Liquid: How CFOs Outperform

Today’s finance leaders are up against a major challenge: liquidity gridlock. They’ve got the skills and know-how to solve big problems, but disconnected, confusing systems keep their financial data siloed. What’s the impact? Weak data interpretation, poor future planning, and subpar risk control. And frankly, they deserve better. Welcome to Liquid: How CFOs Outperform, the podcast where top CFOs share their biggest and boldest approaches to transforming corporate liquidity and shaping business strategy straight from the Office of the CFO. This isn’t your typical finance show. Whether you’re a CFO, Treasurer, or any finance leader who has a stake in how your organization manages, plans, or optimizes liquidity, it’s time to break out of the mold to meet the moment and outperform the competition. Join Tom Gavaghan as he talks with visionary finance leaders to uncover the biggest and boldest strategies they’re currently using to grow their organizations and avoid liquidity gridlock. Powered by the team at Kyriba.

Liquid: How CFOs Outperform is a business podcast hosted by Unknown Host, with 25 episodes on record and a Required Pod Score of 80. PitchCentric scores this show on Booking Probability, Listen Score, and live audience signals refreshed every 24 hours.

Unknown Host hosts Liquid: How CFOs Outperform, a business show with 25 episodes published.

Our AI reads these to draft pitches. Use them as grounding for a pitch that cites a real guest and a specific topic.

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  Episode #24

  The Cash Void: When Growing Sales Puts a Company at Risk

  Sep 10, 202645 min

  Tom is joined by Cruz Gamboa, a 25-year Fortune 500 finance veteran turned fractional CFO and founder of Ascend Growth Ventures and ScalingCFO.io. Cruz explains why “just grow sales” becomes dangerous as companies scale, how the “cash void” can hide liquidity problems behind a healthy P&L, and why management teams must identify their biggest constraint before pushing for more growth. He also discusses the core financial practices every founder-led company needs, whether AI can replace the CFO, and why judgment, leadership, communication, and storytelling will matter more than ever. Finally, Cruz reflects on golden handcuffs, career identity, and knowing when it is time to make a change.   Guest quotes:  "When you scale chaos, chaos scales." “Golden handcuffs are psychological, not just financial. If we hate our jobs, if we hate our reality, if we hate our situation that we're in, we have two options. We either reframe in the way that we see what we do or we make a change.” “ When you change the way you look at things, the things that you look at change. This is quantum physics.”   Links & Resources: Connect with Tom Gavaghan Connect with Cruz Gamboa Learn more about Kyriba Learn more about Ascend Growth Ventures Learn more about ScalingCFO.io YouTube Timestamps: 00:00 Show Intro and Guest Overview 02:22 The "cash void": when "just sell more" becomes bad advice 04:58 Where cash actually hides: the operating vs. liquidity business 08:20 "When you scale chaos, chaos scales" 09:39 What has to be true structurally before pulling the growth lever 13:20 The theory of constraints: finding the business's real bottleneck 15:56 Can AI replace the CFO? 20:23 Advice for young finance professionals in the AI era 22:58 Productizing ScalingCFO: checklist-driven client methodology 27:15 Why CFOs get left off the table: leadership and ego 31:12 The #1 CFO differentiator: soft skills and communication 33:16 Leaving too late: golden handcuffs and knowing when to go 40:30 What resonates most with his 30,000+ newsletter subscribers 42:47 Book recommendation: Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill 44:12 Where to find Cruz Gamboa and closing thoughts Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

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  Episode #23

  Build vs. Buy in the Age of AI: BlackLine's Patrick Villanova on Valuations, Risk, and Trust

  Aug 6, 202645 min

  Tom is joined by Patrick Villanova, CFO of BlackLine. Patrick shares how his path through 15 years at PwC and BlackLine's own controllership shaped his accountant's-eye view of risk, and how that background informs everything from platform strategy to M&A. Patrick digs into the real math behind build-versus-buy decisions, why private company valuations still haven't caught down to depressed public multiples, and why he's convinced this disconnect can't last. He also explains how BlackLine is deploying AI agents cautiously and deliberately — keeping a human in the loop at every step — and why that same "lean in, but verify" mindset is exactly what he'd tell any accountant or CFO trying to future-proof their career. Guest quotes: “ With any technological disruption, there are winners and losers. Those companies that avoided it or were afraid of it or didn't believe it, most of them went the way of the dinosaur.” “Trust is something that takes years to build up and a nanosecond to destroy. We're bringing our customers along, building that trust, giving them a sampling, and then once we've established that, you have the S-curve of adoption that we've seen multiple times in history.” “ The more diverse opinions you can get from a talent perspective within your culture, within your organization, the stronger your ultimate product and platform will be.” Links & Resources: Connect with Tom Gavaghan Connect with Patrick Villanova Learn more about Kyriba Learn more about BlackLine YouTube Timestamps: 00:00 Show Intro and Guest Overview 01:05 Patrick's background: BlackLine, PwC, accounting roots 02:03 BlackLine's evolution beyond financial close 03:19 Studio360 as the connective data layer 04:43 Single data source as the key to safe AI agents 05:32 Point solution perception vs. broader platform value 08:34 Why BlackLine stays ERP-agnostic 09:35 The BlackLine-Kyriba partnership model 12:24 Build vs. buy: weighing cost, speed, and talent 15:22 Why private valuations remain disconnected from public multiples 17:46 Engineering productivity gains from AI at BlackLine 19:10 Why "just build it" often underestimates true cost of ownership 23:22 Multiples: 2021 peak to the post-AI-narrative reset 26:53 The reckoning over real AI token costs 30:53 Balancing AI speed with accuracy and trust 34:35 Building customer trust through gradual AI adoption 36:07 Advice for CFOs resistant to change 39:38 Why evaluating security and partnerships matters as much as software 41:20 Advice for young finance professionals in the AI era Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

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  Episode #22

  From 60 Days to Same Day: How RBC Clear Is Reinventing Corporate Banking

  Jul 9, 202648 minS0

  <p>Tom is joined by Kartik Kaushik, Managing Director and Head of RBC Clear. Kartik shares how he went from building India's first e-commerce platform at Unilever to reimagining corporate transaction banking in the US — and why that unconventional path gave him the customer advocate lens the industry desperately needed. He breaks down why corporate onboarding still takes 45 to 60 days, what it took to compress that to same-day, and how parallel processing and intelligent validation replaced an army of operations staff. Kartik also explains why he rebuilt RBC Clear as fully cloud-native from day one, how co-developing the platform with 28 of...

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  Episode #22

  From 60 Days to Same Day: How RBC Clear Is Reinventing Corporate Banking

  Jul 9, 202648 min

  Tom is joined by Kartik Kaushik, Managing Director and Head of RBC Clear. Kartik shares how he went from building India's first e-commerce platform at Unilever to reimagining corporate transaction banking in the US — and why that unconventional path gave him the customer advocate lens the industry desperately needed. He breaks down why corporate onboarding still takes 45 to 60 days, what it took to compress that to same-day, and how parallel processing and intelligent validation replaced an army of operations staff. Kartik also explains why he rebuilt RBC Clear as fully cloud-native from day one, how co-developing the platform with 28 of their largest clients shaped every product decision, and why the real unlock for treasury isn't just better technology. Guest quotes: “ Technology is only as good or as valuable as what the business case or the business intent or the need that you're solving for.” “ You have to rethink policy, you have to rethink process, you have to rethink everything that's sacrosanct or held as the gold standard in the past. Everything has to be questioned.” “ All the great products, we become part of their life as a customer, and the customer forgets we exist. That is the best state of any product.” Links & Resources: Connect with Tom Gavaghan Connect with Kartik Kaushik Learn more about Kyriba Learn more about RBC Clear YouTube Timestamps: 00:00 Show Intro and Guest Overview 00:26 Kartik's Background 01:44 Building the First E-Commerce Platform in India (1999–2000) 03:17 From Unilever to Citi to RBC 04:28 The Customer Advocate Lens in Corporate Banking 06:23 What Is RBC Clear? Putting Clients in Control of Working Capital 07:27 Co-Developing with 28 Client Advisory Firms 08:42 Why US Corporate Banking Is So Archaic 12:38 Re-Imagining Onboarding: From 67 Days to Same-Day 14:10 Time and Motion Study: The File Was Touched for Only 10.5 Hours 16:50 Pre-Populating Client Data and Intelligent Document Validation 19:58 Parallel Processing: How RBC Eliminated Sequential Handoffs 22:00 Pricing Transparency: Why Bank Invoices Require a PhD to Read 27:46 Flipping from Reactive to Proactive: The "Where Is My Payment?" Problem 29:20 No Published 1-800 Number: Zero Client-Facing Ops After 24 Months 32:14 What Had to Break Internally to Achieve Same-Day Onboarding 37:13 First Fully Cloud-Native Core Banking Payments Business 42:01 Lessons from Unilever: Start with the "So What" 43:50 The Three Types of Workers in an Agentic AI World 49:25 Outro and Wrap-Up Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

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  Episode #21

  How AI and Big Data are Transforming Modern CFO Leadership

  Jun 4, 202641 minS0

  <p>Tom is joined by Natalie Derse, CFO of Gen. Natalie shares how she and her CEO delivered $330 million in cost synergies in under 18 months following Gen's merger with Avast, and what made that execution possible. She also breaks down her approach to AI-native finance, why the CFO is becoming the de facto Chief Trust Officer, and how real-time data from GE and eBay shaped her modern playbook. Natalie also shares her take on talent — what she looks for in every hire and how mentorship, not just work ethic, is what actually accelerates careers.</p> <p> </p> <p>Guest quotes: <br> ...

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