Run the Numbers

On this episode of Run the Numbers, CJ breaks down Cumberland Farms’ IPO filing and the surprising business behind it.

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SPONSORS:

RightRev is an automated revenue recognition platform that lets your product team ship new pricing without asking finance for permission, and your sales team close deals without creating downstream chaos. Check out their free tool at calculator.rightrev.com It scores your rev rec process, shows what's exposing you to risk, and tells you exactly where to focus before it bites you in the rear end. Check it out at https://calculator.rightrev.com

Pulley is an equity management platform that lets you issue options, model dilution, and complete 409As without your cap table turning into a spreadsheet disaster. Founders raising, hiring, and scaling use Pulley to keep equity clean and stay focused on building. Learn more or request a demo at https://pulley.com/mostlymetrics

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

Maximor is an autonomous finance platform that runs order-to-cash, procure-to-pay, the close, cash management, and reporting on self-learning agents instead of a dozen disconnected tools. One PE-backed customer cut their close in half, took audit findings from seven to zero, and cut back-office costs by 70% in six months. You pay for outcomes, not seats. See it at https://www.maximor.ai/

Brex is an intelligent finance platform with AI-powered agents that capture expenses automatically, enforce policy before the spend happens, and close your books in minutes instead of weeks. 35,000+ companies like OpenAI, Coinbase, Anthropic, and DoorDash already run on Brex. It's time to get Brex AF. Learn more at https://www.brex.com/metrics

Anrok is the sales tax platform that watches your exposure everywhere, automates compliance, and flags risk before it turns into a surprise back-tax letter from a state you've never set foot in. Companies like Anthropic, Notion, and Vanta already trust Anrok to stay ahead of rules that move faster than any spreadsheet can. Talk to a sales tax expert for a personalized exposure estimate at https://www.anrok.com/rtn

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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 Preview and Intro

2:57 Key metrics

4:28 Europe now out-earns America

5:01 $5.8B debt at 8x leverage

6:20 TLDR: snacks, gas, borrowed money

7:58 Fuel vs. inside: the gross profit photo finish

8:58 COCO, CONCO, and OTHER explained

10:57 Sponsors — Maximor | Brex | Anrok

14:02 Why scale matters: four reasons

16:02 The US convenience store market

17:42 EVs: long the birth rate

18:05 Back to the debt

19:10 The sale leaseback

20:24 Sponsors — RightRev | Pulley | Rillet

23:26 Does the deleveraging math work?

24:27 The growth thesis

25:06 600–700 stores become Cumberland Farms

26:16 The chicken fryer ROI

27:00 Coffee and loyalty: 6M members in 13 months

28:15 Red flag 1: five-for-five COSO failures

28:41 Red flag 2: entire C-suite is new

29:04 Red flag 3: lending to their own parent

29:42 Red flag 4: Big Tobacco funds loyalty

29:57 Red flag 5: foreign issuer, Cayman charter

30:10 Red flag 6: one supplier is 31% of costs

30:32 Red flag 7: balance sheet is stale

30:45 Cap table: TDR Capital and the Issa brothers

31:55 Casey's vs. ARCO

33:47 Goldman got bumped

34:08 Massachusetts banned the pump clip until 2015

34:57 No health insurance disclosure for 16K US workers

35:30 Robert Swan (ex-Intel CEO) is on the board

36:08 Credits

In this episode of Run the Numbers, CJ sits down with Rogo president Rahul Rekhi to unpack what AI actually changes in investment banking and finance. They dig into token economics, why adoption without ROI is a trap, how vertical AI wins, and why domain expertise still matter.

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SPONSORS:

Pulley is an equity management platform that lets you issue options, model dilution, and complete 409As without your cap table turning into a spreadsheet disaster. Founders raising, hiring, and scaling use Pulley to keep equity clean and stay focused on building. Learn more or request a demo at https://pulley.com/mostlymetrics

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

Maximor is an autonomous finance platform that runs order-to-cash, procure-to-pay, the close, cash management, and reporting on self-learning agents instead of a dozen disconnected tools. One PE-backed customer cut their close in half, took audit findings from seven to zero, and cut back-office costs by 70% in six months. You pay for outcomes, not seats. See it at https://www.maximor.ai/

Brex is an intelligent finance platform with AI-powered agents that capture expenses automatically, enforce policy before the spend happens, and close your books in minutes instead of weeks. 35,000+ companies like OpenAI, Coinbase, Anthropic, and DoorDash already run on Brex. It's time to get Brex AF. Learn more at https://www.brex.com/metrics

Anrok is the sales tax platform that watches your exposure everywhere, automates compliance, and flags risk before it turns into a surprise back-tax letter from a state you've never set foot in. Companies like Anthropic, Notion, and Vanta already trust Anrok to stay ahead of rules that move faster than any spreadsheet can. Talk to a sales tax expert for a personalized exposure estimate at https://www.anrok.com/rtn

RightRev is an automated revenue recognition platform that lets your product team ship new pricing without asking finance for permission, and your sales team close deals without creating downstream chaos. Check out their free tool at calculator.rightrev.com It scores your rev rec process, shows what's exposing you to risk, and tells you exactly where to focus before it bites you in the rear end. Check it out at https://calculator.rightrev.com

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LINKS: 

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

Guest: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rahulrekhi/

Company: https://www.rogo.ai/

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

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

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RELATED EPISODES:

A CFO Explains the Stock Exchanges

https://youtu.be/pooOE6ZNGR4

A CFO Explains Marketplaces

https://youtu.be/LpbH9GpBrSY

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TIMESTAMPS:

0:00 Preview and Intro

2:44 Why finance was first to verticalize AI

6:28 What the president title means at Rogo

9:55 Sponsors — Pulley | Rillet | Maximor

13:02 The problem Rogo is solving

16:16 Token maxing is not transformation

17:43 Why ROI is so hard to measure

19:39 Sponsors — Brex | Anrok | RightRev

22:37 ROI is business-unit specific

24:03 Budgeting tokens like a benefits load

25:00 AI incentives aren't aligned to efficiency

26:26 The model broker function

32:03 Not all token spend is equal

37:14 Who owns AI efficiency?

40:59 The forward deployed banker

43:00 Domain expertise: the Interstellar analogy

49:21 Lightning round

49:28 Screwed up: DCF error in a live deal

51:13 Will new grads have the spidey sense?

53:03 Meeting Pope Francis

55:04 Fact-checking jobs numbers at the White House

57:39 Advice to younger self

59:21 Credits

On this episode of Run the Numbers, CJ breaks down Jersey Mike’s S-1 and the franchise machine behind more than $4 billion in sandwich sales. He explains how an asset-light royalty model works, why franchise economics can be so powerful, what Blackstone saw in the business, and what the filing reveals about growth, margins, and the real money behind the subs.

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SPONSORS:

RightRev is an automated revenue recognition platform that lets your product team ship new pricing without asking finance for permission, and your sales team close deals without creating downstream chaos. Check out their free tool at calculator.rightrev.com It scores your rev rec process, shows what's exposing you to risk, and tells you exactly where to focus before it bites you in the rear end. Check it out at https://calculator.rightrev.com

Pulley is an equity management platform that lets you issue options, model dilution, and complete 409As without your cap table turning into a spreadsheet disaster. Founders raising, hiring, and scaling use Pulley to keep equity clean and stay focused on building. Learn more or request a demo at https://pulley.com/mostlymetrics

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

Maximor is an autonomous finance platform that runs order-to-cash, procure-to-pay, the close, cash management, and reporting on self-learning agents instead of a dozen disconnected tools. One PE-backed customer cut their close in half, took audit findings from seven to zero, and cut back-office costs by 70% in six months. You pay for outcomes, not seats. See it at https://www.maximor.ai/

Brex is an intelligent finance platform with AI-powered agents that capture expenses automatically, enforce policy before the spend happens, and close your books in minutes instead of weeks. 35,000+ companies like OpenAI, Coinbase, Anthropic, and DoorDash already run on Brex. It's time to get Brex AF. Learn more at https://www.brex.com/metrics

Anrok is the sales tax platform that watches your exposure everywhere, automates compliance, and flags risk before it turns into a surprise back-tax letter from a state you've never set foot in. Companies like Anthropic, Notion, and Vanta already trust Anrok to stay ahead of rules that move faster than any spreadsheet can. Talk to a sales tax expert for a personalized exposure estimate at https://www.anrok.com/rtn

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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 Sell $4B in subs, own none of the stores

0:33 Origin story: Peter Cancro buys a sub shop at 17

1:47 It's a royalty business

2:42 Key metrics

6:07 What you're actually buying

6:42 The three revenue streams

7:19 The franchisee's P&L

10:00 Sponsors — RightRev | Pulley | Rillet

13:02 Corporate P&L: 47% EBITDA margins

13:33 The Blackstone math

14:38 $2.1B whole business securitization

15:09 Full EBITDA bridge

16:00 The CEO buying back the 2%

17:10 Red flag 1: Up-C structure

18:11 Red flag 2: tax receivable agreement

18:45 Red flag 3: controlled company governance

19:05 Red flag 4: sponsor already took $500M

19:29 Red flag 5: charitable donations added back

20:13 Red flag 6: cheap debt maturing in 2029

20:52 Sponsors — Maximor | Brex | Anrok

23:56 Valuation: $10–12B

24:32 Peer comparison

25:27 How do you underwrite $12B?

25:58 Misc: quantum attack on the provolone

26:28 The hidden 53rd week

26:57 No drive-thru is a feature

27:13 Verdict

27:56 Credits

#RunTheNumbersPodcast #IPO #Investing #BusinessStrategy #FinanceLeadership

What actually prepares someone to become a CFO? CJ revisits Erin Callan’s short, brutal run as Lehman Brothers CFO and pulls lessons from past guests on operational reps, simple communication, fast-moving bad news, budget mistakes, and why great finance leaders can’t just report the numbers, they have to shape them.

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SPONSORS:

Anrok is the sales tax platform that watches your exposure everywhere, automates compliance, and flags risk before it turns into a surprise back-tax letter from a state you've never set foot in. Companies like Anthropic, Notion, and Vanta already trust Anrok to stay ahead of rules that move faster than any spreadsheet can. Talk to a sales tax expert for a personalized exposure estimate at https://www.anrok.com/rtn

RightRev is an automated revenue recognition platform that lets your product team ship new pricing without asking finance for permission, and your sales team close deals without creating downstream chaos. Check out their free tool at calculator.rightrev.com It scores your rev rec process, shows what's exposing you to risk, and tells you exactly where to focus before it bites you in the rear end. Check it out at https://calculator.rightrev.com

Pulley is an equity management platform that lets you issue options, model dilution, and complete 409As without your cap table turning into a spreadsheet disaster. Founders raising, hiring, and scaling use Pulley to keep equity clean and stay focused on building. Learn more or request a demo at https://pulley.com/mostlymetrics

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

Maximor is an autonomous finance platform that runs order-to-cash, procure-to-pay, the close, cash management, and reporting on self-learning agents instead of a dozen disconnected tools. One PE-backed customer cut their close in half, took audit findings from seven to zero, and cut back-office costs by 70% in six months. You pay for outcomes, not seats. See it at https://www.maximor.ai/

Brex is an intelligent finance platform with AI-powered agents that capture expenses automatically, enforce policy before the spend happens, and close your books in minutes instead of weeks. 35,000+ companies like OpenAI, Coinbase, Anthropic, and DoorDash already run on Brex. It's time to get Brex AF. Learn more at https://www.brex.com/metrics

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LINKS: 

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

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

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

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

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

—

RELATED EPISODES:

Steve Isom

https://youtu.be/a4lEdrgFW5E

Jake Kornreich

https://youtu.be/GKo0B1w4bo4

Manu Diwakar

https://youtu.be/J0J4Rfne54E

Dan Bettes

https://youtu.be/b4w_OHpSNNw

Alan Imberman

https://youtu.be/UD9lYhkfA6U

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TIMESTAMPS:

0:00 Erin Callan: Lehman's CFO Set up to Fail

5:48 Steve Isom: broadcaster vs. team captain

9:37 Be in rhythm with the business

11:15 Sponsors — Anrok | RightRev | Pulley

14:07 Jake Kornreich: title vs. impact

18:23 Get into the room where decisions are made

22:08 Sponsors — Rillet | Maximor | Brex

25:23 Dan Betts: don't church it up

27:11 The higher up you go, the simpler it gets

29:04 Dan Betts: the many faces of EBITDA

30:39 Understand what success means to them

32:07 Jake Kornreich: the $5M budget bust

33:04 Bad news travels fast

35:01 Alan Imberman: the $100K coffee tab

38:15 ROI on perks

40:25 Alan Imberman: long-term vs. short-term investors

43:28 Would you take the Lehman job?

45:44 Credits

#RunTheNumbersPodcast #CFO #FinanceLeadership #StartupGrowth #FinanceHistory

In this episode of Run the Numbers, CJ goes live from Rillet Recon with Dana Decker (VP of Finance at Opendoor), AJ Ljubich (SVP, FP&A at Datadog), and Micah Richard (Principal, AI at PwC) to unpack how finance teams are actually using AI.

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SPONSORS:

Brex is an intelligent finance platform with AI-powered agents that capture expenses automatically, enforce policy before the spend happens, and close your books in minutes instead of weeks. 35,000+ companies like OpenAI, Coinbase, Anthropic, and DoorDash already run on Brex. It's time to get Brex AF. Learn more at https://www.brex.com/metrics

Anrok is the sales tax platform that watches your exposure everywhere, automates compliance, and flags risk before it turns into a surprise back-tax letter from a state you've never set foot in. Companies like Anthropic, Notion, and Vanta already trust Anrok to stay ahead of rules that move faster than any spreadsheet can. Talk to a sales tax expert for a personalized exposure estimate at https://www.anrok.com/rtn

RightRev is an automated revenue recognition platform that lets your product team ship new pricing without asking finance for permission, and your sales team close deals without creating downstream chaos. Check out their free tool at calculator.rightrev.com It scores your rev rec process, shows what's exposing you to risk, and tells you exactly where to focus before it bites you in the rear end. Check it out at https://calculator.rightrev.com

Pulley is an equity management platform that lets you issue options, model dilution, and complete 409As without your cap table turning into a spreadsheet disaster. Founders raising, hiring, and scaling use Pulley to keep equity clean and stay focused on building. Learn more or request a demo at https://pulley.com/mostlymetrics

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

Maximor is an autonomous finance platform that runs order-to-cash, procure-to-pay, the close, cash management, and reporting on self-learning agents instead of a dozen disconnected tools. One PE-backed customer cut their close in half, took audit findings from seven to zero, and cut back-office costs by 70% in six months. You pay for outcomes, not seats. See it at https://www.maximor.ai/

—

LINKS: 

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

Guests:

https://www.linkedin.com/in/aj-ljubich-cfa-727ab912/

https://www.linkedin.com/in/dana-decker/

https://www.linkedin.com/in/micah-richard-64a53238/

Companies:

https://www.datadoghq.com/

https://www.opendoor.com/

https://www.pwc.com/

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

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

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TIMESTAMPS:

0:00 Preview and Intro

2:27 Panel intros: AJ, Micah, Dana

4:00 FP&A a year ago vs. today

6:45 Opendoor: default-to-AI company

7:40 Leadership being in the weeds

8:30 Building a daily P&L view with Claude

9:39 Sponsors — Brex | Anrok | RightRev

12:38 Forecasting at Datadog: consumption model

14:20 AI picks up seasonality, misses customer context

15:10 Semantic layer and blessed queries

16:35 Self-serve data: how far can you go?

20:10 Best-in-class adoption: build over buy

20:23 Sponsors — Pulley | Rillet | Maximor

23:30 Does a 2-year head start matter?

24:10 Build vs. buy criteria haven't changed

25:10 Evaluating vendor roadmaps

26:20 Procurement shifting toward build

28:00 Data access controls and RBAC

31:00 Token usage: haves and have-nots

32:50 Encouraging tokens across the org

34:40 ROI metrics haven't changed

35:45 90-day advice: just start

36:55 Leadership has to pull the red tape

38:05 Get the data right first

39:07 Credits

In this episode of Run the Numbers, CJ breaks down Lime’s S-1 as the scooter company heads toward the public markets. He gets into the $1.8B valuation, Wayne Ting’s turnaround playbook, Lime’s unit economics, the post-Covid recovery, and the debt wall that may be forcing the IPO window open.

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SPONSORS:

SpendHound cuts your SaaS and AI spend by up to 30% using real pricing benchmarks across 10,000 vendors, so you always know what fair pricing looks like before your next renewal. Rated #1 on G2 in SaaS spend management, it's free forever for teams up to 1,000 employees. Sign up by June 12th and get $500 just for getting started. Go to https://www.spendhound.com/cj

Brex is an intelligent finance platform with AI-powered agents that capture expenses automatically, enforce policy before the spend happens, and close your books in minutes instead of weeks. 35,000+ companies like OpenAI, Coinbase, Anthropic, and DoorDash already run on Brex. It's time to get Brex AF. Learn more at https://www.brex.com/metrics

Aleph is a modern FP&A platform built for teams that want more than another planning tool. By connecting your ERP, CRM, and other systems into one trusted data layer with AI workflows, Aleph helps you move faster with real-time insights. Get a personalized demo at https://www.getaleph.com/run

RightRev is an automated revenue recognition platform that lets your product team ship new pricing without asking finance for permission, and your sales team close deals without creating downstream chaos. Check out their free tool at calculator.rightrev.com It scores your rev rec process, shows what's exposing you to risk, and tells you exactly where to focus before it bites you in the rear end. Check it out at https://calculator.rightrev.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 has been part of Silicon Valley since it was just a valley, helping the most successful names in tech go from startup to exit to megacap. With teams across strategy, tax, audit, and transactions, EY helps you get your financials right early, long before your investors start asking for it. You build the next big thing, and EY will help you build it right. 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

—

RELATED EPISODES:

SpaceX S1 Breakdown

https://youtu.be/AARjbTO8FKo

—

TIMESTAMPS:

0:00 Intro

1:48 What Lime does

2:47 Phoenix rising from the ashes

3:53 Revenue: $887M, 29% growth

6:38 Gross margin and the depreciation trick

7:53 Adjusted EBITDA: $218M, up 42%

8:27 Why the net loss got bigger

9:54 Sponsors — SpendHound | Brex | Aleph

13:08 Revenue per vehicle per day

13:42 Marketing: only 2% of revenue

14:01 Subscription mix: 28% and rising

14:25 The debt: $821M but most converts

15:37 The turnaround story

16:42 What Wayne found taking over

17:31 The three numbers he locked in on

18:05 The warehouse overhaul

19:31 Sponsors — RightRev | Rillet | EY

22:33 The debt deep dive

23:20 Why the net loss widened

24:27 Post-IPO: nearly debt free

25:07 Why more scooters make each scooter worth more

28:43 How a scooter pays for itself

30:43 The swappable battery

32:39 Is this a real moat?

34:14 Red flag 1: going concern

35:11 Red flag 2: depreciation change before IPO

36:11 Red flag 3: permits can disappear

36:32 Red flag 4: Uber is everything

37:24 Red flag 5: vehicles catch fire

37:56 Valuation: under 2x revenue

39:55 Comps: between Lyft and Uber

40:55 Bull vs. bear

41:52 Legal name is Neutron Holdings

42:47 Credits

On this episode of Run the Numbers, CJ sits down with Confluent CFO Rohan Sivaram to talk goal setting, prioritization, consumption-based pricing, hybrid zero-based budgeting, and the frameworks finance leaders use to scale companies. Rohan shares why he carries his 12-month goals with him, how he evaluates opportunities through TAM, technology, and team, and why usage-based pricing changes the entire operating model.

—

SPONSORS:

EY has been part of Silicon Valley since it was just a valley, helping the most successful names in tech go from startup to exit to megacap. With teams across strategy, tax, audit, and transactions, EY helps you get your financials right early, long before your investors start asking for it. You build the next big thing, and EY will help you build it right. Learn more at https://www.ey.com/techstartups

SpendHound cuts your SaaS and AI spend by up to 30% using real pricing benchmarks across 10,000 vendors, so you always know what fair pricing looks like before your next renewal. Rated #1 on G2 in SaaS spend management, it's free forever for teams up to 1,000 employees. Sign up by June 12th and get $500 just for getting started. Go to https://www.spendhound.com/cj

Brex is an intelligent finance platform with AI-powered agents that capture expenses automatically, enforce policy before the spend happens, and close your books in minutes instead of weeks. 35,000+ companies like OpenAI, Coinbase, Anthropic, and DoorDash already run on Brex. It's time to get Brex AF. Learn more at https://www.brex.com/metrics

Aleph is a modern FP&A platform built for teams that want more than another planning tool. By connecting your ERP, CRM, and other systems into one trusted data layer with AI workflows, Aleph helps you move faster with real-time insights. Get a personalized demo at https://www.getaleph.com/run

RightRev is an automated revenue recognition platform that lets your product team ship new pricing without asking finance for permission, and your sales team close deals without creating downstream chaos. Check out their free tool at calculator.rightrev.com It scores your rev rec process, shows what's exposing you to risk, and tells you exactly where to focus before it bites you in the rear end. Check it out at https://calculator.rightrev.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

—

LINKS: 

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

Guest: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rohan-sivaram-69007b7/

Company: https://www.confluent.io/

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

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

—

RELATED EPISODES:

A CFO Explains Marketplaces

https://youtu.be/LpbH9GpBrSY

—

TIMESTAMPS:

0:00 Preview and Intro

2:26 Writing down 12-month goals and carrying them

6:33 Rule of 168: 168 hours a week

7:36 Delegation and calendar management

9:25 Learning to say no: cultural shift

11:32 Sponsors — EY | SpendHound | Brex

14:29 Joining Confluent: the state of the company

16:57 Building blocks of a budgeting process

19:46 Execute, learn, adapt

21:59 Healthy tension in the planning cycle

22:26 Sponsors — Aleph | RightRev | Rillet

25:46 What is hybrid zero-based budgeting?

30:37 Moving from subscription to consumption pricing

32:22 Why this was a one-way door

33:56 New metrics required in a consumption business

35:28 Evaluating job opportunities: the three T's

37:39 Networking and reciprocity

39:54 Lightning round

40:04 Screwed up: free cash flow sign error

42:03 Advice to younger self: take more risks

42:38 Finance software stack

43:00 AI tools the team has built

43:44 Credits

In this episode of Run the Numbers, CJ sits down with Jake Kornreich, CFO of CoLab and former CFO of Own, live from the New York Stock Exchange. Jake breaks down the six-part framework behind Own’s $2.1B sale to Salesforce, why “control your destiny” matters, how CFOs should think about IPO readiness, board communication, share price theater, and why great finance leaders operate beyond the spreadsheet.

—

SPONSORS:

Rillet is an AI-native ERP built for modern finance teams that want to replace NetSuite and close faster. With revenue recognition, close management, multi-entity support, and native Stripe and Salesforce integrations, Rillet helps scaling companies run their finance stack in one place. Hundreds of teams, including Windsurf and Mercor, use Rillet to make the zero-day close real. Book a demo at https://www.rillet.com/cj

EY has been part of Silicon Valley since it was just a valley, helping the most successful names in tech go from startup to exit to megacap. With teams across strategy, tax, audit, and transactions, EY helps you get your financials right early, long before your investors start asking for it. You build the next big thing, and EY will help you build it right. Learn more at https://www.ey.com/techstartups

SpendHound cuts your SaaS and AI spend by up to 30% using real pricing benchmarks across 10,000 vendors, so you always know what fair pricing looks like before your next renewal. Rated #1 on G2 in SaaS spend management, it's free forever for teams up to 1,000 employees. Sign up by June 12th and get $500 just for getting started. Go to https://www.spendhound.com/cj

Brex is an intelligent finance platform with AI-powered agents that capture expenses automatically, enforce policy before the spend happens, and close your books in minutes instead of weeks. 35,000+ companies like OpenAI, Coinbase, Anthropic, and DoorDash already run on Brex. It's time to get Brex AF. Learn more at https://www.brex.com/metrics

Aleph is a modern FP&A platform built for teams that want more than another planning tool. By connecting your ERP, CRM, and other systems into one trusted data layer with AI workflows, Aleph helps you move faster with real-time insights. Get a personalized demo at https://www.getaleph.com/run

RightRev is an automated revenue recognition platform that lets your product team ship new pricing without asking finance for permission, and your sales team close deals without creating downstream chaos. Check out their free tool at calculator.rightrev.com It scores your rev rec process, shows what's exposing you to risk, and tells you exactly where to focus before it bites you in the rear end. Check it out at https://calculator.rightrev.com

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LINKS: 

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

Guest: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jake-kornreich/

Company: https://www.colabsoftware.com/

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

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

TIMESTAMPS:

0:00 Preview and Intro

2:20 First stock

3:28 Benefits of going public today

5:42 Come-up: chief of staff to CFO

6:31 Running HR like a sales org

8:32 Control your destiny

9:24 Synergies with Salesforce

10:09 Sponsors — Rillet | EY | SpendHound

13:10 Do your own ROI due diligence

14:40 Share price equals entertainment

16:26 Disciplined execution

17:45 Performance, not stories

19:24 Activist investors and the acquirer's board

20:13 Write the memo for the other side

20:45 Sponsors — Brex | Aleph | RightRev

24:02 Triangulate your way to success

25:18 Your board takes snapshots, you run the movie

26:21 Knowing when to sell

27:16 Valuation limits your exit options

27:38 Stakeholder comms during the acquisition

29:58 CFO as operator, not just function

31:31 What is CoLab?

32:09 Why Jake joined post-Series C

33:50 Personal product market fit for CFOs

35:27 Lightning round

35:42 Screwed up: $5M budget error

36:17 Advice to younger self

36:41 Finance software stack

37:34 Culture of expense discipline

38:22 Credits

In this episode of Run the Numbers, CJ sits down with Dan Bettes, CFO of SoundCloud, at the New York Stock Exchange. Dan breaks down how SoundCloud operates as a two-sided music marketplace, how he thinks about liquidity between fans and creators, and why great finance leaders need to make forecasting feel owned by the business

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SPONSORS:

Aleph is a modern FP&A platform built for teams that want more than another planning tool. By connecting your ERP, CRM, and other systems into one trusted data layer with AI workflows, Aleph helps you move faster with real-time insights. Get a personalized demo at https://www.getaleph.com/run

RightRev is an automated revenue recognition platform that lets your product team ship new pricing without asking finance for permission, and your sales team close deals without creating downstream chaos. Check out their free tool at calculator.rightrev.com It scores your rev rec process, shows what's exposing you to risk, and tells you exactly where to focus before it bites you in the rear end. Check it out at https://calculator.rightrev.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 has been part of Silicon Valley since it was just a valley, helping the most successful names in tech go from startup to exit to megacap. With teams across strategy, tax, audit, and transactions, EY helps you get your financials right early, long before your investors start asking for it. You build the next big thing, and EY will help you build it right. Learn more at https://www.ey.com/techstartups

SpendHound cuts your SaaS and AI spend by up to 30% using real pricing benchmarks across 10,000 vendors, so you always know what fair pricing looks like before your next renewal. Rated #1 on G2 in SaaS spend management, it's free forever for teams up to 1,000 employees. Sign up by June 12th and get $500 just for getting started. Go to https://www.spendhound.com/cj

Brex is an intelligent finance platform with AI-powered agents that capture expenses automatically, enforce policy before the spend happens, and close your books in minutes instead of weeks. 35,000+ companies like OpenAI, Coinbase, Anthropic, and DoorDash already run on Brex. It's time to get Brex AF. Learn more at https://www.brex.com/metrics

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LINKS: 

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

Guest: https://www.linkedin.com/in/danielbettes/

Company: https://soundcloud.com/

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

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

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TIMESTAMPS:

0:00 Preview and Intro

2:17 First stock: a Vanguard index fund

3:13 Most memorable IPO: Groupon

4:54 Benefits of going public have changed

5:47 SoundCloud and the music industry

7:21 Three eras: physical, streaming, creator platform

8:49 Streaming unbundled the album

10:03 Artists don't need labels anymore

11:40 Sponsors — Aleph | RightRev | Rillet

15:00 SoundCloud's two-sided business model

16:23 Touring replaced the album

17:17 First metric every morning: net adds

18:31 DAU vs. MAU: it's a funnel

19:14 Viral moments and exogenous pops

20:10 LTV and the subscription funnel

21:38 Sponsors — EY | SpendHound | Brex

24:35 Tops-down vs. bottoms-up: reconcile both

26:21 Revenue is an output

27:45 Handling forecast deviation

29:24 How often to reforecast

30:23 The final boss: indirect cash flow statement

33:09 Cash vs. EBITDA fluency

35:04 Plain English and the power of reps

36:52 Tailor the message to the audience

37:45 Lightning round

37:45 Screwed up: miscounted corn at a banquet

38:41 Lean into discomfort

39:55 Craziest expense: a post-flight massage

40:17 Credits

In this episode of Run the Numbers, CJ breaks down Bending Spoons’ F-1 filing and the acquisition machine behind AOL, Evernote, Vimeo, Eventbrite, and more. He unpacks the company’s playbook: buy under-optimized digital businesses, transform operations, raise prices, reinvest earnings, and repeat — while asking the core question: how much was built, and how much was bought?

—

SPONSORS:

RightRev is an automated revenue recognition platform that lets your product team ship new pricing without asking finance for permission, and your sales team close deals without creating downstream chaos. Check out their free tool at calculator.rightrev.com It scores your rev rec process, shows what's exposing you to risk, and tells you exactly where to focus before it bites you in the rear end. Check it out at https://calculator.rightrev.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 has been part of Silicon Valley since it was just a valley, helping the most successful names in tech go from startup to exit to megacap. With teams across strategy, tax, audit, and transactions, EY helps you get your financials right early, long before your investors start asking for it. You build the next big thing, and EY will help you build it right. Learn more at https://www.ey.com/techstartups

SpendHound cuts your SaaS and AI spend by up to 30% using real pricing benchmarks across 10,000 vendors, so you always know what fair pricing looks like before your next renewal. Rated #1 on G2 in SaaS spend management, it's free forever for teams up to 1,000 employees. Sign up by June 12th and get $500 just for getting started. Go to https://www.spendhound.com/cj

Brex is an intelligent finance platform with AI-powered agents that capture expenses automatically, enforce policy before the spend happens, and close your books in minutes instead of weeks. 35,000+ companies like OpenAI, Coinbase, Anthropic, and DoorDash already run on Brex. It's time to get Brex AF. Learn more at https://www.brex.com/metrics

Aleph is a modern FP&A platform built for teams that want more than another planning tool. By connecting your ERP, CRM, and other systems into one trusted data layer with AI workflows, Aleph helps you move faster with real-time insights. Get a personalized demo at https://www.getaleph.com/run

—

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 What is Bending Spoons?

1:03 The Internet's attic: the portfolio

3:11 The metrics rundown

5:44 Revenue: $1.3B, 95% growth

6:04 82% of growth was bought, not built

6:29 Gross margin: 66%

6:50 Subscription mix and NRR

7:33 Net income: basically zero

8:00 Cash: $741M, debt: $4.4B

8:35 Revenue per employee: $2.57M

9:39 Sponsors — RightRev | Rillet | EY

12:42 Organic growth is mostly price hikes

13:50 A house of adjustments

14:54 Add-backs bigger than the profit

15:22 The reorganization line: cost of firing

19:21 Sponsors — SpendHound | Brex | Aleph

22:51 Does the playbook actually work?

23:07 Evernote: the proof point

23:45 Romini: the growth proof point

24:10 AI in three directions at once

25:45 The debt engine

27:50 Red flag 1: material accounting weaknesses

28:38 Red flag 2: pro forma numbers come with a confession

29:00 Red flag 3: App Store dependency

29:11 Red flag 4: no long-term contracts

29:30 Red flag 5: foreign private issuer

29:52 Red flag 6: they've never sold anything

30:19 Cap table and board

31:07 Valuation: 14–18x

33:00 Bull vs. bear case

33:55 Miscellaneous: the S1 is already stale

35:25 Credits