I keep hearing the same fear-mongering online lately: "Learn AI before someone who knows AI takes your job!" But something about this line just makes my brain feel itchy. It takes me back to a strategy class at NYU, where we learned the resource-based view from a clip of The Wire. In the clip, Wallace marvels at whoever invented the chicken nugget. Surely that guy must be really rich. D'Angelo turns to him and explains that of course not — he's just a cook in a basement somewhere, probably...
6 days ago • 2 min read
If I'm learning one thing this month about experimenting with AI in 2026, it's this: In a world of emergent technology, no one experiment with one tool at one time provides a complete picture of the landscape. Last week, after posting about AI sucking at Excel, a few things happened at once: I got explicit approval from one client to plug their financial data into AI A CFO peer told me how they're successfully using AI for Excel work Claude released a much more powerful model, Opus 4.7 The...
13 days ago • 2 min read
I've been playing around with using Copilot and Claude for building models in Excel, lately. As I've been playing, I've noticed something: Using AI can really speed up some building. Some of my favorite prompts so far: "Can you make the model formatting prettier?" "Can you review this whole model and tell me where there may be mistakes?" "I want to use this model in a demo. Can you sanitize it of any identifying data?" "I'd like this revenue forecast to be based on a marketing funnel. Can you...
22 days ago • 3 min read
As a CFO who used to be technical, I specialize in working with engineer founders. And it's in this context that I encountered something interesting this week: I was sitting in a client team meeting and we were discussing updating their financial software stack as they move from seed stage to series A Which is a typical conversation we have during growth: Lower-cost solutions like Quickbooks, Xero, manual processing, on-the-fly analysis tend to break down when volumes go up, so it's typically...
28 days ago • 3 min read
Sometimes as a founder, you just need someone who's been there before to tell you how it's done. Having founded 3 companies, I can't tell you how many times I've felt that way. But there's a big issue with most advisors: They're giving advice based on their past experiences, not yours. Because no matter how much you speak with them, they can't know your company as well as you do. So often, you take the advice, put it into practice, and realize you may have been better off just going it alone....
about 1 month ago • 2 min read
This week I learned: The most dangerous thing about AI isn't that it might take your job. This week has been a strange mix for me. On one hand, I've had three different brands and creators reach out asking for the prompts I've been using for financial ops and analysis. On the other, I've been wearing my other hat: Security Nerd. As a CFO who started on the technical side, who’s first CFO role involved also pinch-hitting as a security engineering team manager, I’m familiar with living at the...
about 2 months ago • 3 min read
Back when I worked in IT, I heard one of the best metaphors I've ever come across For the tension between efficiency and resilience. I was sitting with the big boss at the small consulting shop where I worked, helping think through database architecture for a large international client. At some point, he pulled up the server utilization gauges and explained something I've never forgotten. He said, in general, CEOs want every dial pushed all the way to the right; Full capacity, all the time....
about 2 months ago • 1 min read
A few months ago, venture capitalist–turned-fundraising consultant Charlie O’Donnell and I had a disagreement about gender bias on LinkedIn. After a bit of back and forth, Charlie invited me to take the argument to a recorded video discussion. Which quickly transformed into a LIVE recorded discussion in a cafe around the corner. (Because we're actually IRL friends and neighbors) Charlie released the video last week (you can watch it on YouTube). And upon reviewing it, I have multiple...
2 months ago • 4 min read
If you're building a financial model for a startup, and you need to predict the future, Here's what always helps me to remember: EVERY financial report exists within a context. You do not have to make something that WILL be true. You have to make something that is truthful given the context, And to be transparent about that context. If you've done that, Put the spreadsheet down, And move on. Your Daily CFO, Lauren
3 months ago • 1 min read
