Run the Numbers

How Media Actually Makes Money | Blake Saunders

In today’s Run the Numbers, CJ sits down with Blake Saunders, founder and managing director at Core Advisors (an investment bank focused on media) and founder of The Joint, to go deep on how media companies actually make money — and how that's changing fast. If you're anywhere near advertising, media, or content monetization, this one's a masterclass. — 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 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 posts 98% of transactions directly to its ERP, with the remaining 2% routed to a human for review. You pay for outcomes, not seats. See it at https://www.maximor.ai/ Brex is an intelligent finance platform that combines corporate cards, built-in expense management, and AI agents to eliminate manual finance work. By automating expense reviews and reconciliations, Brex gives CFOs more time for the high-impact work that drives growth. Join 35,000+ companies like Anthropic, Coinbase, and DoorDash 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 a revenue recognition platform built for the AI economy, helping finance support usage-based pricing, credits, hybrid contracts, seats plus consumption, and whatever commercial model comes next. It gives product teams the freedom to keep innovating without outdated revenue systems slowing them down. Learn how RightRev can help at https://rightrev.com/cj EY works with high-growth tech companies to navigate the messy realities of scaling—from regulatory requirements to IPO readiness. By helping teams get it right early and often, EY lets founders stay focused on building while reducing risk as they grow. Learn more at https://www.ey.com/techstartups — LINKS: Mostly Talent: https://mostlymetrics.typeform.com/to/cLTxtAsN Guest: linkedin.com/in/blakesaunders Company: https://coreadvs.com/ CJ: https://www.linkedin.com/in/cj-gustafson-13140948/ Mostly metrics: https://www.mostlymetrics.com — TIMESTAMPS: 0:00 Cold Open and Intro 1:17 Welcome Back: Meet Blake Saunders 3:11 What Does "Media" Even Mean Today? 3:24 AI and LLMs 6:13 How Media Companies Make Money 7:32 Subscriptions vs. Ads vs. Events 8:54 Why Events Are the Riskiest Ad Dollar 9:48 B2B vs. B2C 14:25 Why Advertising Gets Such a Bad Rap 17:58 The Hulu Paradox 20:50 Built to Hold vs. Built to Sell 27:10 Content Decay and the Monetization Mismatch 29:08 Are IP Libraries Becoming Valuable 34:39 How Big-Name Podcast Deals Get Structured 37:50 Bundling, Unbundling, and Subscription Fatigue 39:08 The Bending Spoons Trade 40:20 Inside a Private Equity Value Creation Plan 41:56 The Content-to-Commerce Playbook 44:50 How Narrative-Driven Is Media M&A? 46:49 7 Moments a Deal Feels Dead 49:00 Farewell

How to Sell Your Company: A Multi-Time CFO's Full Playbook | Rick Smith

CJ sits down with multi-time CFO Rick Smith, founder of Bonfire Advisory and author of Six Months to the Sale, to break down what actually happens when you sell a company. They cover why buyers value some businesses on ARR and others on EBITDA (and why being slightly profitable can hurt you), how to negotiate banker fees, what buyers find when they dig into your balance sheet, and why every cap table Rick inherits is wrong. — SPONSORS: RightRev is a revenue recognition platform built for the AI economy, helping finance support usage-based pricing, credits, hybrid contracts, seats plus consumption, and whatever commercial model comes next. It gives product teams the freedom to keep innovating without outdated revenue systems slowing them down. Learn how RightRev can help at https://rightrev.com/cj 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 posts 98% of transactions directly to its ERP, with the remaining 2% routed to a human for review. You pay for outcomes, not seats. See it at https://www.maximor.ai/ Brex is an intelligent finance platform with AI-powered workflows that enforce expense policies at the point of sale, match receipts automatically, and reduce month-end close from weeks to hours. Thousands of companies, including Anthropic, Coinbase, and DoorDash, already run on Brex. Stop asking A-level finance talent to do B-level admin work. 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 EY works with high-growth tech companies to navigate the messy realities of scaling—from regulatory requirements to IPO readiness. By helping teams get it right early and often, EY lets founders stay focused on building while reducing risk as they grow. Learn more at https://www.ey.com/techstartups — LINKS: Mostly Talent: https://mostlymetrics.typeform.com/to/cLTxtAsN Guest: linkedin.com/in/rick-smith-906939 Company: https://www.linkedin.com/company/bonfire-advisory CJ: https://www.linkedin.com/in/cj-gustafson-13140948/ Mostly metrics: https://www.mostlymetrics.com — TIMESTAMPS: 1:21 Meet Rick Smith and "Six Months to the Sale" 2:44 Why Teach M&A Through Fiction 4:26 CEO/CFO Tension 7:08 Botching the Announcement 8:15 How Staff Really React 9:18 When Personal Life Collides With a Deal 13:50 ARR vs. EBITDA 17:58 What to Optimize Before a Sale 18:50 Churn and Contract Renewal 20:43 Strategics vs. PE 27:46 Investment Banker Fee Structures 29:09 What's Negotiable 29:56 The Realtor Problem 34:53 Big 4 vs. Regional Firms for Audit and QoE 35:47 Negotiating Accounting Fees 37:47 Deferred Revenue 41:23 Warrants, Options, and Carta Cleanup 44:02 QSBS: What CFOs Need to Know 45:28 Quality of Earnings: Who Pays and Why 47:44 What a QoE Actually Digs Into 51:22 Why Deal Momentum Is So Hard to Stop 53:47 The Waterfall 58:19 Who Keeps Their Job 61:31 Why Selling CFOs Feel Intimidated 62:56 Prospect Theory 65:28 Where to Find the Book #RunTheNumbersPodcast #MandA #CFOLife #SellingACompany #QualityOfEarnings

Masterwork’s CFO Runs 12 AI Agents at Once | Nigel Glenday

CJ Gustafson sits down with Nigel Glenday, CFO and COO of Masterworks, to talk about how AI is actually changing day-to-day finance work. They cover why context matters more than model choice, how Nigel runs a dozen Claude Code terminal sessions at once, and how his team solved a 300,000 K-1 problem with Python instead of a $300K tool. Plus: a detour into the 2026 art market and what securitizing fine art teaches you about scarcity and pricing power. — 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 a revenue recognition platform built for the AI economy, helping finance support usage-based pricing, credits, hybrid contracts, seats plus consumption, and whatever commercial model comes next. It gives product teams the freedom to keep innovating without outdated revenue systems slowing them down. Learn how RightRev can help at https://rightrev.com/cj 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 posts 98% of transactions directly to its ERP, with the remaining 2% routed to a human for review. You pay for outcomes, not seats. See it at https://www.maximor.ai/ Brex is an intelligent finance platform that combines corporate cards, built-in expense management, and AI agents to eliminate manual finance work. By automating expense reviews and reconciliations, Brex gives CFOs more time for the high-impact work that drives growth. Join 35,000+ companies like Anthropic, Coinbase, and DoorDash at https://www.brex.com/metrics EY works with high-growth tech companies to navigate the messy realities of scaling—from regulatory requirements to IPO readiness. By helping teams get it right early and often, EY lets founders stay focused on building while reducing risk as they grow. Learn more at https://www.ey.com/techstartups — LINKS: Mostly Talent: https://mostlymetrics.typeform.com/to/cLTxtAsN Guest: linkedin.com/in/nglenday Company: https://www.masterworks.com/ CJ: https://www.linkedin.com/in/cj-gustafson-13140948/ Mostly metrics: https://www.mostlymetrics.com — RELATED EPISODES: Nigel's Previous Episode: ⁠⁠⁠https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zfmqwIzM0P4&t=9s⁠⁠⁠ — TIMESTAMPS: 2:04 The Dinner Story: AI as Leverage 7:27 AI and the Value of Human-Curated Creativity 12:16 Why Context Beats Intelligence 14:11 What "Context" Actually Means for AI 16:50 Building a Knowledge Map 18:50 Why CFOs Are Uniquely Positioned to Encode Context 21:36 Making Data Cheap to Access 28:55 Claude Code Over the Web App 30:49 Building "The A-Team" 35:24 Solving 300,000 K-1s with AI and Python 42:26 Asking Better Questions Segment 42:50 Adopting Campfire 44:20 When Human Writing Beats AI #RunTheNumbersPodcast #AIforCFOs #FinanceLeadership #MasterworksArt #ContextEngineering

How Oura Built a $1.4 Billion Business Around a Tiny Ring

How did Oura turn a tiny piece of wearable hardware into a $1.4 billion business? CJ breaks down the numbers behind Oura’s IPO filing and the surprisingly powerful business model hiding behind the ring. — SPONSORS: Brex is an intelligent finance platform with AI-powered workflows that enforce expense policies at the point of sale, match receipts automatically, and reduce month-end close from weeks to hours. Thousands of companies, including Anthropic, Coinbase, and DoorDash, already run on Brex. Stop asking A-level finance talent to do B-level admin work. 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 a revenue recognition platform built for the AI economy, helping finance support usage-based pricing, credits, hybrid contracts, seats plus consumption, and whatever commercial model comes next. It gives product teams the freedom to keep innovating without outdated revenue systems slowing them down. Learn how RightRev can help at https://rightrev.com/cj 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 posts 98% of transactions directly to its ERP, with the remaining 2% routed to a human for review. You pay for outcomes, not seats. See it at https://www.maximor.ai/ 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 — LINKS: Mostly Talent: https://mostlymetrics.typeform.com/to/cLTxtAsN CJ: https://www.linkedin.com/in/cj-gustafson-13140948/ Mostly metrics: https://www.mostlymetrics.com — TIMESTAMPS: 0:00 Oura Files S1 2:24 Key Revenue Stats 3:35 Revenue Per Ring 4:14 Gross Margin Breakdown 5:31 The Weird $924M "Net Loss" 6:11 Adjusted EBITDA and Cash Position 7:20 Headcount and Bankers 11:01 What Oura Actually Does 13:46 Go-to-Market Channels 15:57 Why Oura Rejects the "Fitness Tracker" Label 16:49 Who's Actually Buying It 21:26 Global Penetration Is Still Low 21:54 The $84M Battery Problem 22:56 Aggressive Growth Spend 24:16 Samsung's Patent Complaint 25:00 The Sleep Accuracy Class Action 25:17 Former CEO Lawsuit 25:52 Customer Concentration Risk 26:31 Supply Chain and Tariff Exposure 27:07 Clean Governance, No Material Weaknesses 27:20 The Cap Table 27:44 Oura's Massive Stock Buybacks 29:29 The RSU Vesting Mechanics 30:34 Tax Withholding on Settlement 31:07 Valuation: $16B at 11x Revenue 31:34 Who Do You Comp Oura To 32:34 Miscellaneous Filing Details 33:14 Final Take

What 20 Years of Software Investing Says About AI | Matt Hedberg

In this episode of Run the Numbers, CJ sits down with Matt Hedberg, a sell-side equity analyst at RBC who has covered software for more than 20 years. They break down how AI compares to the cloud transition, why traditional software moats are changing, what separates management teams that will actually capitalize on AI, and why cash, customer relationships, data, and technical leadership matter more than ever. — SPONSORS: 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 posts 98% of transactions directly to its ERP, with the remaining 2% routed to a human for review. You pay for outcomes, not seats. See it at https://www.maximor.ai/ Brex is an intelligent finance platform with AI-powered workflows that enforce expense policies at the point of sale, match receipts automatically, and reduce month-end close from weeks to hours. Thousands of companies, including Anthropic, Coinbase, and DoorDash, already run on Brex. Stop asking A-level finance talent to do B-level admin work. 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 a revenue recognition platform built for the AI economy, helping finance support usage-based pricing, credits, hybrid contracts, seats plus consumption, and whatever commercial model comes next. It gives product teams the freedom to keep innovating without outdated revenue systems slowing them down. Learn how RightRev can help at https://rightrev.com/cj 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 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 — LINKS: Mostly Talent: https://mostlymetrics.typeform.com/to/cLTxtAsN Guest: https://www.linkedin.com/in/matt-hedberg/ CJ: https://www.linkedin.com/in/cj-gustafson-13140948/ Mostly metrics: https://www.mostlymetrics.com — RBC Capital Markets: This content is based on information available at the time it was recorded, and is for informational purposes only. It is not an offer to buy or sell, or a solicitation, and no recommendations are implied. It is outside the scope of this communication, to consider whether it is suitable for you, and your financial objectives. For Required Conflicts Disclosures, see: https://www.rbccm.com/GLDisclosure/PublicWeb/DisclosureLookup.aspx?entityId=1. For Disclaimer, see: https:/www.rbccm.com/en/policies-disclaimers.page.

Andy Ellis: How to Lead Without Becoming the Hero, the Villain, or the Bottleneck

In this episode of Run the Numbers, CJ sits down with leadership coach and former Akamai executive Andy Ellis. They break down why being indispensable can actually hurt your career, why managers shouldn’t automatically replace someone who leaves, how hero-villain thinking leads to bad decisions, and what great delegation and leadership actually look like. — 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 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 posts 98% of transactions directly to its ERP, with the remaining 2% routed to a human for review. You pay for outcomes, not seats. See it at https://www.maximor.ai/ Brex is an intelligent finance platform with AI-powered workflows that enforce expense policies at the point of sale, match receipts automatically, and reduce month-end close from weeks to hours. Thousands of companies, including Anthropic, Coinbase, and DoorDash, already run on Brex. Stop asking A-level finance talent to do B-level admin work. 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 a revenue recognition platform built for the AI economy, helping finance support usage-based pricing, credits, hybrid contracts, seats plus consumption, and whatever commercial model comes next. It gives product teams the freedom to keep innovating without outdated revenue systems slowing them down. Learn how RightRev can help at https://rightrev.com/cj 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 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 — LINKS: Mostly Talent: https://mostlymetrics.typeform.com/to/cLTxtAsN Guest: https://www.linkedin.com/in/csoandy/ Company: https://www.csoandy.com/ CJ: https://www.linkedin.com/in/cj-gustafson-13140948/ Mostly metrics: https://www.mostlymetrics.com — TIMESTAMPS: 0:00 Jero and Villain Stories 1:43 Welcome to Run the Numbers 2:53 Andy's Book: 1% Leadership 7:44 Rule 1: Don't Replace People Immediately 14:04 Rule 2: Don't Become Indispensable 16:02 How Andy Learned to Speak Finance 22:35 Rule 3: Don't Tell Yourself Hero/Villain Stories 26:59 The 5K Race Mindset Shift 31:01 Rule 4: Don't Overspecify Delegation 35:59 Rule 5: Don't Obsess Over Your Strengths 38:23 The Six Leadership Disciplines 43:45 The Vendor Rebuff Email 47:45 Why Leaders Avoid Saying No 50:28 Story: The Guinness Bartender Promotion 53:52 When Metrics Get Gamed 54:11 Asking Better Questions Segment 59:07 Where to Get the Book

40 Years of IPOs with Jay Ritter: What the Data Actually Says

In this episode of Run the Numbers, CJ sits down with Jay Ritter. They break down what Apple, Nvidia, the dot-com boom, and today’s AI giants can teach us about IPOs, why companies leave money on the table on day one, why firms stay private longer, and what the data actually says about long-term IPO performance. — 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 posts 98% of transactions directly to its ERP, with the remaining 2% routed to a human for review. You pay for outcomes, not seats. See it at https://www.maximor.ai/ Brex is an intelligent finance platform with AI-powered workflows that enforce expense policies at the point of sale, match receipts automatically, and reduce month-end close from weeks to hours. Thousands of companies, including Anthropic, Coinbase, and DoorDash, already run on Brex. Stop asking A-level finance talent to do B-level admin work. 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 a revenue recognition platform built for the AI economy, helping finance support usage-based pricing, credits, hybrid contracts, seats plus consumption, and whatever commercial model comes next. It gives product teams the freedom to keep innovating without outdated revenue systems slowing them down. Learn how RightRev can help at https://rightrev.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 — LINKS: Mostly Talent: https://mostlymetrics.typeform.com/to/cLTxtAsN Guest: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jay-ritter-1323861/ Company: https://www.ufl.edu/ CJ: https://www.linkedin.com/in/cj-gustafson-13140948/ Mostly metrics: https://www.mostlymetrics.com — TIMESTAMPS: 0:00 Preview and Intro 3:10 Meet Jay Ritter, Mr. IPO 4:02 The Original 1983 Question 5:08 PCs, Internet, and AI Compared 9:36 Network Effects 14:46 Sitzfleisch: Outlasting the Field 16:10 Where Have All the IPOs Gone 23:29 IPOs as Relationship-Building 26:31 Why Investors Tolerate Founder Control 29:16 Dual-Class Stock's Origins 30:21 How Jay's Thinking Evolved 31:36 Why Boards Don't Get Angry 34:39 Banks' Real Client: Institutions 37:08 Book Building 38:56 Why Direct Listings Haven't Taken Over 39:57 What Goldman Is Really Selling 41:57 Sentiment vs. Long-Term Performance 43:13 Does Staying Private Help Society 49:35 Asking Better Questions with EY 52:12 Are Markets Efficient

How AI Is Rewriting Product-Market Fit, Pricing, and Go-to-Market

CJ sits down with Rebecca Schwartz of Tabs, Fred Havemeyer of Fleet AI, and Rahul Rekhi of Rogo for a live conversation about what it actually takes to build an AI-native company. — SPONSORS: RightRev is a revenue recognition platform built for the AI economy, helping finance support usage-based pricing, credits, hybrid contracts, seats plus consumption, and whatever commercial model comes next. It gives product teams the freedom to keep innovating without outdated revenue systems slowing them down. Learn how RightRev can help at https://rightrev.com/cj 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 posts 98% of transactions directly to its ERP, with the remaining 2% routed to a human for review. You pay for outcomes, not seats. See it at https://www.maximor.ai/ Brex is an intelligent finance platform with AI-powered workflows that enforce expense policies at the point of sale, match receipts automatically, and reduce month-end close from weeks to hours. Thousands of companies, including Anthropic, Coinbase, and DoorDash, already run on Brex. Stop asking A-level finance talent to do B-level admin work. 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 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 — LINKS: Mostly Talent: https://mostlymetrics.typeform.com/to/cLTxtAsN https://www.tabs.com/ https://fleetai.com/ https://www.rogo.com/ CJ: https://www.linkedin.com/in/cj-gustafson-13140948/ Mostly metrics: https://www.mostlymetrics.com — TIMESTAMPS: 0:00 Preview and Intro 1:16 Welcome to Run the Numbers 3:17 Meet the Panel: Rebecca, Fred, Rahul 9:52 How Rogo Found PMF 13:47 How Tabs Found PMF 14:51 Growth Rates: Headcount and Revenue 16:23 The Real Hiring Constraint 17:21 What "Forward Deployed" Actually Means 18:53 What's Blocking AI Adoption Now 20:19 How Sales Hiring Has Changed 24:34 How Go-to-Market Has Changed 25:28 Pricing Models: Then vs. Now 28:18 Tabs' Pricing Evolution 29:20 What the Finance Team Looks Like 31:00 How Far You Can Push Outsourced Accounting 32:43 Managing AI Gross Margins 35:07 The North Star Metric for AI Companies 37:02 Token Spend vs. Per-Seat Pricing 39:34 Asking Better Questions: What Counts as ARR 41:38 Biggest Bug in Cash to Collections 43:05 Closing Advice for Founders

The Stripe Guide to Pricing, Billing, and Quote-to-Cash with Wisam Hirzalla

In this episode of Run the Numbers, CJ sits down with Wisam Hirzalla, Head of Product at Stripe Billing, to trace the full journey of a dollar—from product packaging and pricing through quoting, contracts, billing, tax, collections, and revenue recognition. — 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 a revenue recognition platform built for the AI economy, helping finance support usage-based pricing, credits, hybrid contracts, seats plus consumption, and whatever commercial model comes next. It gives product teams the freedom to keep innovating without outdated revenue systems slowing them down. Learn how RightRev can help at https://rightrev.com/cj 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 posts 98% of transactions directly to its ERP, with the remaining 2% routed to a human for review. You pay for outcomes, not seats. See it at https://www.maximor.ai/ Brex is an intelligent finance platform with AI-powered workflows that enforce expense policies at the point of sale, match receipts automatically, and reduce month-end close from weeks to hours. Thousands of companies, including Anthropic, Coinbase, and DoorDash, already run on Brex. Stop asking A-level finance talent to do B-level admin work. Learn more at https://www.brex.com/metrics 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 — LINKS: Mostly Talent: https://mostlymetrics.typeform.com/to/cLTxtAsN Guest: https://www.linkedin.com/in/wisam-hirzalla-9b20a91/ Company: https://stripe.com/ CJ: https://www.linkedin.com/in/cj-gustafson-13140948/ Mostly metrics: https://www.mostlymetrics.com — TIMESTAMPS: 0:00 What Drives Billing Downstream 1:41 Welcome to Run the Numbers 2:37 Wisam's Path to "Queen of Billing" 4:55 What Head of Billing at Stripe Entails 5:45 Defining Quote-to-Cash 7:50 Layer 1: Pricing and Packaging Mistakes 14:46 Pricing Models Rising Because of AI 18:11 Layer 2: Inside a Quote 19:27 Why Enterprise Deals Get So Messy 24:38 Layer 3: Contracting 27:21 Layer 4: Billing 30:15 Why Usage-Based Billing Is So Complex 34:51 Tokens as a Pricing Unit 36:57 Billing's Move Out of the ERP 39:53 Layer 5: Provisioning and Entitlements 43:36 Layer 6: Tax 44:27 Layer 7: Getting Paid 48:18 Layer 8: RevRec 50:52 When Billing Stopped Being Back Office 51:47 Asking Better Questions Segment 52:28 Will AI Replace Finance Jobs

The CFO-COO Is Coming: Meredith Finn of Front on the Future of Finance

Front CFO & COO Meredith Finn joins CJ to explain why finance leaders are taking on more of the operator’s job. They break down the CFO-COO dual mandate, how Front funds new bets inside a mature SaaS business, why AI requires more coordination than simply handing everyone new tools, and how finance teams should think about the growing cost of AI. — SPONSORS: Brex is an intelligent finance platform with AI-powered workflows that enforce expense policies at the point of sale, match receipts automatically, and reduce month-end close from weeks to hours. Thousands of companies, including Anthropic, Coinbase, and DoorDash, already run on Brex. Stop asking A-level finance talent to do B-level admin work. 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 a revenue recognition platform built for the AI economy, helping finance support usage-based pricing, credits, hybrid contracts, seats plus consumption, and whatever commercial model comes next. It gives product teams the freedom to keep innovating without outdated revenue systems slowing them down. Learn how RightRev can help at https://rightrev.com/cj 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 posts 98% of transactions directly to its ERP, with the remaining 2% routed to a human for review. You pay for outcomes, not seats. See it at https://www.maximor.ai/ — LINKS: Mostly Talent: https://mostlymetrics.typeform.com/to/cLTxtAsN Guest: https://www.linkedin.com/in/meredithfinn1/ Company: https://front.com/ CJ: https://www.linkedin.com/in/cj-gustafson-13140948/ Mostly metrics: https://www.mostlymetrics.com — RELATED EPISODES: Adam Swiecicki - CFO of Rippling https://youtu.be/JyGJVpmZNac Aurélien Nolf - CFO of Navan https://youtu.be/siwzJSRXAvY — TIMESTAMPS: 0:00 The CFO/COO Dual Mandate 1:45 Welcome to Run the Numbers 2:52 Front's In-House Podcast Studio 3:41 Meredith's Investment Thesis on Front 7:21 The "Portfolio Career" Analogy 8:35 What She Had to Unlearn as an Operator 13:13 Books on Strategy vs. Execution 16:17 When a CFO Should Also Be COO 18:27 What the COO Hat Actually Covers 20:20 Where the Two Roles Conflict 25:42 Budgeting for AI Token Costs 29:16 Using Internal Usage as a Benchmark 35:40 Funding a Series A Bet Inside a Series D Company 38:04 Sizing Bets: Core, Adjacent, Moonshot 40:04 The Secret to Re-Accelerating Growth 41:46 Going Deeper, Not Wider 43:18 What the Pricing Overhaul Taught Her 47:30 Why Customer P&L Matters 50:11 Lightning Round Begins 51:32 Advice to Her Younger Self 52:33 Front's Finance Tool Stack 53:21 Craziest Expense Ever #RunTheNumbersPodcast #CFOLife #FinanceLeadership #AIinFinance #SaaSGrowth

Xero’s CFO: Why Finance Is Taking On More of the Business

In this episode of Run the Numbers, CJ Gustafson sits down with Xero CFO Claire Bramley to discuss how the CFO role is expanding beyond finance into strategy, operations, transformation, and technology. Claire also shares how she builds teams around her weaknesses, what small businesses actually want from AI, and why she views diversity as a business performance decision. — SPONSORS: 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 posts 98% of transactions directly to its ERP, with the remaining 2% routed to a human for review. You pay for outcomes, not seats. See it at https://www.maximor.ai/ Brex is an intelligent finance platform with AI-powered workflows that enforce expense policies at the point of sale, match receipts automatically, and reduce month-end close from weeks to hours. Thousands of companies, including Anthropic, Coinbase, and DoorDash, already run on Brex. Stop asking A-level finance talent to do B-level admin work. 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 a revenue recognition platform built for the AI economy, helping finance support usage-based pricing, credits, hybrid contracts, seats plus consumption, and whatever commercial model comes next. It gives product teams the freedom to keep innovating without outdated revenue systems slowing them down. Learn how RightRev can help at https://rightrev.com/cj 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 — LINKS: Mostly Talent: https://mostlymetrics.typeform.com/to/cLTxtAsN Guest: https://www.linkedin.com/in/claire-bramley-133b7174/ Company: https://www.xero.com/ CJ: https://www.linkedin.com/in/cj-gustafson-13140948/ Mostly metrics: https://www.mostlymetrics.com — TIMESTAMPS: 0:00 Preview and Intro 3:00 Xero and CJ's History With It 4:12 Xero's Size and Scale Today 5:10 The Expanding CFO Role 7:06 Hiring Experts You're Not 8:47 Imposter Syndrome 11:00 Getting Better at Asking Questions 15:04 Asking the "Stupid Question" 16:21 Finance as the Corporate Junk Drawer 17:48 The Trial Period Idea 18:24 Tripwires: Leading Indicators for CFOs 25:35 AI Hype vs. Main Street Reality 26:44 What Small Business Owners Actually Want 28:45 What Big Corps Underestimate 31:10 Trust as a Competitive Moat 33:45 Why the Line Is Thinner for Small Biz 35:12 AI Inside Claire's Finance Team 37:23 AI for Investor Relations 39:28 Diversity as Capital Allocation 42:07 A Decision Diversity Changed 44:45 Lightning Round Begins 46:06 Advice to Her Younger Self 48:49 Craziest Expense Ever #RunTheNumbersPodcast #CFOLife #FinanceLeadership #AIinFinance #WomenInFinance

A CFO Explains Private Jets

On this episode of Run the Numbers, CJ and Ben trace corporate private jets from Sam Walton’s scrappy two-seater to Alex Karp’s $17 million jet bill. They break down when flying private actually makes business sense, how jets hit the balance sheet, the tax and accounting implications, what companies disclose to investors, and when executive travel crosses the line from productivity tool to corporate excess. — 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 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 posts 98% of transactions directly to its ERP, with the remaining 2% routed to a human for review. You pay for outcomes, not seats. See it at https://www.maximor.ai/ Brex is an intelligent finance platform with AI-powered workflows that enforce expense policies at the point of sale, match receipts automatically, and reduce month-end close from weeks to hours. Thousands of companies, including Anthropic, Coinbase, and DoorDash, already run on Brex. Stop asking A-level finance talent to do B-level admin work. 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 a revenue recognition platform built for the AI economy, helping finance support usage-based pricing, credits, hybrid contracts, seats plus consumption, and whatever commercial model comes next. It gives product teams the freedom to keep innovating without outdated revenue systems slowing them down. Learn how RightRev can help at https://rightrev.com/cj 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 — 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: Jersey Mike’s IPO: The $4.2B Sandwich Machine https://youtu.be/ZL6AbqHI-0g — TIMESTAMPS: 0:00 Fly Like a G6 0:29 $17M on jets: Alex Karp guess 1:16 Sam Walton starts it all 2:49 The yellow legal pads 4:37 Walmart Aviation founded (1968) 5:14 Piston to Bombardier jets 6:51 Walmart's modern jet fleet 8:13 Where it hides in SEC filings 9:25 SEC Reg S-K Item 402 13:37 Gulfport Energy scandal 14:42 Tyco: Kozlowski & Schwartz 16:57 When jets are actually useful 17:55 P&L vs. balance sheet treatment 18:40 PP&E and depreciation basics 19:04 Off-balance-sheet leases 19:28 The chartering loophole 19:54 "Uber Jet" fractional ownership 23:14 How activists hunt jet spend 23:36 Flight registries & tail numbers 24:13 Jack Sweeney vs. Elon Musk 25:00 What top companies spend 25:18 Walmart's fleet is #1 26:17 Charter vs. lease vs. own 29:02 Should we care? 3 angles 30:06 Angle 2: opportunity cost 30:59 Angle 3: company size 31:42 General Electric's shadow jet 32:50 Back to Alex Karp 34:02 Credits #RunTheNumbersPodcast #PrivateJets #CorporateFinance #ExecutivePerks #CFOLife

The Business of Saving Lives: Inside RapidSOS

On this episode of Run the Numbers, CJ Gustafson sits down with Richard Haram, VP of Finance at RapidSOS, to unpack how finance supports a public safety AI platform that helps 911 operators and first responders act faster. They cover building AI fluency, combining FP&A with BI, monetizing vertical software, integrating acquisitions, and the leadership lessons Richard carried from entrepreneurship. — 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 posts 98% of transactions directly to its ERP, with the remaining 2% routed to a human for review. You pay for outcomes, not seats. See it at https://www.maximor.ai/ Brex is an intelligent finance platform with AI-powered workflows that enforce expense policies at the point of sale, match receipts automatically, and reduce month-end close from weeks to hours. Thousands of companies, including Anthropic, Coinbase, and DoorDash, already run on Brex. Stop asking A-level finance talent to do B-level admin work. 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 a revenue recognition platform built for the AI economy, helping finance support usage-based pricing, credits, hybrid contracts, seats plus consumption, and whatever commercial model comes next. It gives product teams the freedom to keep innovating without outdated revenue systems slowing them down. Learn how RightRev can help at https://rightrev.com/cj — LINKS: Mostly Talent: https://mostlymetrics.typeform.com/to/cLTxtAsN Guest: https://www.linkedin.com/in/richardharem/ Company: https://rapidsos.com/ CJ: https://www.linkedin.com/in/cj-gustafson-13140948/ Mostly metrics: https://www.mostlymetrics.com — TIMESTAMPS: 0:00 Preview and Intro 3:10 What RapidSOS does 4:59 CJ’s own car accident 5:33 What's broken about 911 6:50 Who's the actual customer 7:46 How RapidSOS monetizes 10:13 Sponsors — Pulley | Rillet | Maximor 13:27 Too much data, too much noise 16:35 Data pollution and trust 18:24 The data stack early on 19:25 Should BI have come sooner? 20:45 The framework: questions to decisions 22:43 Building a data culture 23:58 Sponsors — Brex | Anrok | RightRev 26:51 Bottoms-up vs. top-down AI 28:42 Inspiration, not training 32:24 The three-phase AI progression 33:31 Founding an AV company at 8 35:37 Giving people room to grow 38:12 Depending on heroes 39:55 Working under founder personalities 41:23 Do startups undervalue what they sell 42:48 A price hike, zero churn 43:24 Signs you're underpricing 44:57 Lightning round 45:03 Screwed up: refreshed data before a demo 47:15 Advice to younger self 47:41 Finance software stack 48:37 Craziest expense: personal gas 49:29 Credits

Building an AI-Native Finance Team with Plaid CFO Seun Sodipo

On this episode of Run the Numbers, CJ sits down with Plaid CFO Seun Sodipo. Seun explains how her team is using AI to improve speed, accuracy, and ambition; why finance leaders need both bottom-up experimentation and top-down direction; and how she approaches planning, network effects, and building a durable company. — SPONSORS: RightRev is a revenue recognition platform built for the AI economy, helping finance support usage-based pricing, credits, hybrid contracts, seats plus consumption, and whatever commercial model comes next. It gives product teams the freedom to keep innovating without outdated revenue systems slowing them down. Learn how RightRev can help at https://rightrev.com/cj 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 posts 98% of transactions directly to its ERP, with the remaining 2% routed to a human for review. You pay for outcomes, not seats. See it at https://www.maximor.ai/ Brex is an intelligent finance platform with AI-powered workflows that enforce expense policies at the point of sale, match receipts automatically, and reduce month-end close from weeks to hours. Thousands of companies, including Anthropic, Coinbase, and DoorDash, already run on Brex. Stop asking A-level finance talent to do B-level admin work. 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 — LINKS: Mostly Talent: https://mostlymetrics.typeform.com/to/cLTxtAsN Guest: https://www.linkedin.com/in/seun-sodipo-1498b580/ Company: https://plaid.com/ CJ: https://www.linkedin.com/in/cj-gustafson-13140948/ Mostly metrics: https://www.mostlymetrics.com — TIMESTAMPS: 0:00 Preview and Intro 2:12 What Plaid does 3:53 How Plaid makes money 7:04 Eight months in, not new anymore 8:57 Sponsors — RightRev | Pulley | Rillet 11:48 Career path: Stripe, Glossier, Plaid 14:32 Evaluating durability from the outside 15:36 Rising expectations and AI 17:23 Top-down vs. bottoms-up AI adoption 20:06 Sponsors — Maximor | Brex | Anrok 23:20 Coolest AI use case: sorting physical mail 25:21 How her questions have changed 27:11 AI should make you think deeper 27:51 Finance AI Day explained 31:23 A four-month journey to usable tools 32:22 How AI changed her leadership style 33:19 Skills that matter more now 36:22 The Objective, Strategy, Tactics framework 39:56 What planning reveals about an org 41:36 Sequential vs. parallel planning 45:38 Measuring the value of a network 47:33 What people underestimate about Plaid 48:56 Lightning round 48:56 Screwed up: the reversed page order 49:39 Advice to younger self 50:32 Finance software stack 51:43 Craziest expense: the photo shoots 52:20 Credits

How to Tell a Demanding Founder They’re Wrong

On this special episode of Run the Numbers, CJ Gustafson revisits standout moments from past conversations with Alex Immerman, Curt Sigfstead, Daniel Kang, Adam Ante, and David Laptor. Together, their advice reveals how great CFOs earn trust, challenge founders, speak up when the data says something is wrong, and become true strategic partners without relying on the power of the purse strings. — 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 — LINKS: Mostly Talent: https://mostlymetrics.typeform.com/to/cLTxtAsN CJ: https://www.linkedin.com/in/cj-gustafson-13140948/ Mostly metrics: https://www.mostlymetrics.com — TIMESTAMPS: 0:00 Preview and Intro 3:27 Alex Immerman's favorite CFO interview question 4:54 What a weak answer looks like 5:26 When the hard calls actually matter 6:37 Walt and Roy Disney 7:36 Liked even when making unpopular calls 8:43 Sponsors — Anrok | RightRev | Pulley 11:35 Curt from Clio: ego in the bottom drawer 13:52 CFO as supporting cast 15:10 Backbone vs. ego: when to use each 16:23 Daniel Kang: don't use the purse strings as power 17:36 Earn the seat, don't demand it 18:52 Money is one arrow, not the whole quiver 20:39 Sponsors — Rillet | Maximor | Brex 23:54 Adam Ante: finance people pigeonhole themselves 26:46 The CFO can sit in any meeting 27:30 First 90 days: listen before suggesting 28:46 David Laptor: listen, observe, think, speak 30:50 Build a culture where speaking up is welcomed 31:51 Curt from Clio: don't come in as a know-it-all 33:08 Earn trust through curiosity 33:46 Beware of all-green dashboards 35:28 What would CJ say to Ballmer? 37:14 Parting thoughts from Ben 38:00 Credits

The Four Stages of World-Class FP&A with Datadog’s AJ Ljubich

On this episode of Run the Numbers, CJ sits down with Datadog SVP of FP&A AJ Ljubich to break down the four stages of a world-class finance team. — 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 Guest: https://www.linkedin.com/in/aj-ljubich-cfa-727ab912/ Company: https://www.datadoghq.com/ CJ: https://www.linkedin.com/in/cj-gustafson-13140948/ Mostly metrics: https://www.mostlymetrics.com — TIMESTAMPS: 0:00 Preview and Intro 2:42 FP&A as a product team 4:53 The five pillars of AJ's team 6:39 How far FP&A has come 7:33 How do you know you're doing a good job? 10:20 FP&A as the dashboard, not the engine 10:20 Sponsors — Brex | Anrok | RightRev 13:18 The four-stage FP&A maturity model 16:00 Can you reach all four stages at Series B? 16:45 Why AJ holds weekly forecast meetings 18:24 How often to actually change the forecast 21:42 Sponsors — Pulley | Rillet | Maximor 24:49 Single source of truth: still on the vision board 26:12 AI and the self-serve data risk 26:21 CAC payback over LTV to CAC 29:39 Inside sales vs. enterprise payback comparison 31:47 Finance as the yes, but people 34:02 FP&A vs. IR: which is harder? 36:14 How IR makes you a better FP&A leader 37:19 Is the IR profile shifting? 42:01 IPOs are branding events, not finish lines 43:27 The Datadog IPO during the WeWork meltdown 45:15 Career philosophy: do great work where you are 49:52 Datadog didn't have a role for AJ when he started 52:16 Lightning round 52:24 Screwed up: forgot the currency guy 54:37 Finance software stack 56:16 Advice to younger self 57:13 Credits

Dave McClure and Aman Verjee on Angel Investing at Scale, 500 Startups, and Practical VC

On this episode of Run the Numbers, CJ sits down with Dave McClure and Aman Verjee of Practical VC to talk about the evolution of startup investing — from the PayPal mafia and Founders Fund era to 500 Startups, YC-style scale, and today’s secondary market. — 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 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 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 — LINKS: Mostly Talent: https://mostlymetrics.typeform.com/to/cLTxtAsN Guests:https://www.linkedin.com/in/davemcclure/https://www.linkedin.com/in/aman-verjee/ Company:https://practicalvc.com/ CJ: https://www.linkedin.com/in/cj-gustafson-13140948/ Mostly metrics: https://www.mostlymetrics.com — TIMESTAMPS: 0:00 Preview and Intro 3:00 Writing as a distribution strategy 5:17 How Dave's blog led to Founders Fund 7:24 Aman: writing at PayPal and law school 9:29 PayPal: the red pen of David Sacks 11:44 Sponsors — Rillet | Maximor | Brex 14:59 500 Startups: the original thesis 16:22 The volume strategy: more shots on goal 18:44 Twilio, Lyft, Sendgrid, Credit Karma 20:15 60x returns: right place, right time 23:07 Sponsors — Anrok | RightRev | Pulley 25:58 Accelerator ecosystem evolution 28:42 500 vs. YC: scale as a weapon 32:52 Globalizing the accelerator model 35:04 Seed to secondaries: how it happened 37:00 Scratching their own itch for liquidity 38:10 The secondary market explained 40:50 Types of secondaries 43:29 Why would a VC sell a winner? 46:07 Managing DPI as a late-stage manager 47:02 The five horse framework 49:15 Skipping the J curve 51:44 Imperfect information as a feature 55:22 Landmines: fraud, mismarked valuations 57:00 VCs lie about valuations three ways 57:58 Forward contracts and counterparty risk 1:00:29 Credits

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Cumberland Farms S-1 Breakdown: Fuel, Snacks, and Debt

On this episode of Run the Numbers, CJ breaks down Cumberland Farms’ IPO filing and the surprising business behind it. — 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 — LINKS: Mostly Talent: https://mostlymetrics.typeform.com/to/cLTxtAsN CJ: https://www.linkedin.com/in/cj-gustafson-13140948/ Mostly metrics: https://www.mostlymetrics.com — 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

Token Economics, AI ROI, and the Future of Investment Banking with Rahul Rekhi

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. — 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 — 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 — RELATED EPISODES: A CFO Explains the Stock Exchanges https://youtu.be/pooOE6ZNGR4 A CFO Explains Marketplaces https://youtu.be/LpbH9GpBrSY — 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

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Jersey Mike’s S-1 Breakdown: How a $4.2B Sandwich Machine Works

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. — 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 — LINKS: Mostly Talent: https://mostlymetrics.typeform.com/to/cLTxtAsN CJ: https://www.linkedin.com/in/cj-gustafson-13140948/ Mostly metrics: https://www.mostlymetrics.com — 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

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