Run the Numbers

In this episode of Run the Numbers, CJ welcomes back Jim Cook, a multi-time CFO (Intuit, Netflix, Mozilla) turned coach, author, and newsletter writer. They dig into “return on compute,” the metric Jim believes every finance leader needs in their vocabulary, and why surprise AI bills echo the early days of the cloud. They cover how to budget for tokens, the “frontier convergence” idea for ramping compute spend by role, and why revenue per compute may join revenue per headcount on the CFO scorecard. —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/cjCloud Capital helps you say goodbye to on-demand rates for cloud. Committing more cuts the rate you pay for cloud infrastructure by 20–60%. Commit wrong and you pay for capacity you'll never use. Cloud Capital underwrites that risk, so you capture the savings of deeper commitments without locking in architecture or putting engineers on it. Go to www.cloudcapital.coBrex 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/metricsAbacum puts your actuals, forecasts, models, and business context in one place, so you can update the plan, run scenarios, and answer "why did this change?" without rebuilding the story from six spreadsheets and a Slack thread. Connect your source systems, keep models and assumptions aligned, and give leaders trusted answers while decisions are still being made.Go to abacum.ai/mostly-metrics.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 It gives product teams the freedom to keep innovating without outdated revenue systems slowing them down.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/cjEY 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/techstartupsFidelity Private Shares gives founders the structure and simplicity to focus on what actually matters - building your company. If your startup needs a little extra support (and let’s be honest, who doesn’t need a little help now and then), then you’re in for a pleasant surprise with Fidelity. If you stay investor ready, you don’t have to get investor ready. Check out www.fidelityprivateshares.com—LINKS: Mostly Talent: https://mostlymetrics.typeform.com/to/cLTxtAsNJim on Linkedin: linkedin.com/in/cookflixBenchboard: https://www.benchboard.com/CJ: https://www.linkedin.com/in/cj-gustafson-13140948/Mostly metrics: https://www.mostlymetrics.com—TIMESTAMPS:0:00 Welcome Back, Jim Cook2:56 Return on Compute5:51 The $500K Surprise Bill8:25 Do Execs Know Their Token Usage?10:05 Tagging Compute Like Cloud Costs12:03 Budgeting for Tokens13:19 Revenue per Compute14:45 The Modern CFO Framework15:50 What Strategy Really Means17:44 Communication and Influence22:27 Lead With a Thesis24:05 Speaking Up in the Boardroom26:04 Better Questions with EY28:11 Where to Find Jim#RunTheNumbersPodcast #ReturnOnCompute #CFO #AI #FinanceLeadership

In this episode of Run the Numbers, CJ sits down with Heidi Robinson, former CFO and COO of Food52, for one of the wildest CFO stories the show has featured. Heidi joined expecting to lead a modest turnaround and within weeks realized the company was in far deeper trouble than anyone understood. She walks through being the newest executive in the room and having to deliver that news and the Monday evening a lender swept the company's cash without warning.—SPONSORS:Fidelity Private Shares gives founders the structure and simplicity to focus on what actually matters - building your company. If your startup needs a little extra support (and let’s be honest, who doesn’t need a little help now and then), then you’re in for a pleasant surprise with Fidelity. If you stay investor ready, you don’t have to get investor ready. Check out www.fidelityprivateshares.comRillet 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/cjCloud Capital helps you say goodbye to on-demand rates for cloud. Committing more cuts the rate you pay for cloud infrastructure by 20–60%. Commit wrong and you pay for capacity you'll never use. Cloud Capital underwrites that risk, so you capture the savings of deeper commitments without locking in architecture or putting engineers on it. Go to www.cloudcapital.coBrex 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/metricsAbacum puts your actuals, forecasts, models, and business context in one place, so you can update the plan, run scenarios, and answer "why did this change?" without rebuilding the story from six spreadsheets and a Slack thread. Connect your source systems, keep models and assumptions aligned, and give leaders trusted answers while decisions are still being made. Go to abacum.ai/mostly-metrics.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/cjEY 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/cLTxtAsNGuest: linkedin.com/in/heidilrobinsonCJ: https://www.linkedin.com/in/cj-gustafson-13140948/Mostly metrics: https://www.mostlymetrics.com—TIMESTAMPS:0:00 Cold Open2:29 Joining Food523:45 Food52's Three Brands6:14 Building a Cash Flow Model7:25 Delivering the Worst News8:09 A Path Without Bankruptcy?9:05 The Cash Sweep13:44 The Scramble18:30 Selling at 60% Off19:45 Working Through the Holidays20:10 Filing Chapter 1121:48 Chapter 7 vs. 1123:05 The Headline Objective23:33 The Stalking Horse Bidder26:17 Meet the Cast29:41 Testifying Under Oath30:50 The Independent Board Member35:27 The Live Auction39:06 Bidding Like Poker40:50 The Payout Waterfall44:24 Better Questions with EY44:41 Rethinking Risk46:00 CFO/COO Convergence#RunTheNumbersPodcast #CFOs #Food52 #Bankruptcy #FinancePodcast

In this episode of Run the Numbers, CJ sits down with Shiv Verma, CFO of Robinhood, to unpack the company's 2022 "refounding". They dig into why Shiv personally signs off on every headcount and marketing dollar at a $100B+ company, and how Robinhood's capital allocation philosophy — no loss leaders, minimal variable costs, and a hard $100 million ARR bar for new products — shapes everything from prediction markets to private-market investing.—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/cjFidelity Private Shares gives founders the structure and simplicity to focus on what actually matters - building your company. If your startup needs a little extra support (and let’s be honest, who doesn’t need a little help now and then), then you’re in for a pleasant surprise with Fidelity. If you stay investor ready, you don’t have to get investor ready. Check out www.fidelityprivateshares.comRillet 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/cjCloud Capital helps you say goodbye to on-demand rates for cloud. Committing more cuts the rate you pay for cloud infrastructure by 20–60%. Commit wrong and you pay for capacity you'll never use. Cloud Capital underwrites that risk, so you capture the savings of deeper commitments without locking in architecture or putting engineers on it. Go to www.cloudcapital.coBrex 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/metricsAbacum puts your actuals, forecasts, models, and business context in one place, so you can update the plan, run scenarios, and answer "why did this change?" without rebuilding the story from six spreadsheets and a Slack thread. Connect your source systems, keep models and assumptions aligned, and give leaders trusted answers while decisions are still being made.Go to abacum.ai/mostly-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/cLTxtAsNGuest: linkedin.com/in/shiv-verma-6408249Company: www.robinhood.comCJ: https://www.linkedin.com/in/cj-gustafson-13140948/Mostly metrics: https://www.mostlymetrics.com—TIMESTAMPS:0:00 Intro2:21 The 2022 Refounding8:46 Using NPS17:53 Moving to a GM Model19:58 Finance Partners17:49 Killing Committees for DRIs20:04 Headcount Requests27:02 RPM Teams and Efficiency32:27 The Art of Capital Allocation33:34 Core, Scaling, and New Seeds37:07 Funding a New Idea38:17 Killing OKRs44:59 No Loss Leaders48:36 Building Prediction Markets Fast51:26 Why Shiv Hates Variable Costs53:37 Market Share Over Revenue55:59 Forecasting a Volatile Business59:53 Shiv's Biggest Mistake1:02:03 Lessons from the Oakland A's1:04:04 Advice to His Younger Self1:04:48 Finance Tech Stack1:05:30 Craziest Expense

This is Part 1 of our new Token Series with Tabs. CJ calls up Ali Hussain to dig into one of the fastest-growing, least-understood line items on the P&L: AI inference and token spend. They debate whether AI costs ultimately belong to the CTO or the CFO, why the shift from "experimentation budgets" to real operating costs is forcing companies to rethink ownership, what's actually different about AI spend compared to the early cloud transition, and how tools like OpenRouter (acquired by Stripe) and Ramp's new offering are approaching the problem from opposite ends of engineering vs. finance.—Tabs is an AI-native revenue platform that unifies billing, collections, and revenue recognition for companies running usage-based or complex contracts. By bringing together ERP, CRM, and real product usage data into a single system of record, Tabs eliminates manual reconciliations and speeds up close and cash collection. Companies like Cortex, Statsig, and Cursor trust Tabs to scale revenue efficiently. Learn more at https://www.tabs.com—LINKS: Mostly Talent: ⁠https://mostlymetrics.typeform.com/to/cLTxtAsN⁠Guest: ⁠linkedin.com/in/ali-hussain786Company: ⁠www.tabs.comCJ: ⁠https://www.linkedin.com/in/cj-gustafson-13140948/⁠Mostly metrics: ⁠https://www.mostlymetrics.com⁠—TIMESTAMPS:0:00 Cold Open1:11 From Experimentation Budgets to Real AI Costs2:43 Who Owns AI Spend Inside a Company?4:12 Lessons from the Cloud Transition5:55 Why AI Costs Are Different from Cloud7:51 AI as "Electricity Through the House"8:42 Paying for 5 to 10 LLM Providers9:58 OpenRouter vs. Ramp: Two Approaches11:47 What the Finance Stack for AI Spend Should Look Like13:34 Passing AI Costs on to Customers

In this episode of Run the Numbers, CJ sits down with Emily Man of Primary Ventures to map out where value actually accrues in the AI economy. They break down the 5 layers of the AI stack and why Emily believes the next era of AI adoption will be driven by diffusion through apps rather than smarter models alone.—SPONSORS:Abacum puts your actuals, forecasts, models, and business context in one place, so you can update the plan, run scenarios, and answer "why did this change?" without rebuilding the story from six spreadsheets and a Slack thread. Connect your source systems, keep models and assumptions aligned, and give leaders trusted answers while decisions are still being made.Go to abacum.ai/mostly-metrics.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/cjFidelity Private Shares gives founders the structure and simplicity to focus on what actually matters - building your company. If your startup needs a little extra support (and let’s be honest, who doesn’t need a little help now and then), then you’re in for a pleasant surprise with Fidelity. If you stay investor ready, you don’t have to get investor ready. Check out www.fidelityprivateshares.comRillet 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/cjCloud Capital helps you say goodbye to on-demand rates for cloud. Committing more cuts the rate you pay for cloud infrastructure by 20–60%. Commit wrong and you pay for capacity you'll never use. Cloud Capital underwrites that risk, so you capture the savings of deeper commitments without locking in architecture or putting engineers on it. Go to www.cloudcapital.coBrex 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/metricsEY 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/cLTxtAsNGuest: linkedin.com/in/emily-man-02a1a486Company: https://www.primary.vc/CJ: https://www.linkedin.com/in/cj-gustafson-13140948/Mostly metrics: https://www.mostlymetrics.com—TIMESTAMPS:0:00 Cold Opens1:12 Meet Emily Man, Primary Ventures2:01 What's Exciting in Venture Right Now3:09 The 5 Layers of the AI Stack4:08 Where Funding Has Focused So Far5:54 Diffusion Through Apps9:30 "Enough" Intelligence17:11 Payroll vs. Compute Ratio23:01 Alex Karp and "Owning Your Weights"24:05 On-Prem vs. Cloud, Again?30:53 Models vs. Loops32:34 Software Goes Headless34:14 Pre-2022 SaaS Companies36:29 The Roadkill Bucket41:42 The Vibe-Coding Backlash44:55 Objectivity vs. Subjectivity48:03 When AI Agents Talk to Each Other49:43 Creating Alpha Without Being AI-Native51:01 Better Questions, Brought to You by EY51:16 The Future CFO Tech Stack#RunTheNumbersPodcast #AIforCFOs #FinanceLeadership #Zuora #GoingPrivate