Episode Description
This episode features CJ Gustafson, the CFO of PartsTech and founder of the popular finance blog Mostly Metrics. He started his career in PE eventually wanting a bigger challenge, helping him land a role at a startup. Now as CFO, he describes the day to day and what it means to be the right hand person to the CEO.
In this episode, we cover topics such as:
- The role of a CFO
- Common financial mistakes made by startups
- Forecasting in a hypergrowth company
- The world of vanity metrics
00:03:00 Path to tech 00:07:52 The CFO role has evolved significantly. 00:10:49 Managing expectations in unpredictable startups. 00:16:37 Choose companies with growth potential. 00:20:02 Transparency and trust drive success. 00:24:06 Personalize and forecast for success. 00:30:20 Importance of cash flow forecasting 00:36:08 Metrics should be understandable, comparative, and be behavior-changing. 00:41:59 Avoid relying on vanity metrics. 00:46:02 Hiring within finance 00:51:32 Control of time equals happiness. 00:55:41 Stack your talents for success.