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 […]
https://theschlottco.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/IMG_3985-1.jpg10251024The Schlott Companyhttps://theschlottco.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/06/logo-schlottco-1.pngThe Schlott Company2025-10-02 11:56:152025-10-02 11:56:15Sarah Schlott: Redefining the Modern Finance Thought Leader
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 […]
https://theschlottco.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/pexels-goumbik-590016-1.jpg7951200The Schlott Companyhttps://theschlottco.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/06/logo-schlottco-1.pngThe Schlott Company2025-10-01 08:57:362025-10-01 08:57:36AI-Powered Scenario Planning: The Next Frontier in FP&A
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 […]
Why I Built This Company I remember the night vividly. It was 11:47 p.m. I had three different spreadsheets open, each telling me a different version of reality. Revenue looked fine in one tab, runway was evaporating in another, and the board deck waiting in my inbox demanded an answer I didn’t have. That’s when […]
https://theschlottco.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/pexels-goumbik-590022.jpg7951200Sarah Schlotthttps://theschlottco.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/06/logo-schlottco-1.pngSarah Schlott2025-09-29 22:59:312025-09-29 23:01:04The Schlott Company and the Future of Modern FP&A
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 […]
https://theschlottco.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/11.jpg10951732The Schlott Companyhttps://theschlottco.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/06/logo-schlottco-1.pngThe Schlott Company2025-09-29 22:49:262025-09-29 22:49:26AI-Driven FP&A: The New Growth Engine for Founders
The Scene: A Runway Measured in Weeks The boardroom was silent except for the clicking of laptops. A startup CEO had just walked investors through their “18 months of runway.” The numbers looked neat. Charts were polished. Yet one backer leaned forward and asked a simple question: “What happens if churn doubles?” The room froze. […]
https://theschlottco.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/pexels-jakubzerdzicki-20142092.jpg8011200The Schlott Companyhttps://theschlottco.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/06/logo-schlottco-1.pngThe Schlott Company2025-09-29 22:43:482025-09-29 22:44:35FP&A: The Overlooked Growth Lever Investors Can’t Afford to Miss
The Provocation “Annual planning is dead.” That’s not the kind of line you expect to hear from a finance leader. It’s the sort of heresy that makes a boardroom go silent and a CFO shift in their chair. Yet Sarah Schlott, Founder & CEO of The Schlott Company, has built her reputation on saying the […]
https://theschlottco.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/8.jpg11551732The Schlott Companyhttps://theschlottco.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/06/logo-schlottco-1.pngThe Schlott Company2025-09-29 22:38:102025-09-29 22:38:10Why Finance Needs a New Playbook — and Why Sarah Schlott Is Writing It
The Tuesday Night Forecast Spiral It’s always Tuesday night.The board deck is due in 48 hours.Your forecast says margins are holding steady. But your gut says otherwise. Support costs have crept up. New customer implementations are heavier than expected. And the last churn cohort looked more expensive to serve than the models predicted. You know […]
Sarah Schlott: Redefining the Modern Finance Thought Leader
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 […]
AI-Powered Scenario Planning: The Next Frontier in FP&A
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 […]
Forecasting SaaS Renewal Timing with ChatGPT + Excel
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 […]
Pipeline-to-Cash Conversion: The FP&A Task SaaS Can’t Afford to Miss
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 Schlott Company and the Future of Modern FP&A
Why I Built This Company I remember the night vividly. It was 11:47 p.m. I had three different spreadsheets open, each telling me a different version of reality. Revenue looked fine in one tab, runway was evaporating in another, and the board deck waiting in my inbox demanded an answer I didn’t have. That’s when […]
Startup Finance 3.0: Why AI-Driven FP&A Is Every Founder’s Edge
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, […]
AI-Driven FP&A: The New Growth Engine for Founders
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 […]
FP&A: The Overlooked Growth Lever Investors Can’t Afford to Miss
The Scene: A Runway Measured in Weeks The boardroom was silent except for the clicking of laptops. A startup CEO had just walked investors through their “18 months of runway.” The numbers looked neat. Charts were polished. Yet one backer leaned forward and asked a simple question: “What happens if churn doubles?” The room froze. […]
Why Finance Needs a New Playbook — and Why Sarah Schlott Is Writing It
The Provocation “Annual planning is dead.” That’s not the kind of line you expect to hear from a finance leader. It’s the sort of heresy that makes a boardroom go silent and a CFO shift in their chair. Yet Sarah Schlott, Founder & CEO of The Schlott Company, has built her reputation on saying the […]
Cohort-Level Gross Margin: The Hidden FP&A Lever for SaaS Valuation
The Tuesday Night Forecast Spiral It’s always Tuesday night.The board deck is due in 48 hours.Your forecast says margins are holding steady. But your gut says otherwise. Support costs have crept up. New customer implementations are heavier than expected. And the last churn cohort looked more expensive to serve than the models predicted. You know […]