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Episode Description
In this episode of Run the Numbers, CJ sits down with Dominic Phillips, CFO of Samsara, to unpack what it takes to scale a capital-intensive SaaS business from startup to public company in under a decade. Dominic reflects on his six-plus years at Samsara through hypergrowth, COVID disruption, supply chain constraints, a down-round survival raise, and an IPO at the very end of the 2021 tech window. Drawing on his earlier career at ServiceNow under Mike Scarpelli, he shares how experience across FP&A, IR, corp dev, and treasury shaped his approach to capital allocation, investor education, and analyst management. The conversation dives into asset-based pricing, selling into non-discretionary operations budgets, balancing hardware and software economics, and building credibility with a broad analyst base while scaling past $1B in ARR.
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SPONSORS:
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Metronome is real-time billing built for modern software companies. Metronome turns raw usage events into accurate invoices, gives customers bills they actually understand, and keeps finance, product, and engineering perfectly in sync. That’s why category-defining companies like OpenAI and Anthropic trust Metronome to power usage-based pricing and enterprise contracts at scale. Focus on your product — not your billing. Learn more and get started at https://www.metronome.com
RightRev is an automated revenue recognition platform built for modern pricing models like usage-based pricing, bundles, and mid-cycle upgrades. RightRev lets companies scale monetization without slowing down close or compliance. For RevRec that keeps growth moving, visit https://www.rightrev.com
Rillet is an AI-native ERP built for modern finance teams that want to close faster without fighting legacy systems. Designed to support complex revenue recognition, multi-entity operations, and real-time reporting, Rillet helps teams achieve a true zero-day close—with some customers closing in hours, not days. If you’re scaling on an ERP that wasn’t built in the 90s, book a demo at https://www.rillet.com/cj
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/run
Abacum is a modern FP&A platform built by former CFOs to replace slow, consultant-heavy planning tools. With self-service integrations and AI-powered workflows for forecasting, variance analysis, and scenario modeling, Abacum helps finance teams scale without becoming software admins. Trusted by teams at Strava, Replit, and JG Wentworth—learn more at https://www.abacum.ai
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LINKS:
Dominic on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dominicphillips/
Company: https://www.samsara.com/
CJ on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/cj-gustafson-13140948/
Mostly metrics: https://www.mostlymetrics.com
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TIMESTAMPS:
00:00:00 Preview & Intro
00:02:40 Sponsors — Brex | Metronome | RightRev
00:06:18 Interview Begins
00:06:46 Dominic’s Early Career
00:08:47 From ServiceNow to CFO
00:09:47 Joining Samsara
00:10:54 COVID, Burn, and a Down Round
00:12:40 IPO Messaging and Investor Education
00:15:50 Sponsors — Rillet | Tabs | Abacum
00:20:27 Hardware + Software Story
00:21:29 What Samsara Does
00:22:30 Data, AI, and ROI
00:23:23 Horizontal Platform and Verticals
00:24:27 Growth Drivers at Scale
00:26:09 Selling Into Operations
00:28:19 Change Management in Legacy Orgs
00:29:46 Non-Discretionary Budgets
00:33:02 Storytelling Lessons from Scarpelli
00:36:14 Managing Analysts
00:39:23 Earnings Timing Strategy
00:41:06 Metrics and Investor Trust
00:42:38 Investor Communication Channels
00:44:22 Investor Days and Long-Term Vision
00:45:37 Annual Planning Maturity
00:48:24 Forecast Accuracy and Cadence
00:49:28 The 1000-Day Strategy
00:50:40 Top-Line and Margin Targets
00:51:59 Capital Allocation by Function
00:54:46 Becoming a CFO
00:58:21 Lightning Round and a CFO Mistake
01:02:41 End Credits
#RunTheNumbersPodcast #CFO #ScalingCompanies #B2BSaaS #PublicMarkets
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