Hello 👋 I’m CJ Gustafson. I’m a tech cfo.

My goal is to index the finance profession for current and aspiring CFOs.

In other words, I wanna make finance people at startups and tech companies better at their jobs.

For more than 30,000 hours I’ve helped scale VC and PE backed companies. I’ve worked in every position within the finance department, including FP&A, Treasury, IR, and CFO. I’ve even taken out the garbage and watered the plants in the office.

The topics I frequently write about include SaaS metrics (explained clearly), annual planning, business model monetization, fundraising, and selling your company (because let’s face it, if you’ve taken on funding, your technically always for sale).

By giving me your yahoo or hotmail, you’ve joined +75,000 finance brainiacs who enjoy reading about net dollar retention and CAC payback periods on weekends. You’ve found your tribe!

Here’s a collection of my dog Walter’s favorite pieces (he’s my dog). Bangerz only.

ARR

• Your Complete Guide to ARR

• How top tech companies define ARR

• If you want to trick investors, tell them about your CARR

NDR

• How top tech companies measure Net Dollar Retention Rate

• How to Calculate Net Dollar Retention Rate (the right way)

LTV to CAC

• How to calculate CAC Payback Period (the right way)

• Is LTV to CAC the Nickelback of SaaS Metrics?

Annual Planning

• Where Do I Start?

• Tops Down Target Setting (with Templates)

• Bottoms Up Budgeting

• How to Pitch an Annual Budget to your Board

• Building Sales Capacity

• Building a Marketing Budget

Pricing

• Avoid These Pricing Mistakes

• Tips for Negotiating Non Pricing Terms

• A Primer: Subscription vs Usage Based Pricing Models

Sales Comp

• Designing Comp Plans

• The Art and Science of SPIFFS

• Commission Rate Benchmarking

Finance Teams

• Building finance teams - The lifecycle of bean counters

• FP&A F'Ups - A list of boobytraps for first time FP&A leaders

Board Materials

• Participants, Roles, and Responsibilities

• Meeting Materials & Templates

• The Closed Door Session & Mistakes to Avoid

M&A

• M&A Strategies - How to evaluate your acquisition landscape

• Ways to buy a business - Asset deals vs Stock deals - in plain English

Marketplaces

• Marketplace Business Models

• 15 Ways to Solve the "Chicken or the Egg” Problem

• Marketplace metrics

Vertical SaaS

• The top metrics for vertical SaaS companies

• Owning the Control Point

Fundraising

• The game inside the game

• Steal This Pitch Deck Formula

• How much dilution is "normal"?

• SAFEs and Pre vs Post Money Valuations

—CJ