Run the Numbers

CJ Gustafson is a working CFO at PartsTech and the writer behind the Mostly Metrics newsletter, which has quietly become required reading for a lot of SaaS finance people. Run the Numbers is the podcast version of that voice, and it is one of the few shows in the category where you can tell the host actually runs a finance team for a living rather than just talking to people who do. Episodes alternate between solo breakdowns, where Gustafson walks through a specific metric or financial concept, and interviews with other CFOs, operators, and occasionally investors. The solo episodes are often the highlights. He has a self-deprecating humor and a willingness to admit when he got something wrong at his own company, which makes the teaching moments land harder than the usual finance lecture. Topics tend to cluster around SaaS and tech finance: ARR quality, burn multiples, how to read a board deck, negotiating with auditors, and the politics of headcount planning. Gustafson is blunt about the parts of the job that nobody writes case studies about, like managing up to a CEO who does not understand cash conversion cycles, or explaining to the sales team why their commission plan is actually losing money. The writing quality from the newsletter translates well to audio. Episodes are usually 25 to 40 minutes, and the pace is brisk. For anyone in tech finance, especially at a venture-backed company, this has become one of the most trusted voices in the space without any of the guru branding that weighs down similar shows.