Run the Numbers

Run the Numbers is a business podcast about financial metrics and business models for CFOs, aspiring CFOs, finance leaders, and ambitious people operating tech startups. Hosted by CJ Gustafson, CFO and writer of Mostly Metrics, the show shares lessons, frameworks, and operator insights from the trenches as a tech exec. Think of it as a playbook for the things CJ wishes he knew earlier in his career, covering SaaS metrics, annual budgeting, forecasting, headcount, equity, dilution, fundraising, and the decisions that drive performance and growth.

Run the Numbers is a business podcast hosted by CJ Gustafson, with 312 episodes on record and a Required Pod Score of 80. PitchCentric scores this show on Booking Probability, Listen Score, and live audience signals refreshed every 24 hours.

CJ Gustafson hosts Run the Numbers, a business show with 312 episodes published.

Our AI reads these to draft pitches. Use them as grounding for a pitch that cites a real guest and a specific topic.

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  Run the Numbers

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

  Aug 17, 202654 min

  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

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  Run the Numbers

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

  Aug 13, 202650 min

  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

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  Run the Numbers

  A CFO Explains Private Jets

  Aug 10, 202635 min

  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

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  Run the Numbers

  The Business of Saving Lives: Inside RapidSOS

  Aug 6, 202650 min

  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

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  Run the Numbers

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

  Aug 3, 202653 min

  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

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