Serial CFO Michael Bayer, who is currently the CFO of Wasabi, joins CJ to share wisdom from his long career. He talks about his journey from being a “CF-no" to becoming a “CF-go” while emphasizing the importance of strategic investment to fuel hypergrowth companies. He breaks down the epochs of growth that a company goes through as it scales from driving revenue to focusing on cash flow. He highlights the significance of order of magnitude thinking and hiring for future needs. Michael also introduces his “rock-turning” exercise for identifying and addressing issues when joining a company, and shares his three guiding principles: speed is God, best ideas win, and if you’re not making mistakes, you’re not trying hard enough. The episode concludes with an insightful story about Van Halen's "brown M&M" clause, and what finance leaders can learn from it.

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@cjgustafson222 (CJ)

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TIMESTAMPS:

(00:00) Preview and Intro

(02:16) Sponsor – RightRev | Planful | Brex

(06:02) The Reason for a Sloth Background

(08:31) A Company’s Epochs of Growth

(12:52) Staffing for the Different Epochs of Growth

(17:08) Sponsor – Vanta | Tropic

(21:29) The CF-No Versus CF-Go Mentalities

(23:42) The “Rule Of” Metric: EBITDA or Cash Flow

(27:05) The Rock-Turning Exercise

(29:12) The First Rock Michael Turns Over

(30:26) Forming Relationships Before Solving Problems

(32:08) The Time Factor in Becoming a Good CFO

(36:01) Michael’s Three Simple Rules for Being a Great CFO

(38:45) Creating Space for the Best Ideas

(41:18) What It Means to “Rent Capital”

(47:25) The Brown M&M Story

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit cjgustafson.substack.com

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