Inside the Mind of a Tech CFO: Lessons from CJ Gustafson

The Investing for Beginners Podcast - Your Path to Financial Freedom

Andrew Sather & Glassbox Media

Business, Investing

4.2 • 1.5K Ratings

🗓️ 28 April 2025

⏱️ 50 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

CJ Gustafson, tech CFO and author of Mostly Metrics, joins the show to reveal what a CFO really does, how SaaS models work, the art of raising capital, and why storytelling is crucial in finance. Learn about IPOs, AI’s impact, and building durable businesses from one of the industry’s most insightful voices. [00:01:00] CFOs as resource allocators and company portfolio managers. [00:04:00] SaaS model’s predictability and recurring revenue explained. [00:07:00] Managing cash flow and runway in startups is critical. [00:10:00] Building investor relationships for easier future fundraising rounds. [00:13:00] CFOs spend more time managing people than spreadsheets. [00:15:00] Tech business models and pricing strategies evolve rapidly. [00:18:00] Klarna IPO: business model, AI use, and credit risks. [00:25:00] CFOs must tell compelling stories, not just crunch numbers. Timestamps are generated by artificial intelligence, and are not 100% accurate depending on the platform used for listening. Today’s show is sponsored by: Go to SHOPIFY.COM/beginners to start selling with Shopify today. Learn more about CJ here: Mostly Metrics What do Dave and Andrew recommend? Andrew works really hard to find the best insights he can every single month at Value Spotlight. To see a sample of his previous work, go to stockwriteup.com. Have questions? Send them to [email protected] SUBSCRIBE TO THE SHOW Apple | Spotify | YouTube | Amazon | Tunein For sponsorship inquiries, reach out to us at [email protected]. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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1:02.3	Love this podcast because it crushes your dreams and getting rich quick.
1:05.8	They actually got me into reading stats for anything.
1:08.3	You're tuned in to the Investing for Beginners podcast.
1:12.0	Led by Andrew Saver and Dave Ahern. Step-by-step premium investing guidance for beginners.
1:19.4	Your path to financial freedom starts now. Start now.
1:46.8	All right, folks. Welcome to Investing for Beginners Podcast. Today we're going to have some fun. Today, we're going to talk to a CFO, which we've never done before. Today we have C.J. Gustafin, who is the author of MostWemetrics.com to talk to us about what it's like to be a CFO and other fun stuff.
1:51.4	So C.J. Thank you very much for joining us today. We appreciate you taking time out of your day to come talk to us and our listeners. Thank you so much. I'm pumped for this. Yeah, me too. So all right. So
1:57.5	let's start with an easy one. Nice softball thing. What does the CFO do?
2:03.5	That's a great question. I'm still trying to figure it out myself. When I'm at, when I'm at cocktail
2:08.0	parties and I describe what I do to people, I say I'm in charge of allocating resources, which is like
2:13.6	a fancy word of saying, how do you get the most from your investments within a company?
2:18.5	I think of CFOs in a lot of ways as portfolio managers for the companies they work for.
	...

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