation and calendar management

    9:25 Learning to say no: cultural shift

    11:32 Sponsors — EY | SpendHound | Brex

    14:29 Joining Confluent: the state of the company

    16:57 Building blocks of a budgeting process

    19:46 Execute, learn, adapt

    21:59 Healthy tension in the planning cycle

    22:26 Sponsors — Aleph | RightRev | Rillet

    25:46 What is hybrid zero-based budgeting?

    30:37 Moving from subscription to consumption pricing

    32:22 Why this was a one-way door

    33:56 New metrics required in a consumption business

    35:28 Evaluating job opportunities: the three T's

    37:39 Networking and reciprocity

    39:54 Lightning round

    40:04 Screwed up: free cash flow sign error

    42:03 Advice to younger self: take more risks

    42:38 Finance software stack

    43:00 AI tools the team has built

    43:44 Credits

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  • In this episode of Run the Numbers, CJ sits down with Jake Kornreich, CFO of CoLab and former CFO of Own, live from the New York Stock Exchange. Jake breaks down the six-part framework behind Own’s $2.1B sale to Salesforce, why “control your destiny” matters, how CFOs should think about IPO readiness, board communication, share price theater, and why great finance leaders operate beyond the spreadsheet.

    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

    EY has been part of Silicon Valley since it was just a valley, helping the most successful names in tech go from startup to exit to megacap. With teams across strategy, tax, audit, and transactions, EY helps you get your financials right early, long before your investors start asking for it. You build the next big thing, and EY will help you build it right. Learn more at https://www.ey.com/techstartups

    SpendHound cuts your SaaS and AI spend by up to 30% using real pricing benchmarks across 10,000 vendors, so you always know what fair pricing looks like before your next renewal. Rated #1 on G2 in SaaS spend management, it's free forever for teams up to 1,000 employees. Sign up by June 12th and get $500 just for getting started. Go to https://www.spendhound.com/cj

    Brex is an intelligent finance platform with AI-powered agents that capture expenses automatically, enforce policy before the spend happens, and close your books in minutes instead of weeks. 35,000+ companies like OpenAI, Coinbase, Anthropic, and DoorDash already run on Brex. It's time to get Brex AF. Learn more at https://www.brex.com/metrics

    Aleph is a modern FP&A platform built for teams that want more than another planning tool. By connecting your ERP, CRM, and other systems into one trusted data layer with AI workflows, Aleph helps you move faster with real-time insights. Get a personalized demo at https://www.getaleph.com/run

    RightRev is an automated revenue recognition platform that lets your product team ship new pricing without asking finance for permission, and your sales team close deals without creating downstream chaos. Check out their free tool at calculator.rightrev.com It scores your rev rec process, shows what's exposing you to risk, and tells you exactly where to focus before it bites you in the rear end. Check it out at https://calculator.rightrev.com

    LINKS:

    Mostly Talent: https://mostlymetrics.typeform.com/to/cLTxtAsN

    Guest: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jake-kornreich/

    Company: https://www.colabsoftware.com/

    CJ: https://www.linkedin.com/in/cj-gustafson-13140948/

    Mostly metrics: https://www.mostlymetrics.com

    TIMESTAMPS:

    0:00 Preview and Intro

    2:20 First stock

    3:28 Benefits of going public today

    5:42 Come-up: chief of staff to CFO

    6:31 Running HR like a sales org

    8:32 Control your destiny

    9:24 Synergies with Salesforce

    10:09 Sponsors — Rillet | EY | SpendHound

    13:10 Do your own ROI due diligence

    14:40 Share price equals entertainment

    16:26 Disciplined execution

    17:45 Performance, not stories

    19:24 Activist investors and the acquirer's board

    20:13 Write the memo for the other side

    20:45 Sponsors — Brex | Aleph | RightRev

    24:02 Triangulate your way to success

    25:18 Your board takes snapshots, you run the movie

    26:21 Knowing when to sell

    27:16 Valuation limits your exit options

    27:38 Stakeholder comms during the acquisition

    29:58 CFO as operator, not just function

    31:31 What is CoLab?

    32:09 Why Jake joined post-Series C

    33:50 Personal product market fit for CFOs

    35:27 Lightning round

    35:42 Screwed up: $5M budget error

    36:17 Advice to younger self

    36:41 Finance software stack

    37:34 Culture of expense discipline

    38:22 Credits

  • In this episode of Run the Numbers, CJ sits down with Dan Bettes, CFO of SoundCloud, at the New York Stock Exchange. Dan breaks down how SoundCloud operates as a two-sided music marketplace, how he thinks about liquidity between fans and creators, and why great finance leaders need to make forecasting feel owned by the business

    SPONSORS:

    Aleph is a modern FP&A platform built for teams that want more than another planning tool. By connecting your ERP, CRM, and other systems into one trusted data layer with AI workflows, Aleph helps you move faster with real-time insights. Get a personalized demo at https://www.getaleph.com/run

    RightRev is an automated revenue recognition platform that lets your product team ship new pricing without asking finance for permission, and your sales team close deals without creating downstream chaos. Check out their free tool at calculator.rightrev.com It scores your rev rec process, shows what's exposing you to risk, and tells you exactly where to focus before it bites you in the rear end. Check it out at https://calculator.rightrev.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

    EY has been part of Silicon Valley since it was just a valley, helping the most successful names in tech go from startup to exit to megacap. With teams across strategy, tax, audit, and transactions, EY helps you get your financials right early, long before your investors start asking for it. You build the next big thing, and EY will help you build it right. Learn more at https://www.ey.com/techstartups

    SpendHound cuts your SaaS and AI spend by up to 30% using real pricing benchmarks across 10,000 vendors, so you always know what fair pricing looks like before your next renewal. Rated #1 on G2 in SaaS spend management, it's free forever for teams up to 1,000 employees. Sign up by June 12th and get $500 just for getting started. Go to https://www.spendhound.com/cj

    Brex is an intelligent finance platform with AI-powered agents that capture expenses automatically, enforce policy before the spend happens, and close your books in minutes instead of weeks. 35,000+ companies like OpenAI, Coinbase, Anthropic, and DoorDash already run on Brex. It's time to get Brex AF. Learn more at https://www.brex.com/metrics

    LINKS:

    Mostly Talent: https://mostlymetrics.typeform.com/to/cLTxtAsN

    Guest: https://www.linkedin.com/in/danielbettes/

    Company: https://soundcloud.com/

    CJ: https://www.linkedin.com/in/cj-gustafson-13140948/

    Mostly metrics: https://www.mostlymetrics.com

    TIMESTAMPS:

    0:00 Preview and Intro

    2:17 First stock: a Vanguard index fund

    3:13 Most memorable IPO: Groupon

    4:54 Benefits of going public have changed

    5:47 SoundCloud and the music industry

    7:21 Three eras: physical, streaming, creator platform

    8:49 Streaming unbundled the album

    10:03 Artists don't need labels anymore

    11:40 Sponsors — Aleph | RightRev | Rillet

    15:00 SoundCloud's two-sided business model

    16:23 Touring replaced the album

    17:17 First metric every morning: net adds

    18:31 DAU vs. MAU: it's a funnel

    19:14 Viral moments and exogenous pops

    20:10 LTV and the subscription funnel

    21:38 Sponsors — EY | SpendHound | Brex

    24:35 Tops-down vs. bottoms-up: reconcile both

    26:21 Revenue is an output

    27:45 Handling forecast deviation

    29:24 How often to reforecast

    30:23 The final boss: indirect cash flow statement

    33:09 Cash vs. EBITDA fluency

    35:04 Plain English and the power of reps

    36:52 Tailor the message to the audience

    37:45 Lightning round

    37:45 Screwed up: miscounted corn at a banquet

    38:41 Lean into discomfort

    39:55 Craziest expense: a post-flight massage

    40:17 Credits

  • In this episode of Run the Numbers, CJ breaks down Bending Spoons’ F-1 filing and the acquisition machine behind AOL, Evernote, Vimeo, Eventbrite, and more. He unpacks the company’s playbook: buy under-optimized digital businesses, transform operations, raise prices, reinvest earnings, and repeat — while asking the core question: how much was built, and how much was bought?

    SPONSORS:

    RightRev is an automated revenue recognition platform that lets your product team ship new pricing without asking finance for permission, and your sales team close deals without creating downstream chaos. Check out their free tool at calculator.rightrev.com It scores your rev rec process, shows what's exposing you to risk, and tells you exactly where to focus before it bites you in the rear end. Check it out at https://calculator.rightrev.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

    EY has been part of Silicon Valley since it was just a valley, helping the most successful names in tech go from startup to exit to megacap. With teams across strategy, tax, audit, and transactions, EY helps you get your financials right early, long before your investors start asking for it. You build the next big thing, and EY will help you build it right. Learn more at https://www.ey.com/techstartups

    SpendHound cuts your SaaS and AI spend by up to 30% using real pricing benchmarks across 10,000 vendors, so you always know what fair pricing looks like before your next renewal. Rated #1 on G2 in SaaS spend management, it's free forever for teams up to 1,000 employees. Sign up by June 12th and get $500 just for getting started. Go to https://www.spendhound.com/cj

    Brex is an intelligent finance platform with AI-powered agents that capture expenses automatically, enforce policy before the spend happens, and close your books in minutes instead of weeks. 35,000+ companies like OpenAI, Coinbase, Anthropic, and DoorDash already run on Brex. It's time to get Brex AF. Learn more at https://www.brex.com/metrics

    Aleph is a modern FP&A platform built for teams that want more than another planning tool. By connecting your ERP, CRM, and other systems into one trusted data layer with AI workflows, Aleph helps you move faster with real-time insights. Get a personalized demo at https://www.getaleph.com/run

    LINKS:

    Mostly Talent: https://mostlymetrics.typeform.com/to/cLTxtAsN

    CJ: https://www.linkedin.com/in/cj-gustafson-13140948/

    Mostly metrics: https://www.mostlymetrics.com

    TIMESTAMPS:

    0:00 What is Bending Spoons?

    1:03 The Internet's attic: the portfolio

    3:11 The metrics rundown

    5:44 Revenue: $1.3B, 95% growth

    6:04 82% of growth was bought, not built

    6:29 Gross margin: 66%

    6:50 Subscription mix and NRR

    7:33 Net income: basically zero

    8:00 Cash: $741M, debt: $4.4B

    8:35 Revenue per employee: $2.57M

    9:39 Sponsors — RightRev | Rillet | EY

    12:42 Organic growth is mostly price hikes

    13:50 A house of adjustments

    14:54 Add-backs bigger than the profit

    15:22 The reorganization line: cost of firing

    19:21 Sponsors — SpendHound | Brex | Aleph

    22:51 Does the playbook actually work?

    23:07 Evernote: the proof point

    23:45 Romini: the growth proof point

    24:10 AI in three directions at once

    25:45 The debt engine

    27:50 Red flag 1: material accounting weaknesses

    28:38 Red flag 2: pro forma numbers come with a confession

    29:00 Red flag 3: App Store dependency

    29:11 Red flag 4: no long-term contracts

    29:30 Red flag 5: foreign private issuer

    29:52 Red flag 6: they've never sold anything

    30:19 Cap table and board

    31:07 Valuation: 14–18x

    33:00 Bull vs. bear case

    33:55 Miscellaneous: the S1 is already stale

    35:25 Credits

  • CJ Gustafson sits down with Marten Abrahamsen, CFO of Vercel, at the NYSE to talk about running finance inside a hypergrowth AI company. They cover AI use cases in finance, rev rec, forecasting, KPI dashboards, PLG, consumption pricing, and Marten’s “speeding tickets vs. parking tickets” framework for moving fast without losing control.

    SPONSORS:

    Brex is an intelligent finance platform with AI-powered agents that capture expenses automatically, enforce policy before the spend happens, and close your books in minutes instead of weeks. 35,000+ companies like OpenAI, Coinbase, Anthropic, and DoorDash already run on Brex. It's time to get Brex AF. Learn more at https://www.brex.com/metrics

    Aleph is a modern FP&A platform built for teams that want more than another planning tool. By connecting your ERP, CRM, and other systems into one trusted data layer with AI workflows, Aleph helps you move faster with real-time insights. Get a personalized demo at https://www.getaleph.com/run

    RightRev is an automated revenue recognition platform that lets your product team ship new pricing without asking finance for permission, and your sales team close deals without creating downstream chaos. Check out their free tool at calculator.rightrev.com It scores your rev rec process, shows what's exposing you to risk, and tells you exactly where to focus before it bites you in the rear end. Check it out at https://calculator.rightrev.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

    EY has been part of Silicon Valley since it was just a valley, helping the most successful names in tech go from startup to exit to megacap. With teams across strategy, tax, audit, and transactions, EY helps you get your financials right early, long before your investors start asking for it. You build the next big thing, and EY will help you build it right. Learn more at https://www.ey.com/techstartups

    SpendHound cuts your SaaS and AI spend by up to 30% using real pricing benchmarks across 10,000 vendors, so you always know what fair pricing looks like before your next renewal. Rated #1 on G2 in SaaS spend management, it's free forever for teams up to 1,000 employees. Sign up by June 12th and get $500 just for getting started. Go to https://www.spendhound.com/cj

    LINKS:

    Mostly Talent: https://mostlymetrics.typeform.com/to/cLTxtAsN

    Guest: https://www.linkedin.com/in/martenabrahamsen/

    Company: http://vercel.com/

    CJ: https://www.linkedin.com/in/cj-gustafson-13140948/

    Mostly metrics: https://www.mostlymetrics.com

    TIMESTAMPS:

    0:00 Speeding tickets vs. parking tickets

    3:21 Visa IPO in the financial crisis

    5:09 Going public has changed

    6:45 Private market: 22–24 trillion

    9:03 More or fewer public companies?

    9:48 Sponsors — Brex | Aleph | RightRev

    13:04 KPI dashboard on your phone

    14:12 Revenue flux via Slack and Notion

    15:37 RevRec tool: green, yellow, red

    17:56 V0 is a job requirement

    19:43 Speeding tickets vs. parking tickets

    20:33 Sponsors — Rillet | EY | SpendHound

    23:49 Very few one-way doors

    25:02 Finance in hypergrowth

    25:39 Three-scenario planning

    27:00 Honest with the board

    31:00 PLG + consumption at Vercel

    33:32 What Marten checks every morning

    34:03 Why RPO doesn't work here

    35:36 Holiday usage is up

    37:10 ICP shifted to solo developer

    39:22 Capital allocation in a fast market

    41:32 Growth compounds; margin can't

    43:22 SaaS gross margins: spicy take

    44:24 Cash-burning AI: 2026 vs. 2021

    47:29 Are some hypergrowth cos destroying value?

    50:00 Lightning round

    50:11 Bank of Ireland mix-up

    51:10 Don't punt problems forward

    52:04 Finance software stack

    52:38 Expensed an oven

    53:12 Credits

  • In this episode of Run the Numbers, CJ breaks down how stock exchanges became the operating system of modern capitalism. From ship captains raising voyage money, to the Dutch East India Company’s first tradable shares, to coffee house traders, the Buttonwood Agreement, market crashes, Robinhood, and GameStop, this is the story of how markets turned ownership into something liquid, global, and very, very human.

    SPONSORS:

    SpendHound cuts your SaaS and AI spend by up to 30% using real pricing benchmarks across 10,000 vendors, so you always know what fair pricing looks like before your next renewal. Rated #1 on G2 in SaaS spend management, it's free forever for teams up to 1,000 employees. Sign up by June 12th and get $500 just for getting started. Go to https://www.spendhound.com/cj

    Brex is an intelligent finance platform with AI-powered agents that capture expenses automatically, enforce policy before the spend happens, and close your books in minutes instead of weeks. 35,000+ companies like OpenAI, Coinbase, Anthropic, and DoorDash already run on Brex. It's time to get Brex AF. Learn more at https://www.brex.com/metrics

    Aleph is a modern FP&A platform built for teams that want more than another planning tool. By connecting your ERP, CRM, and other systems into one trusted data layer with AI workflows, Aleph helps you move faster with real-time insights. Get a personalized demo at https://www.getaleph.com/run

    RightRev is an automated revenue recognition platform that lets your product team ship new pricing without asking finance for permission, and your sales team close deals without creating downstream chaos. Check out their free tool at calculator.rightrev.com It scores your rev rec process, shows what's exposing you to risk, and tells you exactly where to focus before it bites you in the rear end. Check it out at https://calculator.rightrev.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

    EY has been part of Silicon Valley since it was just a valley, helping the most successful names in tech go from startup to exit to megacap. With teams across strategy, tax, audit, and transactions, EY helps you get your financials right early, long before your investors start asking for it. You build the next big thing, and EY will help you build it right. Learn more at https://www.ey.com/techstartups

    LINKS:

    Mostly Talent: https://mostlymetrics.typeform.com/to/cLTxtAsN

    CJ: https://www.linkedin.com/in/cj-gustafson-13140948/

    Mostly metrics: https://www.mostlymetrics.com

    Slacker Stuff: https://www.slackerstuff.com/

    Ben on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/slackerstuff/

    RELATED EPISODES:

    A CFO Explains Secondaries

    https://youtu.be/pENvBuXhGuk

    A CFO Explains the Diamond Industry

    https://youtu.be/fPrho7hvykA

    A CFO Explains Marketplaces

    https://youtu.be/LpbH9GpBrSY

    TIMESTAMPS:

    0:00 The First IPO, and Why It Changed Everything

    2:50 Coffee, Buttonwood Trees, and the First Insider Trading Scandal

    6:31 The Railroads Built Your Month-End Close

    10:17 Sponsors — SpendHound | Brex | Aleph

    13:47 Buying Stocks on Credit, and How That Ended

    18:13 Merrill Lynch Goes to the Suburbs, and the Paper Almost Wins

    21:44 Sponsors — RightRev | Rillet | EY

    24:47 NASDAQ, Pets.com, and the Most Expensive Sock Puppet in History

    28:49 The Phone in Your Pocket Democratized Everything, For Better or Worse

    33:03 The Stock Market Was Never Really About Stocks

    36:47 Credits

    #RunTheNumbersPodcast #FinanceHistory #StockMarket #Investing #FinanceLeadership

  • In this episode of Run the Numbers, CJ sits down with Ryan Roccon, CFO of Zapier, to cover AI hiring standards, automating month-end close, measuring ROI on AI spend, and why determinism still beats agents most of the time.

    SPONSORS:

    EY has been part of Silicon Valley since it was just a valley, helping the most successful names in tech go from startup to exit to megacap. With teams across strategy, tax, audit, and transactions, EY helps you get your financials right early, long before your investors start asking for it. You build the next big thing, and EY will help you build it right. Learn more at https://www.ey.com/techstartups

    SpendHound cuts your SaaS and AI spend by up to 30% using real pricing benchmarks across 10,000 vendors, so you always know what fair pricing looks like before your next renewal. Rated #1 on G2 in SaaS spend management, it's free forever for teams up to 1,000 employees. Sign up by June 12th and get $500 just for getting started. Go to https://www.spendhound.com/cj

    Brex is an intelligent finance platform with AI-powered agents that capture expenses automatically, enforce policy before the spend happens, and close your books in minutes instead of weeks. 35,000+ companies like OpenAI, Coinbase, Anthropic, and DoorDash already run on Brex. It's time to get Brex AF. Learn more at https://www.brex.com/metrics

    Aleph is a modern FP&A platform built for teams that want more than another planning tool. By connecting your ERP, CRM, and other systems into one trusted data layer with AI workflows, Aleph helps you move faster with real-time insights. Get a personalized demo at https://www.getaleph.com/run

    RightRev is an automated revenue recognition platform that lets your product team ship new pricing without asking finance for permission, and your sales team close deals without creating downstream chaos. Check out their free tool at calculator.rightrev.com It scores your rev rec process, shows what's exposing you to risk, and tells you exactly where to focus before it bites you in the rear end. Check it out at https://calculator.rightrev.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

    LINKS:

    Mostly Talent: https://mostlymetrics.typeform.com/to/cLTxtAsN

    Guest: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ryanroccon/

    Company: https://zapier.com/

    CJ: https://www.linkedin.com/in/cj-gustafson-13140948/

    Mostly metrics: https://www.mostlymetrics.com

    RELATED EPISODES:

    Ryan’s First Appearance

    https://youtu.be/VIZ_RzfV78I

    Chris Byington, Head of Data @ Superhuman

    https://youtu.be/ydH38JnWfww

    TIMESTAMPS:

    0:00 Preview and intro

    2:11 Ryan's scope at Zapier

    3:17 Why the finance guy runs ecosystems

    6:19 AI is a required hire competency

    6:46 The four levels: unacceptable to transformative

    8:48 How Zapier tests for it

    11:50 Favorite interview question

    13:06 Sponsors — EY | SpendHound | Brex

    16:18 AI changes the hiring profile

    17:07 Support becomes customer-facing engineering

    18:44 Where AI beats deterministic Zaps

    21:00 80-90% of builds are deterministic

    22:41 Sponsors — Aleph | RightRev | Rillet

    26:00 Month end close on Zaps

    27:40 Time saved is a leading indicator

    29:53 AI token costs: COGS or investment?

    31:51 Performance issue or measurement issue?

    33:41 Partner ARR: chasing the wrong thing

    35:56 Build around what changes the decision

    37:17 The initiative sizing coach

    40:00 Escalate on magnitude, not certainty

    41:55 The 9,000 integration story

    44:02 M&A process and minimum model

    46:19 Cash vs. stock: incentive alignment

    48:06 CFO's role in M&A: show up early

    49:18 Credits

  • In this episode of Run the Numbers, CJ sits down with Aurélien Nolf, CFO of Navan, to unpack how to pre-align before budgeting, how to think about portfolio construction inside a company, when to fund or kill internal bets, how IR is becoming more connected to FP&A, and where AI actually works inside finance teams.

    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

    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

    SpendHound is a SaaS spend management platform built for finance and procurement teams that want visibility and leverage in every deal. By tracking all your software, benchmarking pricing across thousands of vendors, and surfacing contracts and renewals, SpendHound helps you stop overpaying and negotiate with confidence. Trusted by teams at ZoomInfo and Hootsuite. Get started at https://www.spendhound.com/cj

    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

    Aleph is a modern FP&A platform built for teams that want more than another planning tool. By connecting your ERP, CRM, and other systems into one trusted data layer with AI workflows, Aleph helps you move faster with real-time insights. Get a personalized demo at https://www.getaleph.com/run

    RightRev is an automated revenue recognition platform built for teams that have outgrown spreadsheets and billing tool workarounds. It handles high-volume subscriptions, usage-based contracts, and mid-cycle upgrades, so you can scale without scrambling at month-end. For RevRec that keeps your books clean, visit https://www.rightrev.com/CJ

    LINKS:

    Mostly Talent: https://mostlymetrics.typeform.com/to/cLTxtAsN

    Guest: https://www.linkedin.com/in/aureliennolf5b716412/

    Company: https://navan.com/

    CJ: https://www.linkedin.com/in/cj-gustafson-13140948/

    Mostly metrics: https://www.mostlymetrics.com

    TIMESTAMPS:

    0:00 Preview and intro

    1:21 Welcome and guest intro

    3:06 100-mile ultramarathon at Lake Tahoe

    4:47 Resource allocation lessons from EA

    6:41 Bucketing bets: proven, intuition, moonshots

    7:43 Pre-alignment before budgeting

    9:58 The 70/20/10 framework

    10:35 Sponsors — Rillet | EY | SpendHound

    13:51 The common trap: chasing everything

    16:16 Lyft: $1B burning to $1B profitable

    18:11 Killing projects without crushing morale

    19:24 TAM as the planning foundation

    20:57 Navan's TAM: managed vs. unmanaged

    22:15 Sponsors — Brex | Aleph | RightRev

    25:48 Why go after the unmanaged segment

    28:24 Not all TAM dollars are equal

    29:26 How IR is evolving

    30:45 Why FP&A and IR belong together

    31:54 Metrics: disclose vs. guide

    34:04 Use internal metrics externally

    35:12 Communicating bad news to the market

    39:22 Earnings prep: the black book

    40:04 AI in finance: can't vibe code compliance

    41:31 Ava handles 55% of interactions

    43:08 AI ROI: same framework as anything else

    44:02 Why finance hasn't had its AI moment

    44:46 Lightning round

    44:56 Screwed up: wrong investor meeting

    45:23 Sunday planning ritual

    46:42 Advice to younger self

    47:29 Finance software stack

    48:34 Craziest expense: curtains at the hotel laundry

    49:17 Credits

  • In this episode of Run the Numbers, CJ breaks down SpaceX’s S-1, unpacking what the filing reveals about Starlink, xAI, X, common control accounting, revenue, losses, CapEx, and Elon Musk’s Mars-linked compensation structure.

    SPONSORS:

    RightRev is an automated revenue recognition platform built for teams that have outgrown spreadsheets and billing tool workarounds. It handles high-volume subscriptions, usage-based contracts, and mid-cycle upgrades, so you can scale without scrambling at month-end. For RevRec that keeps your books clean, visit https://www.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

    SpendHound is a SaaS spend management platform built for finance and procurement teams that want visibility and leverage in every deal. By tracking all your software, benchmarking pricing across thousands of vendors, and surfacing contracts and renewals, SpendHound helps you stop overpaying and negotiate with confidence. Trusted by teams at ZoomInfo and Hootsuite. Get started at https://www.spendhound.com/cj

    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
    Aleph is a modern FP&A platform built for teams that want more than another planning tool. By connecting your ERP, CRM, and other systems into one trusted data layer with AI workflows, Aleph helps you move faster with real-time insights. Get a personalized demo at https://www.getaleph.com/run

    LINKS:

    CJ: https://www.linkedin.com/in/cj-gustafson-13140948/

    Mostly metrics: https://www.mostlymetrics.com

    TIMESTAMPS:

    0:00 SpaceX S1 breakdown

    0:50 Elon's Mars colony comp plan

    2:03 Common control accounting: SpaceX + xAI + X

    3:04 What SpaceX actually does

    3:43 How reusable rockets work

    4:24 Launch cost curve: foundation of everything

    5:49 Launch services: $8B, 85% of global launches

    6:44 Starlink: $11.4B, 63% EBITDA margins

    7:36 xAI and X: burning $1B/month

    8:22 Sponsors — RightRev | Rillet | EY

    11:18 Colossus and orbital AI thesis

    11:41 Revenue, segments and CapEx breakdown

    14:54 RPO: $28.4B backlog

    15:18 Starlink subscribers and ARPU decline

    16:01 Target valuation: $1.5–1.75 trillion

    16:47 Starlink deep dive

    18:05 International pricing strategy

    21:38 The consolidated entity problem

    22:28 Related party section: nine pages

    22:32 Sponsors — SpendHound | Brex | Aleph

    26:15 Valor Equity: $20B in equipment leases

    27:05 Tesla cross-ownership and Terrafab

    28:23 R&D: $8.6B, 46% of revenue

    30:33 Starship: key risk and growth linchpin

    31:41 Red flag 1: CEO comp tied to Mars colony

    32:22 Red flag 2: Musk concentration risk

    32:49 Red flag 3: Cursor option — $10B downside

    33:36 Red flag 4: X advertising is shrinking

    34:06 IPO structure and SPCX ticker

    34:50 30% retail allocation, no lockups

    35:44 S&P 500 inclusion forces buying within 15 days

    37:54 Valuation: 60–70x forward revenue

    38:43 Peer comparison

    39:44 What you're buying at $1.5T

    40:53 CFO comp: the only sane plan in the filing

    41:25 Bitcoin on the balance sheet

    41:57 Credits

  • In this episode of Run the Numbers, CJ sits down with ParkerGale Operating Partner Paul Stansik to break down five ways CFOs can help build a better sales engine: making the budget mean something, improving forecasting, sharpening metrics, getting involved in key RevOps moments, and building real trust with sales.

    SPONSORS:

    Aleph is a modern FP&A platform built for teams that want more than another planning tool. By connecting your ERP, CRM, and other systems into one trusted data layer with AI workflows, Aleph helps you move faster with real-time insights. Get a personalized demo at https://www.getaleph.com/run

    RightRev is an automated revenue recognition platform built for teams that have outgrown spreadsheets and billing tool workarounds. It handles high-volume subscriptions, usage-based contracts, and mid-cycle upgrades, so you can scale without scrambling at month-end. For RevRec that keeps your books clean, visit https://www.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

    SpendHound is a SaaS spend management platform built for finance and procurement teams that want visibility and leverage in every deal. By tracking all your software, benchmarking pricing across thousands of vendors, and surfacing contracts and renewals, SpendHound helps you stop overpaying and negotiate with confidence. Trusted by teams at ZoomInfo and Hootsuite. Get started at https://www.spendhound.com/cj

    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

    LINKS:

    Mostly Talent: https://mostlymetrics.typeform.com/to/cLTxtAsN

    Guest: https://www.linkedin.com/in/paulstansik/

    Company: https://www.parkergale.com/

    Hello Operator: https://hellooperator.substack.com/

    CJ: https://www.linkedin.com/in/cj-gustafson-13140948/

    Mostly metrics: https://www.mostlymetrics.com

    RELATED EPISODES:

    Is a weekly martini ARR? | with Dave Kellogg

    https://youtu.be/Yb1lUQLJ6qw

    TIMESTAMPS:

    All verified. Here are the timestamps:

    0:00 Preview and intro

    2:27 Parker Gale and Paul's role

    3:52 Topic: how CFOs build a better sales engine

    6:21 1: Make the budget mean something

    8:11 Budget segmentation and cleaving the business

    10:54 Sponsors — Aleph | RightRev | Rillet

    14:08 2: Help emphasize forecasting

    17:23 Forecasting as non-threatening co-construction

    19:37 Sponsors — EY | SpendHound | Brex

    23:06 3: Lend a hand with data and metrics

    25:32 Walking sales through NDR levers

    27:16 Metrics tied to exit readiness

    28:00 4: Get involved in a few RevOps spots

    29:04 Pricing, proposals, and quoting

    31:22 Kill your SKUs

    32:51 Selling with certainty: quote formatting

    34:26 CFO letter for enterprise deals

    37:37 5: Build a great relationship with sales

    37:59 You can't fix a secret

    39:23 EQ over IQ for finance leaders

    40:41 Recap: all five tips

    42:11 Credits

    #RunTheNumbersPodcast #CFO #SalesStrategy #FinanceLeadership #RevenueOperations

  • In this episode of Run the Numbers, CJ sits down with Figure Technologies CFO Macrina Kgil to break down how Figure’s business model works, why traditional lending remains so bloated, and how speed in origination and funding flows through financial performance. They also cover stablecoins, blockchain as invisible infrastructure, AI in accounting, and scaling finance with fewer than 35 people.

    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

    Aleph is a modern FP&A platform built for teams that want more than another planning tool. By connecting your ERP, CRM, and other systems into one trusted data layer with AI workflows, Aleph helps you move faster with real-time insights. Get a personalized demo at https://www.getaleph.com/run

    RightRev is an automated revenue recognition platform built for teams that have outgrown spreadsheets and billing tool workarounds. It handles high-volume subscriptions, usage-based contracts, and mid-cycle upgrades, so you can scale without scrambling at month-end. For RevRec that keeps your books clean, visit https://www.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

    SpendHound is a SaaS spend management platform built for finance and procurement teams that want visibility and leverage in every deal. By tracking all your software, benchmarking pricing across thousands of vendors, and surfacing contracts and renewals, SpendHound helps you stop overpaying and negotiate with confidence. Trusted by teams at ZoomInfo and Hootsuite. Get started at https://www.spendhound.com/cj

    LINKS:

    Mostly Talent: https://mostlymetrics.typeform.com/to/cLTxtAsN

    Guest: https://www.linkedin.com/in/macrina/

    Company: https://www.figure.com/

    CJ: https://www.linkedin.com/in/cj-gustafson-13140948/

    Mostly metrics: https://www.mostlymetrics.com

    TIMESTAMPS:

    0:00 Preview and intro

    3:10 Working for a CEO who's a former CFO

    5:00 What Figure does and how it makes money

    6:57 Blockchain's first commercial use case

    8:17 50%+ margins, path to 60%

    9:23 Sponsors — Brex | Aleph | RightRev

    12:56 HELOC origination: 45 days to 5 days

    14:26 Where the lending system is bloated

    15:56 Credit and liquidity as core risks

    17:06 Blockchain makes the marketplace transparent

    18:10 Risk as a fintech CFO

    19:49 Sponsors — Rillet | EY | SpendHound

    22:58 Crypto on the balance sheet

    24:12 Blockchain becomes invisible like cloud

    25:44 Stablecoins explained

    27:47 YLDS: Figure's yield-bearing stablecoin

    29:02 Crawl, walk, run stablecoin strategy

    34:32 IPO process: what got easier

    35:03 What got harder: testing the waters

    37:12 Blockchain KPIs and investor conversations

    38:21 Finance team: 130 people down to 35

    40:00 SEC engagement: storytelling not financials

    40:49 IPO advice: pick durable KPIs

    42:05 First earnings after IPO: don't miss

    43:13 AI automation goal: 60% by 2026

    46:11 Director of Finance Transformation hire

    47:40 30-60-90 for the transformation role

    48:58 Long-Ass Lightning Round

    52:20 Credits

  • Cerebras is going public with the largest commercial chip ever built, $510M in 2025 revenue, and a $24.6B backlog mostly tied to OpenAI. CJ breaks down the company’s wafer-scale AI bet, why inference changed the story, the strange customer-investor-lender relationships behind the IPO, and the big question: is Cerebras the next NVIDIA-style infrastructure winner, or a concentrated hardware company with a very expensive cloud pivot?

    SPONSORS:

    SpendHound is a SaaS spend management platform built for finance and procurement teams that want visibility and leverage in every deal. By tracking all your software, benchmarking pricing across thousands of vendors, and surfacing contracts and renewals, SpendHound helps you stop overpaying and negotiate with confidence. Trusted by teams at ZoomInfo and Hootsuite. Get started at https://www.spendhound.com/cj

    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

    Aleph is a modern FP&A platform built for teams that want more than another planning tool. By connecting your ERP, CRM, and other systems into one trusted data layer with AI workflows, Aleph helps you move faster with real-time insights. Get a personalized demo at https://www.getaleph.com/run

    RightRev is an automated revenue recognition platform built for teams that have outgrown spreadsheets and billing tool workarounds. It handles high-volume subscriptions, usage-based contracts, and mid-cycle upgrades, so you can scale without scrambling at month-end. For RevRec that keeps your books clean, visit https://www.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

    CJ: https://www.linkedin.com/in/cj-gustafson-13140948/

    Mostly metrics: https://www.mostlymetrics.com

    TIMESTAMPS:

    0:00 Preview and intro

    0:59 Cerebras: the dinner plate chip

    3:56 Why chip size matters for AI

    5:26 Old vs. new AI: inference is the bottleneck

    7:30 Revenue: 20x in 3 years

    7:49 Sponsors — SpendHound | Brex | Aleph

    11:33 Gross margin

    12:02 Net income: the one-time accounting trick

    12:41 Operating cash flow whipsaw

    13:24 RPO: $24.6B backlog

    13:58 Customer concentration: the UAE entities

    18:06 Sponsors — RightRev | Rillet | EY

    21:05 Cloud revenue: the inverse SaaS story

    22:23 Cloud gross margin collapse

    23:53 G42 warrants for pennies

    29:14 The OpenAI warrant: Funky Town

    31:08 $40B market cap milestone

    31:36 R&D and S&M breakdown

    33:15 Balance sheet and cash burn

    35:59 Red flag 1: accounting weaknesses

    36:37 Red flag 2: one foundry, no supply deal

    37:28 Red flag 3: UAE geopolitical risk

    38:10 Red flag 4: cloud is unproven

    39:02 Cap table: founders diluted

    40:43 Voting control: Class A, B, and N

    41:15 Valuation: 10–13x forward revenue

    41:48 Peer comparison

    43:47 CEO's prior issues

    46:10 Credits

    Nothing said or created by this podcast is business or investment advice

    #RunTheNumbersPodcast #IPO #Semiconductors #AIStrategy #FinanceLeadership

  • David Bell, co-founder of Idea Farm Ventures and early investor behind Warby Parker, Harry’s, and Diapers.com, and CJ break down how consumer investing works. They cover why durable consumer companies require more than clean unit economics, how to apply SaaS-style thinking to businesses without contracts, and why the best opportunities often live in boring gray space.

    SPONSORS:

    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

    SpendHound is a SaaS spend management platform built for finance and procurement teams that want visibility and leverage in every deal. By tracking all your software, benchmarking pricing across thousands of vendors, and surfacing contracts and renewals, SpendHound helps you stop overpaying and negotiate with confidence. Trusted by teams at ZoomInfo and Hootsuite. Get started at https://www.spendhound.com/cj

    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

    Aleph is a modern FP&A platform built for teams that want more than another planning tool. By connecting your ERP, CRM, and other systems into one trusted data layer with AI workflows, Aleph helps you move faster with real-time insights. Get a personalized demo at https://www.getaleph.com/run

    RightRev is an automated revenue recognition platform built for teams that have outgrown spreadsheets and billing tool workarounds. It handles high-volume subscriptions, usage-based contracts, and mid-cycle upgrades, so you can scale without scrambling at month-end. For RevRec that keeps your books clean, visit https://www.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

    Mostly Talent: https://mostlymetrics.typeform.com/to/cLTxtAsN

    Guest: https://www.linkedin.com/in/david-bell-086820/

    Company: https://www.ideafarmventures.com/

    CJ: https://www.linkedin.com/in/cj-gustafson-13140948/

    Mostly metrics: https://www.mostlymetrics.com

    TIMESTAMPS:

    0:00 Preview and intro

    3:16 Edge: economics and psychology

    5:21 Best ideas in boring gray space

    5:41 Functional, emotional, and symbolic value

    7:08 Grüns gummies and divisibility

    9:02 Sponsors — EY | SpendHound | Brex

    12:31 Ideation: personal pain vs. market analysis

    13:17 Diapers.com and the Starbucks origin story

    16:00 Warby Parker: asking why

    16:33 LTV to CAC in D2C

    18:02 Retention math: 85 to 90% can double LTV

    19:00 Milkman and recurring vs. reoccurring

    20:42 Trust economics

    22:38 Warby stores boost online sales

    22:58 Sponsors — Aleph | RightRev | Rillet

    26:12 Away store as advertising

    27:46 Warby discovery: dots on a map

    30:10 Home try-on word of mouth value

    32:09 D2C unit economics mistakes

    34:55 Innovating on distribution

    35:50 Touchland in Sephora: right channel, right signal

    37:00 Capital allocation: margin and low CAC first

    39:18 Sequencing: people, brand, then inventory

    40:58 Product vs. brand: the 8x10 thought experiment

    42:23 Consumer monetization shifts

    45:45 The gravity framework

    50:32 Isolation principle: most underused lever

    52:36 Working backwards from exit at day zero

    57:23 What if your business isn't venture scale?

    59:32 Book plug: Founders Gold

    1:00:25 Credits

  • CJ turns the mic on the people behind Mostly Media for a special behind-the-scenes episode of Run the Numbers. Michelle, Callie, Sarah, Matthew, Ben, and Steve share what it’s like building the company, scaling media, talent, sales, production, and operations, and dealing with CJ’s scooter lore, calendar quirks, and chaos along the way.

    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

    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

    SpendHound is a SaaS spend management platform built for finance and procurement teams that want visibility and leverage in every deal. By tracking all your software, benchmarking pricing across thousands of vendors, and surfacing contracts and renewals, SpendHound helps you stop overpaying and negotiate with confidence. Trusted by teams at ZoomInfo and Hootsuite. Get started at https://www.spendhound.com/cj

    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

    Aleph is a modern FP&A platform built for teams that want more than another planning tool. By connecting your ERP, CRM, and other systems into one trusted data layer with AI workflows, Aleph helps you move faster with real-time insights. Get a personalized demo at https://www.getaleph.com/run

    RightRev is an automated revenue recognition platform built for teams that have outgrown spreadsheets and billing tool workarounds. It handles high-volume subscriptions, usage-based contracts, and mid-cycle upgrades, so you can scale without scrambling at month-end. For RevRec that keeps your books clean, visit https://www.rightrev.com/CJ

    LINKS:

    Mostly Talent: https://mostlymetrics.typeform.com/to/cLTxtAsN

    CJ: https://www.linkedin.com/in/cj-gustafson-13140948/

    Mostly metrics: https://www.mostlymetrics.com

    TIMESTAMPS:

    0:00 Preview and intro

    2:44 Show intro: meet the Mostly Media team

    3:37 Michelle Finn: accounting and ops

    4:28 Parts Tech days: CJ's first CFO role

    7:21 How the newsletter convinced Michelle to join

    9:02 Sponsors — Rillet | EY | SpendHound

    12:11 Callie Spillane: talent director

    13:17 Callie's background: HubSpot, Sneak, Superhuman

    13:40 Why Callie was hard to hire

    15:37 Snyk hypergrowth: 150 to 1,500 people

    16:59 Zero to one vs. one to ten

    18:20 9 of 20 roles filled: how it's going

    23:24 Sponsors — Brex | Aleph | RightRev

    26:58 Sarah Bousquet: media op

    27:45 Stay at home mom to ops lead

    33:48 CJ's schedule: American Psycho

    34:43 Matthew Mozzocchi: sales and partnerships

    35:41 Going full time with a newborn

    36:20 Product market fit signal

    38:07 Fewer, bigger bets on creators

    41:00 Podcast is the air game, newsletter is the ground game

    43:56 Ben Hillman and Steve Cerasoli: production

    47:46 Media in service of a product vs. the product itself

    48:37 Run the Numbers vs. Mostly Growth

    51:25 Where are we in three years?

    52:40 Credits

    #RunTheNumbersPodcast #CreatorEconomy #MediaBusiness #Entrepreneurship #ContentBusiness

  • In this episode of Run the Numbers, CJ Gustafson breaks down the diamond industry as a business model: how De Beers controlled supply, engineered demand, and built one of the most powerful pricing machines in history. From the Central Selling Organization to “A Diamond Is Forever” to the rise of lab-grown diamonds, this episode unpacks monopolies, scarcity, pricing power, and what happens when technology forces transparency.

    SPONSORS:

    RightRev is an automated revenue recognition platform built for teams that have outgrown spreadsheets and billing tool workarounds. It handles high-volume subscriptions, usage-based contracts, and mid-cycle upgrades, so you can scale without scrambling at month-end. For RevRec that keeps your books clean, visit https://www.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

    SpendHound is a SaaS spend management platform built for finance and procurement teams that want visibility and leverage in every deal. By tracking all your software, benchmarking pricing across thousands of vendors, and surfacing contracts and renewals, SpendHound helps you stop overpaying and negotiate with confidence. Trusted by teams at ZoomInfo and Hootsuite. Get started at https://www.spendhound.com/cj

    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

    Aleph is a modern FP&A platform built for teams that want more than another planning tool. By connecting your ERP, CRM, and other systems into one trusted data layer with AI workflows, Aleph helps you move faster with real-time insights. Get a personalized demo at https://www.getaleph.com/run

    LINKS:

    Mostly Talent: https://mostlymetrics.typeform.com/to/cLTxtAsN

    CJ: https://www.linkedin.com/in/cj-gustafson-13140948/

    Mostly metrics: https://www.mostlymetrics.com

    RELATED EPISODES:

    Why Uber Drivers Can’t Escape the 30% Cut

    https://youtu.be/LpbH9GpBrSY

    TIMESTAMPS:

    All verified. Here are the timestamps:

    0:00 Blood Diamond

    1:55 Show intro

    2:15 Diamond history: ancient India and riverbed origins

    3:56 Brazil supply shock and the mining era

    4:39 De Beers: Cecil Rhodes and the PE rollup

    6:47 Sponsors — RightRev | Rillet | EY

    9:49 The Central Selling Organization (CSO)

    10:39 The site system: invite-only, take-it-or-leave-it auctions

    12:22 Diamonds are more abundant than gold

    13:01 NW Ayer, Bernays, and engineering demand

    14:17 "A Diamond is Forever" campaign

    15:13 Lab grown diamonds: 20% of US purchases

    16:32 De Beers collapses: $3.1B operating loss

    17:18 Sponsors — SpendHound | Brex | Aleph

    21:07 Lesson 1: Rollups are powered by capital

    21:39 Lesson 2: Distribution beats mining

    22:11 Lesson 3: Artificial scarcity unravels

    22:55 Lesson 4: Price opacity is a temporary moat

    23:39 Lesson 5: Demand engineering

    24:30 Lesson 6: The real product was risk smoothing

    26:30 Credits

    #RunTheNumbersPodcast #BusinessStrategy #FinanceHistory #Pricing #Monopoly

  • In this episode of Run the Numbers, CJ Gustafson sits down with Angela Chen, former CFO of The North Face and Mars Veterinary Health, to unpack how finance leaders build and scale iconic consumer brands. Angela shares how to measure brand equity, why the CFO should act as an architect of growth, and how capital, talent, and strategy connect inside a scaling business. They also get into humanistic leadership, consumer-margin tradeoffs, and what a 39-cent Taco Bell taco can teach finance teams about growth.

    SPONSORS:

    Aleph is a modern FP&A platform built for teams that want more than another planning tool. By connecting your ERP, CRM, and other systems into one trusted data layer with AI workflows, Aleph helps you move faster with real-time insights. Get a personalized demo at https://www.getaleph.com/run

    RightRev is an automated revenue recognition platform built for teams that have outgrown spreadsheets and billing tool workarounds. It handles high-volume subscriptions, usage-based contracts, and mid-cycle upgrades, so you can scale without scrambling at month-end. For RevRec that keeps your books clean, visit https://www.rightrev.com/CJ

    Rillet is an AI-native ERP built for modern finance teams that want to close faster without fighting legacy systems. Designed to support complex revenue recognition, multi-entity operations, and real-time reporting, Rillet helps teams achieve a true zero-day close—with some customers closing in hours, not days. If you’re scaling on an ERP that wasn’t built in the 90s, 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

    SpendHound is a SaaS spend management platform built for finance and procurement teams that want visibility and leverage in every deal. By tracking all your software, benchmarking pricing across thousands of vendors, and surfacing contracts and renewals, SpendHound helps you stop overpaying and negotiate with confidence. Trusted by teams at ZoomInfo and Hootsuite. Get started at https://www.spendhound.com/cj

    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

    LINKS:

    Mostly Talent: https://mostlymetrics.typeform.com/to/cLTxtAsN

    Guest: https://www.linkedin.com/in/angelachensf/

    Company: https://sku.is/

    CJ: https://www.linkedin.com/in/cj-gustafson-13140948/

    Mostly metrics: https://www.mostlymetrics.com

    RELATED EPISODES:

    Minted’s CFO: Half the Year Happens in One Month

    https://youtu.be/hD4-exunKMo

    TIMESTAMPS:

    0:00 Preview and intro

    2:45 Measuring brand equity

    5:09 CFO as architect of growth

    7:11 Connecting money, ideas, and talent

    7:52 North Face vs. Mars: where to invest

    10:52 Sponsors — Aleph | RightRev | Rillet

    14:14 Scaling North Face 5x without diluting the brand

    16:31 From technical brand to lifestyle brand

    19:30 Quality of revenue

    21:49 Seasonality and Q4 concentration

    24:01 Sponsors — EY | SpendHound | Brex

    27:14 Retailers shouldn't own factories

    31:30 Supply chain and 18-month product cycles

    33:23 Humanistic leadership in finance

    34:32 Purpose and profit are mutually reinforcing

    36:15 Purpose vs. profit in public companies

    38:05 Playing to Win framework

    39:47 Operational cadence and the gas gauge

    43:02 Killing bad projects: the battery jacket story

    44:16 Taco Bell and 39-cent margins

    47:10 Lightning round

    47:36 Screwed up: hiring on credentials

    48:27 Advice to younger self: network is the work

    50:07 Craziest expense story: snowcat ski trip

    50:50 Credits

  • In this episode of Run the Numbers, CJ sits down with PSG Managing Director Chris Nesbitt to unpack how great deals are actually found, how investment decisions are really made, and why narrative often matters more than most investors admit. They also dig into forecasting, boardroom authenticity, simple vs. complex models, and the roles of market, product, and leadership in driving outcomes.

    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

    Aleph is a modern FP&A platform built for teams that want more than another planning tool. By connecting your ERP, CRM, and other systems into one trusted data layer with AI workflows, Aleph helps you move faster with real-time insights. Get a personalized demo at https://www.getaleph.com/run

    RightRev is an automated revenue recognition platform built for teams that have outgrown spreadsheets and billing tool workarounds. It handles high-volume subscriptions, usage-based contracts, and mid-cycle upgrades, so you can scale without scrambling at month-end. For RevRec that keeps your books clean, visit https://www.rightrev.com/CJ

    Rillet is an AI-native ERP built for modern finance teams that want to close faster without fighting legacy systems. Designed to support complex revenue recognition, multi-entity operations, and real-time reporting, Rillet helps teams achieve a true zero-day close—with some customers closing in hours, not days. If you’re scaling on an ERP that wasn’t built in the 90s, 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/techstartupsSpendHound is a SaaS spend management platform built for finance and procurement teams that want visibility and leverage in every deal. By tracking all your software, benchmarking pricing across thousands of vendors, and surfacing contracts and renewals, SpendHound helps you stop overpaying and negotiate with confidence. Trusted by teams at ZoomInfo and Hootsuite. Get started at https://www.spendhound.com/cj

    LINKS:

    Mostly Talent: https://mostlymetrics.typeform.com/to/cLTxtAsN

    Guest: https://www.linkedin.com/in/christophersnesbitt/

    Company: https://psgequity.com/

    CJ: https://www.linkedin.com/in/cj-gustafson-13140948/

    Mostly metrics: https://www.mostlymetrics.com

    TIMESTAMPS:

    0:00 Preview and intro

    2:44 PSG origin story

    4:01 Growth to 30B AUM

    5:07 Strategy: small software at scale

    5:50 Vertical SaaS treasure hunting

    8:10 Ministry Brands: software meets payments

    9:28 Sponsors — Brex | Aleph | RightRev

    12:46 Early M&A work and rollup strategy

    15:52 Sourcing is more competitive now

    18:28 Smoke signals and relationship sourcing

    21:22 Does brand get you in the room?

    22:15 Authenticity as a sourcing edge

    22:52 Sponsors — Rillet | EY | SpendHound

    26:09 Brand name of investor or deal partner?

    27:44 Investors are narrative driven animals

    29:18 Market, product, then execution

    31:26 Danger of falling in love with the narrative

    33:40 Operator AI pivot story: GRC company

    34:51 Keep it simple: one tab, five key inputs

    39:21 Forecasting confidence beyond 12-18 months

    41:51 What makes a useful board meeting

    45:01 Build vs. buy: the payments decision

    47:45 ARR vs. EBITDA multiples

    50:30 Lightning round

    50:34 Board materials: send 3 days in advance

    51:03 LTV to CAC and cap software debates

    51:32 First deal at PSG

    52:35 What young investors get wrong

    54:04 Credits

  • In this episode of Run the Numbers, CJ sits down with Manu Diwakar, CFO of Virta Health, to unpack why health tech breaks traditional SaaS thinking. They get into the realities of running a business where outcomes matter, half the company are medical professionals, and efficiency can’t come at the expense of care. It’s a conversation about sustainable scaling, smarter reinvestment, and building for durability over hype.

    SPONSORS:

    SpendHound is a SaaS spend management platform built for finance and procurement teams that want visibility and leverage in every deal. By tracking all your software, benchmarking pricing across thousands of vendors, and surfacing contracts and renewals, SpendHound helps you stop overpaying and negotiate with confidence. Trusted by teams at ZoomInfo and Hootsuite. Get started at https://www.spendhound.com/cj

    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

    Aleph is a modern FP&A platform built for teams that want more than another planning tool. By connecting your ERP, CRM, and other systems into one trusted data layer with AI workflows, Aleph helps you move faster with real-time insights. Get a personalized demo at https://www.getaleph.com/run

    RightRev is an automated revenue recognition platform built for teams that have outgrown spreadsheets and billing tool workarounds. It handles high-volume subscriptions, usage-based contracts, and mid-cycle upgrades, so you can scale without scrambling at month-end. For RevRec that keeps your books clean, visit https://www.rightrev.com/CJ

    Rillet is an AI-native ERP built for modern finance teams that want to close faster without fighting legacy systems. Designed to support complex revenue recognition, multi-entity operations, and real-time reporting, Rillet helps teams achieve a true zero-day close—with some customers closing in hours, not days. If you’re scaling on an ERP that wasn’t built in the 90s, 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

    Guest: https://www.linkedin.com/in/manu-diwakar-1aa578/

    Company: https://www.virtahealth.com/

    CJ: https://www.linkedin.com/in/cj-gustafson-13140948/

    Mostly metrics: https://www.mostlymetrics.com

    TIMESTAMPS:

    0:00 Preview and intro

    1:18 Welcome and guest intro

    3:02 What sector is health tech?

    4:34 Virta go to market explained

    7:01 B2B to B2C model

    9:00 Value based care and ROI guarantees

    9:18 Half the company are medical professionals

    10:36 Sponsors — SpendHound | Brex | Aleph

    14:03 Annual planning process

    16:42 Shape of the curve

    17:33 TAM: metabolic health is massive

    20:45 Fee for service vs. value based care

    24:16 Sponsors — RightRev | Rillet | EY

    27:24 Unique costs of health tech: billing, compliance

    30:54 Corporate practice of medicine

    31:44 North star: members under management

    32:43 The flywheel: $250 charge, $500 saved

    33:28 Early stage CFO job is easy

    35:28 Bad habits baked in during high growth

    38:02 Choosing not to profit vs. not turning a profit

    41:15 Running a VC-backed business for sustainability

    42:07 People, tech and process framework

    44:31 Hiring philosophy: hard work, learning, curiosity

    48:26 Athletes vs. experts in hiring

    50:03 Clock hands interview question

    50:49 Lightning round

    51:09 Screwed up: having hard conversations late

    51:57 Advice to younger self

    52:15 Finance software stack

    52:42 Craziest expense story

    53:47 Credits

  • In this episode of Run the Numbers, CJ sits down with Praveer Melwani, CFO of Figma, to unpack the financial model behind one of tech’s most iconic product-led companies. They cover viral growth, forecasting without a traditional sales pipeline, AI credit pricing, margin tradeoffs, and the metric Praveer believes matters most in the long run: free cash flow per share.

    SPONSORS:

    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/techstartupsSpendHound is a SaaS spend management platform built for finance and procurement teams that want visibility and leverage in every deal. By tracking all your software, benchmarking pricing across thousands of vendors, and surfacing contracts and renewals, SpendHound helps you stop overpaying and negotiate with confidence. Trusted by teams at ZoomInfo and Hootsuite. Get started at https://www.spendhound.com

    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

    Aleph is a modern FP&A platform built for teams that want more than another planning tool. By connecting your ERP, CRM, and other systems into one trusted data layer with AI workflows, Aleph helps you move faster with real-time insights. Get a personalized demo at https://www.getaleph.com/run

    RightRev is an automated revenue recognition platform built for teams that have outgrown spreadsheets and billing tool workarounds. It handles high-volume subscriptions, usage-based contracts, and mid-cycle upgrades, so you can scale without scrambling at month-end. For RevRec that keeps your books clean, visit https://www.rightrev.com/CJ

    Rillet is an AI-native ERP built for modern finance teams that want to close faster without fighting legacy systems. Designed to support complex revenue recognition, multi-entity operations, and real-time reporting, Rillet helps teams achieve a true zero-day close—with some customers closing in hours, not days. If you’re scaling on an ERP that wasn’t built in the 90s, book a demo at https://www.rillet.com/cj

    LINKS:

    Mostly Talent: https://mostlymetrics.typeform.com/to/cLTxtAsN

    Guest: https://www.linkedin.com/in/praveer-melwani/

    Company: https://www.figma.com/

    CJ: https://www.linkedin.com/in/cj-gustafson-13140948/

    Mostly metrics: https://www.mostlymetrics.com

    TIMESTAMPS:

    0:00 Preview and intro

    1:21 Welcome and guest intro

    2:55 From banking to Dropbox to Figma

    5:04 Inflection points: building trust early

    8:36 TAM expansion thinking

    10:31 Sponsors — EY | SpendHound | Brex

    13:38 Two-thirds of Figma users aren't designers

    14:36 Forecasting product led growth

    16:22 Cohorts and NDR discovery

    17:39 LTV to CAC philosophy

    18:57 Product signals for account expansion

    20:22 How Figma achieved hypergrowth with 90%+ margins

    22:14 AI expands TAM: time to hit the gas

    23:22 AI credit pricing model

    24:50 Sponsors — Aleph | RightRev | Rillet

    28:13 Outcome based pricing consideration

    29:00 Where AI margins settle: gross profit dollars

    30:08 Free cash flow per share as north star

    31:04 NDR and pricing volatility

    32:13 Bundled vs. unbundled seats

    34:50 Being engaged in sales to understand admin pain

    35:17 IPO day experience

    36:27 Keeping employees focused beyond the stock price

    37:19 Employee stock pressure and lockup reality

    39:37 Kitchen cabinet of advisors

    41:44 How to ask better questions of advisors

    41:47 Lightning round

    41:50 Advice to younger self

    42:47 Finance software stack

    44:09 Claude WTF moment: forecasting model throughput

    45:13 Craziest expense story: the haircut

    45:59 Credits