GHP # 106 - Operator #3 - The Role of CFO and Navigating Hyper Growth in Startup

This episode features CJ Gustafson, the CFO of PartsTech and founder of the popular finance blog Mostly Metrics. He started his career in PE eventually wanting a bigger challenge, helping him land a role at a startup. Now as CFO, he describes the day to day and what it means to be the right hand person to the CEO.

In this episode, we cover topics such as:

- The role of a CFO

- Common financial mistakes made by startups

- Forecasting in a hypergrowth company

- The world of vanity metrics

00:03:00 Path to tech 00:07:52 The CFO role has evolved significantly. 00:10:49 Managing expectations in unpredictable startups. 00:16:37 Choose companies with growth potential. 00:20:02 Transparency and trust drive success. 00:24:06 Personalize and forecast for success. 00:30:20 Importance of cash flow forecasting 00:36:08 Metrics should be understandable, comparative, and be behavior-changing. 00:41:59 Avoid relying on vanity metrics. 00:46:02 Hiring within finance 00:51:32 Control of time equals happiness. 00:55:41 Stack your talents for success.