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FP&A Today is the podcast for Financial Planning and Analysis. The weekly show dives into the challenges and opportunities within the world of FP&A, interviewing FP&A leaders, CFOs and other finance pros in order to give you the freshest insights and takeaways. Each week our top guests provide actionable advice about financial planning and analysis – from career goals to navigating challenges, and powerful Excel tips.
Our weekly show provides unrivalled insights for navigating FP&A.
FP&A Today is brought to you by Datarails.
Datarails is the financial planning and analysis platform that automates data consolidation, reporting and planning, while enabling finance teams to continue using their own Excel spreadsheets and financial models. Get in touch at www.datarails.com
Our weekly show provides unrivalled insights for navigating FP&A.
FP&A Today is brought to you by Datarails.
Datarails is the financial planning and analysis platform that automates data consolidation, reporting and planning, while enabling finance teams to continue using their own Excel spreadsheets and financial models. Get in touch at www.datarails.com
193 Episodes
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Marko Horvat has been a public accountant, Controller, head of FP&A and CFO, as well as VP in Gartner's research and advisory practice, specializing in topics most relevant to CFOs and finance transformation.
In this episode he talks:
Interplay IT and CISO and organizational politics (“if it runs on electricity, it’s ours”)
CFO skillsets gap
Real change in CFO’s Office with AI (audit pattern recognition to forecasting)
Last mile transformation in finance
Mindset, skillset, toolset transformation
Treating forecast as in perpetual beta
The power of the subtotal function
Recommended books:
There's Got to Be a Better Way: How to Deliver Results and Get Rid of the Stuff That Gets in the Way of Real Work
Superforecasting: The Art and Science of Prediction
Troy Anderson is CFO of Kelly Services, a staffing solutions provider to various industries, who has spent his career driving transformation across some of the most complex business environments. Before joining Kelly, he served as CFO at Universal Technical Institute, where he helped double revenue over five years through a mix of organic growth and strategic acquisitions. Earlier in his career, he held senior finance leadership roles at Conduent, a $6billion player (bought by Xerox).
Conduent life cycle a $6b public company acquired by Xerox
Investor relations at Xerox as a game-changer for my career
Making finance a partner across the value chain
Business Process Outsourcing vs AI
The need for a deep understanding of your business
Catch the full transcript below
Stephen Hedlund is head of finance at Rillet, an AI-native ERP which has raised over $100million from Sequoia and Andreessen Horowitz. In Steven’s words Rillet is “building the modern NetSuite.”
In this episode:
How Isaac Asimov’s Foundation helped me discover finance
Experience from enterprise at Walmart to building startups
Go-to-market (marketing) to Head of Finance Gillet
The moat for leading ERPs and our strategy
Being the ICP and marketing voice for Rillet
“To succeed, planning alone is insufficient. One must improvise as well.”
― Isaac Asimov, Foundation
Eddie Reynolds, CEO of UnionSquare Consulting, opens up about the often-fraught relationship between CFOs and CROs. Eddie shares insights from his unique journey—from banking and private equity to being an account executive at Salesforce which forecast within 5% accuracy despite 30%+ growth.
The conversation tackles the critical disconnect between finance and go-to-market teams: Why do CFOs struggle to trust CRM pipelines? What breaks when companies hit $50-100M in revenue?
In this episode:
How Salesforce was able to forecast with 5% accuracy,
The role of FP&A and CROs in go to market strategy and efficiency
The issues with LTV to CAC ratio in SaaS
Biggest challenges of the CFO/CRO relationship
Bottoms up annual planning working with finance
Bobby Bray brings his perspective from more than 20 years in banking and consulting with Capital One, Oliver Wyman, and Regions Bank. The retired Navy Captain with four commands talks about strategic decision-making under pressure, working with Fortune 150 C-Suite executives, and the rigor required in FP&A.
He says: “To use an aviation term you need to be able to follow the drop of gas through the engine and understand the different cogs in the engine that turns a drop of gas into thrust, but it also is what turns raw data into usable analytics on the back end.”
In this episode
A Truly Non-Traditional Path to Finance
Commercial banking as the most educational finance job
Discipline and rigor in FP&A
Cloud infrastructure changes in the past 7 years
The rigor of a capital market stress test
Explainability of AI in finance
Five-time CFO Rick Smith has led finance at companies including inVentiv Health Communications, Exos, Parchment, Solera Health before founding Bonfire advisory. He is also the author o fDemystifying the Role of the CFO in Venture and Growth Stage Companies, a no-nonsense approach to the topic. Reviews for the book include: “This book is a must-read if you want to understand how to scale a company as a CFO” and “Should be required reading for CEOs and PE people along with CFOs.”
In this episode Smith provides his take on being a CFO and his long background in FP&A, providing insights on:
The path from FP&A to CFO (without a CPA)
Why I like being CFO at SMBs (sub $50m)
Being a dreamer, artist and buildingFP&A
Audits vs QOEs
The unspoken challenges working with PE firms
FP&A and M&A – what you need to know
Link to the book: Demystifying the Role of the CFO in Venture and Growth Stage Companies
Preston Naegle started his career in private equity at Leavitt Equity Partners (founded by Michael Leavitt, the former U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services. Negale then moved into the operating world and for more than 2 years has led strategic finance and FP&A at a PE-backed Midway Mechanical Services in the HVAC (Heating, Ventilation, and Air Conditioning) industry at the company which has completed 15 acquisitions (3 in 2025 alone) within the mechanical, electrical, and plumbing sector across the Western US region.
In this episode
An origin story in Private Equity
Learning from a “firehose” of business models
Bringing PE thinking to a head of finance role at Midway Mechanical
Bringing people with you as you create FP&A, budget and forecasting processes
Choosing an FP&A solution
Enhancing time to insights that bring long-term business partnering and profit growth
Glenn reconnects with Adam Shilton—who reveals the highs and lows of more than a decade selling to finance teams and what 134 deals in 36 months taught him about CFO challenges. The founder, writer, and speaker has now launched his own venture focused on helping entrepreneurs and solo business owners.
My Experience selling finance software including SAP
Bridging the Sales-Finance Divide: Why pipeline forecasts are inherently “fluffy”
The Deposit Game-Changer: Why commission should only be paid on receipt of deposit, not just signature
Finance coaching sales on overdue invoices
AI and AR automation
AI Agents workflows
What does it take to be the finance leader behind Hollywood stories? Diya Sagar, CFO of AWA Studios, which produces critically acclaimed, original stories for comics, TV, and movies, joins Glenn Hopper to reveal how she manages the money behind the magic—from funding graphic novels that may not pay off for years to navigating the unpredictable world of graphic novels, film and TV deals.
How a “creator-first” approach shows up in budgets
Building a Hits-Driven Portfolio
The Ultimate Model: From Page to Screen Economics
The 2-4 year timeline
What Boards Really Want in a creative industry
With more than 20 years of experience helping startups scale from seed to series B, Maria Azatyan has built architectures for companies across ai, robotics and the new space economy, translating complex technologies into numbers. This is coupled with her frank perspective as a single mother balancing finance leadership and advising startups.
Sci-fi Dreams Made Real: sharing experiences with Waymo
Setting up ArmGate, empowering entrepreneurs
One month to “two minutes” using AI to work with data
Case study: AI to Automate ERA Filings for Venture Funds
Role as ex-CFO at DocDoc.ru whose exit was ranked one of Russia’s top five IT & Digital M&A deals.
Problems with cash flow to 45% year-over-year revenue growth
Biggest startup challenges for finance teams
Joyce Li, CEO, and chief AI strategist at Averanda Partners, brings a rare combination: CFA charter holder, computer science graduate, MBA from Wharton, Board advisor on AI. She advises on multi-billion dollar investment strategies and works with boards and C-suites on AI strategy, governance, and adoption.
The power of Excel in an AI age
The ROI of AI and what boards want to see
15% as the magic AI productivity number
Agents and the future of finance
Rohini Jain leads finance strategy at BILL, which delivers strategic finance capabilities in one integrated platform including AP, AR, expenses and procurement. She has more than 20 years of experience shaping and leading finance, product, and operations teams at global fintech, payments, and e-commerce companies including at PayPal, eBay, Walmart and General Electric.
She spoke to us ahead of the earnings release for Bill.com (November 5) which revealed total revenue at $395.7 million, an increase of 10% year-over-year, and core revenue, (subscription and transaction fees) of $358.0 million, an increase of 14% year-over-year. Bill now serves 498,100 businesses as of the end of the first quarter.
In this episode:
Deciding to choose finance (and disappointing my mother)
The GE “magic” building the next gen of finance leaders
Building a diverse skill set in my finance team
Love for engaging small and medium-sized business
Challenges and stress of public CFO role
Building agentic capabilities and finance’s future
A surprising Excel revelation
The opening voice on a Lyft earnings call is that of Aurelien Nolf, VP, FP&A and Investor Relations at the ride-hailing firm. He holds a dual role managing the 60-person FP&A, finance analysts, and investor team with access to billions of data points looking at the mode, price,drivers, frequency and demand for current offerings– and much-anticipated future services – such as robotaxis. In August 2025, the company saw an 11% increase in revenue to $1.59 billion for the quarter ended June 30. Its profit climbed to $40.3 million from $5 million a year earlier, driven by a rise in ridership and bookings. In this episode Nolf opens the hood into the FP&A processes and opportunities at the San-Francisco-based iconic brand.
In this episode:
The metrics that matter with billions of data points
The logic of combining FP&A and investor relations
Finance hackathons, curiosity and the culture of Lyft
Operational vs financial metrics driving Lyft’s success
Using ML in our forecasting, variance analysis, and IR reports
The challenge of hiring for FP&A in the Bay Area
1Chikako Tyler is the Chief Operating Officer at California Bank & Trust (CB&T). She began her career at the leading California bank in 2010, starting as risk manager, progressing tos trategic planning and analysis (spanning seven revenue divisions and 150 units), before serving seven years as Chief Financial Officer revealing . Here she reveals the strategic leadership as the bank grew, from $9 billion to $15 billion in assets, and overcoming challenges from the post global financial crisis to COVID.
In this episode:
Math academic to commercial real estate
California Bank and Trust’s stress testing
Efficiency ratios and operating leverage
Differences in the path CFO to COO
Inclusion and leadership in banking
The most company specific fave Excel function answer
As a fractional CFO and financial advisor, Carl Seidman, a returning guest, has worked with finance teams at some of the world’s most recognized companies, helping them strengthen forecasting, cash flow management, and strategic decision-making. He also teaches several top-rated online courses including the FP&A Mastery Signature Program.
My first fire-drill, creating a cash flow in one week
The under $50m revenue opportunity for fractional CFOs
The power of an advanced (live) FP&A course
Expectations and reality for AI in your finance career
The catastrophe if AI gets something wrong
What I learned about Copilot in Excel developing a LinkedIn course
The Power of LET
Peter Lynch is the founder of ASimpleModel.com and serves as Chief Strategy Officer at Stephen Gould. He has worked in private equity for most of his professional career at Rabobank, JP Morgan, Argenta Partners and Hilltop Holdings. But he’s perhaps best known for turning complex financial concepts into clear accessible lessons through ASimpleModel.com.
JP Morgan in Buenos Aires
Crazy models during the financial crisis
Capital allocation strategy at Stephen Gould
How a Simple Model took off
Most common mistake in building a financial model
Clarifying private equity
Incorporating AI into everything I do
Andrew Polito is VP, Controller at Go HQ which provides a suite of back office services, including recruiting to delivery companies. The Fort Worth-based company provides back office support for transportation and logistics, seeing 500% growth in five years, earning a spot on the Inc 5,000 list of fastest- growing private companies in America.
In this episode:
From audit to shifting to a private company finance team
Building FP&A from the ground up
Power of the 13 week cash forecast
How I introduced automation in an initial two-person finance team
How our finance tech stack delivers the data and insights to succeed
Mariya Guttoh is Director of FP&A and Treasury at PayJoy, a global FinTech company expanding credit access through smartphones to underserved customers in emerging markets. Celebrating 10 years this year , the company has served over 15 million customers and is on track to reach $650 million in revenue and $110 million in profit by the end of 2025.
In this episode Mariya traces her steps from cosmetic marketing in Ukraine to arriving in the US with $300 and working three jobs while earning her MBA to becoming a finance leader.
My finance journey working three jobs to pay for my MBA
Becoming an advocate for AI in finance
Two finance camps– “excited but clueless” and “cautious but clueless”
Using AI to automate vendor reporting across 10 countries
Identifying high impact AI wins (forecasting)
My ideal magic FP&A solution
How I turned myself into a self-created extrovert
Offset in Excel
Akhil Khunger, VP Quantitative Analytics, Barclays, has more than ten years of experience in the field. Akhil develops statistical models to forecast balance sheets, revenue and probability of default. He has experience with time series modeling, statistical modeling, machine learning and building implementation frameworks using Python and other programming languages. Akhil, who has a master’s in Financial Engineering from UC Berkeley and London School of Economics, has worked in CCAR and Bank of England stress testing and know the Basel III/IV framework, SR 11/7, SR 15-18, and SR 15-19. He also has experience managing junior model developers.
In this episode:
The worst year for modeling?
Diving into models
Working with big datasets
Getting to the real reasons behind trends and data
The power of stress testing
What human judgement can bring to the table
The AI component in forecasting
Esti Levy Dadon, Executive VP Finance, Fiverr ,started in public accounting at Ernst and Young, before leading the finance function at Fiverrr. Since joining the global marketplace in 2016 she steered the company to a successful IPO in 2019. In her words: “In almost 10 years at Fiverr I’m still waiting for things to be boring and repeatable, but it never happens because things change all the time”
In this episode:
Building finance from the ground up at Fiverr
The path to IPO and the financial work required
Challenge of building a robust forecasting model for a public company
Creating a finance team to last
Business partnering process at Fiverr
Traits for hiring in FP&A at Fiverr
Mindset FP&A perspective shift to connect you to the business
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