BROADCASTS.com

Last October, shortly after being named CFO of machine learning start-up MOLOCO, Brandon Maultasch decided to forgo yet another welcome coffee to instead engage with a wide flock of MOLOCO employees on the virtues of discounted cash analysis.

\u201cThe\xa0last\xa0thing you want a new people leader talking to the entire company about!,\u201d confesses Maultasch, before launching a stirring defense of the fall discussion that he refers to as a \u201cteach-in.\u201d \xa0

\u201cWe have 65 data scientists and machine learning engineers at the company. If they can build the things that they build, they are smart enough to understand finance, which isn\u2019t all that complicated,\u201d remarks Maultasch, whose approach is notable as much for what it does focus on as for what it doesn\u2019t.

By exploring a framework for discounted cash analysis, Maultasch rejected the more traditional point of engagement for incoming CFOs: the company\u2019s future IPO.

\u201cThe IPO is an important milestone, but it\u2019s not the destination,\u201d notes Maultasch. \u201cThe destination is building a generationally important company that adds value in the long run. I wanted to make people understand that the durability of cash flows is what drives long-term value creation.\u201d

Once armed with a deeper understanding of discounted cash flows, Maultasch says, employees at large can bring forth more of the insights, processes, and technical solutions that are needed to move the levers of value creation.

\u201cI want to line align our conversations around durability and long-term margins. These are the levers that move our revenue, move our profitability, and move our position in the value chain,\u201d he adds.

According to Maultasch, an added benefit from \u201cteach-in\u201d discussions is that they sometimes expose what the finance team has gotten wrong.

\u201cSome of the things that we thought were inputs turn out to be outputs,\u201d he observes, \u201cso it\u2019s this process of discussion, argument, and learning that aligns everyone toward building a great company.\u201d\xa0\u2013Jack Sweeney\xa0