Run the Numbers
Avsnitt

The CFO Who Was “Ill Equipped” to Save Lehman Brothers

Dela

What actually prepares someone to become a CFO? CJ revisits Erin Callan’s short, brutal run as Lehman Brothers CFO and pulls lessons from past guests on operational reps, simple communication, fast-moving bad news, budget mistakes, and why great finance leaders can’t just report the numbers, they have to shape them.

SPONSORS:

Anrok is the sales tax platform that watches your exposure everywhere, automates compliance, and flags risk before it turns into a surprise back-tax letter from a state you've never set foot in. Companies like Anthropic, Notion, and Vanta already trust Anrok to stay ahead of rules that move faster than any spreadsheet can. Talk to a sales tax expert for a personalized exposure estimate at anrok.com/rtn

RightRev is an automated revenue recognition platform that lets your product team ship new pricing without asking finance for permission, and your sales team close deals without creating downstream chaos. Check out their free tool at calculator.rightrev.com It scores your rev rec process, shows what's exposing you to risk, and tells you exactly where to focus before it bites you in the rear end. Check it out at https://calculator.rightrev.com

Pulley is an equity management platform that lets you issue options, model dilution, and complete 409As without your cap table turning into a spreadsheet disaster. Founders raising, hiring, and scaling use Pulley to keep equity clean and stay focused on building. Learn more or request a demo at Pulley.com/mostlymetrics

Rillet is an AI-native ERP built for modern finance teams that want to replace NetSuite and close faster. With revenue recognition, close management, multi-entity support, and native Stripe and Salesforce integrations, Rillet helps scaling companies run their finance stack in one place. Hundreds of teams, including Windsurf and Mercor, use Rillet to make the zero-day close real. Book a demo at https://www.rillet.com/cj

Maximor is an autonomous finance platform that runs order-to-cash, procure-to-pay, the close, cash management, and reporting on self-learning agents instead of a dozen disconnected tools. One PE-backed customer cut their close in half, took audit findings from seven to zero, and cut back-office costs by 70% in six months. You pay for outcomes, not seats. See it at maximor.ai

Brex is an intelligent finance platform with AI-powered agents that capture expenses automatically, enforce policy before the spend happens, and close your books in minutes instead of weeks. 35,000+ companies like OpenAI, Coinbase, Anthropic, and DoorDash already run on Brex. It's time to get Brex AF. Learn more at https://www.brex.com/metrics

LINKS: 

Mostly Talent: https://mostlymetrics.typeform.com/to/cLTxtAsN

CJ: https://www.linkedin.com/in/cj-gustafson-13140948/

Slacker Stuff: https://www.slackerstuff.com/

Ben on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/slackerstuff/

Mostly metrics: https://www.mostlymetrics.com

RELATED EPISODES:

Steve Isom

https://youtu.be/a4lEdrgFW5E

Jake Kornreich

https://youtu.be/GKo0B1w4bo4

Manu Diwakar

https://youtu.be/J0J4Rfne54E

Dan Bettes

https://youtu.be/b4w_OHpSNNw

Alan Imberman

https://youtu.be/UD9lYhkfA6U

TIMESTAMPS:

0:00 Erin Callan: Lehman's CFO Set up to Fail

5:48 Steve Isom: broadcaster vs. team captain

9:37 Be in rhythm with the business

11:15 Sponsors — Anrok | RightRev | Pulley

14:07 Jake Kornreich: title vs. impact

18:23 Get into the room where decisions are made

22:08 Sponsors — Rillet | Maximor | Brex

25:23 Dan Betts: don't church it up

27:11 The higher up you go, the simpler it gets

29:04 Dan Betts: the many faces of EBITDA

30:39 Understand what success means to them

32:07 Jake Kornreich: the $5M budget bust

33:04 Bad news travels fast

35:01 Alan Imberman: the $100K coffee tab

38:15 ROI on perks

40:25 Alan Imberman: long-term vs. short-term investors

43:28 Would you take the Lehman job?

45:44 Credits

#RunTheNumbersPodcast #CFO #FinanceLeadership #StartupGrowth #FinanceHistory

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