Run the Numbers

If you’re thinking about adding payments to your software company’s tech stack, listen to this first. Today’s guest knows that turning payments into a prolific growth engine isn’t as simple as plugging in a processor; it’s about knowing when you have the “right to win” and building the infrastructure, team, and go-to-market strategy to make it work. In this episode, Andrew Mosawi of JMI Equity and a self-named “dinosaur in the world of embedded payments”, joins CJ to unpack how embedded payments are reshaping industries, why certain platforms are perfectly positioned to own the payment flow, and when you’re better off staying out of the game. They share the frameworks for sizing the TAM, deciding which vertical plays make sense, and forecasting revenue in a world where payments don’t behave like SaaS, while also referencing real-world use cases. The conversation covers the common mistakes companies make when entering payments, standout examples of companies that have done this well, and the right and wrong questions you should be asking before starting out.

—

LINKS:

Andrew Mosawi on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/andrewmosawi/

JMI Equity:

https://www.jmi.com/

CJ on X (@cjgustafson222): https://x.com/cjgustafson222

Mostly metrics:

Companies mentioned:

Mindbody:

https://www.mindbodyonline.com

Blackbaud:

https://www.blackbaud.com

Toast:

https://pos.toasttab.com

Shopify:

https://www.shopify.com

Flagship Advisory Partners:

https://insights.flagshipadvisorypartners.com

BCG “Fortune Favors the Bold: Global Payments Report 2024”: https://www.bcg.com/publications/2024/fortune-favors-bold-global-payments-report

RELATED EPISODES:

The Art of Stacking S-Curves: Olo’s Winning Vertical SaaS Strategy with CFO Peter Benevides -

Efficiency Metrics, Management, and Consolidation - Tony Boor’s CFO Playbook for Scaling Blackbaud -

—

TIMESTAMPS:

(00:00) Preview and Intro

(02:17) Sponsor – Aleph | RightRev | Navan

(06:50) How the Payments Ecosystem Has Changed in the Last Two Decades

(09:02) The Inflection Point That Brought Payments Into the Mainstream

(10:23) The Size of the Payments Pie in 2025

(11:49) Why Not Every Company Should Do Payments

(14:23) What Makes a Company Well-Positioned To Offer Payments

(15:50) Sponsor – Rillet | Pulley | Brex

(19:42) Having a Strategic High Ground To Offer Payments

(21:35) The Stickiness of Embedded Payments

(24:14) What “Embedded Payments” Means

(27:12) Different Models Used for Embedded Payments

(32:14) A Typical Take Rate for Embedded Payments

(36:45) The Accretive Nature of Embedded Payments and Other Benefits

(40:14) The Next Phase of Payments: Other Finance Solutions

(44:56) CJ’s Mental Model for Assessing Payments at PartsTech

(47:45) Running a Payments Function Versus a Traditional Software Function

(50:46) Sales Dynamics: Traditional SaaS Versus Payments

(52:01) Companies That Have Done Embedded Payments Well

(53:05) The Right and Wrong First Questions To Ask Before Starting in Payments

—

SPONSORS:

Aleph automates 90% of manual, error-prone busywork, 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

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.

Navan is the all-in-one travel and expense solution that helps finance teams streamline reconciliation, enforce policies automatically, and gain real-time visibility. Visit https://navan.com/runthenumbers for your demo.

Rillet is the AI-native ERP modern finance teams are switching to because it’s faster, simpler, and 100% built for how teams operate today. See how fast your team can move. Book a demo at https://www.rillet.com/metrics.

Pulley is the cap table management platform built for CFOs and finance leaders who need reliable, audit-ready data and intuitive workflows. Switch in as little as 5 days and get 25% off your first year: https://pulley.com/mostlymetrics.

Brex offers the world's smartest corporate card on a full-stack global platform. Plus, they offer modern banking and treasury as well as intuitive expenses and accounting automation, bill pay, and travel. Find out more at https://www.brex.com/metrics

#EmbeddedPayments #payments #PaymentsInfrastructure #PayFac #PaymentsStrategy

With a decade of experience at Yext, a company now approaching half a billion in ARR, Darryl Bond has seen it through negative EBITDA margins, executive turnover, and company-wide resets. In this episode, he sits down with CJ to talk about his approach to the finance function, which involves prioritizing growth over compensation, tackling the messy problems head-on, making the hard P&L calls in the “grey zones,” knowing when to ask for help, and staying focused through the tough times. Darryl shares how he scaled from controller to CFO, and how, in the process, he made sense of the chaos, led with transparency, and built a high-impact finance function that doesn’t just report the numbers, but also drives the business. He explains the role of systems and processes in scaling operations, the mistakes he made early in his management journey, and why relationship-building has been the real unlock in his career. They dive into building deal desks, what operational excellence really means, and capital allocation decisions that actually start with listening to the customer.

—

LINKS:

Darryl Bond on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/darryl-bond-788b962a/

Yext:

https://www.yext.com/

CJ on X (@cjgustafson222): https://x.com/cjgustafson222

Mostly metrics:

RELATED EPISODES:

“Run Toward a Tough Market” — Developing the Hard and Soft Skills To Be a Great Finance Leader —

—

TIMESTAMPS:

(00:00) Preview and Intro

(02:49) Sponsor – RightRev | Navan | Rillet

(06:54) The Reasons for Darryl’s Career Loyalty

(08:58) Prioritizing Learning Over Comp

(11:09) What Yext and Its Finance Function Looked Like in 2015

(15:40) Sponsor – Pulley | Brex | Aleph

(20:03) Choosing Which Messy Problems To Take On

(22:00) The Right Time To Create a Deal Desk

(23:39) When To Bring General Counsel In-House

(24:36) Asking for Help and Building a CFO Network

(28:25) What Operational Excellence Looks Like in the Finance Team

(31:11) Staying Focused Through Tough Times

(35:39) Making the Hard P&L Calls In the “Gray Zone”

(37:05) The Importance of Talking to Customers

(38:30) A Guide to Communicating the Bad News

(40:25) The Role of Systems and Automation in Gaining Control of the P&L

(43:07) Capital Allocation Decisions: Yext’s Two Recent Purchases

(45:06) Build, Buy, or Partner

(47:57) The Pros and Cons of Being a Sub-$1B Public Tech Company

(49:38) How To Get (and Lose) Sell-Side Analyst Coverage

(51:04) What Excites Darryl Most About Yext’s Current Stage

(53:13) Long-Ass Lightning Round: A Career Mistake

(54:36) Advice to Younger Self

(56:17) Finance Software Stack

(57:42) Craziest Expense Story

—

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.

Navan is the all-in-one travel and expense solution that helps finance teams streamline reconciliation, enforce policies automatically, and gain real-time visibility. It connects to your existing cards and makes closing the books faster and smarter. Visit https://navan.com/runthenumbers for your demo.

Rillet is the AI-native ERP modern finance teams are switching to because it’s faster, simpler, and 100% built for how teams operate today. See how fast your team can move. Book a demo at https://www.rillet.com/metrics.

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.

Brex offers the world's smartest corporate card on a full-stack global platform that is everything CFOs need to manage their finances on an elite level. Plus, they offer modern banking and treasury as well as intuitive expenses and accounting automation, bill pay, and travel. Find out more at https://www.brex.com/metrics

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

#CFOLeadership #FinanceLeadership #FinanceStrategy #OperationalExcellence

#BusinessTurnaround #CapitalAllocation

What do Whitey Bulger, FBI Agent John Connolly, AI and Venture Capitalists have in common? In today’s episode we explore an unholy alliance between two forces that need each other—massive capital piles and foundational model companies that can actually absorb that capital.

This week’s podcast is brought to you by Campfire (www.campfire.ai)

We’ve all used legacy ERPs. Painful migrations, endless consulting fees, and even after you’re live, getting simple answers still means hours in spreadsheets.

Campfire fixes that. It’s the AI-first ERP built for modern finance and accounting teams. It's helping mid-market and enterprise teams close faster, unlock insights instantly, and scale smarter - without the additional headcount.I use Campfire myself, and it’s been a game changer for our finance workflow. The interface is intuitive, migration was quick & painless, and it's freed us up to focus on strategic work.They just raised $35 million from Accel to further reimagine ERP. That's not easy to do.

I’m excited to see how they keep reimagining this space – and you should be too.

Check them out at www.campfire.ai

Are you building a sales org from scratch? Or rebuilding one in the middle of an AI boom? If so, this episode is your field guide. CJ sits down with Ethan Schechter, SVP of Global Sales and Customer Success at Qodo (and the guy who helped take Snyk from $0 to $100M+ in revenue), to talk about the wild days of early-stage sales leadership. Ethan shares how he navigates “basecamp” moments and the “smile” and “cry” days of year one. He explains his approach to hiring for a new org, building internal trust while over-communicating, designing incentive structures for the early days, trading dollars for speed through discounting, and staying competitive in the fast-changing era of AI. The episode ends with an entertaining roast of LinkedIn’s cringe posts, from fake ARR math to self-given nicknames and beyond.

—

LINKS:

Ethan Schechter on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ethanschechter

Qodo:

https://www.qodo.ai

CJ on X (@cjgustafson222): https://x.com/cjgustafson222

Mostly metrics:

RELATED EPISODES:

A CFO's Guide to Understanding Sales Teams, featuring Snyk's Ethan Schechter —

—

TIMESTAMPS:

(00:00) Preview and Intro

(02:07) Sponsor – Navan | Rillet | Pulley

(06:10) Ethan’s Career as an Early-Stage Sales Leader and Understanding Equity

(10:04) The “Basecamp” Mindset and Restarting Strong

(12:33) Building Out Your Rules of Engagement

(14:25) Sponsor – Brex | Aleph | RightRev

(18:45) Navigating the “Smile and Cry” Days of Year One

(24:03) Ethan’s Approach to Hiring for a New Org

(27:38) Building Trust With Founders as a New Sales Leader

(30:19) Incentives: Creating a Commission Plan for the Early Days

(34:10) Why You “Can’t Divide Zero”: Handling Deal Splits

(35:52) Other Early-Stage-Isms or Philosophies

(38:52) Discounting at an Early-Stage Company

(41:17) Selling in Today’s Environment: Competitive Trap-Setting

(44:47) Budgets for AI Products: Experimental ARR

(45:50) Monthly Deals and Decision Cycles in the Current Environment

(47:33) Remaining Competitive in the Era of AI

(51:08) The Lighter (and Cringier) Side of LinkedIn

(1:03:01) Wrap

—

SPONSORS:

Navan is the all-in-one travel and expense solution that helps finance teams streamline reconciliation, enforce policies automatically, and gain real-time visibility. It connects to your existing cards and makes closing the books faster and smarter. Visit https://navan.com/runthenumbers for your demo.

Rillet is the AI-native ERP modern finance teams are switching to because it’s faster, simpler, and 100% built for how teams operate today. See how fast your team can move. Book a demo at https://www.rillet.com/metrics.

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.

Brex offers the world's smartest corporate card on a full-stack global platform that is everything CFOs need to manage their finances on an elite level. Plus, they offer modern banking and treasury as well as intuitive expenses and accounting automation, bill pay, and travel. Find out more at https://www.brex.com/metrics

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

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.

#SalesLeadership #StartupSales #SalesStrategy #SalesCompensation #discounting

Have you ever tried running a business like it’s a utility function? Today’s guest has. CJ is joined by Michaela Lehr, a seasoned FP&A leader and former CFO of ActionIQ, who breaks down how CFOs can pull levers like growth, retention, margin, and cash runway to maximize value without blowing something up. Michaela explains how not all growth is created equal and why how you grow matters as much as how much you grow. She talks about gross margin as the most sensitive area of the P&L and how to communicate with engineers about their impacts on it. The conversation also covers the rise of “experimental recurring revenue” in AI-first products, why investors are obsessed with net dollar retention, the risks of over-servicing customers, looking out for your own finance team, and what it means to budget in the real world when everything changes after board approval.

—

LINKS:

Michaela Lehr on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/michaela-lehr-2908996/

ActionIQ: https://www.uniphore.com/actioniq

CJ on X (@cjgustafson222): https://x.com/cjgustafson222

Mostly metrics:

Loveable:

https://lovable.dev

Canva:

https://www.canva.com

Concourse:

https://www.concourse.co

—

TIMESTAMPS:

(00:00) Preview and Intro

(02:20) Sponsor – Rillet | Pulley | Brex

(07:33) What It Means To Run a Company Like a Utility Function

(10:45) An Example of Optimising for This Utility Function Regarding AI Spend

(15:36) Sponsor – Aleph | RightRev | Navan

(19:35) Less Visible but High-Impact Levers That Drive Revenue

(22:15) Gating Headcount Based on Performance Milestones

(25:09) Cloud Costs as a Hidden Lever

(27:30) Why How You Grow Matters As Much as How Much You Grow

(30:08) Professional Services as a Necessary Investment

(32:43) What ERR (Experimental Recurring Revenue) Is

(36:39) Margin As the Most Sensitive Area of the P&L

(38:13) Communicating With Engineers About Gross Margin

(41:56) Why Investors Care So Much About Net Dollar Attention

(43:53) Making Sure Your Upsells Don’t Mask a Churn Problem

(44:40) What Over-Servicing Your Customer Looks Like

(46:58) Why the “Just Give Me My Budget” Mindset Doesn’t Work

(49:23) Brokering the Budget With Execs in Real Time

(51:38) Looking Out for Your Own Team as a CFO

(56:26) The First Sign of an Erosion of Trust

(59:50) Finance’s Role in Upholding Capital-T Truth

(1:01:31) Long-Ass Lightning Round: A COVID-Era Multitasking Mistake

(1:02:06 ) Advice to Younger Self

(1:04:07) Michaela’s Favorite Finance Tool

(1:04:17) Craziest Expense Story

—

SPONSORS:

Rillet is the AI-native ERP modern finance teams are switching to because it’s faster, simpler, and 100% built for how teams operate today. See how fast your team can move. Book a demo at https://www.rillet.com/metrics.

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.

Brex offers the world's smartest corporate card on a full-stack global platform that is everything CFOs need to manage their finances on an elite level. Plus, they offer modern banking and treasury as well as intuitive expenses and accounting automation, bill pay, and travel. Find out more at https://www.brex.com/metrics

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

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.

Navan is the all-in-one travel and expense solution that helps finance teams streamline reconciliation, enforce policies automatically, and gain real-time visibility. It connects to your existing cards and makes closing the books faster and smarter. Visit https://navan.com/runthenumbers for your demo.

#UtilityFunction #FPandA #BusinessStrategy #GrossMargin #NetDollarRetention

Today we’re reviewing the state of the private markets using the NEW benchmarks released by Mostly Metrics. We surveyed our readers to see how their company’s are doing… And it's tough to be a company between $5M and $25M in revenue right now.Three other things that stood out from the benchmarks this quarter:1️⃣ CAC Payback is up across the board. It’s taking longer to earn back customer acquisition costs. AI is disrupting traditional search channels, and companies are building internal tooling instead of buying when it makes sense.2️⃣ Revenue is coming from existing bases. Net Dollar Retention is doing the heavy lifting — especially beyond $25M ARR. Expansion efficiency is becoming the key growth lever.3️⃣ Burn multiples keep falling. In reaction to expensive growth, capital efficiency is trending up. Even companies under $25M ARR are showing discipline.Get the whole 33 page report here

This week’s podcast is brought to you by Campfire (www.campfire.ai)

We’ve all used legacy ERPs. Painful migrations, endless consulting fees, and even after you’re live, getting simple answers still means hours in spreadsheets.

Campfire fixes that. It’s the AI-first ERP built for modern finance and accounting teams. It's helping mid-market and enterprise teams close faster, unlock insights instantly, and scale smarter - without the additional headcount.I use Campfire myself, and it’s been a game changer for our finance workflow. The interface is intuitive, migration was quick & painless, and it's freed us up to focus on strategic work.They just raised $35 million from Accel to further reimagine ERP. That's not easy to do.

I’m excited to see how they keep reimagining this space – and you should be too.

Check them out at www.campfire.ai

How do you keep innovating and disrupting when you’re already the incumbent? And how do you prevent a $200B+ company from becoming slow and complacent? In this episode, CJ is joined by Sandeep Aujla, CFO of Intuit, who shares how one of the world’s largest software companies continues to operate with the agility of a startup. With QuickBooks, TurboTax, Credit Karma, and MailChimp all falling in the Intuit family tree, serving both consumers and businesses, Sandeep breaks down the company’s platform strategy, explains how he tells a unified story across these product lines, and describes how he prioritizes capital allocation. He also talks about Intuit’s efforts to leverage AI to improve internal efficiencies, insights into the ideal CFO-CTO relationship, tactics for saying no, the benefits of letting stuff break, and how finance helped uncover a major growth opportunity for Intuit in the mid-market. The conversation touches on the company’s 25 golden metrics, why leap years and the Super Bowl affect revenue, and the lesson Sandeep learned from a $2 coffee.

—

LINKS:

Sandeep Aujla: https://www.linkedin.com/in/aujla/

Intuit:

https://www.intuit.com/

CJ on X (@cjgustafson222): https://x.com/cjgustafson222

Mostly metrics:

—

TIMESTAMPS:

(00:00) Preview and Intro

(02:30) Sponsor – Pulley | Brex | Aleph

(07:11) Sandeep’s Career Journey at Intuit

(09:41) The Stigma Around CFOs and Seriousness

(11:01) Being the Disruptor When You’re Already the Incumbent

(14:04) Intuit: Software, Payments, or Services Company?

(15:21) Sponsor – RightRev | Navan | NetSuite |

(19:00) The Intuit Family Tree

(20:14) Cross-Platform Network Effects

(21:54) Telling a Unified Story Across Multiple Product Lines

(25:24) How Finance Discovered a Mid-Market Growth Opportunity

(28:56) Reducing Churn by Keeping Customers on Platform

(31:04) How Small Businesses Are Evolving To Leverage Tech and AI

(34:11) How Sandeep Prioritises Capital Allocation

(37:17) Tactics for Saying No Gracefully as a CFO

(39:39) The Benefits of Letting Stuff Break

(43:10) Reinvesting Across the Business: Consumer Versus Business

(45:36) The CFO-CTO Relationship in the Age of AI

(49:45) Tracking Intuit’s Target for Internal AI Efficiency

(52:06) Surprising Usage Patterns: Leap Years, Game of Thrones, etc

(53:15) The Different Use Cases for AI Internally

(55:48) The 25 Golden Metrics That Matter

(58:45) Leap Years and Other Surprising Things That Impact the Business

(1:00:04) Long-Ass Lightning Round: A Deadline Mistake

(1:02:04) Advice to Younger Self

(1:03:48) Finance Software Stack

(1:04:36) A Bonus Question: Printed Notes

(1:05:17) Craziest Expense Story

—

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.

Brex offers the world's smartest corporate card on a full-stack global platform that is everything CFOs need to manage their finances on an elite level. Plus, they offer modern banking and treasury as well as intuitive expenses and accounting automation, bill pay, and travel. Find out more at https://www.brex.com/metrics

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

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.

Navan is the all-in-one travel and expense solution that helps finance teams streamline reconciliation, enforce policies automatically, and gain real-time visibility. It connects to your existing cards and makes closing the books faster and smarter. Visit https://navan.com/runthenumbers for your demo.

NetSuite is an AI-powered business management suite, encompassing ERP/Financials, CRM, and ecommerce for more than 41,000 customers. If you're looking for an ERP, head to https://netsuite.com/metrics and get the CFO’s Guide to AI and Machine Learning.

#platformbusiness #innovation #disruption #CapitalAllocation, #FinancialSoftware

Pricing and packaging has undergone a radical transformation since the early 1950s. And the clear through line is a changing unit of value and how it’s tracked.

Historically, the tech industry has undergone six waves of change.

* Hardware + Software sold together

* Software Sold for Hardware

* Application Service Providers

* Outsourced Infrastructure + SaaS

* Usage Based Pricing

* Hybrid

We’ll walk through each evolution, and leave you with some tips for overcoming common pricing challenges in the age of AI.

This week’s podcast is brought to you by Campfire (www.campfire.ai)

We’ve all used legacy ERPs. Painful migrations, endless consulting fees, and even after you’re live, getting simple answers still means hours in spreadsheets.

Campfire fixes that. It’s the AI-first ERP built for modern finance and accounting teams. It's helping mid-market and enterprise teams close faster, unlock insights instantly, and scale smarter - without the additional headcount.I use Campfire myself, and it’s been a game changer for our finance workflow. The interface is intuitive, migration was quick & painless, and it's freed us up to focus on strategic work.They just raised $35 million from Accel to further reimagine ERP. That's not easy to do.

I’m excited to see how they keep reimagining this space – and you should be too.

Check them out at www.campfire.ai.

Referenced on podcast:

* Jason Kap’s expert pricing consultancy: https://bluerocket.io/

How do you build a sales culture where top performers are empowered and poor performers are not protected? In this episode, CJ is joined by Daniel Lentz, whose career has spanned sales, taking an e-commerce platform public during a global pandemic, and, interestingly, seminary. Daniel Lentz is the CFO of BigCommerce and an expert in designing comp plans that work. In this episode, he breaks down his approach to this and how to avoid the pitfalls that can easily discourage your salespeople. He explains how to align sales and marketing efforts, touching on multi-touch attribution models, before discussing why he focuses on input metrics over output metrics. The conversation covers the importance of having an operator-first mindset, the skill of having a BS detector, the challenges of navigating macroeconomic factors, the role of mentorship, and why teaching your team how the company actually makes money is the ultimate unlock.

—

LINKS:

Daniel Lentz on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/daniel-lentz-5ba8134/

BigCommerce:

https://www.bigcommerce.com

CJ on X (@cjgustafson222): https://x.com/cjgustafson222

Mostly metrics:

RELATED EPISODES:

Customer-First Finance: PagerDuty's Secret to “Small” Public Company Success —

—

TIMESTAMPS:

(00:00) Preview and Intro

(02:28) Sponsor – Brex | Aleph | RightRev

(07:04) Daniel’s Unconventional Career Arc

(11:40) Being an Operator-First CFO

(14:05) The Skill of Having a Good BS Detector

(15:45) Sponsor – Navan | NetSuite | Pulley

(19:16) Why People Make Things Sound More Complicated Than They Are

(21:33) Transitioning From a Top Sales Rep to a Top Sales Leader

(24:46) Daniel’s Philosophy When Designing Comp Plans

(28:53) A Hot Take on Capping Big Deals

(35:01) Onboarding Great Sales Leaders

(38:17) Multi-Touch Attribution Models

(42:36) How Finance Can Reduce Sales Versus Marketing Turf Wars

(44:52) The Metrics That Matter: Input Versus Output

(47:30) Misdiagnosing Problems in SaaS Go-to-Market Models

(49:00) Why Benchmarking Can Be Misleading

(51:06) How Small Companies Can Compete With Big Companies

(52:22) The Power of Explaining to Employees How the Company Makes Money

(55:56) Why Daniel Doesn’t Want Employees To Be Distracted by the Macro

(57:19) Explaining Rational Interest Rates to Employees Under 30

(59:24) How Mentorship Has Influenced Daniel’s Career

(1:01:12) Advice for Taking Investor Advice

(1:03:04) Long-Ass Lightning Round: A Big Career Mistake

(1:04:51) Advice to Younger Self: Careerism Is a Trap

(1:06:49) Finance Software Stack

(1:10:32) Craziest Expense Story

—

SPONSORS:

Brex offers the world's smartest corporate card on a full-stack global platform that is everything CFOs need to manage their finances on an elite level. Plus, they offer modern banking and treasury as well as intuitive expenses and accounting automation, bill pay, and travel. Find out more at https://www.brex.com/metrics

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

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.

Navan is the all-in-one travel and expense solution that helps finance teams streamline reconciliation, enforce policies automatically, and gain real-time visibility. It connects to your existing cards and makes closing the books faster and smarter. Visit https://navan.com/runthenumbers for your demo.

NetSuite is an AI-powered business management suite, encompassing ERP/Financials, CRM, and ecommerce for more than 41,000 customers. If you're looking for an ERP, head to https://netsuite.com/metrics and get the CFO’s Guide to AI and Machine Learning.

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.

#SalesComp #SalesCompPlan #InputMetrics #SalesCulture #SalesLeaders

In this episode, CJ is joined by Chris Greiner, CFO of Zeta Global and former CFO of IBM’s analytics division, where he worked on AI during the development of Watson. He’s had a front-row seat to the evolution of AI across industries. He’s also on a 15-quarter streak of beat-and-raise performance in his current role. Chris breaks down how strong financial stewardship can be a launch pad for innovation, not a constraint, and unpacks his “Closest to code, closest to customer” philosophy. The conversation covers how to determine whether a company's data advantage is real or just storytelling, what Chris learned from cataloging every task in the finance org, and why some things are better left unautomated. He explains what's on his personal IPO pre-flight checklist, how and why Zeta Global tracks daily revenue, and the “hustle metric” as a predictor of good salespeople. He also shares many lessons and anecdotes from his time at IBM, including one where he played tennis with the Emperor of Japan.

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LINKS:

Chris Greiner: https://www.linkedin.com/in/chrisgreiner1

Zeta Global:

https://zetaglobal.com

CJ on X (@cjgustafson222): https://x.com/cjgustafson222

Mostly metrics:

RELATED EPISODES:

Monetizing Community Engagement: The Business of Fitness with Strava CFO Lily Yang -

Everything You Need to Know About Sales Rep Comp + Commissions Planning w Ryan Walsh, CEO of RepVue -

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TIMESTAMPS:

(00:00) Preview and Intro

(02:22) Sponsor – Aleph | RightRev | Navan

(06:28) Chris’s Tenure at IBM During the Development of Watson

(08:24) The Evolution of Chris’s Relationship With Data and AI

(11:40) Why “Showing Not Telling” Is Key in Finance and Investor Relations

(12:56) A Company’s Data Advantage: Real Versus Storytelling

(15:07) Cataloging Tasks in the Finance Org To Identify Automation Opportunities

(17:02) Sponsor – NetSuite | Pulley | Brex

(20:53) Enabling Internal Data Exploration Without Conflicting Results

(23:13) The One Thing Chris Refuses To Automate and Why

(26:46) Forecasting: The Tension Between Trusting AI and Your Own Calculations

(28:58) Zeta Global’s 15-Quarter Beat-and-Raise Streak

(31:40) Daily Pacing and Confident Forecasting

(33:58) Sizing Up Zeta Global by Daily Active Users and Usage-Based Activity

(36:50) Unexpected Predictors of Customer Behaviour

(38:47) The “Hustle Metric”: The Best Predictors of Good Salespeople

(43:05) Chris’s IPO Preflight Checklist

(45:49) Strong Financial Stewardship as a Catalyst, Not a Constraint

(48:10) The Top Controls That a CFO Should Have Their Eye On

(49:55) The Fallacy of Having To Choose Between Growth and Margin Expansion

(53:26) Finance Teams: Closer To Code Versus Closer to Customer

(55:47) Value-Based Pricing

(57:42) Long-Ass Lightning Round: A Career Mistake

(58:20) Making Friends With the Emperor of Japan

(1:02:32) Advice to Younger Self

(1:03:57) Finance Software Stack

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SPONSORS:

Aleph automates 90% of manual, error-prone busywork, 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

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.

Navan is the all-in-one travel and expense solution that helps finance teams streamline reconciliation, enforce policies automatically, and gain real-time visibility. Visit https://navan.com/runthenumbers for your demo.

NetSuite is an AI-powered business management suite, encompassing ERP/Financials, CRM, and ecommerce for more than 41,000 customers. Head to https://netsuite.com/metrics and get the CFO’s Guide to AI and Machine Learning.

Pulley is the cap table management platform built for CFOs and finance leaders who need reliable, audit-ready data and intuitive workflows. Switch in as little as 5 days and get 25% off your first year: https://pulley.com/mostlymetrics.

Brex offers the world's smartest corporate card on a full-stack global platform. Plus, they offer modern banking and treasury as well as intuitive expenses and accounting automation, bill pay, and travel. Find out more at https://www.brex.com/metrics

#BeatAndRaise #CFOInsights #AIinFinance #AutomationInFinance #FinancialStewardship