Run the Numbers

In this episode of Run the Numbers, CJ breaks down Anthropic’s S-1: the revenue growth, 900% net revenue retention, compute costs, gross margin, and whether the company is actually profitable. We also cover the risk factors, the five-class share structure, executive pay, and what a roughly $2 trillion valuation implies next to other recent IPOs.

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SPONSORS:

RightRev is a revenue recognition platform built for the AI economy, helping finance support usage-based pricing, credits, hybrid contracts, seats plus consumption, and whatever commercial model comes next. It gives product teams the freedom to keep innovating without outdated revenue systems slowing them down. Learn how RightRev can help at https://rightrev.com/cj

Fidelity Private Shares gives founders the structure and simplicity to focus on what actually matters - building your company. If your startup needs a little extra support (and let’s be honest, who doesn’t need a little help now and then), then you’re in for a pleasant surprise with Fidelity. If you stay investor ready, you don’t have to get investor ready. Check out www.fidelityprivateshares.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

Cloud Capital helps you say goodbye to on-demand rates for cloud. Committing more cuts the rate you pay for cloud infrastructure by 20–60%. Commit wrong and you pay for capacity you'll never use. Cloud Capital underwrites that risk, so you capture the savings of deeper commitments without locking in architecture or putting engineers on it. Go to www.cloudcapital.co

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

Abacum puts your actuals, forecasts, models, and business context in one place, so you can update the plan, run scenarios, and answer "why did this change?" without rebuilding the story from six spreadsheets and a Slack thread. Connect your source systems, keep models and assumptions aligned, and give leaders trusted answers while decisions are still being made. Go to abacum.ai/mostly-metrics.

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

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LINKS: 

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

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

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

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TIMESTAMPS:

0:00 Cold Open

1:08 Ticker, Raise, and Valuation

2:02 Three Big Questions

2:21 Key Stats at a Glance

8:04 The Best Shareholder Letter Ever

11:18 Where Anthropic Sits in the AI Stack

15:20 How Anthropic Makes Money

18:02 Run Rate vs. ARR

20:56 Revenue Efficiency

22:48 The Four Financial Drivers

25:16 Are They Profitable?

26:37 Gross Margin

31:29 Cash Flow

35:22 Wallet Share and Too Many Partners

37:18 Red Flags

40:49 The Cap Table

42:08 Exec Pay and the Board

43:33 Valuation

44:50 IPO Comps

45:12 Odds and Ends

45:55 Bull Case and Final Take

46:57 Wrap Up

#RunTheNumbersPodcast #Anthropic #IPO #S1 #AI

In this episode of Run the Numbers, CJ welcomes back Sid Kumar, who has led go-to-market through perpetual, cloud, SaaS, and consumption models at CA, AWS, HubSpot, and now Databricks. They cover how consumption changes the sales org, why customer success has an identity crisis, how to build a commission stack, and what ARR actually means. Sid also shares how AI is reshaping capacity planning and why he thinks annual planning is giving way to continuous planning.

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SPONSORS:

Abacum puts your actuals, forecasts, models, and business context in one place, so you can update the plan, run scenarios, and answer "why did this change?" without rebuilding the story from six spreadsheets and a Slack thread. Connect your source systems, keep models and assumptions aligned, and give leaders trusted answers while decisions are still being made.

Go to abacum.ai/mostly-metrics.

RightRev is a revenue recognition platform built for the AI economy, helping finance support usage-based pricing, credits, hybrid contracts, seats plus consumption, and whatever commercial model comes next. It gives product teams the freedom to keep innovating without outdated revenue systems slowing them down. Learn how RightRev can help at https://rightrev.com/cj

Fidelity Private Shares gives founders the structure and simplicity to focus on what actually matters - building your company. If your startup needs a little extra support (and let’s be honest, who doesn’t need a little help now and then), then you’re in for a pleasant surprise with Fidelity. If you stay investor ready, you don’t have to get investor ready. Check out www.fidelityprivateshares.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

Cloud Capital helps you say goodbye to on-demand rates for cloud. Committing more cuts the rate you pay for cloud infrastructure by 20–60%. Commit wrong and you pay for capacity you'll never use. Cloud Capital underwrites that risk, so you capture the savings of deeper commitments without locking in architecture or putting engineers on it. Go to www.cloudcapital.co

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

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

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LINKS: 

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

Craig on Linkedin: linkedin.com/in/craig-bealmear-a375573

Oklo: https://oklo.com/

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

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

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TIMESTAMPS:

0:00 Cold Open

2:52 Go-to-Market

5:05 Perpetual, SaaS, Consumption

7:01 The Contract Isn’t the Moment of Truth

10:24 A Different Kind of AE

17:41 Customer Success’s Identity Crisis

20:23 Hunter vs. Farmer

22:44 Motion Specialization

23:50 Building the Commission Stack

28:07 CAC and LTV

29:54 What ARR Means

33:44 Pattern Matching With Data

38:13 Forecasting

38:59 Always Be Planning

41:10 AI and Capacity Planning

43:48 Will AI Change Sales Ops?

46:16 The Player-Coach Is Back

46:44 Getting Hands-On With AI

48:08 Hot Take on Annual Planning

#RunTheNumbersPodcast #Databricks #GoToMarket #SalesOps #ConsumptionPricing

In this episode of Run the Numbers, recorded live at Brex Mode in Chicago, CJ sits down with Craig Bealmear, CFO of Oklo, who spent nearly 30 years at BP before moving into nuclear. They cover raising billions before meaningful revenue, why cash matters more than the P&L, and how he hires the finance team Oklo will need two years from now. Craig also looks back at leading through the Deepwater Horizon crisis.

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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

Abacum puts your actuals, forecasts, models, and business context in one place, so you can update the plan, run scenarios, and answer "why did this change?" without rebuilding the story from six spreadsheets and a Slack thread. Connect your source systems, keep models and assumptions aligned, and give leaders trusted answers while decisions are still being made. Go to abacum.ai/mostly-metrics.

RightRev is a revenue recognition platform built for the AI economy, helping finance support usage-based pricing, credits, hybrid contracts, seats plus consumption, and whatever commercial model comes next. It gives product teams the freedom to keep innovating without outdated revenue systems slowing them down. Learn how RightRev can help at https://rightrev.com/cj

Fidelity Private Shares gives founders the structure and simplicity to focus on what actually matters - building your company. If your startup needs a little extra support (and let’s be honest, who doesn’t need a little help now and then), then you’re in for a pleasant surprise with Fidelity. If you stay investor ready, you don’t have to get investor ready. Check out www.fidelityprivateshares.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

Cloud Capital helps you say goodbye to on-demand rates for cloud. Committing more cuts the rate you pay for cloud infrastructure by 20–60%. Commit wrong and you pay for capacity you'll never use. Cloud Capital underwrites that risk, so you capture the savings of deeper commitments without locking in architecture or putting engineers on it. Go to www.cloudcapital.co

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

Craig on Linkedin: linkedin.com/in/craig-bealmear-a375573

Oklo: https://oklo.com/

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

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

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TIMESTAMPS:

0:00 Cold Open

2:38 What Oklo Does

3:38 From BP to Nuclear

6:03 The Power Behind the AI Stack

7:47 Unconstrained Demand

12:38 Risks

13:50 Running a Pre-Revenue Company

14:57 The Say-Do Ratio

17:41 Asking the Dumb Questions

18:13 Raising Capital Before the Projects

21:15 Cash Management Pillars

25:05 One-Way vs. Two-Way Decisions

26:11 Defining Capability

27:35 Hiring for Two Years Out

28:07 Forecasting the Team 8 Quarters Out

30:07 Deepwater Horizon

31:46 Leading Through a Crisis

32:19 Wrap Up

#RunTheNumbersPodcast #Oklo #Nuclear #CFO #BrexMode

In Part 2 of our Token Series with Tabs, CJ and Ali Hussain ask how much AI is too much in finance. They cover why finance may be the most AI-forward function after product and engineering, how MCP became its “ChatGPT moment,” and why headless agents need a leash. They also get into where to start with governance and why deterministic layers still matter.

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SPONSORS:

Tabs is an AI-native revenue platform that unifies billing, collections, and revenue recognition for companies running usage-based or complex contracts. By bringing together ERP, CRM, and real product usage data into a single system of record, Tabs eliminates manual reconciliations and speeds up close and cash collection. Companies like Cortex, Statsig, and Cursor trust Tabs to scale revenue efficiently. Learn more at ⁠https://www.tabs.com⁠

—

LINKS:

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

Guest: ⁠⁠⁠⁠ linkedin.com/in/ali-hussain786⁠

Company: ⁠⁠ www.tabs.com⁠

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

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

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TIMESTAMPS:

0:00 Cold Open

1:05 Why CFOs Ask About Org Design

2:25 Finance Is the Most AI-Forward Team

3:43 MCP: Finance’s ChatGPT Moment

5:08 Laying Tracks for Agents

5:53 Vendors, Employees, Customers

6:51 MCP, Harnesses, and Headless Agents

8:34 The New Finance Operating System

11:50 Governing AI in Finance

12:12 Where to Start: Billing and Collections

13:51 Will Deterministic Layers Survive?

14:51 Build vs. Buy

16:28 Why Revenue Work Is So Hard

18:11 Next Up: Who Foots the Bill?

#RunTheNumbersPodcast #Tabs #CFO #AI #AITokens

Episode Description: 

In this episode of Run the Numbers, CJ sits down with Erica Dorfman, CFO of Brex, to trace her path from capital markets at SoFi to product to the CFO seat. They cover why Brex moved away from lending, what happened behind the scenes during the SVB collapse, and how Erica keeps reinventing her role and her team as the company scales.

—

SPONSORS:

Cloud Capital helps you say goodbye to on-demand rates for cloud. Committing more cuts the rate you pay for cloud infrastructure by 20–60%. Commit wrong and you pay for capacity you'll never use. Cloud Capital underwrites that risk, so you capture the savings of deeper commitments without locking in architecture or putting engineers on it. Go to www.cloudcapital.co

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

Abacum puts your actuals, forecasts, models, and business context in one place, so you can update the plan, run scenarios, and answer "why did this change?" without rebuilding the story from six spreadsheets and a Slack thread. Connect your source systems, keep models and assumptions aligned, and give leaders trusted answers while decisions are still being made.

Go to abacum.ai/mostly-metrics.

RightRev is a revenue recognition platform built for the AI economy, helping finance support usage-based pricing, credits, hybrid contracts, seats plus consumption, and whatever commercial model comes next. It gives product teams the freedom to keep innovating without outdated revenue systems slowing them down. Learn how RightRev can help at https://rightrev.com/cj

Fidelity Private Shares gives founders the structure and simplicity to focus on what actually matters - building your company. If your startup needs a little extra support (and let’s be honest, who doesn’t need a little help now and then), then you’re in for a pleasant surprise with Fidelity. If you stay investor ready, you don’t have to get investor ready. Check out www.fidelityprivateshares.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 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

Erica on Linkedin: linkedin.com/in/erica-dorfman-4034b717

Brex: www.brex.com

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

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

—

TIMESTAMPS:

0:00 Cold Open

2:24 Swimming and the CFO Mindset

6:03 The Columbia Finance Mafia

7:48 The Physics of a Business

11:16 VP of Cash at Brex

12:40 How Banking Partnerships Work

17:58 Why Brex Moved Away From Lending

19:23 Great Adjacency vs. Distraction

21:31 AI Auditing Every Transaction

23:00 Operating Through Chaos at SoFi

25:45 The SVB Weekend

29:00 Crisis Meets Opportunity

37:31 Asking “Stupid” Questions

39:44 Rebuilding the Team

43:33 Killing Meetings

46:05 Erica’s Biggest Mistake

47:08 Advice to Her Younger Self

47:36 Brex’s Finance Tech Stack

48:37 Craziest Expense Ever

#RunTheNumbersPodcast #Brex #CFO #Building #FinanceLeadership

In this episode of Run the Numbers, CJ welcomes back Jim Cook, a multi-time CFO (Intuit, Netflix, Mozilla) turned coach, author, and newsletter writer. They dig into “return on compute,” the metric Jim believes every finance leader needs in their vocabulary, and why surprise AI bills echo the early days of the cloud. They cover how to budget for tokens, the “frontier convergence” idea for ramping compute spend by role, and why revenue per compute may join revenue per headcount on the CFO scorecard. 

—

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

Cloud Capital helps you say goodbye to on-demand rates for cloud. Committing more cuts the rate you pay for cloud infrastructure by 20–60%. Commit wrong and you pay for capacity you'll never use. Cloud Capital underwrites that risk, so you capture the savings of deeper commitments without locking in architecture or putting engineers on it. Go to www.cloudcapital.co

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

Abacum puts your actuals, forecasts, models, and business context in one place, so you can update the plan, run scenarios, and answer "why did this change?" without rebuilding the story from six spreadsheets and a Slack thread. Connect your source systems, keep models and assumptions aligned, and give leaders trusted answers while decisions are still being made.

Go to abacum.ai/mostly-metrics.

RightRev is a revenue recognition platform built for the AI economy, helping finance support usage-based pricing, credits, hybrid contracts, seats plus consumption, and whatever commercial model comes next. It gives product teams the freedom to keep innovating without outdated revenue systems slowing them down. Learn how RightRev can help at https://rightrev.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

Fidelity Private Shares gives founders the structure and simplicity to focus on what actually matters - building your company. If your startup needs a little extra support (and let’s be honest, who doesn’t need a little help now and then), then you’re in for a pleasant surprise with Fidelity. If you stay investor ready, you don’t have to get investor ready. Check out www.fidelityprivateshares.com

—

LINKS: 

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

Jim on Linkedin: linkedin.com/in/cookflix

Benchboard: https://www.benchboard.com/

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

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

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TIMESTAMPS:

0:00 Welcome Back, Jim Cook

2:56 Return on Compute

5:51 The $500K Surprise Bill

8:25 Do Execs Know Their Token Usage?

10:05 Tagging Compute Like Cloud Costs

12:03 Budgeting for Tokens

13:19 Revenue per Compute

14:45 The Modern CFO Framework

15:50 What Strategy Really Means

17:44 Communication and Influence

22:27 Lead With a Thesis

24:05 Speaking Up in the Boardroom

26:04 Better Questions with EY

28:11 Where to Find Jim

#RunTheNumbersPodcast #ReturnOnCompute #CFO #AI #FinanceLeadership

In this episode of Run the Numbers, CJ sits down with Heidi Robinson, former CFO and COO of Food52, for one of the wildest CFO stories the show has featured. Heidi joined expecting to lead a modest turnaround and within weeks realized the company was in far deeper trouble than anyone understood. She walks through being the newest executive in the room and having to deliver that news and the Monday evening a lender swept the company's cash without warning.

—

SPONSORS:

Fidelity Private Shares gives founders the structure and simplicity to focus on what actually matters - building your company. If your startup needs a little extra support (and let’s be honest, who doesn’t need a little help now and then), then you’re in for a pleasant surprise with Fidelity. If you stay investor ready, you don’t have to get investor ready. Check out www.fidelityprivateshares.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

Cloud Capital helps you say goodbye to on-demand rates for cloud. Committing more cuts the rate you pay for cloud infrastructure by 20–60%. Commit wrong and you pay for capacity you'll never use. Cloud Capital underwrites that risk, so you capture the savings of deeper commitments without locking in architecture or putting engineers on it. Go to www.cloudcapital.co

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

Abacum puts your actuals, forecasts, models, and business context in one place, so you can update the plan, run scenarios, and answer "why did this change?" without rebuilding the story from six spreadsheets and a Slack thread. Connect your source systems, keep models and assumptions aligned, and give leaders trusted answers while decisions are still being made. Go to abacum.ai/mostly-metrics.

RightRev is a revenue recognition platform built for the AI economy, helping finance support usage-based pricing, credits, hybrid contracts, seats plus consumption, and whatever commercial model comes next. It gives product teams the freedom to keep innovating without outdated revenue systems slowing them down. Learn how RightRev can help at https://rightrev.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: linkedin.com/in/heidilrobinson

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

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

—

TIMESTAMPS:

0:00 Cold Open

2:29 Joining Food52

3:45 Food52's Three Brands

6:14 Building a Cash Flow Model

7:25 Delivering the Worst News

8:09 A Path Without Bankruptcy?

9:05 The Cash Sweep

13:44 The Scramble

18:30 Selling at 60% Off

19:45 Working Through the Holidays

20:10 Filing Chapter 11

21:48 Chapter 7 vs. 11

23:05 The Headline Objective

23:33 The Stalking Horse Bidder

26:17 Meet the Cast29:41 Testifying Under Oath

30:50 The Independent Board Member

35:27 The Live Auction

39:06 Bidding Like Poker

40:50 The Payout Waterfall

44:24 Better Questions with EY

44:41 Rethinking Risk

46:00 CFO/COO Convergence

#RunTheNumbersPodcast #CFOs #Food52 #Bankruptcy #FinancePodcast

In this episode of Run the Numbers, CJ sits down with Shiv Verma, CFO of Robinhood, to unpack the company's 2022 "refounding". They dig into why Shiv personally signs off on every headcount and marketing dollar at a $100B+ company, and how Robinhood's capital allocation philosophy — no loss leaders, minimal variable costs, and a hard $100 million ARR bar for new products — shapes everything from prediction markets to private-market investing.

—

SPONSORS:

RightRev is a revenue recognition platform built for the AI economy, helping finance support usage-based pricing, credits, hybrid contracts, seats plus consumption, and whatever commercial model comes next. It gives product teams the freedom to keep innovating without outdated revenue systems slowing them down. Learn how RightRev can help at https://rightrev.com/cj

Fidelity Private Shares gives founders the structure and simplicity to focus on what actually matters - building your company. If your startup needs a little extra support (and let’s be honest, who doesn’t need a little help now and then), then you’re in for a pleasant surprise with Fidelity. If you stay investor ready, you don’t have to get investor ready. Check out www.fidelityprivateshares.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

Cloud Capital helps you say goodbye to on-demand rates for cloud. Committing more cuts the rate you pay for cloud infrastructure by 20–60%. Commit wrong and you pay for capacity you'll never use. Cloud Capital underwrites that risk, so you capture the savings of deeper commitments without locking in architecture or putting engineers on it. Go to www.cloudcapital.co

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

Abacum puts your actuals, forecasts, models, and business context in one place, so you can update the plan, run scenarios, and answer "why did this change?" without rebuilding the story from six spreadsheets and a Slack thread. Connect your source systems, keep models and assumptions aligned, and give leaders trusted answers while decisions are still being made.

Go to abacum.ai/mostly-metrics.

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: linkedin.com/in/shiv-verma-6408249

Company: www.robinhood.com

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

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

—

TIMESTAMPS:

0:00 Intro

2:21 The 2022 Refounding

8:46 Using NPS

17:53 Moving to a GM Model

19:58 Finance Partners

17:49 Killing Committees for DRIs

20:04 Headcount Requests

27:02 RPM Teams and Efficiency

32:27 The Art of Capital Allocation

33:34 Core, Scaling, and New Seeds

37:07 Funding a New Idea

38:17 Killing OKRs

44:59 No Loss Leaders

48:36 Building Prediction Markets Fast

51:26 Why Shiv Hates Variable Costs

53:37 Market Share Over Revenue

55:59 Forecasting a Volatile Business

59:53 Shiv's Biggest Mistake

1:02:03 Lessons from the Oakland A's

1:04:04 Advice to His Younger Self

1:04:48 Finance Tech Stack

1:05:30 Craziest Expense

This is Part 1 of our new Token Series with Tabs. CJ calls up Ali Hussain to dig into one of the fastest-growing, least-understood line items on the P&L: AI inference and token spend. They debate whether AI costs ultimately belong to the CTO or the CFO, why the shift from "experimentation budgets" to real operating costs is forcing companies to rethink ownership, what's actually different about AI spend compared to the early cloud transition, and how tools like OpenRouter (acquired by Stripe) and Ramp's new offering are approaching the problem from opposite ends of engineering vs. finance.

—

Tabs is an AI-native revenue platform that unifies billing, collections, and revenue recognition for companies running usage-based or complex contracts. By bringing together ERP, CRM, and real product usage data into a single system of record, Tabs eliminates manual reconciliations and speeds up close and cash collection. Companies like Cortex, Statsig, and Cursor trust Tabs to scale revenue efficiently. Learn more at https://www.tabs.com

—

LINKS: 

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

Guest: ⁠linkedin.com/in/ali-hussain786

Company: ⁠www.tabs.com

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

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

—

TIMESTAMPS:

0:00 Cold Open

1:11 From Experimentation Budgets to Real AI Costs

2:43 Who Owns AI Spend Inside a Company?

4:12 Lessons from the Cloud Transition

5:55 Why AI Costs Are Different from Cloud

7:51 AI as "Electricity Through the House"

8:42 Paying for 5 to 10 LLM Providers

9:58 OpenRouter vs. Ramp: Two Approaches

11:47 What the Finance Stack for AI Spend Should Look Like

13:34 Passing AI Costs on to Customers

In this episode of Run the Numbers, CJ sits down with Emily Man of Primary Ventures to map out where value actually accrues in the AI economy. They break down the 5 layers of the AI stack and why Emily believes the next era of AI adoption will be driven by diffusion through apps rather than smarter models alone.

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LINKS: 

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

Guest: linkedin.com/in/emily-man-02a1a486

Company: https://www.primary.vc/

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

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

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TIMESTAMPS:

0:00 Cold Opens

1:12 Meet Emily Man, Primary Ventures

2:01 What's Exciting in Venture Right Now

3:09 The 5 Layers of the AI Stack

4:08 Where Funding Has Focused So Far

5:54 Diffusion Through Apps

9:30 "Enough" Intelligence

17:11 Payroll vs. Compute Ratio

23:01 Alex Karp and "Owning Your Weights"

24:05 On-Prem vs. Cloud, Again?

30:53 Models vs. Loops

32:34 Software Goes Headless

34:14 Pre-2022 SaaS Companies

36:29 The Roadkill Bucket

41:42 The Vibe-Coding Backlash

44:55 Objectivity vs. Subjectivity

48:03 When AI Agents Talk to Each Other

49:43 Creating Alpha Without Being AI-Native

51:01 Better Questions, Brought to You by EY

51:16 The Future CFO Tech Stack

#RunTheNumbersPodcast #AIforCFOs #FinanceLeadership #Zuora #GoingPrivate