CFO Insights

In this episode we're joined by Sapna Shah Syndicate Lead & Venture partner at Sie ventures as well as seed investor and fractional CFO. Sapna and I dive into the focus areas for her investments, exploring the importance of network in key verticals and how to support founders shaping a big vision for investment. She shares her insights from her work as a Fractional CFO and you’ll certainly want to hear our discussion how CFO parents seek to shape the next generation. https://www.linkedin.com/in/sapna-shah/https://www.sie.ventures/

In this episode we're joined by Edward Barrow, co-founder & CEO @ Cloud Capital, and a former finance leader who spent years managing $100Ms in cloud commitments before building the company to solve the problem himself.In this episode, Ed unpacks the rise of cloud and AI compute costs, and why CFOs now face a brand new discipline: a line item that's grown to rival payroll, yet remains the least understood and least predictable on the P&L. We dig into the critical difference between AI costs sitting in OpEx versus COGS, why repricing alone won't rescue gross margins, and the "token treadmill" that keeps consumption outpacing falling unit prices. We also explore why the CFO-CTO relationship has never mattered more, and what it actually takes to build a shared vocabulary between finance and engineering.https://startupcfo.tech/https://www.linkedin.com/in/ebarrow/https://www.cloudcapital.co[Report] Cost of Compute 2026: https://www.cloudcapital.co/the-cost-of-compute

In this episode we're joined by Dr. Veronika von Heise-Rotenburg — CFO & MD @Everphone, an expert in the discipline of financial leadership, also a speaker and now published author.In this episode, Veronika shares some insights from her CFO career, and we take a deep dive into the topic of debt funding, discussing different solutions that a startup or scale-up might appraise. We also shine a light on the importance of the CEO-CFO relationship, highlighting key elements to taking that relationship to a high level of performance. https://www.linkedin.com/in/veronika-von-heise-rotenburg/

In this episode we're joined by Rob Collings — chartered accountant, former Head of Finance and CFO at tech startups including Packfleet, and now founder of Flexal, an AI-native accounting firm built specifically for early-stage companies. Rob reveals his insights on where AI genuinely moves the needle in finance — and where it doesn't. We dig into the build vs buy decision for finance teams, why some compliance tasks are proving stubbornly difficult for AI to crack, and how the relationship between startups and their accounting firms needs to evolve in an AI-first world.

In this episode, we to talk to Pete Donell - fractional CFO and founder at Duet.In this discussion we have a deep dive into why CFOs accel when focusing on data, analytics and RevOps. We talk through the way AI spend is a positive trigger for CFOs exploring the return on investment in R&D. You might be surprised to hear what steps leading finance leaders are expected to take in this important area.