A Finance Strategic Moment Amid 2020’s Covid uncertainty, Tom Egan drew on his Lehman‑era lesson that contracts follow relationships. He immediately called Hometap’s two banks, shared worst‑case projections and asked for covenant flexibility. The transparency earned rapid waivers, safeguarded liquidity and proved that trust, not paperwork, is the true collateral when markets fracture. Now Watch the […]
1101: Turning Home Equity into a Platform, Not a Product | Tom Egan, CFO, Hometap
When Tom Egan walks a homeowner through the math—“If your house is worth a million dollars and you owe five hundred thousand,” he says—the traditional options surface quickly: load the balance sheet with a costly home‑equity loan or sell and hope you can find somewhere new to live. That binary choice, he explains, is exactly what…
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Capital Discipline Over Technology Spend | Kevin Ingram, CFO, FM
A Finance Strategic Moment Realizing most people view insurance as abstract, Kevin Ingram reframed FM’s ‘product’ as the capacity its capital and reinsurance provide. He crafted plain‑spoken explanations of balance‑sheet strength, trained teammates to use them, and demystified insurance for clients—sharpening differentiation and empowering every account manager to sell FM’s capital story daily. Now Watch the […]
1097: The Mutual Advantage in a Cyclical Market | Kevin Ingram, CFO, FM
For nearly ten years, Kevin Ingram knocked on S&P’s door, arguing that FM’s A‑plus rating undervalued its balance sheet. Other agencies, such as Fitch, already had the mutual insurer at AA. Each visit, Ingram presented fresh data; each time, the agency hesitated, wary of revising a long‑standing mark. Last summer, six months after FM dropped “Global”…
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Embedding AI Into Finance Workflows | Gillian Munson, CFO, Vimeo
A Finance Strategic Moment One week into a CFO post, Munson was air‑dropped into a foreign audit room and told to fix a complex tax exposure outside her expertise. She mobilized auditors, tapped her network, and resolved it quickly. The baptism fortified her “learn‑fast, call‑everyone” playbook, sharpening courage and pattern recognition for future unknowns. Now […]
1096: Why Usage Beats Revenue in Video SaaS | Gillian Munson, CFO, Vimeo
When Gillian Munson pictures a Vimeo customer, she doesn’t start with a filmmaker, she imagines an insurance company executive or a corner grocery store owner uploading a training clip into Vimeo’s ever thirsty player, and hitting publish without ever surrendering control—or ad space—to a third‑party network. That simple embed workflow, she tells us, explains why “eight…
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Unified pricing positions brand for sustainable margins | Steven Miller, CFO, Warby Parker
A Finance Strategic Moment On Friday the 13 of March 2020, Steven Miller closed Warby Parker’s 280 stores, scrapped the freshly approved budget, and launched PAR—Pause, Adjust, Redeploy. The framework shifted cash to safety and booming e-commerce (up 100 % YoY), granting leadership daily visibility and preserving liquidity until stores reopened two months later. Now […]
1092: Balancing Mission, Margin, and Market Share | Steven Miller, CFO, Warby Parker
It was Friday the 13, in March 2020, and Steven Miller was staring at a suddenly irrelevant budget. Hours earlier Warby Parker had shuttered every one of its 280 stores to protect employees and customers. “Remember that plan we just approved?” he asked the leadership team. “Forget it.” In its place he introduced PAR—Pause, Adjust,…
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From Legacy Telecom to Cloud | Brian McClintock, CFO, Fusion Connect
A Finance Strategic Moment Early in his career, Brian McClintock walked into a $12 million‑EBITDA telecom—only to discover within 60 days that it was actually losing $1 million a month. Reflecting on that moment, he explains how relocating, digging into the numbers, and telling private‑equity owners the hard truth set the stage for a radical turnaround.. Now Watch our […]
1084: Reading the Signals, Not Just the Statements | Brian Carolan, CFO, SailPoint
It was a late-night meeting room lit by the glow of Excel spreadsheets and cluttered with half-empty coffee cups. Brian Carolan, then a rising finance leader, looked around the table and saw not just fellow accountants and analysts but a collection of people relying on him to bridge data and strategy. In that moment, he…
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1083: Navigating the Go-To-Market Roadmap with Precision | Brian Robins, CFO, GitLab
It was a pivotal moment Brian Robins tells us he’ll never forget: stepping onto a makeshift stage to address some 400 employees just minutes before a key 8-K filing would publicly announce the potential sale of a major business unit. The room bristled with anxiety—people worried about their jobs and the future of the company.…
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Staying Ahead of Growth: How Finance Powers Proactive Scaling
In this episode, CFO Brandon Sullivan of 2X shares how he transformed financial reporting to drive agility and informed decision-making. After securing private equity backing in March 2023, 2X ramped up hiring in anticipation of rapid growth. However, when revenue stalled, Sullivan realized that monthly reporting was too slow for a dynamic business. He implemented […]