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- [00:00]
A
Hello, I'm Ray wright, founder and CEO of BenchMarket and your host of the Metrics at Majorette Podcast. We talk to a wide variety of the top B2B SaaS and Cloud Thought Leaders, CEOs, executives, investors and people just like you to discuss the metrics and benchmarks they use to make metrics informed and benchmark validated decisions. Now, onto today's show. Welcome to today's episode of the Metrics that Measure up podcast. Today I am joined by Christina Ross, the founder and CEO of Cube. We'll be covering three main topics with Christina today. First, how her experiences at GE in Deloitte shaped Christina's view on the role of finance. Second, the biggest challenge is facing CFOs with their FP&A function today. And third, the role of FP&A in business strategy. So with that as a backdrop, Christina, please take a moment to give a brief background of your journey to becoming a guest here on the Metrics Measureup podcast.
- [01:19]
B
All right, so I started my career in corporate finance. And I always like to say finance is a bit of a dirty word because it means different things to different people. There's financial services, there's investment banking, there's fintech, that's sort of the more institutional transactional side of finance, or within financial services, which is the industry. And then there's corporate finance, which is the function within a business that helps, as I like to say, tell the story behind the numbers. And when I was a young college graduate, I knew one day I might want to run a business or be part of starting a business. And I thought the best way to learn a business, how a business works, is to learn the language of business, which is the numbers. And I think of understanding the numbers as like speaking a language that not everyone in the world can speak. And it's an incredibly powerful tool. So that's what led me to start my career. This is the early 2000s now at general Electric, which at the time was on the list of most admired companies in the world. So top five. So if you think of like Amazon today or Apple or Google, that was GE back when I graduated and they were known for having a top tier finance department. And what was interesting about the way GE approached finance is a lot of the ways they talked about finance teams then is how we're talking about finance teams now, as the CFO is now being positioned more as a COO rather than just a pure financial officer. They're operational. So that's how I got started at GE and why I joined Their program. And it sounds like Ray, you were part of FMP as well, the financial management program.
- [02:56]
A
No, I wasn't part of fmp. I was part of their executive management development program and in the small world. And I don't want to spend too much on a company that's a lot of people don't know is as relevant today. Dennis Dammerman was the CFO of all of GE and he became my mentor for a year and a half. So even though I was running a business unit, I actually had the CFO as my mentor. In Corporate Audit, which you also spent time in Corporate audit. Did that shape your perspective on how people and how strategic finance can be? Planning isn't just about numbers. It's about trust with your cfo, your board and your team. I've been in the seat trying to explain why headcount is off, why cash burn spiked, or why the forecast changed. And the truth is your planning process is built on spreadsheets. You're always reacting. That's where Drivetrain comes in. It's an AI native business planning platform that keeps your forecast grounded in real time. Data, revenue, hiring, cash, all in one place, fully linked. So when the board asks what changed? You have the answer. See why high growth finance teams plan with Drivetrain. Visit Drivetrain AI metrics and get 2 months free and 50% off implementation for a limited time. That's D R I V E T R A I N AI metrics.
- [04:26]
B
It did. And it also correlated to something that's very true at Cube that we've learned over the years or that we sort of already knew, which is that this language of finance that we speak is a common tongue across all different businesses and all different industries. So again, going back to this company and this program that was very popular at the time, rotated finance leaders through different types of GE businesses. And as a conglomerate, you did everything from the electronics, the GE refrigerators to. I remember I was on the lot at Universal Studios. I was doing a bank audit in Nicaragua. I spent time at their global research center. So it wasn't just looking at numbers in one particular type of industry. You're looking at different sets of books in different types of businesses and you're seeing how they're all similar and where they differ. So that was a really unique experience in that we got to go really deep in the numbers. And you also learn how auditors think. So if you ever want to be good at inspecting data, which is the most important thing in transitioning to becoming a leader, there's a saying that you can't expect what you don't inspect. Because being an auditor makes you a really great inspector. Yeah.
- [05:37]
A
And we're going to time travel, you know, back to the future, 2025 in just a minute. But you also were at Deloitte in kind of a transformational consulting organization. Can you talk a little bit about that and how that shaped some of your perspectives?
- [05:52]
B
Yes. So coming out of ge, going to all these different businesses, I loved learning not just about the numbers and auditing them, but, but what really made them tick. And obviously numbers come from real life and they come from operations. And so I wanted to get my hands into consulting because it's one thing to say these numbers could look different, should look different, you should operate the business differently. You can build recommendations, but how do you take those recommendations and translate those into action? And that's what we did in consulting in the finance transformation practice. So to give examples, it could be an example of we accompany realizes they need to cut costs and so they need to build a shared services center. Well, great. What a great recommendation. Who's going to do that and what does it take to build out a shared services center? So then it's taking that big problem and breaking it down into pieces. What is the people side, what is the process side, what is the technology side? Building different work streams, coordinating, talking to executive sponsors, having project plans, keeping things on track. I mean that was one of the most besides being a CEO of Cube, one of the more exciting jobs because you see change in action in real life. And then we went to other businesses. We were with one of the largest newspaper companies back it's not even that long ago is when newspapers were realizing they were on their way out and starting to digitize. So how do we move from the old way of newspaper manufacturing to going over to digital. Other examples like moving over from Gap to ifrs. So we have to do a global transformation because of an acquisition. How do we move from Gap to ifrs? What are all the things that take place? Again, people process technology data.
- [07:37]
A
Well, what's interesting is you took those two amazing, well, pedigreed and broad perspective, working with finance organizations and in finance organizations. And then you became a multiple time CFO of a lot of different companies. How did your time as a CFO lead to saying, hey, hey, I'm going to stop being a CFO and go found this FP and a company?
- [07:58]
B
Yes. So again going back to pattern matching, so ge, I was in a lot of different companies. I was able to pattern match what Finance had in common with one place or another, becoming a cfo, I was, I was ready to get back into a business and not be on the outside giving advice or recommendations. I wanted to be part of the day to day action. And because I'd spent time in finance and in finance transformation, I got my first head of finance role in what was a 30 person company at the time called Rent the Runway, which of course is now a publicly traded company, and did that a couple more times in a couple more companies. But one of the things I learned is that clearly it was my job to tell the story behind the numbers. But most of the time I spent figuring out what the numbers were and my team spent most of their time digging through data, cleaning it, transforming it, applying it, pivoting it, structuring it, so on and so forth, to only get to a point that I could finally look at it, analyze it and be extensive on purpose. Most finance time is actually spent just preparing the data for analysis, not on the analysis and the recommendations itself. So while the expectation and the real, let's call it, excitement and value in the role is being a business partner to other executives and helping them figure out what, what do the numbers say? Where is the business going? How do I connect the strategy to execution? That's very difficult to do when you're living in a spreadsheet all day just trying to get the numbers to tie out. So that was a challenge not in one, not in two, but in three different companies. And it took a lot of money and effort just to get data to be ready for month end and be ready for analysis. So I decided to do what I think any tech word, CFO or executive would do. And I said, I'm going to go buy some software. So at the time, I went and bought what was considered the market leader at the time in FP&A software. I won't name them by name, but they're still very big today. I was told the implementation would be about six weeks. Six to nine months later, we're still on implementation. We finally got this thing up and running. And here is what followed. Number one, my team decided that it was easier for them to keep a secret backup model in Excel than fully adopt the software. Number two, I was told by other leaders in the business, quote, I won't log into that thing, but if you need data from me, I'll send you a spreadsheet. And number three, when one of my analysts quit, I realized I don't speak this particular software language. I speak Excel. It is the lingua franca of finance. It is the language that all data analysts and finance professionals speak. I don't know how to get my numbers out of the system system. So it was ultimately an epic failure that pushed us back to spreadsheets again. And I learned a very interesting data point, which is that over 80% of companies that replace Excel or spreadsheets to build or buy an FPA platform end up going back to spreadsheets anyway. So it seems like the world was solving the wrong problem, and you have two bad options. Option number one, if you want to start to automate a lot of data, work in financial planning and analysis. Option one is keep building spreadsheets, keep throwing people at the problem, and eventually it'll be good enough that you can get your numbers out on time again. The world is moving faster than ever. So this doesn't really seem like a great option. Option number two is say what feels obvious at first, which is that the spreadsheet is the problem. I hate it. I'm ready to get off of them. The problem with these two options is neither of these truly solve the problem. Option number one does not give you the controls or the data confidence that you need in scaling your financial operations. Option number two does not give you the flexibility or familiarity to actually make it usable. So enter the concept or the idea for Cube, which is, why can't we have our cake and eat it, too? And the premise behind Cube is that something as critical as financial workflows requires software to play nicely and be, at its core integrated with solutions like Excel, Google sheets, Slack teams, PowerPoint, so on and so forth. So we are the platform that meets you where you work. Because ultimately, what we're doing is we're harnessing. We're harnessing the collective intelligence of an organization. And to do that, we need to meet you where you're already working, not force you to contort your financial model or your financial operations to our platform.
- [12:31]
A
Christine, I'm going to zoom out to something you said at the very beginning of this part of our conversation, and that is you were spending so much time in the data in the spreadsheets that you didn't have a lot of time on for the strategic part. And one of the things I've always said, and my wife's the CFO of a $12 billion entity, and she's like, you know, my job is really to be a great financial storyteller. What are the financials and all these models telling us about the business? So when I'm meeting with the CEO or her board of directors.
- [13:04]
B
Right.
- [13:04]
A
I want to be able to spend more time on crafting the story and not a story like trying to make things up, but story about why we're going to invest here. Is that part of what you see great FP and a teams and processes do where they can spend more time on the strategic analysis so the CFO can think more about what what does this mean to the future of our business?
- [13:25]
B
Absolutely. And to take it a step further, we look at strategic finance. So I'll start by defining what we think strategic finance is or being a strategic finance business partner as not only telling the story behind the numbers, but being able to advise the business on what could or should come next. So it's historically looking what did the numbers say? It's forward looking, where are we going? So connecting strategy and the numbers together, operational and financial and then blending those two things together to say are we on track or not. So FPA is truly or strategic finance as past, present and future. But it's as only good. It's only as good as that. Remember the language piece translating what the numbers are saying or what they could say back to the business. We are as CFOs were almost chief translators between the numbers in the business.
- [14:14]
A
Yeah. Let me ask this because I have this discussion all the time. Strategic finance is a great concept. FP and a being a strategic partner to their product colleagues or go to market executive colleagues. Right. That's kind of the vision. But I'm like maybe 10 maximum 20% of FP and A teams that I see actually have a seat at the executive table where they're viewed as a business partner. Why is that?
- [14:43]
B
Oh, great question. Most teams aren't there yet and I can explain why. So picture a pyramid. We have one on our website@cubesoftware.com on the homepage. But we call this, we think of it as like a strategic finance hierarchy of needs. So think of Maslow's hierarchy of needs and you know, in order to achieve higher order tasks, you need to have food, shelter, water to be a strategic finance business partner. It sound, it would sound like the right thing would be why don't you just throw some dashboards out and tell me what the numbers are saying. But the reality is there's so many layers that go into being able to get to that level that they really need to come in order. And I'll explain what the order of the pyramid is at its foundation. You need to have good data, so your transactional data has to be clean. But from an FPA person's perspective, that bottom layer is good data, governance, integrity and management. So does my data tie out? Does it make sense? Is it clean, clear and ready? And most companies are stuck there. When we're on calls with prospects and before becoming customers, they spend most of their time getting that data ready for analysis. That's where most companies are stuck. Then once companies have that data piece, let's call it solved for the most part, they move on to the next layer. The second layer of the pyramid is going to be, let's call it reporting and analysis. So now that my data is clean, how do I structure it in such a way that it tells me what I need it to say? Can I structure it in a management report that's telling me what my executives care about? Am I structuring it in a way that I can double click or deep dive into a vendor analysis? Am I looking at cash flow forecasting and seeing how far my cash takes me out to? So there's that reporting and analysis layer. Once you get to that second layer, that's usually where most companies then sort of top out after a while. The layer after that is going to be planning and modeling. So it doesn't mean you're not doing these things, but you can't really model really well if you don't know what your data says and you don't have any data. So then you get to planning and modeling and it's all about being able to look ahead and compare and contrast different scenarios. So that's the third layer. Once you're able to now tell that story, you have data, you know what it says, you know how you performed, you know where you're going, you can now take all that information and turn that into action and communication. So that's that strategic finance layer piece that's at the top of the pyramid and that's where most finance professionals want and need to go.
- [17:16]
A
Yeah, I'm going to double click on that third layer because model and planning, right. FP&A is known to, you know, budgeting, planning on an annual basis, doing different scenarios and report. But speed of business today is moving so much faster and to be able to harness almost near real time signals from all these different transactional systems and almost maybe remodel and re simulate. To me that becomes a big part of their strategic insights. Hey, if we keep seeing this, even something as simple as my conversion rate of leads to revenue, and I know it's very sales and marketing focused, we're going to have an issue 1, 2, 3/4 down the road. And I would think that's a huge challenge of being able to ingest all that real time signal data and remodel quickly. Is that accurate?
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B
Yes, absolutely. Yeah.
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A
And how does, even though this isn't a promotion for Cube, how does Cube help with that?
- [18:20]
B
So Cube, we connect all these different layers of the pyramid together. And another way you can think of it as like in a process flow, flow. You're constantly doing these things in FP&A. You're planning, you're preparing data, you're analyzing it, you're aligning with the team within that cube number one or you can think of the bottom of the pyramid is going to get your data connected. So you mentioned conversion rates, your sales data. I'm assuming maybe that's coming from, maybe there's proprietary data coming from your some system of record, maybe it's coming from Salesforce, et cetera. All of that data gets piped into your model. That's that data layer piece and it has to be done in real time. So one of the things QT can do is it either pulls data in real time or you can run an update and have everything consolidate together at once. So you always get the most up to date data. So that's number one. Number two is because we're flexible and because we allow you to work within Excel or not, you can create a very simple pivot. I like to think of the world of data management very simply as like bidirectional pivoting data. So we can see in your model in real time what data was piped through. What does it say? We have a layer of AI on top so we can notify you when something has changed outside of your does this look good? Sort of benchmark or baseline. And then on top of that alerts, you can build workflows so you can create a set of reports or communications to go out to people to let them know not only did this thing happen and maybe that thing is like our conversion rates have gone down, we need to think about what's happening in our sales cycle. That then becomes creates the genesis of a conversation or maybe it creates the genesis of a meeting or some other metric that needs to change. Conversion rates are down, sales or sales are down. We need to cut some expenses this quarter. That's another action that could be promoted by the CFO through Cube.
- [20:13]
A
Yeah, I was thinking about as you were talking about how Cube could help, you know, kind of deal with some of those real time changes. It also helps the FP and a organization and let's just say an early career FP and a analyst. Right. That's one of the three best ways to become a CFO that I've seen or pass. I see the FPA path, I see the accounting path and then I also see kind of the corporate audit and audit partner path from, you know, the big four. Those are the primary ways I see individuals becoming CFOs. Tell me a little bit about how by an FP and a analyst being a little more proactive and maybe even recommending to buy a product like Cube, how that can help them go from being that back office analyst and report jockey to a more strategic business partner, how they can reallocate that time. Is that a fair question?
- [21:06]
B
It is, It's a very good question. And one of the things we talk to customers about or what their excited about when they start with Cube or when they're looking to buy a solution like Cube is they're telling us it's not just about the time savings. Like time savings is great, I'd love to see time, I'd love to go home on time, etc. But it's really about saving time so that I can spend my time on the things that drive value. And those are some of the things you've mentioned. So there's a couple of different ways to look at it. One is, number one, we help finance teams, FP&A analysts establish credibility within their organizations. You know that with Cube your data is going to be right. So we automate the data cleansing and transformation process so you can have confidence that the data that you're presenting is correct. And we do it quickly so that you're able to get to the other higher order tests again that matter to you as, as an analyst or someone in fp. And a, someone also said this to me not too long ago and I like the way they put it. They said, let me Christina, my data is usually right, but it's a matter of how long it takes for me to get there. So for some folks, bringing Cube on is about getting data right the first time and every time. For some folks, it's about accelerating the speed to know that the data is right versus spending all your time checking and balancing. So that's the first part. The second piece is now that you have this data, you can again continue to build credibility because you're able to get the answer in real time. I talk to a lot of non finance professionals, other executives who are like okay Christina, you know CFOs, why is it that when I ask my CFO, hey, I want to hire 10 sellers, what impact is that going to have on revenue? I can't just get an answer the same day. They have to go back, run a model, do a bunch of analysis. Takes them a week, they'll get back to me next Tuesday. Why can't I just get an answer quickly? And with a solution like ours, again, the model lives in the cloud, so there's an ability to get answers quickly or and this is the beauty of what AI has brought to our solution into the world is using natural language like asking it the question, what if I were to add 10 sellers to my to this quarter, what would happen to my what would happen to my revenue? And a great follow up question that I would then ask is, well, assuming you mean the revenue this year, here's what would happen, here's what it would do to your three year model. So honest. There's really powerful stuff and in getting promoted, it's moving from beyond the data person who lives in the spreadsheet to becoming the trusted advisor or the trusted business partner who can tell a story behind the numbers and also help advise and be the ultimate consigliere to the CEO.
- [23:46]
A
Yeah, I can't believe how quickly our time's flying. I could talk to you about so many different things, but one of the unique things about you, Christine, and one of the reasons I was really excited to have you as a guest here on the podcast was multiple time cfo, first time founder and CEO. Right. How has being in the CEO chair for multiple years now, how has that changed or maybe modified your perspective on what you're looking for from finance? Has it changed it being the finance executive giving stuff to the CEO and now as a CEO needing things from the cfo.
- [24:24]
B
Oh, such a good question. I definitely have a very high bar for for finance in our organization. How has it changed what I look for from CFOs? First of all, I talk about this a lot, but the CEO and the CFO has a very delicate dance that they play with one another. The CEO is constantly pushing and the CFO is constantly holding them back to truth and to the earth. And it's our job to pull apart from each other, but only to a certain extent. So I actually appreciate more now than ever the fact that all my old CEOs were borderline crazy I used to think, but what they were actually do is encouraging us to do, to be greater and to do more. I also appreciate more the work that I had been doing or the Work that now my finance team is doing to make sure that we have checked all the right boxes around risk, around data. CEOs make decisions very quickly and oftentimes we have to do it with limited data and limited information. It's the only way we unblock the business. It's also the CFO's job to make sure that we get as much data as possible to make the best, strongest, most data backed decisions. So the only way to answer that question is I'm appreciating even more the dance between the CEO and cfo, even though at the time it drove me up the wall. But I see my CFO now as a very trusted business partner and I think this is why we're seeing more and more CFOs moving into the CEO seat. Yeah.
- [25:56]
A
I'd tell you, Christine, I still remember the first time I was a CEO. I was moving quick. It was an early stage company and I counted on my head of finance the information. So I made a strategic decision based upon the information. And three weeks later they came back and said we made a mistake with that calculation and it would have completely changed my decision. And I never could get over that. You really not even let me down. You put me on the spot with the board of directors because I made a strategic investment decision that was the wrong decision and I have to go and say why.
- [26:28]
B
It's high stakes. It is high stakes, no doubt. And as a CEO, you better be inspecting the CFO's data. The last tip there for then CEOs is make sure you're good at inspection. Yeah.
- [26:39]
A
The good news is, as a former cfo, you're good at inspecting. I wasn't a former cfo, so maybe I didn't know what I didn't know.
- [26:47]
B
Fair enough.
- [26:48]
A
Let's give the listening audience a chance to get to know you as a person through three quick questions. And the first one is, is there a CEO or a company that you're following here in 2025 that you think is a great follower for other CEOs?
- [27:03]
B
Yeah, mine's an answer. I've been following this company for many years. I call them one of my brand crushes. There's always certain businesses, I'm like, this is one that I'd want to follow. And it's Carta, one of my favorites. Henry Ward was an angel investor in the early days of Cube and I was an early customer of theirs back when they were called E Shares. And I've always admired them for a few different reasons. Number one, they took a Very painful part of running a business or even being a CFO is, you know, cap tables and making them simple. So the simplicity, very high quality product, sounds like an ad I love as a customer. I think they're the way that they, the outreach to customers, just impeccable. It's just very well done on all fronts. And then most importantly, just the ability to create bigger and bigger markets and bigger and bolder bets with something that started off as small as a automated cap table and is now big as sort of the, you know, global equity market.
- [27:58]
A
So that's a great one, Christina. And I'm such a big fan of a guy named Peter Walker there who's the head of Insights, anybody in finance. You should be following him on LinkedIn so he takes all that Carta data and lets you know what's going on with private company equity trends. Okay, last question. We have those early career people out there listening. It's like, you know, I got my degree in economics, I got my degree in finance. Finance or. But what I really want to do is I want to be a B2B Software founder someday. What advice do you give them right now, early in their career that will help them prepare to become that successful founder?
- [28:34]
B
I. So old fashioned. Call me old fashioned. It's, it's a lot of hard work. And when I say hard work, I mean harder work than everyone else is doing every single day. Like, how do you do 20% more than all the people around you? And there's one thing I used to say to myself in the early days of founding the company when times would get really tough, which was if it were this easy, everyone would do it. So anytime I felt like I was at my, this is like just stomach sinking things that happen or knowledge or, you know, one setback or failure is that this is when everyone else quits. So this is really the time to just keep going. So if you work really hard, you're smart, just keep going and you'll get to the next milestone.
- [29:22]
A
That's great advice. And last question. Is there a tool not your own, not cube, that you think every SaaS CEO should be using in their organization?
- [29:32]
B
Yeah, I won't name my obvious tools which are like ChatGPT, Excel, Google Sheets, of course. But I'm a big fan of granola. This is meeting recording software. The thing I like about it is you can query it. So a lot of times we're very big at cube on making sure there's follow up and action items for every single meeting because otherwise why meet if we're not going to do what we said we were going to do. And what makes it easy about it is you can actually query the action items. You can ask questions about the meeting. And it's more than just recording software or its own AI insights. I can query the meeting to get follow ups. So a lot of times you hear, oh hey, we recorded that meeting. Honestly, I'm not going to sit through two hours of recording meetings, but I could get a summary from Granola and find out what happened and then be able to ask more questions around it.
- [30:20]
A
Christina, that's good food for thought. And yes, I am a dad and I do tell dad jokes, but that is an end to today's episode of the Metrics of Major Up Podcast. Christina Ross, Founder and CEO of Cube. Thank you for being my guest and could you also let people know how they can follow you or learn more about your company?
- [30:38]
B
Thank you, Ray. Yes, you can check us out@cubesoftware.com we have lots and lots of content and materials on how to be a great CFO finance leader, how to hire a cfo, how to talk to boards, how to understand metrics. So lots of content there. And you can also follow me on LinkedIn @CFO Christina.
- [30:55]
A
Okay. And to the listening audience, if you're enjoying the amazing guests and conversations we're having with, you know, senior successful executives like Christina Ross here, the founder and CEO of Cube, it would mean the world to us to go ahead and subscribe to the Metrics to Measure up podcast and your favorite podcasting app. Go ahead and give us that five star rating. It does make me feel good. Thank you in advance and I especially appreciate the 30 minutes of time that Christina, you gave us and our listening audience gave us. Goodbye everyone. Thank you for listening to this episode. The Metrics that Measure up podcast is brought to you by Benchmark it's which enables SaaS, companies and executives just like you with benchmarking Research, Events, media and the largest benchmarking index in the industry to make better metrics informed and benchmark validated decisions leading to more efficient revenue growth and increased enterprise value. To learn more, visit BenchMarket. That's BenchMarket with an IT AI benchmark IT AI.