Surfing the Waves of Business Innovation

This chapter explores the transformation of a surf forecasting platform into a multifaceted company leveraging data, consumer subscriptions, and innovative business solutions. It highlights advancements in financial management technology, including AI-driven platforms that streamline workflows and enhance spending efficiency.

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How does a surf forecasting platform evolve into a multi-pronged company with B2C subscriptions, advertising, B2B SaaS, and even some hardware? Dustan Berg, former equity analyst and current VP of Finance at Surfline Wavetrak, Inc., joins CJ to discuss the evolution of Surfline's business model and the nuances of running this 40-year-old startup. Dustan explains the role of data as a moat and how Surfline navigates retention and increasing wallet share in a business model that’s tied to user identity. He also talks about some of the frameworks he uses to maintain focus on strategy and what he learned about asking the right questions from his days as an equity analyst.

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Tropic is an intelligent spend management solution that consolidates your spend data and processes into one unified offering, enabling insights and decisive action. From spotting hidden optimization opportunities to automating painful procurement workflows and giving you the best market data to turn vendor negotiations in your favor, Tropic combines smart insights with real human expertise to keep you ahead of the curve. Visit tropicapp.io/mostlymetrics to learn how.

NetSuite provides financial software for all your business needs. More than 40,000 companies have already upgraded to NetSuite, gaining visibility and control over their financials, inventory, HR, eCommerce, and more. If you're looking for an ERP platform, head to NetSuite https://netsuite.com/metrics and get the CFO’s Guide to AI and Machine Learning.

Planful is a financial performance management platform designed to streamline financial tasks for businesses. It helps with budgeting, closing the books, and financial reporting, all on a cloud-based platform. By improving the efficiency and accuracy of these processes, Planful allows businesses to make better financial decisions. Find out more at www.planful.com/metrics.

Subscript is a modern billing and revenue recognition platform designed for SaaS finance teams that need flexibility and accuracy. From automated invoicing and dunning to compliant, transparent revenue recognition and real-time analytics, Subscript eliminates manual work, reduces errors, and gives you a single source of truth for all your financial data. Book a free demo at subscript.com.

Rippling Spend is a spend management solution that handles your entire company’s spending in one unified system. It enables you to bring your corporate cards, expense management, bill pay, and more into one place to achieve real-time visibility and uniquely granular control with automated policy controls across every type of spend. Get a demo to see how much time your org would save at rippling.com/metrics.

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LINKS:

Dustan Berg on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dustan-berg-cfa-b7a58634/

Surfline:

https://www.surfline.com

CJ on X (@cjgustafson222): https://x.com/cjgustafson222

Mostly metrics:

http://mostlymetrics.com

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