Friends and Family Capital: First Principles Finance

In this episode of First Principles Finance, Colin Anderson examines a core tension that shows up across careers, investing, and company building: growth versus certainty. Using two real-world examples — a finance professional choosing between two job offers and a founder negotiating a major customer expansion — Colin breaks down how certainty can create comfort while potentially limiting upside....

In this episode of First Principles Finance, Colin Anderson breaks down one of the most important and misunderstood topics for founders: pricing. Rather than focusing on pricing models first, Colin reframes the discussion around customer value and explains why understanding the economic impact of your product is the true starting point. Using examples from enterprise software, retail expansion, an...

In this episode of First Principles Finance, Colin Anderson tackles a critical challenge founders face as they scale: the tension between what  sounds right  in theory and what actually works in practice. Drawing on real questions from founders in the network, Colin explores how organizational design decisions—like layering leadership or upgrading finance functions—often look clean on paper but br...

In this episode of First Principles Finance, Colin Anderson addresses a common challenge founders face when answering questions that don’t align with how they run their business. He examines how external stakeholders often focus on output metrics like revenue or net revenue retention, while operators focus on the underlying drivers. Colin breaks down how to reframe these moments by focusing on the...

In this episode, Colin Anderson, founding partner of Friends and Family Capital and former CFO of Palantir Technologies, addresses a common set of governance questions from founders. Using a first-principles lens, he reframes governance as a question of power and control across three groups: founders, investors, and employees.  Colin walks through how founders should think about board composition,...

In this episode, Colin Anderson, founding partner of Friends and Family Capital and former CFO of Palantir Technologies, addresses a common question from founders: how to structure a tender offer. Drawing from first principles, Colin examines how liquidity events affect three key groups—employees, founders, and investors. He explains why selective liquidity can help employees handle life expenses...

Founders often ask, “Help me hire a CFO.” But the better question is: Why do you think you need one? In this episode, Colin Anderson (Founding Partner of Friends and Family Capital and former CFO of Palantir Technologies) breaks down how to think about your first — or next — finance hire using first principles. Instead of defaulting to a big title, Colin shares three practical frameworks to help f...

Friends & Family Capital’s First Principles Finance is the show where founders receive candid answers to the finance questions that matter most when building a world-class technology company. Hosted by Colin Anderson — founding partner of Friends & Family Capital and former CFO of Palantir Technologies — the show pulls directly from the conversations Colin has each week with founders at th...