On this episode of Run the Numbers, CJ sits down with Datadog SVP of FP&A AJ Ljubich to break down the four stages of a world-class finance team.
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SPONSORS:
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
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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 https://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 https://www.maximor.ai/
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LINKS:
Mostly Talent: https://mostlymetrics.typeform.com/to/cLTxtAsN
Guest: https://www.linkedin.com/in/aj-ljubich-cfa-727ab912/
Company: https://www.datadoghq.com/
CJ: https://www.linkedin.com/in/cj-gustafson-13140948/
Mostly metrics: https://www.mostlymetrics.com
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TIMESTAMPS:
0:00 Preview and Intro
2:42 FP&A as a product team
4:53 The five pillars of AJ's team
6:39 How far FP&A has come
7:33 How do you know you're doing a good job?
10:20 FP&A as the dashboard, not the engine
10:20 Sponsors — Brex | Anrok | RightRev
13:18 The four-stage FP&A maturity model
16:00 Can you reach all four stages at Series B?
16:45 Why AJ holds weekly forecast meetings
18:24 How often to actually change the forecast
21:42 Sponsors — Pulley | Rillet | Maximor
24:49 Single source of truth: still on the vision board
26:12 AI and the self-serve data risk
26:21 CAC payback over LTV to CAC
29:39 Inside sales vs. enterprise payback comparison
31:47 Finance as the yes, but people
34:02 FP&A vs. IR: which is harder?
36:14 How IR makes you a better FP&A leader
37:19 Is the IR profile shifting?
42:01 IPOs are branding events, not finish lines
43:27 The Datadog IPO during the WeWork meltdown
45:15 Career philosophy: do great work where you are
49:52 Datadog didn't have a role for AJ when he started
52:16 Lightning round
52:24 Screwed up: forgot the currency guy
54:37 Finance software stack
56:16 Advice to younger self
57:13 Credits
