Episode

Merushka Chetty

Paul Maskill – How to Get 50% Equity in a Business Without Investing

In this episode, James Kennedy sits down with Paul Maskill, the “Blue-Collar CFO,” to unpack how service pros and trades owners can turn a time-for-money job into a sellable, scalable company. From pricing that actually funds growth to partnering for equity, Paul shares the moves he used to grow and exit multiple local businesses (landscaping, electrical, kids’ sports programs) and why home-service companies win by doing “the boring stuff” brilliantly – answer fast, show up, keep promises.

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Merushka Chetty

Eric Segal – $30M Banking Crisis: SEC Investigation Story

James Kennedy sits down with Eric Segal, Managing Director at CFO Consulting Partners, to unpack what community banks and fintechs really need from a CFO team. From Eric’s early days rating institutions during the S&L crisis at Moody’s to treasury and CFO roles at American Express, and finally a high-stakes turnaround as interim CFO for a stressed community bank in 2008–09, this episode explores asset-quality shocks, SEC/OCC scrutiny, restatements, and how to run multiple regulatory workstreams without losing the plot. You’ll also hear how to evaluate a CFO firm for industry fit – and why there’s still plenty of “alpha” hiding in management quality and front-line execution.

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Merushka Chetty

Joe Stafford – The $26 Million Math Mistake That Changed Everything

In this episode, James Kennedy sits down with Joe Stafford, founder of Trinity Business Advisors and serial entrepreneur, to unpack hard-won lessons from scaling to $60M revenue, surviving a bank workout, exiting two companies, and now guiding owners through exit planning the right way. Joe shares how a simple gross-margin math fix generated $26M in profit, what really happens when private equity is on the other side of the table, and a practical playbook for making your business sellable, scalable, and less owner-dependent.

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Merushka Chetty

Jeffrey Heybruck – A La Carte Billing Was Killing Profits – Here’s the Fix

In this episode, James Kennedy chats with Jeffrey (Jeff) Heybruck, CPA and founder of Lucrum Consulting in Charlotte, NC. Jeff breaks down how he helped a high-end landscaping firm transform its maintenance arm from custom, ad-hoc work into packaged, recurring revenue – boosting margins, simplifying ops, and making the company far more attractive to a private-equity roll-up. Along the way, he shares CFO tactics for pricing, renewal timing, quoting, and why you shouldn’t kill an “unsexy” service that quietly drives both profit and pipeline.

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Merushka Chetty

Shane Spellman – Fractional CFO Saves Client $500K in M&A Deal

James Kennedy sits down with Irish fractional CFO Shane Spellman, founder of Spellman Profit Partners, to unpack how a buy-side, board-level investment lens can transform SMB decisions day-to-day and at exit. Drawing on Shane’s time leading return-on-investment and M&A support at Kerry Group, they cover capital ranking, integration pitfalls, and why “you can do anything – but not everything” should guide every owner’s roadmap.

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Merushka Chetty

Joey Albertson – CFO Found $2.5M Unbilled Revenue

In this episode, James sits down with fractional CFO Joey Albertson – founder of The Profitability Project – to unpack the “$2.5M mistake” she uncovered within 30 days at a B2B SaaS company. They get tactical about balance-sheet reconciliations, fixing SaaS billing leaks, and how Joey’s Clarity → Structure → Profitability framework delivers fast, measurable results (without a six-month wait).

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Merushka Chetty

Jaime Medina – The Singing CFO

In this episode, James Kennedy sits down with Jaime Medina, founder of The Startup CFO (tscfo.com), to unpack non-dilutive ways B2B SaaS founders can extend runway before their next equity round. Drawing on Jaime’s path from physics PhD to McKinsey to fractional CFO (now leading a 38-person team across Spain and Germany), they dive into European public funding, soft loans, grants, tax incentives, and – most surprisingly – bank financing for SaaS. You’ll hear how to present unit economics to credit risk teams, run multiple debt processes in parallel, and realistically save 10–20% dilution on the next raise. Bonus: why the best CFOs play offense (growth) and defense (controls)… and why Ring of Fire is a crowd-pleaser at karaoke.

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Merushka Chetty

Milán Golovics – Hungarian VC: Government Funding Ruined Startups

In this episode, James sits down with Milán Golovics, founder of BAO Contracting and a former VC associate turned startup operator/CFO, to unpack the realities of building and funding hardware in Central & Eastern Europe. From Hungary’s unique venture landscape to rethinking a “hardware-only” sale into a subscription model, Milán shares crisp, tactical lessons for seed-stage founders – and the CFOs who support them.

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Merushka Chetty

Alina Rivera – Purpose-Driven Business: Balancing Profit and Impact

In this episode, James Kennedy sits down with Alina Rivera, founder of Advising Puerto Rico and fractional CFO, to explore how purpose-driven operators can build commercially strong companies and meaningful community impact. From documenting procurement processes in construction to guiding hospitality entrepreneurs through cash flow, budgets, and people-first policies, Alina shares the playbook she uses to turn scrappy growth into sustainable scale – without losing the mission.

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