Mostly Making Moves in 2024
What's in store for Mostly metrics in the new year
A sign you’re a new parent still attempting to iron out your identity - Spotify’s “Wrapped” reveals your #1 song in 2023 was “Wheels on the Bus” by Raffi… closely followed by “Big Dog” by Benny the Butcher and Lil Wayne.
2023 was a year of transition in a lot of ways:
It was my first full fiscal year as a CFO (note: didn’t get fired)
It was my second year as a dad (and first year as a father of two)
It was my first year as the Joe Rogan of Metrics, launching the Run the Numbers Podcast (shout out Producers Nancy and Nat, you rock)
And it was my first time putting out two (dope) pieces of Mostly metrics content each week (the keys of my dusty Lenovo are BEGGING for a break).
I’m determined to improve in each of these areas of life in 2024.
So here’s what’s in store for Mostly metrics readers in the new year…
Surgeon General’s warning:
Make sure you aren’t chewing bubble gum & your shoe laces are securely tied before reading any further…
As many of you probably realized, Mostly metrics went on a series of (highly publicized) dates with Brex in 2023. Things heated up, and we’ve decided to take a big next step, moving in together and signing a three month lease…
Brex will be our presenting sponsor for Q1 of 2024.
This was after careful consideration, and meeting one another’s parents (I interviewed Art Levy, Chief Strategy Officer here on MM, and Michael Tannenbaum, CFO / COO graced the Run the Numbers podcast).
This is great news. Because your boy LOVES writing, and HATES selling ads. So yea, lock it in baby. My vintage IKEA is already en route to the new crib.
(Note: Don’t tell Brex, but my wife says that there’s a 75% chance I’ll forget to wipe down the counters with Windex after dinner.)
And over on the paid side of things, after extensive user research from our kickass product team (aka me zipping one-off emails to random readers from my iPhone 7 in between sets of pull ups at the gym) we’ve decided to revamp the structure to provide “more value”.
In 2023 I discovered people want to go deeper, and get incredibly tactical, on core finance, strategy, and ops topics. Our Annual Budget Series really brought this to light - people lost their fucking minds over “Modeling Pipeline Coverage” and “Building Sales Capacity”. Who knew!?
This inspired me to think about what else could be a “series”. I decided that each month should be able to stand on its own as a single topical (or is that the lotion term?) playbook.
Here’s the (preliminary) programming we’ve scheduled (subject to change, as I may be deeply inspired by something I learn myself as a CFO):
January: Board Preparation and Management
Participants, structure, and mistakes to avoid
Material prep, useful templates, and metrics to include
February: Startup Fundraising
Getting your story right
Investor targeting
How to run a successful fundraising process
How to review a term sheet
March: Treasury
What bank accounts should I keep my cash in?
How do venture debt facilities work?
How do interest rates and the Fed actually impact me?
April: A crash course in Investor Relations
How CFOs prepare for earnings calls
Tools for investor targeting and research
Beat and raise models
May: IPO Processes
Types of offerings
Roadshow timelines
Components of an S1
Metrics to hit
June: Middlemen & Take Rates
Marketplaces
Platforms
The Chicken or the Egg Problem
July: Competitive Moats
Types of competitive moats
Competitive moats in action
August: Annual Planning
ROUND 2 MY PEOPLES!!!
September: Cap Table Management
How a 409a works
Getting rich off secondaries
Dilution
October: The CFO Software Stack
Planning and forecasting
Payments
Record keeping and payroll
BI and Analytics
November: Vertical Software
Owning the control point
The “layer cake” strategy
Harnessing the power of messy data
December: Sales Compensation
Commission rate benchmarking
Types of variable comp
Do SPIFFS actually work?
(Shameless plug to get onboard now if you see a topic mentioned here that you are excited for)
Paid emails will continue to (mostly) come out on Thursday’s. Some months may have four emails; some months may have two; some months may have six - it all depends on what the topic calls for.
I’ve taken something
said to heart:“People don’t want more emails; they want better emails.”
And that’s what I’m determined to do - provide better emails for all our subscribers. So crank the Nickelback and let the chips fall where they may, cuz I’m about to send it. Skizzerp.
This will be a good year. I can feel it in my bones. Walter says thank you. Much love, from the Mostly metrics writer’s room:
Mostly making the world a bit better
In each month of 2023 we donated the first $1,000 of reader subscription dollars to a different charity. Here’s what all the paid homies contributed to in 2023:
Ending school gun violence (Sandy Hook Promise)
Housing for families traveling to get their kids care at out of state hospitals (The Paul Magnus Foundation)
Curing Cystic Fibrosis (CFF)
Rebuilding Ukraine (Sweet Anok)
Curing breast cancer (American Cancer Society)
Building wells in Africa (Charity Water)
Maui wildfires (Hawaii Community Foundation)
Spinal muscular atrophy (Cure SMA)
Finding homes for some of Walter’s friends (The Humane Society of Naples)
Saving panda bears (World Wildlife Foundation)
Local youth running scholarships (Gulf Coast Runners Scholarship Fund)
School supplies for orphans in the Congo (Hope for All)
A quick word from our sponsor - Brex
Manual, time-consuming expense processes are costing you more than you know. Or maybe you do know, but are too focused on growth to deal with it. Brex can help.
Brex is how finance people get non-finance people to spend smarter. Their AI-powered cards + payments + software approach is more intuitive and scalable than anything out there and empowers employees everywhere to make better $$$ decisions and finance leaders like you to close the books faster.
Smart cards, automatic receipts, automated approvals, global travel, and real-time visibility in one place boost accuracy, efficiency, and compliance. It’s one total spend platform and a universe of benefits.
Some Thank You’s
Shout out to my top 5 recommenders in 2023. I’m appreciative of your partnership, and a HUGE fan of your writing.
from from the from from from
Need more Griselda references in 2024!
Thanks for the shout out my friend! Keep up the great work and excited to see what 2024 holds 🙌🏻🚀