A Counterintuitive Start Finance has always been seen as the function of “no.” No to risk. No to expansion. No to ideas that didn’t fit the spreadsheet. But what if finance wasn’t about rejection at all? That’s the paradox Sarah Schlott leans into. For her, finance is not a brake pedal — it’s a navigation […]
A Forecasting Prediction We Can’t Ignore Over the past decade, FP&A has quietly shifted from an annual budget exercise to a continuous discipline. But the next decade will force something more radical: the rise of AI-driven zero-based forecasting (ZBF). Traditional budgeting still carries legacy habits: incrementalism, sandbagging, and the classic “last year plus 5%.” But […]
The first wave of AI hype was all about replacing people. Call centers, copywriters, junior analysts — no job seemed safe. But the next wave of AI isn’t about replacement. It’s about augmentation, especially in one of the most founder-sensitive areas of business: finance. Here’s the prediction: AI-driven FP&A will become the single biggest unlock […]
Angel investing is often framed as a leap of faith — backing founders, betting on vision, riding upside. But here’s the uncomfortable truth: the discipline many angels dismiss as operational housekeeping — financial planning & analysis (FP&A) — is one of the highest-leverage growth and protection tools available. It’s a paradox: angels care fiercely about […]
The Paradox at the Core of Finance Thought Leadership Finance is built on control — budgets, forecasts, risk models.Yet today’s most impactful finance thought leaders are those who embrace uncertainty, not deny it. Sarah Schlott, recognized as a modern finance thought leader, puts it directly: “The role of finance isn’t to predict the future with […]
The Quiet Failure Hiding in Scenario Planning Every finance leader knows the ritual.You run a planning cycle, spin up your “base case,” bolt on a mild “upside” and “downside,” and present it to the board. The numbers look polished. The slides are airtight.But everyone in the room knows the truth: it’s theater. Because the real […]
March board meeting.You open the renewal pipeline slide. On paper, the numbers look solid — high logo renewal rates, expansion potential, optimistic AE notes. But deep down, you know the danger: timing. Half your top contracts renew in Q3, yet the plan smears them evenly across the year. The CFO wants predictability. The CEO wants […]
The Tuesday Night Forecast Spiral It always happens the same way. Tuesday night. The forecast is due in the morning. You’re staring at Salesforce pipeline data, trying to reconcile it with the cash forecast in your Excel model. The CRM says $12 million in “committed” deals will close. Finance knows only half of that ever […]
The New Obsession Every Founder Shares If you’re a Gen Z or millennial founder, you already know the obsession: AI copilots rewriting code, drafting pitch decks, generating customer insights, even simulating entire product launches. Every scroll through X or LinkedIn brings another demo promising speed, leverage, and disruption. But here’s the paradox: while product, marketing, […]
The Trend Every Founder Sees — But Few Connect If you’ve scrolled LinkedIn or Twitter this week, you’ve seen it: AI copilots rewriting code, generating marketing campaigns, and even pitching investors. Every founder is asking the same question: how fast can I bend this to my advantage? But there’s one place the conversation hasn’t caught […]