What investing lesson most influences your CFO decisions?

TM

Todd McElhatton

Chief Operating and Financial Officer · Zuora

Seek Counsel

Todd McElhatton says the lesson is to seek counsel from others when engaging in areas where you don’t have deep experience, and warns against failing alone.

The answer starts at 45:20.

Shiv Verma

Chief Financial Officer · Robinhood

The Trade You Don’t Make

Shiv Verma says the best trade is often the one you don't make, since it is easy to sell yourself on an investment and hard to know when to say no, and he still uses that mindset.

Jessica Somers

Chief Financial Officer · Aledade, Inc.

Listen and Be Curious

Jessica Somers says that when she moved into an operating role with no playbook, she was really curious—admitting what she didn’t know, asking questions, and listening, including to what wasn’t said.

JM

Jack Gordon, MBA

Chief Financial Officer · Harri

Don’t Count Chickens Early

Jack Gordon, MBA says the lesson he reiterated is 'never count your chickens before they're hatched,' after a deal died and he had to restart a fundraise.

Philip D. Fracassa

EVP & Chief Financial Officer · Magna International

Leadership Over Technical Skills

Philip D. Fracassa says the lesson he learned is that leadership matters as much or more than technical skills, because influence, communication, and building consensus drive execution and outcomes in an organization.

Andrew Korn

Chief Financial Officer · Eliseai

Partnership and Trust

Andrew Korn says the thing that matters more than anything else is partnership and candor with the management team and mutual trust; he wishes he'd spent all his time on that, not half.

Samantha Greenberg

Chief Financial Officer · AlphaSense

Seek True Asymmetry

Samantha Greenberg says she learned from John Paulson to seek true asymmetry, where upside outweighs downside, and to concentrate in rare moments when asymmetry is extreme in her favor.