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