In this episode, Jack is joined by Sam Monti, CFO of SolarWinds.
Monti challenges a familiar assumption about the evolution of the CFO role: that finance leaders have only recently become strategic partners to their CEOs. He argues that earlier generations of financial executives often held significant strategic influence and that technology is helping the profession reclaim some of that standing.
His own career offers an interesting perspective on the argument. After nearly two decades in large industrial companies, Monti moved into private equity, where he applied operational disciplines to software businesses undergoing significant change.
Today, at SolarWinds, that experience informs his focus on subscription revenue growth, operational efficiency, and capital allocation. He explains his ARR triangle, the company’s investment in agentic AI, and the importance of improving decision-making through predictive analytics.
Throughout the discussion, Monti returns to a central conviction: The CFO’s strategic contribution depends on understanding how the business actually operates—and helping leadership act on that understanding.