Founder Intensity Drives Margin Improvement

Alex and CJ discuss founder-like intensity, Stripe's margin expansion, and balancing efficiency with long-term bets.

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[Original air date: June 19, 2025]

In this episode, Alex Immerman, partner at Andreessen Horowitz, joins CJ to discuss the CFO role and how it’s changing in the era of AI. He explains what the components of a company’s AI agenda the CFO should own, how and where it should be leveraged in an organization, and why, if you’re preparing to go public, AI needs to be mentioned in your S-1. He breaks down how the financial landscape differs greatly between AI-native SaaS companies and traditional B2B SaaS companies in terms of retention curves and gross margins, and how this relates to the ever-important LTV to CAC metric. As someone who has worked with prominent CFOs and interviewed many for a16z’s portfolio companies, Alex also describes the qualities of a great CFO, and shares his favorite interview question, before discussing CFOs, CEO, and board dynamics.

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LINKS:

Alex Immerman on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/immerman

Andreessen Horowitz: https://a16z.com

CJ on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/cj-gustafson-13140948/

Mostly metrics: https://www.mostlymetrics.com

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