AI to ROI

Josh Aharonoff, better known as "Your CFO Guy" and the founder of Might Digits, a consultancy specializing in accounting, finance and fractional CFO services. Josh has amassed 450,000+ followers on LinkedIn, which is extremely rare for anyone, especially someone who caters to the corporate finance community!

During Josh's appearance on the Metrics that Measure Up Podcast, he and our host, Ray Rike discuss a wide variety of topics including:

• The Role of the Fractional CFO
• When to consider an internal VP Finance or CFO
• Why excel is a CFOs best friend…or NOT
• Building a LinkedIn following of 450K+ - the business case and the process

If you are a small or medium size business CEO, and are interested in when it might be the right time to bring in a VP Finance or CFO, or a finance professional looking to scale-up your personal brand, want to enhance your excel skills or considering starting your own business this conversation with Josh is chalked full of great insights, ideas and best practices!

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Dan Miller, CFO at RightRev, has been at the center of Usage-Based Pricing, having served as CFO at Fastly and previously as VP of Finance and General Manager at NetSuite. During today's episode, Dan and Ray discuss how Usage-Based Pricing and AI Outcome-Based Pricing are impacting ARR Reporting and Revenue Recognition Management.

During today's episode, Dan and Ray cover several emerging trends in SaaS and Native-AI companies including:

• How variable pricing models impact revenue recognition
• How does the evolution of Outcome-Based pricing impact revenue recognition
• How AI is and will impact the Office of Finance

A few key takeaways from the episode that are worthy of a deeper dive and listen include:

• Understanding how contract modifications impact revenue recognition policy, process, and reporting
• Blended offerings including a fixed fee + usage are great for customers - but hard to manage revenue recognition
• How token and credit-based pricing impacts revenue recognition and gross profit calculation and reporting
• The strategic impact and tactical challenges of transitioning from pure subscription or hybrid Usage-Based Pricing

If you are a CFO or SaaS executive looking to better understand how pricing trends are challenging existing revenue recognition processes, infrastructure, and automation - this episode is a great listen!

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

There is a famous saying that goes something like this "Half of my advertising (marketing) investment is wasted, the trouble is I do not know which half". This quote is credited to John Wanamaker over 100 years ago, and many marketers feel the same in 2025!

Pranav Piyush is the founder and CEO, Paramark and they are attempting to make this quote not quite as relevant or correct in the future. Paramark is a marketing measurement and optimization platform designed to help businesses understand the true impact of their marketing efforts across various channels. By leveraging advanced statistical methods and machine learning, marketing and finance teams are better enabled to make data-driven decisions with confidence.

During today's conversation with Pranav, we cover a wide array of topics including:

• Aligning Marketing Investment to Outcomes - that matter to a CFO
• The concept of incrementality
• How to anticipate and measure channel specific diminishing returns
• Brand vs Performance measurements
• The top 3 metrics a CMO should be sharing with their CFO

If you are B2B Marketing leader responsible for budget and delivering an ROI on that budget, or a CFO looking to better understand how to measure the ROI on marketing expenses, this episode is a great listen.

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

B2B Marketing and AI Trends are evolving rapidly in 2025, and who better to discuss those trends with than Sydney Sloan, Chief Marketing Officer at G2 - the leader in B2B Software reviews!

During today's episode we discuss a wide array of topics with Sydney including:

• Marketing Budget Allocation for B2B tech companies in 2025
• Peer reviews and their impact on B2B SaaS purchases
• The growth in AI - as measured by categories and vendors with G2 reviews
• The opportunity to exploit the power of AI for B2B Marketers

If you are in the B2B SaaS industry, a B2B SaaS Marketing executive or a B2B SaaS customer this episode has something for you!!!

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

The Data and Sales Intelligence category includes a list of well known players such as ZoomInfo, Seamless and Apollo, and are now joined by new entrants like Clay and Lusha. But where does a pure play Data (Sales) Intelligence provider like People Data Labs fit - their CEO, Brian Eisenberg who has grown through the ranks at People Data Labs from Data Engineer to CEO provides his insights in how the Sales (People) Intelligence category is evolving.

During today's episode, our host Ray Rike discusses multiple topics with Ben including:

• The top challenges customers are facing with today’s Data Intelligence solutions?
• How does People Data Labs ensure they remain compliant with the evolving data privacy laws and vendor specific Terms of Service
• How will next generation Data Intelligence solutions address the current challenges
• Ben’s personal career journey - from Data Engineer to CEO in 7 years

If your B2B SaaS or technology company uses Sales Intelligence Data to feed your outbound machine - this conversation is a must listen!

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Bill Koefoed is the CFO of OneStream which went public in 2024 after being acquired by KKR in 2021. The CFO journey from being a Private Equity owned company to preparing for an IPO and beyond, while also transitioning from a perpetual license model to a subscription business is a fascinating experience and story.

During this episode, Bill and Ray discuss a wide variety of topics and experiences during this CFO journey including:

• How the role of CFO changes in a Private Equity majority owned B2B SaaS company
• The lessons learned in transitioning from a perpetual license to a B2B SaaS subscription model
• The preparation required to take a B2B SaaS company public
• How technology has changed the Office of Finance and the CFO role
• The journey to becoming a B2B SaaS CFO - the Bill Koefoed path

Bill mentioned that he had previously been the CFO of a Private equity-owned company. Once you have the first experience under your belt, your reputation as a Private equity-experienced CFO will be the access ticket to the next CFO position.

Bill highlighted the importance that pricing plays when first starting the transition from perpetual to subscription. The cross-over or break-even point was targeted at 5 years, which essentially says that beginning in Year 6 the benefit of operating in a subscription business model materially increase.

Bill shared the metrics that he prioritizes, and he started with the 98% Gross Revenue Retention Rate which highlights their priority and focus on customer satisfaction. In addition, Net New ARR, Net Revenue Retention and how much of Net New ARR is coming from "new customers" versus customer expansion. In fact, new logo acquisition is a top focus for 2025, including going from 1,600 customer to 10,000 plus new customers.  New customer ARR contributes about 60% of the total new ARR.

What customer acquisition efficiency metric does Bill use - he really likes LTV:CAC Ratio and the CAC Payback Period which they currently stand at 24 months - but that is with a $340K ACV!

If you are a CFO in a B2B SaaS company, or are an executive leader looking to evolve into a private equity acquisition or initial public offering - this conversation with Bill Koefoed, Chief Financial Officer at OneStream is an enlightening conversation that covers a broad variety of insights, experiences and inspiration!

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Aviv Canaani is the Chief Revenue Officer at Datarails who recently transformed their Go-to-Market motion to be primarily inbound from the traditional outbound motion. During today's episode Aviv and our host, Ray Rike dive deep into multiple GTM strategies and measurements including:

• Top performance measurements for a B2B SaaS CRO
• The catalyst for transitioning to an "inbound GTM motion"
• The ROI for an Inbound vs Outbound GTM motion
• Leveraging Social Media to build awareness with the Office of Finance
• Measuring ROI in content and media investments

Aviv was initially the head of Marketing and then took overall responsibility for Sales, Marketing, and Customer Success. Soon thereafter, he quickly realized that they needed to increase the efficiency of their Go-to-Market investments and associated processes. But before we dive into the transition from a 90% outbound strategy, we discussed the top metrics for CROs.

First, Aviv highlighted that CAC efficiency, as measured by the CAC Payback Period (CPP) where they have decreased the CAC Payback Period by 50% is a TOP metric for CROs. One of the first topics we discussed was the primary "input signals" to decrease the payback period. One of the things Aviv highlighted is that increasing the quality of leads that are provided to AEs was a good first place to start. The ultimate goal was that AEs could spend the majority of their time on selling and closing opportunities, versus doing cold outbound prospecting.

Another key tactic was to ensure he had a very predictable way to know for each dollar investment in Go-to-Market, what the expected outcomes as measured by new customer ARR could be generated. Using a "waterfall" methodology, Aviv knows that for every dollar of Marketing spend what are the predictable outcomes as measured by meetings, opportunities, new customers, and the associated new ARR.

By having a predictable model, Aviv can go to the CFO and confidently show what the ROI is for every dollar invested in Marketing, they can begin to allocate more to brand building which will have more impact in a few quarters versus just measuring the short-term ROI on Demand investments.

Next, we dove into the transition from a primarily outbound GTM motion to primarily an inbound GTM motion. First, in 2022, even though SDRs were hitting their "meeting goals" they were not converting to customers. As a result, they increased the focus on "high intent" leads which increased the efficiency of the GTM investments. One of the primary measurements they used to validate the inbound focus, they found a 3x-4x higher win rate, and a shorter sales cycle all leading to increased GTM efficiency.

What is the primary source for 90% of new ARR coming from inbound? First, they brought on a team of B2C Marketing professionals who used paid search, paid media, and social media strategies to drive higher intent inbounds. This even included the use of Instagram and TikTok...to reach the Office of Finance! In addition, they focused on SEO and even a podcast to get their brand and message in front of finance executives. Now that the brand has been enhanced through the media investments will over time also increase the efficiency of the outbound activities.

Another strategy was to divide outbound and inbound SDRs, and in fact, a majority of the outbound SDRs are now located in the Philippines which maintained effectiveness and increased efficiency as measured by outputs (New ARR) versus inputs (SDR investments).

If you are a B2B SaaS CFO or GTM leader, this conversation with Aviv is full of ideas, insights, and successful experiences in evolving the GTM playbook!!!

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

This episode of the “Metrics that Measure Up” Podcast features James D. Wilton, Author of Capturing Value - The Definitive Guide to Transforming SaaS Pricing and Unshackling Growth and Managing Partner, Monevate

During our conversation we covered four primary topics with James:

• Actual Value versus Perceived Value - which matters most
• Price Metric Evaluation Criteria
• Innovative Monetization Strategies
• Measuring a Customer’s Willingness to Pay

If you are considering changing your existing pricing model and/or introducing new pricing for either an existing or new product - like a new AI module, this conversation is loaded with great ideas and insights into the different pricing models being used in the B2B SaaS industry!!!

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

SaaS Pricing is evolving to better align the value received to the pricing model. The trend to using new pricing models including Usage-Base Pricing, Value-Based Pricing and Outcome-Based Pricing is evolving quickly and Bill provides his insights into the current trends and future of SaaS and AI pricing.

During the episode Bill and Ray discuss several trends including:

• The top trends in SaaS pricing
• How SaaS companies are adapting their pricing models
• The risks and rewards of changing pricing models
• Overview of the FAST "Pricing Page" Framework
• Bill’s crystal ball on where AI pricing is headed

If you are evaluating evolving your SaaS pricing model - this is a highly informative and instructive conversation.

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) has been the foundation for larger companies dating back to the introduction of SAP R-3 in the late nineties. Sandeep Chopra, Co-Founder and Co-CEO of Everest Systems says that ERP vendors have lost their "customer focus" and believes their is a large opportunity to re-invent ERP in the cloud to help companies run their business more efficiently. Introducing Next Generation ERP to the SaaS industry is the first step.

During today's episode our host Ray Rike and Sandeep discuss the next era of ERP including

• The need for a next generation ERP platform
• Advantage of leading edge technology to re-engineer business processes
• What stage of company should evaluate ERP
• Office of Finance use cases for leveraging AI
• Benefits of integrating accounting, billing and planning in one platform

If you are currently a Quick Books user and/or are evaluating the benefits of an integrated accounting, billing, revenue management and planning platform this conversation is full of interesting ideas and business reasons to consider this strategy.

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.