Run the Numbers

In this episode of Run the Numbers, CJ Gustafson sits down with Brian Brown, Chief Financial Officer and Treasurer at Rocket Companies, to unpack how Rocket has built a differentiated, full-stack fintech business far beyond its mortgage roots. The conversation explores Rocket’s approach to long-tail monetization, the strategic importance of mortgage servicing, and how recapture rates become a durable competitive advantage in volatile rate environments. Brian shares lessons from leading complex M&A transactions, managing a business that reacts in real time to macro signals, and building a finance organization that prioritizes storytelling, strategy, and cross-functional thinking over pure accounting prowess. The result is a wide-ranging discussion on what traditional financial services companies can teach modern SaaS and fintech leaders about metrics, brand, and disciplined execution.

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SPONSORS:

Sage Intacct is a cloud financial management platform that replaces spreadsheets, automates workflows, and keeps your books audit-ready as you scale. It unifies accounting, ERP, and real-time reporting for finance, retail, logistics, tech, and professional services. With payback in under six months and up to 250% ROI, and eight years as the customer-satisfaction leader, Sage Intacct helps you take control of your growth: https://bit.ly/3Kn4YHt

Mercury is business banking built for builders, giving founders and finance pros a financial stack that actually works together. From sending wires to tracking balances and approving payments, Mercury makes it simple to scale without friction. Join the 200,000+ entrepreneurs who trust Mercury and apply online in minutes at https://www.mercury.com

RightRev automates the revenue recognition process from end to end, gives you real-time insights, and ensures ASC 606 / IFRS 15 compliance—all while closing books faster. For RevRec that auditors actually trust, visit https://www.rightrev.com and schedule a demo.

Tipalti automates the entire payables process—from onboarding suppliers to executing global payouts—helping finance teams save time, eliminate costly errors, and scale confidently across 200+ countries and 120 currencies. More than 5,000 businesses already trust Tipalti to manage payments with built-in security and tax compliance. Visit https://www.tipalti.com/runthenumbers to learn more.

Aleph automates 90% of manual, error-prone busywork, so you can focus on the strategic work you were hired to do. Minimize busywork and maximize impact with the power of a web app, the flexibility of spreadsheets, and the magic of AI. Get a personalised demo at https://www.getaleph.com/run

Fidelity Private Shares is the all-in-one equity management platform that keeps your cap table clean, your data room organized, and your equity story clear—so you never risk losing a fundraising round over messy records. Schedule a demo at https://www.fidelityprivateshares.com and mention Mostly Metrics to get 20% off.

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LINKS:

Brian on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/brian-brown-3aa37a8a/

Rocket Companies: https://rocket.com/

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

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

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RELATED EPISODES:

From $500M Losses to $500M Profits: The CFO Who Helped Major League Baseball Win off the Field

https://youtu.be/7xw9qY2w5C4

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TIMESTAMPS:

00:00:00 Preview and Intro

00:02:30 Sponsors — Sage Intacct | Mercury | RightRev

00:05:55 CJ’s Rocket Mortgage Fanboy Moment

00:07:13 How Rocket Mortgage Actually Makes Money

00:12:06 Investing in Brand Trust for Infrequent but High-Stakes Decisions

00:15:17 Mortgage Servicing as a Long-Term Relationship Engine

00:17:17 Sponsors — Tipalti | Aleph | Fidelity Private Shares

00:20:40 Why the Long Tail of Customer Relationships Is Underrated

00:23:01 Recapture Rate and Why Mortgage Loyalty Is Broken

00:25:23 Lower CAC Through Lifetime Value and Repeat Borrowers

00:30:55 Financial Storytelling as a CFO’s Real Job

00:33:03 Why CFOs Must Sell the Story, Not Just the Numbers

00:40:49 Public vs. Private M&A and Why Public Deals Are Harder

00:45:21 Redfin Acquisition Thesis and Top-of-Funnel Strategy

00:52:18 Being Swarmed by Merger Arb Funds Like Taylor Swift

00:55:18 How Rocket Forecasts in a Volatile Interest Rate Environment

00:58:04 Weekly Forecasting, Scenario Planning, and Avoiding Forecast Fatigue

01:00:32 Finance Teams as Business Consultants and Strategic Partners

01:02:23 Why CFOs Need a Seat at the Strategy Table

01:04:19 Long-Ass Lightning Round: A Leadership Mistake and Building Teams

01:05:58 Leadership Lessons on Team Size and Accountability

01:07:33 Advice to Younger Self and Slowing Down

01:08:49 Finance Software Stack and AI Tools

01:11:31 Lessons from Working with Dan Gilbert

01:16:58 Craziest Expense Story

01:17:55 Outro

#RunTheNumbersPodcast #CFOLeadership #FinanceStrategy #MergersAndAcquisitions #FinancialStorytelling

Mostly Growth on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@MostlyGrowth

Mostly Growth on Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/mostly-growth/id1842238102

Mostly Growth on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/3KDtaLaXx1obFp5PUhZ6V3

In this episode of Mostly Growth, CJ Gustafson and Kyle Poyar explore the hidden mechanics behind focus, competition, and value creation across both consumer culture and B2B SaaS. They unpack why point-solution companies like Untuckit and Raising Cane’s can outperform diversified rivals, examine how competition actually strengthens category demand, and break down the gray zone of mid-market venture exits where founder incentives and investor expectations diverge. The conversation ranges from private equity roll-ups to the realities of cold-calling returning as a top-performing growth channel, to pricing transparency, algorithmic price discrimination, and how everyday behaviors—from mall Santas to $12 club water—reflect deeper strategic forces. It’s a fast, practical look at how operators can stay focused, understand market pressure, and avoid chasing the wrong game.

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SPONSORS:

Pulley is the cap table management platform built for CFOs and finance leaders who need reliable, audit-ready data and intuitive workflows, without the hidden fees or unreliable support. Switch in as little as 5 days and get 25% off your first year: https://pulley.com/mostlymetrics

Metronome is real-time billing built for modern software companies. Metronome turns raw usage events into accurate invoices, gives customers bills they actually understand, and keeps finance, product, and engineering perfectly in sync. That’s why category-defining companies like OpenAI and Anthropic trust Metronome to power usage-based pricing and enterprise contracts at scale. Focus on your product — not your billing. Learn more and get started at https://www.metronome.com

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LINKS:

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

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

Growth Unhinged: https://www.growthunhinged.com/

Kyle on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kyle-poyar/

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

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

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RELATED EPISODES:

Building AI-Native Software With No Rules | Christopher O’Donnell

https://youtu.be/Fr1027kZyC0

SaaS Founder or Pop Star? CJ Gets Schooled

https://youtu.be/LMZq_DwVmkY

The Layer-Cake Playbook for Vertical SaaS Growth | with Roland Ligtenberg

https://youtu.be/yPxWvhPISKo

The One Use Case for Venture Debt That Most Founders Never Think About

https://youtu.be/XxH_Y9OH_i0

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TIMESTAMPS:

00:00:00 Preview and Intro

00:01:42 Sponsors – Pulley | Metronome

00:04:02 Mall Fashion & Nostalgia

00:05:50 The Modern Mall Santa Reinvented

00:06:52 Untuckit & the Platform vs. Point Solution Debate

00:08:31 The Power of Category Focus

00:09:56 Obsession, Craft, and the Raising Cane’s Lesson

00:10:46 Germany’s “Hidden Champions”

00:12:44 Competition: When to Care and When Not To

00:14:05 OpenAI, Gemini & the “Code Red” Mindset

00:15:34 Competition to Category Education

00:17:00 Pricing Pages as Competitive Battlegrounds

00:18:05 VC Deck Theater & Competitive Grids

00:18:54 Rise of B2B Newsletter Advertising

00:19:48 Awkward Exits: The Venture “Gray Zone”

00:21:46 Founder Life-Changing Exits vs. VC Math

00:23:04 Why Secondaries Exist (and When They Help)

00:24:58 Why $100–500M Is the Most Common SaaS Exit Range

00:26:14 Structural Misalignment in Venture Exits

00:27:20 How Much Secondary Is Too Much?

00:30:25 Business Blunders: Justin Bieber the PM

00:31:54 Voice Notes, Etiquette, and Chaos

00:33:23 Cold Calling Makes a Comeback

00:35:50 Catherine Jhung Still Cold Calls CFOs

00:37:44 Algorithm Pricing Labels & Data-Driven Pricing

00:41:11 Why Clubs Charge $12 for Water

00:42:40 Closing Credits

#MostlyGrowthPodcast #keepitsimple #focuswins #businessstrategy #operatorsmindset

Blake Grayson, CFO of Docusign, joins CJ Gustafson to discuss how a company that redefined e-signature and became a verb is now navigating its next chapter in intelligent agreement management. Drawing on more than a decade at Amazon—where he helped forecast AWS and worked inside some of the company’s most operationally demanding businesses—Blake explains how financial discipline, operational depth, and clear narrative-building shape his approach as CFO. The conversation explores how to evolve a beloved product without diluting the brand, why pricing is as much about positioning as revenue, how to communicate go-to-market mechanics without losing the room, and why effective capital allocation accepts that not every big bet needs to land to shape the leader you become.

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SPONSORS:

Fidelity Private Shares is the all-in-one equity management platform that keeps your cap table clean, your data room organized, and your equity story clear—so you never risk losing a fundraising round over messy records. Schedule a demo at https://www.fidelityprivateshares.com and mention Mostly Metrics to get 20% off.

Sage Intacct is a cloud financial management platform that replaces spreadsheets, automates workflows, and keeps your books audit-ready as you scale. It unifies accounting, ERP, and real-time reporting for finance, retail, logistics, tech, and professional services. With payback in under six months and up to 250% ROI, and eight years as the customer-satisfaction leader, Sage Intacct helps you take control of your growth: https://bit.ly/3Kn4YHt

Mercury is business banking built for builders, giving founders and finance pros a financial stack that actually works together. From sending wires to tracking balances and approving payments, Mercury makes it simple to scale without friction. Join the 200,000+ entrepreneurs who trust Mercury and apply online in minutes at https://www.mercury.com

RightRev automates the revenue recognition process from end to end, gives you real-time insights, and ensures ASC 606 / IFRS 15 compliance—all while closing books faster. For RevRec that auditors actually trust, visit https://www.rightrev.com and schedule a demo.

Tipalti automates the entire payables process—from onboarding suppliers to executing global payouts—helping finance teams save time, eliminate costly errors, and scale confidently across 200+ countries and 120 currencies. More than 5,000 businesses already trust Tipalti to manage payments with built-in security and tax compliance. Visit https://www.tipalti.com/runthenumbers to learn more.

Aleph automates 90% of manual, error-prone busywork, so you can focus on the strategic work you were hired to do. Minimize busywork and maximize impact with the power of a web app, the flexibility of spreadsheets, and the magic of AI. Get a personalised demo at https://www.getaleph.com/run

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LINKS:

Blake on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/blake-grayson-3197043/

Docusign: https://www.docusign.com/

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

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

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RELATED EPISODES:

“Steal Your Boss’s Job”: Calendly CFO John McCauley on Leadership, Ownership & Growth

https://youtu.be/VRpTNDIfzPY

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TIMESTAMPS:

00:00:00 Preview and Intro

00:02:39 Sponsors – Fidelity Private Shares | Sage Intacct | Mercury

00:05:09 DocuSign as a Top CFO Tool

00:07:33 From E-Signature to Intelligent Agreement Management

00:09:09 Complexity Before and After a Signature

00:11:02 Cost of Poor Agreement Management

00:12:30 Agreement Oversight and CFO Risk

00:13:28 Pricing: Usage to Seat Models

00:14:12 Enterprise vs SMB Pricing

00:15:00 Sponsors – RightRev | Tipalti | Aleph

00:19:18 Simplicity, Tiers, and IAM Value

00:20:36 Forecasting New Products in a Renewals Base

00:22:13 Modeling Mix Shift and GTM Enablement

00:23:56 Faster Time-to-Value With Intelligent Repositories

00:25:06 Building GTM Muscle for a Platform

00:26:29 Launching IAM in Commercial First

00:27:31 Forecasting Growth vs Cost

00:28:41 Company-Wide Alignment on Priorities

00:30:02 Aligning Investor Messaging With Operations

00:31:20 Staying Focused on Long-Term Outcomes

00:32:27 Customer-First Decision Making

00:33:41 Transparency and What Not to Disclose

00:34:52 Asking Better Metric Questions

00:36:28 Avoiding Data Paralysis

00:38:52 Amazon’s Weekly Business Reviews

00:41:07 Bezos Meetings and the Silent Read

00:45:09 The “Question Mark Email” and Customer Anecdotes

00:50:22 Unit Economics of a Server and Early AWS Bets

00:53:42 Handling Nonpayment Risk

00:55:07 Operational Chaos: Perishables and Regulation

00:57:04 The “No Eggs in California” Story

00:59:31 Treating Escalations as Company Problems

01:00:59 Biggest Career Mistake

01:02:44 Advice to His Younger Self

01:06:34 Tools Finance Uses: Oracle, Bots, IAM, Salesforce, Workday

01:09:21 Wildest Expense Attempts

01:12:32 Closing Thanks and Credits

#RunTheNumbersPodcast #Docusign #CFOInsights #SaaSLeadership #AIManagement

Cassie Young brings hard earned lessons from a career spanning CRO roles, customer success leadership, turnarounds, and now investing as a General Partner at Primary Venture Partners. She talks about building and rebuilding go to market teams, why sometimes you should fire customers on purpose, and how churn is a lagging indicator that hides deeper retention issues. Cassie shares strong views on overrated metrics like NPS, the incentives that actually drive behavior inside a business, and the myth of finding one perfect KPI. She also brings signature Cassie isms like sunlight is the best disinfectant and the reminder that leaders often get stuck working in the business instead of on it offering practical insights for anyone trying to keep their SaaS metrics from going sideways.

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SPONSORS:

Aleph automates 90% of manual, error-prone busywork, so you can focus on the strategic work you were hired to do. Minimize busywork and maximize impact with the power of a web app, the flexibility of spreadsheets, and the magic of AI. Get a personalised demo at https://www.getaleph.com/run

Fidelity Private Shares is the all-in-one equity management platform that keeps your cap table clean, your data room organized, and your equity story clear—so you never risk losing a fundraising round over messy records. Schedule a demo at https://www.fidelityprivateshares.com and mention Mostly Metrics to get 20% off.

Sage Intacct is the cloud financial management platform that replaces spreadsheets, eliminates manual work, and keeps your books audit-ready—so you can scale without slowing down. It combines accounting, ERP, and real-time reporting for retail, financial services, logistics, tech, professional services, and more. Sage Intacct delivers fast ROI, with payback in under six months and up to 250% return. Rated #1 in customer satisfaction for eight straight years. Visit Sage Intacct and take control of your growth: https://bit.ly/3Kn4YHt

Mercury is business banking built for builders, giving founders and finance pros a financial stack that actually works together. From sending wires to tracking balances and approving payments, Mercury makes it simple to scale without friction. Join the 200,000+ entrepreneurs who trust Mercury and apply online in minutes at https://www.mercury.com

RightRev automates the revenue recognition process from end to end, gives you real-time insights, and ensures ASC 606 / IFRS 15 compliance—all while closing books faster. For RevRec that auditors actually trust, visit https://www.rightrev.com and schedule a demo.

Tipalti automates the entire payables process—from onboarding suppliers to executing global payouts—helping finance teams save time, eliminate costly errors, and scale confidently across 200+ countries and 120 currencies. More than 5,000 businesses already trust Tipalti to manage payments with built-in security and tax compliance. Visit https://www.tipalti.com/runthenumbers to learn more.

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LINKS:

Cassie on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/cassyoung/

Primary Venture Partners: https://www.primary.vc/

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

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

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RELATED EPISODES:

Getting fired 4 times made me a founder | Sam Jacobs of Pavilion

https://youtu.be/8X-JVOF-1A0

—

TIMESTAMPS:

00:00:00 Preview and Intro

00:02:30 Sponsors Aleph | Fidelity Private Shares | Sage Intacct

00:05:21 Returning From Pavilion & GTM Summit Takeaways

00:06:49 What Makes a Great Executive

00:11:07 The Importance of True P&L Fluency

00:12:17 First Team Leadership vs Functional Loyalty

00:13:33 Reading the Macro Environment and Market Forces

00:14:29 Sponsors Mercury | RightRev | Tipalti

00:18:26 Applying First Team Leadership in Practice

00:22:24 Churn as a Lagging Indicator

00:24:23 Finding Real Leading Indicators of Renewal

00:25:30 Customer Value as the Only Path to Enterprise Value

00:26:52 Product Adoption Perception and Retention

00:29:16 Price to Value Ratio as a Predictor of Guaranteed Churn

00:30:37 The Ultimate Question What Gets Your Customer Promoted

00:32:33 How NPS Is Actually Calculated

00:34:56 Sailthru’s Minus 26 NPS and What It Signaled

00:37:31 Rebuilding Customer Trust Through Transparency

00:40:24 Why Net and Gross Retention Must Be Paired

00:42:51 Aligning the Executive Team Through a Unified Bonus Plan

00:45:18 Firing Customers When Misaligned Segments Drain the Org

00:49:35 Carrot vs Stick How to Motivate a Modern GTM Org

00:52:31 Why MBO Plans Fail CSMs

01:03:51 Why Time to Value Matters More Than Ever

#RunTheNumbersPodcast #CustomerSuccess #ChurnPrevention #GoToMarket #VentureCapital

Mostly Growth on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@MostlyGrowth

Mostly Growth on Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/mostly-growth/id1842238102

Mostly Growth on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/3KDtaLaXx1obFp5PUhZ6V3

In this episode of Mostly Growth, CJ Gustafson and Kyle Poyar bounce between sharp SaaS insights and delightfully weird internet culture. They start with an unexpected dive into competitive bird-watching apps, then break down recent software mergers like Superhuman + Grammarly + Coda and what they signal about scaling, cross-sell strategy, and private equity mechanics. CJ and Kyle explore why PE portfolios are becoming powerful distribution channels for AI solutions, how niche data “signals” are outpacing generic ones in sales, and share hedge-fund-style tactics for uncovering proprietary business information. The conversation rounds out with “business blunders” — from Y-axis chart crimes to clickbait headlines — and a lively discussion on Spotify’s pricing power and how companies should (and absolutely should not) communicate price increases.

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SPONSORS:

Pulley is the cap table management platform built for CFOs and finance leaders who need reliable, audit-ready data and intuitive workflows, without the hidden fees or unreliable support. Switch in as little as 5 days and get 25% off your first year: https://pulley.com/mostlymetrics

Metronome is real-time billing built for modern software companies. Metronome turns raw usage events into accurate invoices, gives customers bills they actually understand, and keeps finance, product, and engineering perfectly in sync. That’s why category-defining companies like OpenAI and Anthropic trust Metronome to power usage-based pricing and enterprise contracts at scale. Focus on your product — not your billing. Learn more and get started at https://www.metronome.com

—

LINKS:

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

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

Growth Unhinged: https://www.growthunhinged.com/

Kyle on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kyle-poyar/

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

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

—

RELATED EPISODES:

The Layer-Cake Playbook for Vertical SaaS Growth | with Roland Ligtenberg

https://youtu.be/yPxWvhPISKo

—

TIMESTAMPS:

00:00:00 Preview and Intro

00:01:43 Sponsors – Pulley and Metronome

00:04:05 Birding, Big Year & AI Bird Apps

00:06:42 Software M&A Trends in SaaS

00:08:57 Superhuman–Grammarly–Coda Reverse Merger

00:10:34 How Larger Valuations Attract a New Investor Class

00:11:55 Streaming Wars & Platform Consolidation

00:13:20 Private Equity as a Distribution Channel for AI

00:14:48 How PE Firms Drive Multi-Company Expansion

00:15:56 AI for Efficiency: The PE CFO Playbook

00:17:44 When AI ROI Really Matters in PE

00:19:23 Signal-Based Selling: High-Intent Buyer Detection

00:21:15 Signal Fatigue & the Hunt for Better Data

00:22:50 Why Proprietary Signals Win

00:24:05 Creative (and Creepy) Data Tactics

00:26:09 Pinterest vs. Google: Aspirational vs. Actual Behavior

00:27:17 Blurring Work & Personal Signals in AI Tools

00:27:46 The Michael Jordan of Y-Axis Crimes

00:30:33 Notion Agents Billboard: “Let Them Cook”

00:32:31 Pricing in the Real World: Spotify

00:34:60 → 00:35:00 How to Communicate a Price Increase

00:35:40 Closing Credits

#MostlyGrowthPodcast #PricingStrategy #AIGrowth #GoToMarket #PrivateEquity

CoreWeave CFO Nitin Agrawal joins Run the Numbers to unpack the finance engine behind one of the fastest-growing AI infrastructure companies on the planet. CJ and Nitin dive into what it takes to build financial discipline in an environment where business models are being invented in real time, discussing the company’s 700% growth last year and massive first-quarter performance as a newly public company. They cover capex strategy, securitizing GPUs, managing billion-dollar revenue backlogs, and structuring incentives for hyperscale deals, all while keeping investors grounded and servers running at full tilt. If you want a front-row seat to finance in the AI arms race, this episode delivers.

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SPONSORS:

Tipalti automates the entire payables process—from onboarding suppliers to executing global payouts—helping finance teams save time, eliminate costly errors, and scale confidently across 200+ countries and 120 currencies. More than 5,000 businesses already trust Tipalti to manage payments with built-in security and tax compliance. Visit https://www.tipalti.com/runthenumbers to learn more.

Aleph automates 90% of manual, error-prone busywork, so you can focus on the strategic work you were hired to do. Minimize busywork and maximize impact with the power of a web app, the flexibility of spreadsheets, and the magic of AI. Get a personalised demo at https://www.getaleph.com/run

Fidelity Private Shares is the all-in-one equity management platform that keeps your cap table clean, your data room organized, and your equity story clear—so you never risk losing a fundraising round over messy records. Schedule a demo at https://www.fidelityprivateshares.com and mention Mostly Metrics to get 20% off.

Sage Intacct is the cloud financial management platform that replaces spreadsheets, eliminates manual work, and keeps your books audit-ready—so you can scale without slowing down. It combines accounting, ERP, and real-time reporting for retail, financial services, logistics, tech, professional services, and more. Sage Intacct delivers fast ROI, with payback in under six months and up to 250% return. Rated #1 in customer satisfaction for eight straight years. Visit Sage Intacct and take control of your growth: https://bit.ly/3Kn4YHt

Mercury is business banking built for builders, giving founders and finance pros a financial stack that actually works together. From sending wires to tracking balances and approving payments, Mercury makes it simple to scale without friction. Join the 200,000+ entrepreneurs who trust Mercury and apply online in minutes at https://www.mercury.com

RightRev automates the revenue recognition process from end to end, gives you real-time insights, and ensures ASC 606 / IFRS 15 compliance—all while closing books faster. For RevRec that auditors actually trust, visit https://www.rightrev.com and schedule a demo.

—

LINKS:

Nitin on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nitin-agrawal-cloudcfo/

Company: https://www.coreweave.com/

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

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

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RELATED EPISODES:

The Art and Science of a Day-One IPO Pop with OneStream Software CFO Bill Koefoed

https://youtu.be/kYCn7XNkCBc

From Facebook’s Hypergrowth to Daffy’s Disruption: A CFO’s Playbook for Saying Yes

https://youtu.be/bRIZ6oNPGD0

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TIMESTAMPS:

00:00:00 Preview and Intro

00:02:54 Sponsors – Tipalti | Aleph | Fidelity Private Shares

00:06:12 Interview Begins: Scaling CoreWeave

00:06:52 CoreWeave’s Pivot From Crypto to AI

00:11:41 Why CoreWeave Is Uniquely Positioned to Lead AI Infrastructure

00:13:32 Hiring for Both Scrappiness and Scale

00:16:01 Post-IPO Whirlwind: Acquisitions, Debt Raises, and 10-Year Deals

00:16:43 Sponsors – Sage Intacct | Mercury | RightRev

00:20:13 Managing Investor Expectations With Radical Transparency

00:22:39 Doubling Active Power in Six Months

00:25:19 Risk-Balanced Capital Deployment: Power First, GPUs Second

00:27:12 Financing GPUs With Delayed-Draw Facilities

00:29:38 CoreWeave Rated Platinum for GPU Cluster Performance

00:32:25 Compute as the Bottleneck for AI Growth

00:33:47 Explaining Revenue Backlog Shape & Timing

00:35:06 The Strength of Reserved Instance Contracts

00:36:07 Giving Tight but Honest Guidance

00:40:26 How Mega-Deals Require C-Suite Participation

00:42:19 Tackling Revenue Concentration Through Diversification

00:44:05 Building an AI-Only Cloud, Not a General-Purpose Cloud

00:46:27 Capital Markets Muscle: Raising Billions at Speed

00:47:47 Accounting Complexity in a Business With No Precedent

00:49:33 Even the CFO Must Unlearn Old Cloud Assumptions

00:51:29 Scaling Public-Company Processes in 90-Day Cycles

00:54:42 The Couch Fire vs. House Fire Framework

00:57:17 Balancing Risk Mitigation With Opportunity Seeking

01:00:30 No Downtime for ERP Changes During Hypergrowth

01:02:33 Why the Team Stays Energized Despite the Chaos

#RunTheNumbersPodcast #CFOInsights #Hypergrowth #AIInfrastructure #FinanceStrategy

In this episode of Run the Numbers, CJ sits down with Greg Henry, CFO of 1Password and one of the most commercially minded finance leaders in tech, to break down why he left the public-company grind at Couchbase for a PLG-driven security business and what he’s relearning in the private sphere. Greg explains how forecasting changes when the product does the selling, how to think about comp and pricing in a usage-led world, and the early tells that a model is quietly over- or under-performing. He shares why CFOs should meet far more customers than they do, how finance can drive revenue without stepping on sales, and what it actually takes for a company to plan with clarity instead of reacting. Greg also recounts the near-derailing of the Couchbase IPO, reflects on the “back nine” of his career, and offers grounded advice for aspiring first-time CFOs.

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SPONSORS:

RightRev automates the revenue recognition process from end to end, gives you real-time insights, and ensures ASC 606 / IFRS 15 compliance—all while closing books faster. For RevRec that auditors actually trust, visit https://www.rightrev.com and schedule a demo.

Tipalti automates the entire payables process—from onboarding suppliers to executing global payouts—helping finance teams save time, eliminate costly errors, and scale confidently across 200+ countries and 120 currencies. More than 5,000 businesses already trust Tipalti to manage payments with built-in security and tax compliance. Visit https://www.tipalti.com/runthenumbers to learn more.

Aleph automates 90% of manual, error-prone busywork, so you can focus on the strategic work you were hired to do. Minimize busywork and maximize impact with the power of a web app, the flexibility of spreadsheets, and the magic of AI. Get a personalised demo at https://www.getaleph.com/run

Fidelity Private Shares is the all-in-one equity management platform that keeps your cap table clean, your data room organized, and your equity story clear—so you never risk losing a fundraising round over messy records. Schedule a demo at https://www.fidelityprivateshares.com and mention Mostly Metrics to get 20% off.

Metronome is real-time billing built for modern software companies. Metronome turns raw usage events into accurate invoices, gives customers bills they actually understand, and keeps finance, product, and engineering perfectly in sync. That’s why category-defining companies like OpenAI and Anthropic trust Metronome to power usage-based pricing and enterprise contracts at scale. Focus on your product — not your billing. Learn more and get started at https://www.metronome.com

Mercury is business banking built for builders, giving founders and finance pros a financial stack that actually works together. From sending wires to tracking balances and approving payments, Mercury makes it simple to scale without friction. Join the 200,000+ entrepreneurs who trust Mercury and apply online in minutes at https://www.mercury.com

—

LINKS:

Greg on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/greghenry23/

1Password: https://1password.com/

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

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

—

RELATED EPISODES:

Behind the Earnings Calls: Couchbase CFO Greg Henry on Consumption Models & Analyst Relations

https://youtu.be/o_pDfz5a-Hw

—

TIMESTAMPS:

00:00:00 Preview and Intro

00:02:57 Sponsors – RightRev | Tipalti | Aleph

00:07:03 Back in the Private Sphere: Why Greg Joined 1Password

00:07:49 Greg’s Four-Part Framework for a Great Role

00:10:12 Thinking About the “Back Nine” & Legacy

00:13:16 Transitioning to PLG & SLG at 1Password

00:15:12 Blending PLG Efficiency with Enterprise Sales

00:17:12 Sponsors – Fidelity Private Shares | Metronome | Mercury

00:20:03 B2C vs. B2B ARPU Contrast

00:22:41 Forecasting in PLG vs. Sales-Led Models

00:24:18 Building Toward Chunky Enterprise Upside

00:25:39 Comp Plans: Complexity, Pitfalls & the Alexander Group

00:27:35 Keep Comp Plans Simple & Focused on ARR

00:29:10 Why Mid-Year Comp Plan Changes Are Dangerous

00:31:04 Governance & Guardrails for SPIFFs

00:33:19 Using the CFO Network to Drive Revenue

00:34:52 Why CFOs Must Meet Customers Directly

00:36:19 Wallet Share & Being a Buyer AND a Seller

00:38:08 Why He Avoids 3-Year+ Commitments

00:40:20 How Much Discount Is a “Year” Worth?

00:42:31 Greg’s Structured Annual Planning Framework

00:43:50 3–5% Upside/Downside Menu

00:44:57 Comp Plans Must Go Out Early

00:47:23 January Compensation & System Cutover Challenges

00:48:31 Why Roadmap Alignment Must Kick Off Planning

00:50:21 Sustain / Differentiate / Durable Growth / World-Class Teams Framework

00:52:29 Couchbase IPO Almost Going Sideways

00:54:59 How to Actually Become a CFO

01:00:11 Legacy Greg Wants to Leave at 1Password

#RunTheNumbersPodcast #CFOInsights #SaaSLeadership #PLGvsSLG #FinanceStrategy

In this Thanksgiving-week Mostly Growth episode, CJ Gustafson and Kyle Poyar ditch the serious finance talk for a looser, drinks-in-hand conversation with Ben Hillman, bouncing between CJ’s nostalgic emo-punk concert adventure, the curse of vanity license plates, and the epidemic of “Y-axis crimes” in founder charts. They riff on Spotify Wrapped copycats, YouTube becoming living-room TV, kids’ YouTube empires, and the game theory behind The Traitors and the Monty Hall problem before shifting into real-world pricing: newsletter perk economics, the pitfalls of hourly consulting, and why value-based packaging always wins. The episode stays playful but still sneaks in sharp insights on growth, psychology, and how weird the business world can be when you actually pay attention.

—

SPONSORS:

Pulley is the cap table management platform built for CFOs and finance leaders who need reliable, audit-ready data and intuitive workflows, without the hidden fees or unreliable support. Switch in as little as 5 days and get 25% off your first year: https://pulley.com/mostlymetrics

Metronome is real-time billing built for modern software companies. Metronome turns raw usage events into accurate invoices, gives customers bills they actually understand, and keeps finance, product, and engineering perfectly in sync. That’s why category-defining companies like OpenAI and Anthropic trust Metronome to power usage-based pricing and enterprise contracts at scale. Focus on your product — not your billing. Learn more and get started at https://www.metronome.com

—

LINKS:

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

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

Growth Unhinged: https://www.growthunhinged.com/

Kyle on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kyle-poyar/

Brian Balfour: brianbalfour.com

Brian on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/bbalfour/

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

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

https://x.com/parikpatelcfa/status/1992706757073023191?s=46

https://www.wired.com/story/null-license-plate-landed-one-hacker-ticket-hell/

https://x.com/im_roy_lee/status/1992692253257855261/photo/1

https://www.economist.com/finance-and-economics/2025/01/16/the-traitors-a-reality-tv-show-offers-a-useful-economics-lesson

https://www.cdccard.com/

https://nyulangone.org/news/one-third-americans-are-trying-avoid-gluten-it-villain-we-think-it-is

https://x.com/techsalesguy3/status/1991585201601016161?s=46

https://www.fletchpmm.com/

https://paintvine.co.nz/blogs/news/the-legend-of-picassos-napkin-sketch?srsltid=AfmBOooiyTYGfUdKJZLpblbQAcJzQLg011Os_xeyaCgSpEIXrtIuD6hH

https://cityfeedandsupply.com/

https://www.linkedin.com/posts/cj-gustafson-13140948_started-from-the-email-now-were-here-activity-7397607230600126465-iVPv/

https://cooking.nytimes.com/recipes/1018731-buttermilk-brined-roast-chicken

https://cooking.nytimes.com/recipes/1026610-porcini-ragu

—

RELATED EPISODES:

Is a weekly martini ARR? | with Dave Kellogg

https://youtu.be/Yb1lUQLJ6qw

—

TIMESTAMPS:

00:00:00 Special Message

00:00:35 Preview and Intro

00:01:41 Sponsors – Pulley & Metronome

00:04:01 Mostly Drinks Episode

00:05:14 Concert Stories & Pop-Punk Nostalgia

00:08:05 Concert Parenting & Full-Circle Moment

00:08:36 Business Blunders Begin

00:10:26 License Plate Fails & Accounting Humor

00:12:08 Y-Axis Crime Chart Review

00:14:21 Global Podcast “Success” & Listener Jokes

00:16:00 Spotify Wrapped: Retention vs. Acquisition

00:17:04 YouTube as the Future of Podcasts

00:17:56 Kids’ Shows, Blippi & Creator Economics

00:18:55 The Traitors Show Overview

00:20:30 Game Theory & Winning as a Traitor

00:22:46 Monty Hall Problem Setup

00:24:27 Game Show Logic & Gambler’s Fallacies

00:26:09 Pricing in the Real World

00:27:03 Community Discount Card Business Model

00:29:09 Newsletter Perks & Subscriber Value

00:30:34 Marketplace Discount Math

00:32:01 Negotiating Like a CFO

00:33:00 Gluten-Free Nights & Pricing Strategy

00:35:24 Outbound Pizza as a Go-to-Market Play

00:37:03 Outbound Pizza Tuesdays to Gluten-Free Tuesdays

00:37:37 Pricing Services: Value vs. Hourly

00:40:47 The Picasso Pricing Story

00:42:55 Harvard Business School Case Study & Kim K Photo

00:44:02 Thanksgiving Cooking: Roast Chicken & Porcini Ragu

00:44:56 Wrap & Credits

#MostlyGrowthPodcast #SaaSOperators #BusinessStrategyPod #CreatorEconomyTalks #FinanceNerds

How do you know when a company is ready to go public? And what do you do to prepare for this? Chirag Shah, CFO of Motive and former CFO of Kong and Cornerstone OnDemand, joins CJ to share insights from his experience of scaling businesses from $30 million to nearly $1 billion and tripling ARR. He talks about taking companies public and how he helped take one private again in a $5.2 billion deal. In this episode, he explains what signals indicate that a company is ready to accelerate its growth, the art and science of building sales capacity, and how to balance efficiency and growth in hypergrowth mode. He also covers how to achieve a great valuation without a strong performance, the biggest headache on the road to IPO, and whether you should IPO in the first place or remain private.

—

SPONSORS:

Mercury is business banking built for builders, giving founders and finance pros a financial stack that actually works together. From sending wires to tracking balances and approving payments, Mercury makes it simple to scale without friction. Join the 200,000+ entrepreneurs who trust Mercury and apply online in minutes at https://www.mercury.com

RightRev automates the revenue recognition process from end to end, gives you real-time insights, and ensures ASC 606 / IFRS 15 compliance—all while closing books faster. For RevRec that auditors actually trust, visit https://www.rightrev.com and schedule a demo.

Tipalti automates the entire payables process—from onboarding suppliers to executing global payouts—helping finance teams save time, eliminate costly errors, and scale confidently across 200+ countries and 120 currencies. More than 5,000 businesses already trust Tipalti to manage payments with built-in security and tax compliance. Visit https://www.tipalti.com/runthenumbers to learn more.

Aleph automates 90% of manual, error-prone busywork, so you can focus on the strategic work you were hired to do. Minimize busywork and maximize impact with the power of a web app, the flexibility of spreadsheets, and the magic of AI. Get a personalised demo at https://www.getaleph.com/run

Fidelity Private Shares is the all-in-one equity management platform that keeps your cap table clean, your data room organized, and your equity story clear—so you never risk losing a fundraising round over messy records. Schedule a demo at https://www.fidelityprivateshares.com

and mention Mostly Metrics to get 20% off.

Metronome is real-time billing built for modern software companies. Metronome turns raw usage events into accurate invoices, gives customers bills they actually understand, and keeps finance, product, and engineering perfectly in sync. That’s why category-defining companies like OpenAI and Anthropic trust Metronome to power usage-based pricing and enterprise contracts at scale. Focus on your product — not your billing. Learn more and get started at https://www.metronome.com

—

Chirag Shah on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/chirag-shah-787b1b20/

Motive: https://gomotive.com/

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

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

—

RELATED EPISODES:

From $30M to Almost $1B: A Guide to Hypergrowth, IPO Prep, and Navigating the Public Markethttps://youtu.be/_pJfdN5p-ik

—

TIMESTAMPS:

00:00:00 Preview and Intro

00:02:57 Sponsors – Mercury | RightRev | Tipalti

00:06:49 Motiv CFO Intro & Company Background

00:07:01 Product Market Fit as a CFO

00:09:26 Lessons From Taking Companies Public

00:11:04 Preparing for Life as a Public Company

00:11:26 Moving From Finance Into a GM Role

00:12:50 Learning the Business Beyond Finance

00:14:23 Empathy for Sales & Carrying a Quota

00:15:51 Sponsors – Aleph | Fidelity Private Shares | Metronome

00:19:03 Asking Better Questions After Operating Experience

00:21:23 Knowing When to Accelerate Growth

00:23:16 High-ROI Capacity Signals

00:24:51 Scaling Requires Supporting Functions

00:26:19 The Art + Science of Adding Reps

00:27:53 Sales Team Buy-In Before Scaling

00:29:15 Reading Product-Market Fit Through Sales

00:30:08 Where Scaling Breaks First (Enablement)

00:31:36 Importance of SE / SC Ratios

00:33:13 Timing Supporting Hires

00:34:32 Maintaining Momentum While Scaling

00:36:33 Longest Pole in IPO Prep: Predictability

00:38:47 Building Confidence Through Consistency

00:40:45 Large Deals Swing Small Companies

00:42:41 Growth Still Drives Quarterly Volatility

00:44:43 Investor Education as a Core IPO Task

00:46:00 Harder to Make Big Changes Publicly

00:47:39 Managing Morale in Volatile Markets

00:48:33 Taking Cornerstone Private

00:52:32 Advice: Know Why You Want to Go Public

00:56:18 Efficiency Without Sacrificing Growth

01:00:58 Operating Roles Prepared Him for CFO

01:06:23 Finance Software Stack Overview

#RunTheNumbersPodcast #Hypergrowth #IPOreadiness #CFOInsights #MostlyClassics

Serving SMB mid-market customers is one thing, but when you go upstream to enterprise sales, everything changes: go-to-market strategy, the sales process, how you structure deals, even how you define customer value. Today’s guest, Andrew Casey, has helped scale four SaaS companies: ServiceNow, WalkMe, Lacework, and his current company, Amplitude. At ServiceNow, he worked closely with Snowflake’s Mike Scarpelli and Coatue’s David Schneider, and he was instrumental in establishing the company’s deal desk to support its sales motion. As an operationally focused CFO, he shares a wealth of knowledge on the importance of staying close to the customer, structuring deals that work for both sides, establishing transparency in usage-based pricing, aligning incentives and strategy in sales, the pros and cons of multi-year deals, the problem with auto-renewals and what to do instead, and how to adapt your go-to-market strategy when moving from SMB mid-market to enterprise.

—

SPONSORS:

Metronome is real-time billing built for modern software companies. Metronome turns raw usage events into accurate invoices, gives customers bills they actually understand, and keeps finance, product, and engineering perfectly in sync. That’s why category-defining companies like OpenAI and Anthropic trust Metronome to power usage-based pricing and enterprise contracts at scale. Focus on your product — not your billing. Learn more and get started at https://www.metronome.com

Mercury is business banking built for builders, giving founders and finance pros a financial stack that actually works together. From sending wires to tracking balances and approving payments, Mercury makes it simple to scale without friction. Join the 200,000+ entrepreneurs who trust Mercury and apply online in minutes at https://www.mercury.com

RightRev automates the revenue recognition process from end to end, gives you real-time insights, and ensures ASC 606 / IFRS 15 compliance—all while closing books faster. For RevRec that auditors actually trust, visit https://www.rightrev.com and schedule a demo.

Tipalti automates the entire payables process—from onboarding suppliers to executing global payouts—helping finance teams save time, eliminate costly errors, and scale confidently across 200+ countries and 120 currencies. More than 5,000 businesses already trust Tipalti to manage payments with built-in security and tax compliance. Visit https://www.tipalti.com/runthenumbers to learn more.

Aleph automates 90% of manual, error-prone busywork, so you can focus on the strategic work you were hired to do. Minimize busywork and maximize impact with the power of a web app, the flexibility of spreadsheets, and the magic of AI. Get a personalised demo at https://www.getaleph.com/run

Fidelity Private Shares is the all-in-one equity management platform that keeps your cap table clean, your data room organized, and your equity story clear—so you never risk losing a fundraising round over messy records. Schedule a demo at https://www.fidelityprivateshares.com and mention Mostly Metrics to get 20% off.

—

Andrew Casey on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/andrew-casey-6b14875/

Amplitude: https://amplitude.com

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

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

—

RELATED EPISODES:

An Operationally-Focused CFO’s Guide to Scaling From SMB to Enterprise: Lessons From ServiceNow

https://youtu.be/iUpMAQ14YpM

—

TIMESTAMPS:

00:00:00 Preview and Intro

00:03:27 Sponsors – Metronome, Mercury, RightRev

00:07:08 Andrew joins the podcast

00:08:10 Becoming an operational CFO

00:09:25 Early customer-empathy beginnings at Sun

00:11:34 How customer-empathy shaped Andrew’s career

00:14:08 Navigating HP’s troubled EDS contracts

00:16:05 Sponsors – Tipalti, Aleph, Fidelity Private Shares

00:19:37 Returning from ads – running toward hard markets

00:20:13 Scaling ServiceNow’s sales operations

00:23:27 Breaking into the trusted circle after the Q1 miss

00:25:26 Building and scaling the ServiceNow deal desk

00:28:11 Principles of transparent, value-aligned pricing

00:30:17 Rethinking metering models and usage alignment

00:33:01 Diagnosing budget constraints vs. cash timing

00:36:14 Incentives, comp plans, and high-trust selling

00:39:21 Training enterprise reps for long-term value

00:40:17 Multi-year deals and when they actually work

00:43:05 Overselling, discount levers, and ZIRP contract bloat

00:45:58 How enterprise scale transforms go-to-market

00:51:03 Pipeline coverage and maturity modeling

00:54:02 Not all pipeline dollars are created equal

00:57:05 Career-risk mindset in enterprise selling

01:00:02 Defining enterprise and moving upmarket

01:01:00 A business-first approach to the CFO role

01:03:10 Getting hired at ServiceNow

01:06:37 Building GTM finance, deal desk, and a 400-person org

01:08:00 Lightning round – biggest mistakes and IR lesson

01:11:10 Advice to his younger self and leading through change

01:13:34 Defining customers, ARR accuracy, and hierarchy pitfalls

01:15:12 The wildest expense attempt ever submitted

#RunTheNumbersPodcast #SaaSFinance #EnterpriseSelling #GTMStrategy #CFOInsights