Preparing to write your annual investor update?
Here’s a template you can steal.
I’ve used it countless times to communicate progress against key results and initiatives.
open.substack.com/pub/cjgustaf...
As a CFO and a parent to a three-year-old, my life revolves around negotiations.
The toughest deals, though, are with the toddler—there’s no logic behind their demands.
At least with Salesforce, I know they’re just trying to raise the price on me.
Average revenue per User (ARPU) is tracked religiously by SaaS companies
I believe this is misguided.
This is a deep dive on ARPU, and its flaws.
Read it so you don’t average (lol) yourself out of a job
open.substack.com/pub/cjgustaf...
Here’s to the next 4 years
Mostlymetrics.com
While I don’t take myself too seriously, I do take my new role seriously… as a representative and a storyteller for the hard work CFOs and operators put into growing their companies and moving innovation forward. Hopefully I can make them proud in that sense, and never lose the plot.
I think the internet is the last true democracy. You can write yourself into any room. I feel lucky to have written my way into wherever I am now.
What’s happened over the last four years has been a fun build. From a newsletter, to a podcast, to now a community of friends (many of whom are 100x smarter than me).
And that’s the true gift in this journey.
They also thought I wasn’t experienced enough to become a cfo. They said no way does this guy get a gig. He’s too young. He’s too different
But luckily someone in that initial reader group thought I was cool, and introduced me to some companies. And I literally wrote my way into my first cfo role.
But it gave me energy. And a few smart people had reached out to say they liked what I was putting out. I don’t know what it was. Or why I thought this was more important.
So I said fuck that I quit.
And they said you can’t quit because you don’t work here any more
I said tomato tomato🍅
I was like, well first of all it’s a Substack, not an Only Fans, I’m barely showing any skin, and I don’t think net dollar retention is all that risqué.
They told me it’s either us or this blog thing
I had three thousand subscribers at the time and wasn’t making a dollar
Today is the fourth anniversary of Mostly Metrics.
By my tally I’ve put out 426 pieces of content between the newsletter and podcast.
I remember when I put out the first few newsletters the ceo and cfo I was working for at the time said this is career suicide what are you doing ???
Well said
If you ever doubt the power of unions, just think about the multi-day trek required to get from your airline gate to the Uber pickup area at SFO or Logan.
Well played, Big Taxi. Well played.
“If you think it’s expensive to hire a professional, wait until you hire an amateur.”
– Red Adair
Yes it’s great
I recently re-read one of my all time favorite books - Once a Runner
It made me think… Running road races is a lot like reverse budgeting.
The runner wants to be broke at precisely the moment he no longer needs his coin.
What’s new? Good to see you
And this is a problem because all the decisions made, directly or indirectly, somehow tie back to making money. All resource allocation is done for that end goal.
A simple explanation on day one goes a long way.
You’d be surprised by how many people go years without acruelly understanding how the company they work at monetizes.
(Wait, the supplier pays us each month? Not the end user? Wait, we package our seats in minimum quantities? Wait, our take rate is only x%?…)
Whenever someone joins a company I work at, I start by simply asking:
“Would it be helpful if I took a second to explain how we make money?”
Seems obvious, right?
lol I’m trying to figure the same thing out
Whenever someone at a big company says, ‘My department operates like a startup within the company,’ I can’t help but laugh and think, ‘You’ve clearly never actually worked at a startup.’
Diversification is a myth.
If you look at the most wealthy people in the world, they are all insanely concentrated.
They’re concentrated in the companies they started.
Diversification only achieves the risk adjusted average.
This is the OnlyFans business deep dive that you didn’t know you needed 👀
www.mostlymetrics.com/p/onlyfans-f...
What’s crackalackin everyone?
I’m CJ, a tech CFO who writes about business models and metrics.
If you want to learn about company valuation, SaaS metrics, and building high performing finance and ops teams, give me a follow.
And Walter here’s my editor in chief Walter
