Run the Numbers

Nick Chammas, CFO of Eight Sleep, joins CJ to discuss his career journey from working as a first-year analyst on Google's IPO to his current role as CFO of Eight Sleep. He shares anecdotes from the Google IPO process (including a memorable story about Eric Schmidt) and a wealth of knowledge that he gained throughout the years. He talks about what it was like being a banker versus an operator and o...

In this episode, CJ interviews Anna King, CFO of Mesh, a spend and travel management platform. They explore changes in the CFO tech stack in recent years and how automation and storytelling can greatly complement each other. Anna explains how she got to revenue recognition on a daily basis, the importance of connecting production data with financial data for better insights, and the advantages of...

In this episode, CJ interviews Rob Goldenberg, the CFO of 6sense, a B2B predictive intelligence engine that uses AI, machine learning, and big data to help sales and marketing teams find the best accounts to target. Rob has experience in both high and low macro environments and talks about the tools and strategies he uses to handle these situations. He emphasizes the need for alignment in a compan...

Adam Ante is the CFO of Paycor, a publicly traded payroll provider. Not only did he scale the ranks of leadership quickly, but he took Paycor public in the first two years of his first role as a CFO. Today he joins CJ to discuss his career journey and share the wisdom he’s gained along the way. Inspired by the book Extreme Ownership by Jocko Willink and Leif Babin, Adam explains how aggressively s...

Today CJ is joined by Thomas Ream, the CFO of Workato, an intelligent automation platform that is heavily involved in AI. Thomas opens up about what it was like working in AI in the early days of the 90s. They discuss AI as a component of workflow and what it means to train AI models. He talks about the differences between working in hardware and software, the growing trend of hardware and softwar...

In this episode, CJ interviews Chuck Fisher, CFO of Turo, the world’s largest peer-to-peer car rental marketplace, doing more than $800 million in revenue per year. Chuck breaks down the company’s business model, what separates it from traditional car rental companies, and how it differs from marketplaces like Airbnb and Uber. He explains how Turo helps people build micro businesses and sheds ligh...

Rich Gotham, the president of the Boston Celtics, joins CJ to discuss the business side of one of the world’s best basketball teams and most recognizable sports brands. He explains the evolution of the Celtics' business model over the last decade, how the team diversifies its revenue streams to mitigate its dependence on in-game income, how they grow the team’s revenue given the finite number of s...

Kevin Kraus, the CFO of publicly traded technology company 8x8 is CJ’s guest for this episode. Having done over 14 M&A transactions in his career, he has a wealth of knowledge on the subject to share. Kevin explains the best practices for M&A in tech companies, touching on the customer diligence aspect of the process and giving valuable advice on how to approach the post-M&A integration process. H...

In this episode, CJ is joined by Bill Zerella, the CFO of the publicly traded auto marketplace ACV Auctions and former CFO of Fitbit, Inc. to discuss hypergrowth and taking companies from the private to public markets at scale. Bill sheds light on his days at Fitbit and the friction he faced in managing a business in hypergrowth mode, as well as its impacts on company culture and managing employee...

Andy Ivanovich, the CFO of The Knot Worldwide, joins CJ to dissect the company’s business model. He sheds light on how The Knot, which functions like an operating system for weddings, has grown to expand its product suite and reach, and now touches two-thirds of adult Americans each year. Andy explains the five dimensions of the company’s transactions that make it so unique. He also breaks down Th...

In this episode, CJ interviews Guido Torrini, CFO of OneTrust and former CFO of Celonis, who has played a crucial role in shaping finance strategy and operations at two successful pre-IPO companies. Guido shares profound insights into managing his finance team more like an agile tech organization than a traditional planning function. He explains why he doesn’t believe in budgets, breaks down the V...

In this, the first solo episode of Run the Numbers , our host CJ Gustafson gives a crash course in sales compensation. He explains how to go about designing sales rep comp plans, covering who’s involved in this process, getting the base to variable split right, on-target earnings ratios, how to baseline core achievement, the role of accelerators, what actually counts as a booking, and comp plan fl...

Aneal Vallurupalli, CFO of Airbase, an AP automation, spend management, and procure-to-pay solution, joins CJ to discuss all things risk management. He explains the different categories of spend outside of payroll and the biggest pain points within them. Aneal does a deep dive into fraud and how to prevent it, explaining how Airbase's number one product is really trust. He covers the non-payment r...

In this episode, Ruslan Sergeyev, Managing Director of Hercules Capital gives CJ a masterclass in venture debt. He explains what venture debt is, its various types, and the potential benefits it can bring to your business. Ruslan sheds light on the current landscape and big players in venture dept. He provides insight on covenants, rates, warrants, and success fees in debt structure, and the diffe...

Boris Wertz, the founding partner at Version One Ventures, a VC firm that invests in marketplaces and other startups, joins CJ to discuss the evolution and dynamics of marketplace models. Boris sheds light on his early years as a founder and operator at AbeBooks, and what he learned from selling the platform to Amazon during the dot-com boom. He explains the benefits of focusing on a niche instead...

In this episode, CJ is joined by Angela Winegar, Head of Growth Strategy at Carta and recovering venture capitalist. Having had an unconventional career path, Angela’s experience in the worlds of both marketing and investing gives her a unique perspective on growth. She and CJ discuss the parallels between marketing and investing and Angela explains how marketing is really a form of capital alloca...

Scott Haralson, CFO of Spirit Airlines, joins CJ in this episode to discuss the complexities of operating an airline business. He explains what it means to run an ultra-low-cost carrier model and what goes into calculating the operating costs per available seat mile, Spirit’s most important metric. He talks about the difficulty of forecasting for an airline, explaining the costs you may not think...

Silicon Valley veteran and early employee at Google, Facebook, and Quip, Molly Graham, joins CJ to discuss all things related to scaling startups, growing as a leader, and progressing in your career. Molly talks about her famous “Give Away Your Legos” talk and how this came about before she and CJ discuss the concept of “work grief” and how to get through it when you have to give up something that...

In this episode, CJ is joined by Lanny Baker, the CFO of Eventbrite, and former CFO of Yelp, Monster.com, and ZipRealty. Lanny has been a part of some incredible business transformations or pivots at each of these companies and has some profound insights to share on the topic. First, he explains some of the differences between consumer-facing internet businesses versus SaaS or B2B. He sheds light...

In this episode, CJ sits down with John McCauley, the CFO of Calendly. From his learnings under the leadership of Frank Slootman and Mike Scarpelli at ServiceNow to his first CFO role at Seismic, and his current position, John shares valuable insights from his career. He gives advice on hiring and getting promoted, why you should consider your value prop to your company, the benefits of seeking he...

In this episode, CJ is joined by Jeff Cooper, the CFO of Guidewire, a publicly traded vertical software company serving the insurance industry. Jeff explains the strategic advantage Guidewire has in owning the control point within a customer's tech infrastructure and how they achieved this. He sheds light on the challenges and benefits of Guidewire's industry-specific business model, including lon...

Today, CJ hosts Taylor Holiday, a legend in the e-commerce and D2C (Direct-to-Consumer) world. He is also the CEO and founder of Common Thread Collective, one of the leading marketing agencies for e-commerce brands. Taylor takes us on a deep dive into marketing best practices and shares profound insights from his years of experience in D2C and e-commerce businesses. He talks about bridging the gap...

Jim Kelliher , the former CFO of PTC, LogMeIn, and Drift, and general CFO legend in Boston, joins CJ to discuss the secrets behind the success of these companies and the lessons he’s learned in his 35-year career. From the importance of product investment to how to navigate IPOs during economic downturns, Jim shares profound insights into how CFOs can drive growth rather than just manage budgets....

This episode dives into the world of short-selling and activist investing with guest Edwin Dorsey, the writer behind The Bear Cave Substack. Edwin tells CJ the story of how he made a name for himself by exposing wrongdoing at Care.com and how this inspired his current writing career. He goes on to explain how short selling works and what differentiates it from long-only investing, before talking a...

In this episode, CJ is joined by Jason Kap, the founder and CEO of Blue Rocket , a world-renowned pricing consultancy for top enterprise tech companies like Salesforce, Cisco, PagerDuty, Brex, and GitLab. Jason discusses the invaluable experience he gained working at Microsoft under Bill Gates in the early 2000s, including his role in the canonical antitrust case. Then he takes a deep dive into al...