Six months into his CFO role, he led Brex’s rapid response to the 2023 SVB collapse—designing a payroll-bridge product, securing $1B in lending commitments, and rallying 1,000 employees. Customers ultimately regained access to funds, but the moment underscored finance’s power to protect ecosystems and deliver outsized impact in crisis. Now Watch the Complete Episode Featuring […]
1119: Driving Mission-Driven Growth in the SaaS World | Matthew Hardy, CFO, Bonterra
When people Google Bonterra, they often see 2021 as its starting point. That year, lead investor Apax joined with Vista, holder of Social Solutions, and Insight Partners, holder of EveryAction, to unite those businesses under one brand. But, as Matthew Hardy tells us, the company’s history stretches much further back—“We have customers that are 20–25-year-old…
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Chronicling the Chapters of a CFO’s Rise | Lisa Cummins Dulchinos
During the pandemic, Lisa Cummins Dulchinos realized that doing tasks herself wasn’t the best use of her time as CFO. Encouraged by a peer, she began delegating, gaining strategic clarity. The shift allowed her to better engage with executives, boards, and investors by focusing on the bigger picture rather than day-to-day execution. When Lisa Cummins […]
Scaling Payments with Strategic Precision | Kevin Wall, CFO, Stax Payments
In a meeting, Kevin Wall realized finance was too bogged down in non-strategic tasks to support commercial growth. He reorganized billing and ops functions into other departments, freeing finance to focus on pricing, commercialization, and decision support—ultimately redefining the team’s role as a true business partner driving scale and strategic impact. Now Play the complete […]
1114: Building a Smarter Funnel at Speed | Kevin Wall, CFO, Stax Payments
When Kevin Wall first stepped into industry from public accounting, it wasn’t by accident—it was through a client he already knew well. The company, in the midst of an ERP conversion and preparing to go public, saw in Wall someone who understood both their numbers and their needs. “They were familiar with me. I was…
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Building Value Through Operational Insight | James Redfern, CFO, Reltio
James Redfern, who spent a decade at Morgan Stanley, told us that people management in investment banking was “more loosely defined.” When he later moved into a more operational role, he realized that people—were the key to driving performance. Redfern would make “intentional people management” a core part of his finance strategic playbook. Nearly a […]
1111: Inside the M&A Playbook: Why People Come First | James Redfern, CFO Reltio
Nearly a year into his CFO role at Reltio, James Redfern still feels like he’s catching up. “I’ve made some progress, but I’m definitely not where I... need to get,” he tells us. That steep learning curve was exactly what drew him to the company. Redfern didn’t find the Reltio opportunity through recruiters. Instead, it…
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1107: When Finance Leads with a CEO Mindset | John Rettig, CFO, Bill
What sets John Rettig’s CFO journey apart from most is not just its length—spanning more than two decades—but its unusual symmetry. His CFO career roughly divides into two decade-long tenures: first helping scale a digital advertising firm from $15 million to $250 million in revenue, and now serving as CFO of Bill, where he’s helped…
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Forecasting Without the Illusion of Precision | Rene Ho, CFO, SAP Taulia
During a high-pressure period at Visa following a restatement, Rene Ho shifted forecasting away from false precision. He required teams to present scenario ranges with clear reasoning, holding them accountable for understanding—not just outcomes. The result: deeper business insight and a forecasting culture grounded in strategic awareness, not guesswork. Now Watch the Complete Episode Featuring […]
1105: The Steady Climb: Scaling with Purpose in FinTech | Rene Ho, CFO, SAP Taulia
It’s not uncommon for CFOs to exit soon after a major acquisition—especially when a larger enterprise takes the reins. But Rene Ho stayed. Ho had been CFO of Taulia, a working capital fintech, when it was still an independent company. After helping lead the firm through its acquisition by SAP, he chose to stay on,…
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Inside Hybrid Cloud Growth Strategy | Dilip Upmanyu, CFO, Cloudera
A Finance Strategic Moment While preparing IBM variance reports, Dilip Upmanyu first realized numbers persuade only when tied to the actions that create them. He dissected every P × Q driver, practiced explaining causes clearly in NetIQ earnings prep, and won credibility to recommend improvements—transforming finance from scorekeeper to strategic influencer. Now Watch our Complete Episode Featuring […]
1094: Mapping Revenue Levers for Next‑Gen Data Businesses | Dilip Upmanyu, CFO, Cloudera
Back in the 1990s, Dilip Upmanyu sat in a room filled with servers as he pieced together a homegrown database of costs and SKUs. His employer at the time couldn’t tell which products paid the bills; by dawn, the young financial analyst could. That improvised profitability model, he tells us, still informs his investment mindset today.…
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