On average, I get asked 2x a week for fractional CFO recommendations.

And on average, I get complaints 3x a week about someone’s current setup.

Today we investigate the booming fractional CFO market, and my checklist to making sure you get a good one.

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

In 1997, the Florida Marlins won the World Series, but they also lost $30 million in the process. In 2002, only three Major League Baseball teams had positive EBITDA. Due to a dramatic collective bargaining agreement, five years later, only three clubs had negative EBITDA, and the MLB had gone from $500 million in losses to a $500 million in profit. Today’s guest had a front row seat to the action. Jonathan Mariner is the former CFO of the Florida Marlins, the Florida Panthers, and Major League Baseball. He is also he founder of TaxDay and a seasoned board member on different boards, including Tyson Foods, OneStream, and Delaware North, among others. In this episode, he takes us inside the complex economics of pro sports. The conversation covers the surprising way sports franchises are actually valued, the massive shift from cable TV to streaming, the complex world of player merchandising, the challenges of expanding sports internationally, and how Jonathan helped implement a controversial EBITDA rule to rein in league-wide debt.

—

LINKS:

Jonathan Mariner on TaxDay: https://www.taxday.com/team/

Tax Day:

https://www.taxday.com/

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

Mostly metrics:

RELATED EPISODES:

The Boston Celtics’ Other Playbook: Business Insights from President Rich Gotham —

—

TIMESTAMPS:

(00:00) Preview and Intro

(02:35) Sponsor – Pulley | Brex | Aleph

(07:11) How Jonathan Became CFO of the Florida Marlins and Panthers

(13:17) The Marlins: Winning the World Series and Losing $30 Million

(16:03) Sponsor – RightRev | Navan | Rillet

(20:08) How Not Having a Salary Cap Affects the MLB

(21:27) The Collective Bargaining Agreement That Changed the Economics of the MLB

(30:00) The Science of How Sports Franchises Are Valued: Revenue

(31:53) The Art of How Sports Franchises Are Valued: Perception

(36:20) How Local Broadcast Rights and Revenue Sharing Work

(37:44) Contractually Obligated Income and Its Ramifications

(41:57) How Player Jersey Sales Really Work

(46:34) The Shift From Cable to Streaming and the Economic Effects

(53:48) The Challenges and Opportunities of Global Expansion

(59:57) Expansion Teams & Franchise Fees

(1:01:58) Being on the Tyson Foods Board During COVID

(1:05:39) Jonathan’s Other High-Stakes Moments as a Board Member

(1:08:03) Founding TaxDay

(1:11:41) Long-Ass Lightning Round: Career Mistakes

(1:14:00) Advice to Younger Self

(1:15:11) The Best Sporting Events Jonathan’s Ever Attended

—

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 can give you access to exclusive, proprietary Nasdaq-validated data that reveals what's happening with corporate travel investments. See the Navan Business Travel Index at https://navan.com/bti.

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.

#SportsFinance #MLB #MajorLeagueBaseball #TeamValuation #BusinessOfSports

If you’re curious about what it’s really like to navigate a multibillion-dollar acquisition deal during a global pandemic, while under intense scrutiny of the Department of Justice, this episode is for you. Jason Pate, Chief Strategy Officer at Plaid, takes us behind the scenes of Visa’s $5 billion bid to acquire Plaid and why it ultimately didn’t happen. Jason also explains the massive evolution of Plaid from a linking infrastructure company to a thriving network business powering some of the biggest names in fintech. The conversation delves into the company’s pivotal moments, including its recent $575 million fundraising round to solve for employee RSU liquidity. Beyond that, Jason shares lessons from his experience, unpacking the importance of understanding a customer's P&L, breaking down how to build durable fintech revenue streams through diversification, and offering candid insights on negotiation, the future of payments, and making big bets to fix something that isn't broken.

—

LINKS:

Jason Pate on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jason-pate-50735310/

Plaid:

https://plaid.com

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

Mostly metrics:

—

TIMESTAMPS:

(00:00) Preview and Intro

(01:43) Sponsor – Brex | Aleph | RightRev

(06:08) Duke and “I Hate Christian Laettner”

(07:45) Jason’s Product Development Experience and Career Journey

(10:38) The Importance of Understanding Your Customer’s P&L

(12:41) Plaid’s Transition From Linking Infrastructure to Network Business

(15:23) Sponsor – Navan | Rillet | Pulley

(18:55) Building the Plaid Data Network and Ecosystem

(25:41) Friction in Payments: Feature Versus Bug

(27:46) The Future of Payments: Check-In Versus Checkout

(31:21) Negotiations: Less Like Chess, More Like Marco Polo

(35:21) Identifying Gives That Aren’t Actually Gives

(37:10) Plaid’s Unsuccessful Acquisition by Visa

(40:45) Being Interviewed by the DOJ During the Pandemic

(43:49) Plaid’s Recent Raise and the Unconventional Reason for It

(47:00) Valuations: Fundraises Versus Sales

(48:19) Building an Equity Program When Companies Stay Private Longer

(50:48) Multi-Product Diversification: The Key to Durable FinTech Revenue

(53:07) When & How To Transition From an Infrastructure to a Network Business

(59:03) Jason’s Philosophy on Ramping Team Members

(1:01:04) Lessons From Roger Federer

(1:02:52) Long-Ass Lightning Round: A Career Mistake

(1:04:03) Advice to Younger Self

(1:04:48) A Helpful Tactic for Negotiations

—

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.

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.

#Plaid #Fintech #acquisition #fundraise #employeeRSU #BusinessTransition

What matters more: Your company performance, or market conditions?

Stubhub is preparing to go public (again) after initially pulling the plug back in March of 2025. A lot has changed since then. The market is up. And their performance is down. We analyze what’s going on in the capital markets, and how to think about what matters most when you’re preparing to go public.

(Read: Stubhub’s original S1 breakdown on Mostlymetrics.com)

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

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)

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