Value Drivers

Corporate executives, entrepreneurs and authors discuss corporate finance strategies, growth tactics, leadership journeys and other management topics to drive value creation.

Value Drivers is a business podcast hosted by Brio360, with 103 episodes on record and a Required Pod Score of 80.

Brio360 hosts Value Drivers, a business show with 103 episodes published.

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  Value Drivers

  Reinventing the Personal Accountant with AI: Sai Dhanak, Cofounder and CEO of Deduction

  Sep 15, 202629 minS3

  In this episode, Sai Dhanak, cofounder and CEO of Deduction, discusses his journey as an entrepreneur and his vision for building an AI native personal accounting firm. Sai started his first company out of college, a video calling application for families that was later acquired by Mattel. He then joined Latch, where he served as chief product officer and helped the company grow from roughly 20 people to 500 and eventually go public. After leaving Latch, Sai wanted to solve a problem he personally understood. He saw the traditional tax and accounting experience as slow, expensive, and outdated, while advances in AI created an opportunity to rethink how professional services could be delivered. Rethinking the Personal Accountant Deduction is focused on the personal accountant market rather than DIY tax preparation. Sai argues that products such as TurboTax already work well for people who want to prepare their own taxes. Deduction is aimed at people who want someone else to handle the work, often because their financial situation has become more complicated or because they simply do not want to do it themselves. He also points to a supply problem. Demand for personal accountants is high, while the number of available CPAs is limited. The result can be slow responses, relatively high fees, limited proactive advice, and outdated customer experiences. Deduction combines tax professionals with an AI agent called Taylor, CPAI, to provide a more responsive and modern experience. How Deduction Works Sai says Deduction currently charges $500 for the year, including unlimited advice and preparation of the annual tax return. Clients are generally answered within 24 hours and often the same day. Taylor, CPAI can also reach out proactively about deadlines and tax planning. Deduction intentionally uses familiar communication channels. Customers can interact through email and SMS, track the progress of their return online, and upload documents digitally. Where Humans and AI Fit A major part of the conversation focuses on the boundary between AI automation and professional review. For material tax advice and tax returns, a member of Deduction's licensed tax team reviews the response. Tax professionals can also step into conversations when clarification or correction is needed. Some workflows have additional safeguards. Filing a tax return, for example, requires a human action and cannot be completed independently by AI. Sai describes the model as combining human trust and expertise with AI convenience and intelligence. DeductionOS and the Tax Team Behind the customer experience is DeductionOS, the company's internal platform. Sai describes it as an AI and human workspace where tax professionals can see AI agents communicating with clients and preparing tax returns. The system surfaces specific issues that require human attention. Deduction currently hires its CPAs, enrolled agents, and tax administrators internally and operates nationally. Over time, DeductionOS may also help the company expand its capacity beyond its internal team. Building Trust Peter and Sai discuss trust as one of the biggest challenges in applying AI to a high stakes service such as tax preparation. Every customer receives an onboarding call, and customers can call or text the company when they need help. Sai believes that as more services become AI native, human interaction may actually become more important. Deduction also offers a guarantee covering penalties and interest up to $10,000 when an error by Deduction is the sole reason for the issue. Who Deduction Is For Sai positions Deduction between DIY tax software and the traditional personal accountant experience. The core customer is what he describes as the mass affluent market: people with some financial complexity, often married or operating a small side business, but who may not require highly specialized tax planning. Scaling a Seasonal Business Deduction is currently supply constrained rather than demand constrained. Sai says the company is primarily investing in technology and its tax team to increase capacity. While January through April remains an important peak, many taxpayers file extensions, creating another peak around September and October. Customers also need help throughout the year with estimated taxes, business formation, planning, and other tax issues. Over time, Sai expects Deduction to expand further into tax advisory and planning. Customer Acquisition and the Longer Term Opportunity Deduction currently receives customers through referrals, SEO and GEO, and partnerships. Sai says demand for accountants is strong enough that getting the word out has not been the primary constraint. Looking further ahead, he sees an opportunity to make a personal accountant available to a much broader group of Americans and build a national, next generation tax brand. Key Takeaways • AI is creating an opportunity to rethink traditional professional services such as personal accounting • Deduction is focused on customers who want a personal accountant rather than DIY tax preparation • Taylor, CPAI handles parts of the customer experience while licensed tax professionals review material advice and tax returns • Certain high stakes actions, including filing a tax return, require explicit human involvement • DeductionOS allows tax professionals and AI agents to work together and surfaces issues requiring human attention • Human interaction remains an important part of building trust in an AI native service • Deduction currently targets mass affluent customers with moderate tax complexity • The company is supply constrained and is investing primarily in technology and its tax team • Tax planning and advisory could extend the customer relationship beyond filing season • Sai's longer term ambition is to build a national personal accounting brand Chapter Summary (01:44) Sai Dhanak shares his entrepreneurial journey and why he started Deduction (04:29) Sai explains the personal accountant market and the CPA supply problem (08:21) Sai discusses Deduction's pricing, responsiveness, proactive service, and customer experience (10:19) Peter and Sai discuss human review, AI guardrails, and higher stakes tax decisions (12:40) Sai explains how DeductionOS allows tax professionals and AI agents to work together (15:22) The discussion turns to trust, human touchpoints, and Deduction's guarantee (17:07) Sai positions Deduction relative to TurboTax and traditional tax firms (18:32) Sai describes Deduction's mass affluent target customer (19:07) Sai explains why Deduction is supply constrained and where the company is investing (19:44) Peter and Sai discuss tax seasonality and opportunities for year round advisory services (22:27) Sai discusses referrals, search, partnerships, and customer acquisition (23:43) Sai shares his longer term vision for Deduction and DeductionOS (25:56) Sai shares some of the podcasts and books he enjoys (26:58) Sai reflects on the lucky breaks and relationships that shaped his career Resources Deduction https://deduction.com Stay Updated: Please visit Brio360 on other episodes and resources on driving value creation https://brio360.com Follow our host: Peter Ho https://linkedin.com/in/peterhocm Know a great guest for Value Drivers? Pitch founders, CEOs, CFOs, operators, or investors with standout capital allocation and scaling stories: media@brio360.com Please note that information provided in the podcast is for informational and educational purposes only and is not a recommendation to take any particular action, nor an offer or solicitation to buy or sell any securities or services presented. It is not investment advice. Brio360 does not provide legal or tax advice.

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  Value Drivers

  Running a Consumer Lending Business with Discipline: Akshay Sarma, CFO of axio

  Jul 31, 202638 minS3

  In this episode, Akshay Sarma, CFO of axio, discusses his path from Deutsche Bank to helping build a consumer finance company in India. Akshay began his career across trading, structuring, fixed income, and asset backed financing. After several years inside a large financial institution, he became interested in whether he could take an idea from a whiteboard and turn it into a real business. That question led him into the startup ecosystem and eventually to Capital Float, now axio, where he has spent more than a decade navigating economic cycles, a major business pivot, and the challenges of running a lending business. From Deutsche Bank to a Startup Akshay describes the adjustment from working inside a large institution with established systems to joining a smaller company where processes and tools had to be built from the ground up. Without the support of a major brand, the team had to sell its ideas, establish credibility, design processes, and improve them as problems emerged. He explains that this environment forced him to become stronger at the basics and learn what it means to operate as the smaller player in the room. From Small Business Lending to Consumer Finance axio began as a lender to micro, small, and medium sized businesses in India. Its products included supply chain finance, unsecured business loans, and financing for merchants selling through ecommerce platforms. The company entered consumer lending in 2018 and operated both businesses until the disruption caused by COVID. In 2021, it decided to run down the small business loan book and focus on consumer finance. Akshay explains that the pivot required changes to the organization, processes, operating metrics, and business plan. CFO Lens on Short Tenure Lending Many of axio's consumer loans run for one, three, or six months, with an average duration of roughly two to three months. Because the loans pay down quickly, the company needs continued disbursements and repeat customer usage to maintain its assets under management. Akshay describes this as a treadmill model. The short duration also changes how credit performance should be evaluated. Losses may relate to loans originated throughout the year, while assets under management reflect only the smaller balance currently outstanding. Traditional portfolio ratios can therefore look misleading. Finance needs to identify the right measures and explain why short tenure lending should be evaluated differently from longer duration lending. Balancing Growth, Risk, and the P&L Repeat customers can create what Akshay calls lower risk AUM because the company has more information about their repayment behavior. This allows the business to balance established customers with newer customers, including people taking their first loan. The goal is to identify poor risks early while helping strong customers return, receive higher limits, and use the product again. Akshay emphasizes that finance must work closely with credit and product teams. Product decisions need to account for growth, risk, customer behavior, and unit economics. They also need to consider how accounting and tax rules affect the P&L. A product may look attractive from an operating perspective while producing a different reported financial outcome. Capital Allocation and Product Experiments Peter and Akshay discuss capital allocation across technology, people, and lending products. axio made an early decision to build its lending and loan origination systems internally. The company also invested in people before reaching its current scale. Akshay describes these as conscious choices that created near term P&L costs but gave the company greater flexibility. For new lending products, he favors staged experiments. The company can begin with a defined capital budget, wait through the repayment cycle, gather feedback, and then decide whether to increase the investment. The process may include feedback from credit, collections, customer support, and customers themselves. Guardrails and Stop Loss Decisions Akshay argues that teams should agree on success metrics, amber lights, red lines, and required actions before launching a product. This allows the company to act when performance changes rather than debating its response after money has already been disbursed. The appropriate decision also depends on the funding environment and the amount of capital available. A capital constrained company may need to stop losses more quickly, while a company with more equity may have additional time to adjust the product. Akshay notes that axio has both closed products early and continued iterating on products that initially struggled. Team members may disagree, but once a decision is made, they commit while continuing to monitor the agreed metrics. Keeping a Complex Business Simple Akshay offers two main lessons for CFOs entering complex, high growth businesses. The first is to stay close to the basics. Even a complicated business is made up of simpler components. Finance leaders should identify the core metrics that define success and continue watching them as the company grows. The second is to build a strong FP&A and scenario planning process. Akshay maintains multiple versions of the business plan to understand what happens when performance is above plan, below plan, or significantly worse than expected. These scenarios help finance understand where intervention may be needed and when an issue should be raised with operating leaders, founders, investors, or the board. Key Takeaways • Moving from a large institution to a startup requires learning to build processes and credibility from the ground up • A business model pivot may require changes to the organization, operating metrics, processes, and business plan • Short tenure lending needs different portfolio measures than longer duration lending • Repeat customers can provide a lower risk foundation for measured growth • Finance needs to connect growth, credit risk, unit economics, accounting, and the P&L • Early investments in technology and people can create flexibility as a company scales • New lending products should be tested through defined capital budgets and gradual increases • Success metrics, warning indicators, and stop loss actions should be agreed before launch • Core metrics and scenario planning can help CFOs manage a complex business Chapter Summary (01:34) Akshay Sarma shares his path from Hyderabad and Mumbai to Deutsche Bank, Cambridge, and the startup ecosystem (05:12) Akshay discusses the adjustment from a large financial institution to building processes inside a startup (08:05) Akshay explains how Capital Float moved from small business lending toward axio's consumer finance model (10:35) The discussion turns to the CFO implications of short tenure consumer lending (14:07) Akshay explains how repeat customers help balance portfolio growth and credit risk (16:04) Peter and Akshay discuss collaboration among finance, credit, and product, as well as the difference between unit economics and the P&L (19:35) Akshay outlines capital allocation decisions involving technology, people, and organizational scale (22:13) Akshay explains how axio uses defined budgets and gradual increases to test new lending products (23:54) The discussion turns to success metrics, warning indicators, red lines, and predetermined actions (27:04) Akshay discusses stop loss decisions, funding conditions, and when to close or continue adjusting a product (29:21) Akshay shares his advice for CFOs managing complex, high growth operating models (31:56) Akshay explains why FP&A and scenario planning are important tools for the CFO office (34:30) Akshay discusses the Mahabharata and Good to Great (35:42) Akshay reflects on destiny, mentorship, hard work, and the people who shaped his career Resources axio https://www.axio.co.in/ Stay Updated Please visit Brio360 for other episodes and resources on driving value creation https://brio360.com Follow Our Host Peter Ho https://linkedin.com/in/peterhocm Know a great guest for Value Drivers? Pitch founders, CEOs, CFOs, operators, or investors with standout capital allocation and scaling stories: media@brio360.com Please note that information provided in the podcast is for informational and educational purposes only and is not a recommendation to take any particular action, nor an offer or solicitation to buy or sell any securities or services presented. It is not investment advice. Brio360 does not provide legal or tax advice.

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  Value Drivers

  Scaling an Insurtech MGA with Marc Frenkel, CFO of Coterie Insurance

  Jul 1, 202639 minS3

  In this episode, Marc Frenkel, CFO of Coterie Insurance, discusses his path from investment banking and insurance finance to helping scale a tech enabled MGA focused on simplifying commercial P&C insurance for small businesses. Marc began his career in investment banking at Rothschild, where an early insurance restructuring assignment introduced him to the complexity of the industry. He later worked at AmTrust Financial and FinLync before joining Coterie, where he saw an opportunity to work on a meaningful problem in small business insurance. Coterie focuses on micro commercial insurance, serving very small businesses, solo entrepreneurs, side hustles, and local service providers that are often underinsured or unaware of their commercial insurance needs. Marc explains why this part of the market has historically been difficult to serve and why technology, data, and agents all matter in making the model work. What Coterie Is Solving A big theme in the conversation is the friction in small business insurance. For many micro commercial customers, the insurance need is real, but the premium is small. That makes the traditional underwriting process difficult because agents may need to gather a lot of information for a policy that generates limited commission. Marc discusses how Coterie uses technology, data, and publicly available information to make the process faster and more efficient. Marc describes the goal as helping agents quote and bind coverage more efficiently while reducing the amount of manual work required to understand the business. The discussion also highlights a counterintuitive point: Coterie is not only competing with other insurance providers. It is also addressing underinsured businesses and low awareness of commercial insurance needs. CFO Lens: Scaling an Insurtech MGA Peter and Marc discuss the metrics that matter when scaling an insurtech MGA. Marc explains that while EBITDA matters, the deeper operating model depends heavily on loss ratio. Because Coterie does not retain balance sheet risk, it relies on capacity providers that need confidence in the quality of the premium being written. That makes underwriting discipline central to the business. Growth is important, but Marc emphasizes that not all growth is equal. Growing with poor quality premium may create short term revenue, but it can damage capacity relationships and undermine the business later. For Coterie, quality growth means expanding premium while maintaining the loss ratio and protecting the trust of capacity providers. Capital Strategy and Quality Growth The conversation turns to how capital allocation changes as a company moves from startup mode to scale mode. Marc describes how investment decisions looked different when Coterie was earlier stage and not yet profitable. At that time, payback period mattered heavily because the company had to preserve cash and manage toward break even. Now that Coterie is profitable and better capitalized, the company can think more strategically about long term value creation. Marc discusses investments in technology, platform capabilities, and product expansion, including how existing distribution, data, and infrastructure may create an advantage in adjacent opportunities. A key idea is capital efficient growth: finding opportunities where the company can expand without creating unnecessary complexity. Building the CFO Office Marc also shares what he focused on after joining Coterie. He joined during a difficult period for insurtech and the broader venture market, when capital was no longer easy to raise. That shaped his early priorities as CFO. The goal was to build a plan to reach cash flow break even, reduce reliance on capital markets, and give the company more control over its own destiny. The discussion covers forecasting, contribution margin, fixed and variable expenses, board communication, and KPI discipline. Marc also explains why finance needs the right level of data granularity. Looking at the business only in total can hide important dynamics. Coterie sells through partners, so understanding performance at the partner level helps the team identify where growth is slowing, where competition may be increasing, and where the product or distribution strategy needs to adjust. Key Takeaways • Micro commercial insurance is a large market, but historically difficult to serve efficiently • Coterie uses technology, data, and agents to reduce friction in quote to bind • For an MGA, loss ratio is a critical constraint because it supports capacity provider trust • Quality growth matters more than simply growing premium • Capital allocation changes as a company moves from cash preservation to profitable scale mode • CFOs need to understand where granular data improves decisions and where it creates unnecessary noise • Reaching cash flow break even can change a company's strategic flexibility and control over its future Chapter Summary (01:47) Marc Frenkel shares his career path from Rothschild and AmTrust Financial to FinLync and Coterie Insurance. (03:10) Marc explains the small business insurance problem Coterie is solving and why micro commercial P&C insurance is hard to serve efficiently. (05:37) The discussion turns to how Coterie uses technology, data, and agents to improve quote to bind. (10:09) Marc outlines the CFO metrics that matter in an insurtech MGA, including premium growth, loss ratio, capacity, and underwriting discipline. (13:59) Peter and Marc discuss quality growth and why bad premium can create problems later. (16:15) Marc explains how Coterie thinks about capital allocation, product expansion, and long term investment priorities. (21:32) The conversation turns to investors, capacity providers, risk appetite, and board communication. (23:10) Marc discusses building the CFO office, including reporting cadence, forecasting, systems, and finance maturity. (28:12) Marc shares how finance uses data to understand business performance at the right level of detail. (32:20) Marc reflects on risk, judgment, and the need for finance leaders to move between risk on and risk off modes. (34:49) Marc shares the lucky break that led him to Coterie and how a principled stand changed his career path. Resources Coterie Insurance: https://coterieinsurance.com Marc Frenkel on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/marc-frenkel-66287931 Stay Updated: Please visit Brio360 for other episodes and resources on driving value creation https://brio360.com Follow our host: Peter Ho https://linkedin.com/in/peterhocm Know a great guest for Value Drivers? Pitch founders, CEOs, CFOs, operators, or investors with standout capital allocation and scaling stories: media@brio360.com Please note that information provided in the podcast is for informational and educational purposes only and is not a recommendation to take any particular action, nor an offer or solicitation to buy or sell any securities or services presented. It is not investment advice. Brio360 does not provide legal or tax advice.

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  Value Drivers

  From Rubrik to Maxima AI: Yogi Goel on Agentic AI for Accounting

  May 20, 202639 minS3

  <p >In this episode, Yogi Goel, co-founder and CEO of Maxima AI, discusses his path from EY, Wall Street, and Rubrik to building a company focused on applying agentic AI to accounting and record-to-report workflows.</p> <p >Yogi started his career at EY, where he developed a foundation in audit, accounting standards, controls, and how large companies operate. He later worked in finance and capital markets before joining Rubrik, where he saw firsthand how finance and accounting operations need to evolve as companies scale.</p> <p >That experience shaped the problem Maxima AI is focused on today: accounting teams still...

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  Value Drivers

  From Vendor Sprawl to AI-Driven Finance: Sara Wyman's Journey with Stackpack

  May 4, 202633 minS3

  <p > </p> <p >In this episode, Sara Wyman, founder of Stackpack, discusses her journey from Wall Street to operating roles at high-growth companies like Etsy and Affirm, and how those experiences led her to focus on vendor spend, contracts, and operational complexity.</p> <p >At Etsy and Affirm, Sara saw the same issue appear again and again: vendor management was often handled through spreadsheets, even as companies scaled. Contracts, approvals, invoices, ownership, and usage data lived in different places, making it difficult for finance and operations teams to understand what the company was actually spending.</p> <p >Where Stackpack Fits...

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