CFO Whisperer Jim Cook of Netflix, Intuit, & Mozilla: "Stop Trying To Be Precise"

In this episode, Sasha sits down with Jim Cook, dubbed the CFO Whisperer, after 30 years in Silicon Valley as CFO at Netflix, Intuit, and Mozilla. Jim shares CFO hiring mistakes and the misunderstandings most board members and investors have about the CFO role, why being precise is the finance professional’s Achilles heel, tactical advice for impactful communication in board meetings, and more.

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⏲️ Timestamps:

(00:00) Preview and Intro

(03:19) Early lessons from Intuit

(05:28) Evolution of finance teams

(09:06) Customer-centric finance

(11:14) Effective stakeholder management

(12:47) Strategic decision making in finance

(15:39) Board meetings preparation

(19:04) Sponsor: Netsuite | Attio

(21:07) Meaningful discussions on board meetings

(24:07) How to be a successful CEO

(31:38) Sponsor: Beehiiv | Babbel

(34:11) Early days of Netflix

(37:05) Monetization strategies

(44:14) Hiring the right CFO

(47:26) Interview question for a CFO candidate

(49:35) Introducing BenchBoard

(53:38) Common skills and advice

(57:19) Wrap

Subscribe to this season of Turpentine Finance, where our guests speak candidly about big business inflections, market curveballs, and how they approach decision-making to tease out tactics and mental models you can use when the pressure is on.

You’ll hear stories from Instacart, Mercury, OpenAI, Andreessen Horowitz, Netflix, Runway, and more. Topics frequently touched upon M&A, Market Downturn, Macro, PMF, Fundraising, Financial Forecasting, Headcount, Equity.

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Turpentine Finance is a part of the Turpentine podcast network. Learn more: www.turpentine.co

This show is produced by Turpentine: a network of podcasts, newsletters, and more covering technology, business, and culture, all from the perspective of industry insiders and experts. We’re launching new shows every week, and we’re looking for industry-leading sponsors - if you think that might be you and your company, email us at [email protected]