Mistakes, integrity, and hard decisions

Maria recounts past errors: rushing change, and trusting her gut to expose fraud despite losing a job.

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In this episode of Run the Numbers, CJ sits down with Maria Izurieta, CFO of Huntress, to unpack what it really means to lead finance as a connective tissue across the organization. Drawing on experience across VC-backed, PE-owned, and public companies, Maria shares how she balances impact versus perfection, builds trust through small wins, and helps teams move from transactional finance to insight-driven decision making. They dig into data transparency, centralized BI, partnering with sales and marketing on revenue, and why the best CFOs unblock friction instead of becoming the “no” department — all while bringing a deeply people-first lens to scale.

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LINKS:

Maria on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/maria-izurieta-909a3b/

Company: https://www.huntress.com/

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

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

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How the Best CFOs Lead Without Being the CEO | Ken Stillwell

https://youtu.be/O4cx9NBqQso

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