What's Rarely Measured Matters Most

capital allocation

1198: Building Long-Term Value Starts With Better Capital Allocation | Shane Hostetter, CFO, Chemours

When Shane Hostetter arrived at Chemours in 2024, he stepped into a company facing liquidity challenges while also pursuing important long-term growth opportunities. His goal was not to replace decades of institutional knowledge but to complement it. Chemours CEO Denise Dignam brought nearly forty years of experience with DuPont and Chemours, while Hostetter brought an…
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1196: Your Next Finance Hire Should Think Like a Founder | Martino Cadoni, CFO, DeepL

When Martino Cadoni joined DeepL, he arrived with an unusual perspective—he already knew the company's product firsthand. Earlier in his career at Klarna, he had helped introduce DeepL as a translation solution, making the transition from customer to CFO especially meaningful. Today, DeepL is backed by investors including HV Capital, Benchmark, Index Ventures, ICONIQ, and…
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1193: Building Finance Functions That Shape Outcomes | Jesse Waldron, CFO, Thyme Care

When Jesse Waldron describes Thyme Care's work, he begins with the patient experience. Cancer patients, he explains, are often thrust into a healthcare system that can feel overwhelming both financially and emotionally. That reality sits at the center of Thyme Care's mission. As an oncology care navigation company, Thyme Care helps patients move through their…
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1192: Building Through Disruption | Christina Spade, CFO, Catalant

Five weeks into her role as CFO of Catalant, Christina Spade is helping guide a company that she believes is positioned for a different era of consulting. Catalant was founded out of Harvard Business School in 2013 and began as an independent consultant matchmaking company, Spade tells us. Today, she describes the firm as a…
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1188: Testing Assumptions Before Burning Capital | Kevin Hettrich, CFO, QuantumScape

Kevin Hettrich walked into a conference room with a whiteboard full of numbers and a problem no one had fully articulated. QuantumScape’s leadership team was discussing how to scale an expensive R&D tool used to produce early battery materials. Hettrich had spent two weeks gathering data, talking with engineers, and analyzing manufacturing economics. Then he…
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1181: What AI Means for the Future of Finance Leadership | Yuval Atsmon, CFO & Sr Partner, McKinsey & Company

In the desert during military officer training, Yuval Atsmon entered one wrong number into a GPS device. Instead of reaching the intended destination, he and his team ended up in the wrong location, and the simulated mission failed. The mistake cost him the chance to finish at the top of his class, he tells us.…
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1166: Building Equity Value in a Capital-Intensive World | Derek Doyle, CFO, C Spire

Fiber is “a lot of investment up front for that stream of cash flow in the future,” Derek Doyle tells us. At C Spire, that reality defines nearly every strategic decision. The advanced technology and communications company has been reinventing itself for more than 70 years, Doyle tells us. Today, it is the largest privately…
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1162: Scaling Growth Across the World’s Most Complex Markets | Guillermo Lopez, CFO, dLocal

In his early 30s, Guillermo Lopez walked into finance as an outsider. “Nobody was giving me a chance in finance because I was an engineer,” he tells us. Then a boss took “a risk” and moved him into a finance role—partly because he was “good with numbers,” and partly because his consulting background meant he…
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1159: Decision Velocity: The Hidden Advantage of Top-Performing Organizations | Dean Neese, CFO, Placer.ai

The lesson arrived abruptly in a boardroom in Battle Creek. After months of analysis, charts, and market data, the president of Kellogg’s cereal division looked up and said, “That’s all interesting. I just don’t know what to do with it,” Dean Neese tells us. The comment landed hard. It forced him to confront a blind…
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1156: From Turnaround CFO to Enterprise-Scale Strategist | Kevin Rubin, CFO, Zscaler

When Kevin Rubin arrived at Zscaler in May 2025, he joined an established organization following the retirement of the company’s longtime CFO, taking responsibility for continuing the work of a finance leader who had already built a strong foundation. Rubin describes stepping into a business with scale, experienced leadership, and a customer base that included…
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From Performance Metrics to Innovation Zones | Bruce Schuman, CFO, Universal Technical Institute

Bruce Schuman describes a strategic pivot from selling discrete data center components to delivering end-to-end solutions. As memory, storage, and connectivity became as critical as CPUs, finance helped reframe the business model around customer problems, aligning investment and execution to support integrated, solutions-led growth. Now Watch the Complete Episode Featuring CFO Bruce Schuman of Universal […]

When One Plus One Actually Equals Three | Matt Novick, CFO, TripleLift

At PlaceIQ, an unexpected acquisition inbound forced Matt Novick to deeply assess unit economics and true revenue and cost synergies. The experience reshaped his strategy: always be transaction-ready by understanding the business end-to-end, so finance can quickly evaluate opportunities, avoid misfits, and operate with strategic precision. Now Watch the Complete Episode Featuring CFO Matt Novick […]