Balancing Stability and Innovation: The CFO Playbook From Thumbtack

FP&A Teams - Leading Businesses Through Uncertainty: https://bit.ly/3HQDrg3

What does it take to lead a high-growth company through economic uncertainty, while still innovating for the future?

Larry Roseman, Chief Financial Officer of ‪@thumbtack‬ joins us to explore the modern finance leader's role in balancing resilience, agility, and long-term value creation. With a career spanning investment banking, accounting, and tech, Larry shares how he's redefined capital allocation, empowered decision-making across teams, and built a finance organization that thrives on trust and flexibility.

Learn how to lead with clarity, empower innovation (without waste), and turn volatility into opportunity.

Discussed in This Episode:
• Why CFOs must shift from fixed annual planning to rolling investment cycles
• The power of decentralized decision-making in fast-moving companies
• How to empower teams with "envelope budgeting" and shared accountability
• Why flexibility and financial discipline must go hand-in-hand
• How to balance profitability and growth through portfolio-style capital planning
• Tactics for encouraging innovation without a near-term ROI

Chapters:
00:00 – Welcome Larry Roseman
01:21 – Thumbtack Introduction
02:19 – Path to CFO
03:46 – Thumbtack’s challenges
05:20 – Smarter capital allocation
07:05 – Empowering teams
08:35 – Profitable growth
10:03 – Balancing discipline and innovation
11:48 – Innovation beyond R&D
12:25 – Agility without churn
15:09 – Planning in high-growth
16:46 – Zero-based budgeting
18:08 – Building data-driven teams
19:33 – Rapid fire Q&A
19:57 – CFO challenges ahead
20:10 – Traits of great leaders
20:38 – Larry's book recommendation
21:09 – If not finance…
21:28 – Future of finance skills
21:48 – Closing and outro

Guest Links:
  / larryroseman  
https://www.thumbtack.com/

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