How finance shows its value beyond being the “no” department | Maria Izurieta

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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SPONSORS:

Abacum is a modern FP&A platform built by former CFOs to replace slow, consultant-heavy planning tools. With self-service integrations and AI-powered workflows for forecasting, variance analysis, and scenario modeling, Abacum helps finance teams scale without becoming software admins. Trusted by teams at Strava, Replit, and JG Wentworth—learn more at https://www.abacum.ai

Brex is an intelligent finance platform that combines corporate cards, built-in expense management, and AI agents to eliminate manual finance work. By automating expense reviews and reconciliations, Brex gives CFOs more time for the high-impact work that drives growth. Join 35,000+ companies like Anthropic, Coinbase, and DoorDash at https://www.brex.com/metrics

Metronome is real-time billing built for modern software companies. Metronome turns raw usage events into accurate invoices, gives customers bills they actually understand, and keeps finance, product, and engineering perfectly in sync. That’s why category-defining companies like OpenAI and Anthropic trust Metronome to power usage-based pricing and enterprise contracts at scale. Focus on your product — not your billing. Learn more and get started at https://www.metronome.com

RightRev is an automated revenue recognition platform built for modern pricing models like usage-based pricing, bundles, and mid-cycle upgrades. RightRev lets companies scale monetization without slowing down close or compliance. For RevRec that keeps growth moving, visit https://www.rightrev.com

Rillet is an AI-native ERP built for modern finance teams that want to close faster without fighting legacy systems. Designed to support complex revenue recognition, multi-entity operations, and real-time reporting, Rillet helps teams achieve a true zero-day close—with some customers closing in hours, not days. If you’re scaling on an ERP that wasn’t built in the 90s, book a demo at https://www.rillet.com/cj

Tabs is an AI-native revenue platform that unifies billing, collections, and revenue recognition for companies running usage-based or complex contracts. By bringing together ERP, CRM, and real product usage data into a single system of record, Tabs eliminates manual reconciliations and speeds up close and cash collection. Companies like Cortex, Statsig, and Cursor trust Tabs to scale revenue efficiently. Learn more at https://www.tabs.com/run

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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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RELATED EPISODES:

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

https://youtu.be/O4cx9NBqQso

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TIMESTAMPS:

00:00:00 Preview and Intro

00:01:01 Maria’s Background

00:03:09 People-First Team Building

00:05:16 People, Process, Systems at Scale

00:07:13 Removing Friction Outside Finance

00:09:15 Data Transparency & Decision-Making

00:11:06 Sponsors — Abacum | Brex | Metronome

00:14:22 Forward-Deployed Data

00:16:21 Centralized Data vs. Silos

00:19:23 Finance as Data Steward

00:21:08 Cost-to-Price Feedback Loop

00:22:35 Curiosity Builds Credibility

00:23:43 Sponsors — RightRev | Rillet | Tabs

00:27:12 Trust First, Then Impact

00:30:27 Celebrating Small Wins

00:31:21 From Transactions to Insights

00:33:00 CFO at the Revenue Table

00:34:32 Educating the Org on Metrics

00:36:21 Customer-Level Margin Reality

00:37:13 Using Facts to Change Decisions

00:38:27 Ownership Mindset in Growth Companies

00:39:10 VC vs. PE vs. Public CFO Tradeoffs

00:41:02 Operating Inside Constraints

00:42:18 Finding Your Stage Fit

00:44:17 Building a Personal Advisor Network

00:46:43 Visibility and Women in Leadership

00:47:44 Work–Life Integration, Not Balance

00:48:45 Lightning Round: Biggest Mistake

00:50:10 Advice to Younger Self

00:51:36 Finance Tech Stack

00:52:01 Craziest Expense Story

00:52:44 Credits

#RunTheNumbersPodcast #CFOLeadership #ScalingCompanies #DataDrivenDecisions #ExecutiveLeadership