Beyond the Numbers: Darrell Cox on Revenue-Connected FP&A

Value Drivers

The interview features Darrell Cox, a veteran finance professional who has guided some of Canada's fastest growing tech companies, discussing his philosophy on finance leadership and the solutions offered by Una Software, where he currently serves. Darrell notes that a consistent theme throughout his career, working at big and small growth-oriented companies, has been the imperative to "push the limits". This drive is manifested in his focus on the data side, where he frequently built custom databases to collect crucial non-financial data, married it with financial data, and used the resulting insights to drive and measure performance. He finds this FP&A-focused work, pushing beyond traditional financing, to be the aspect of his career that has "really added a lot of value" and makes him feel most proud.

This long-standing challenge of integrating operational and financial data led directly to his excitement about Una Software. Darrell explained that previous FP&A tools often required costly, custom IT solutions and external databases to connect detailed revenue data to financial results. Una, however, is specifically designed to solve this problem by providing a revenue-connected and operationally connected planning approach, enabling powerful forecasting and budgeting that allows users to "see around corners" by leveraging actual sales data rather than just invoice data from the financial system. Una targets mid-market companies, defined roughly as those with revenues from $50 million to $500 million, appealing specifically to those struggling to connect their financial and non-financial data without the excessive cost and complexity of high-end CPM solutions like Oracle or Cognos. Darrell contends that the ability of modern software to reduce implementation costs and time to value significantly lowers the risk and improves the ROI of moving away from fragmented tools like Excel, which is still used by 70% of customers despite its well-known flaws.

As a CFO, Darrell's playbook for scaling a business involves building a robust foundation, often focusing on the FP&A function, to support scale. When entering a new role, he prioritizes areas for the highest impact, which often involves enhancing communication with the board, developing stronger KPI reporting, and building agile budget/forecast models that incorporate more data to ensure team alignment. He stressed that the budget and forecast process is primarily designed to "align the team" towards shared objectives. When analyzing data, he advises finance professionals to speak the language of the operational teams they support and provide ideas on levers they can influence, rather than simply pointing out cost overruns. In terms of data quality, he offers a pragmatic view: finance people should not insist on 100% accuracy in areas like sales and marketing data, as 80% accuracy can still yield highly valuable insights that drive action. This detailed data analysis is critical, especially when calculating SaaS KPIs like LTV to CAC; drilling down to customer cohort levels is necessary to avoid mismatching acquisition costs and revenue streams, potentially revealing unexpected profitability or illuminating highly productive channels.

Darrell views the modern CFO as a "storyteller" who must "collect all your data, sift through it, organize it, [and] find the patterns". The communication of this story requires art, distilling complex metrics into a few important, positively framed points that resonate with the specific audience, whether internal teams, the board, or investors. The core of effective storytelling is aligning with the company's and the individual stakeholder's objectives, aiming to help them "get there faster" or even help them achieve their bonus. Looking forward, Darrell suggests the CFO is evolving into a "Chief Metrics Officer," who masters all metrics, drives performance, and balances the essential task of mitigating risk with focusing on performance maximization. His personal "secret sauce" for success is embracing "the struggle"—always pushing hard, maintaining creativity, and maximizing technology to attempt things others deem too difficult. He sees the current landscape, rife with technological innovation like AI and new CPM tools, paralleling historical periods of rapid development, reinforcing the importance of continuous learning and pushing limits.

Chapter Summary

(00:01:03) CFO Background and Data Focus: Darrell shares his career theme: leading growth companies by consistently "push[ing] the limits" on data. He integrates non-financial data with financial data into the FP&A function to drive performance, which he views as the most valuable aspect of his career.

(00:03:07) Una: Solving Data Integration: Una Software solves Darrell's previous data integration challenges, enabling revenue-connected planning. Targeting the mid-market (defined as $50M–$500M revenue), Una offers modern solutions that significantly lower the cost and risk of implementation compared to older, complex CPM systems.

(00:06:22) The CFO Scaling Playbook: The playbook focuses on building a robust finance foundation for scale, prioritizing FP&A and enhancing KPI reporting. The budgeting process is crucial to "align the team". Finance must speak the language of operational teams and provide actionable, solution-oriented advice.

(00:10:07) Data Pragmatism and Deep Dives: Data priority aligns with core business objectives. Finance should accept that 80% accuracy in operational data (like sales metrics) is sufficient for valuable insights. Detailed analysis (e.g., LTV to CAC by customer cohort) is necessary to avoid mismatched costs and make productive decisions.

(00:21:25) Storytelling and Metrics Mastery: The CFO must be a "storyteller," organizing data to find patterns and communicating the truth effectively. Communication requires positive framing tailored to help stakeholders meet their objectives. Darrell projects the role is evolving into a "Chief Metrics Officer".

(00:35:56) Secret Sauce: The Struggle: Darrell’s personal principle is embracing "the struggle," continuously pushing hard, maintaining creativity, and never settling for contentment. He attributes success to maximizing technology use for difficult tasks, aiming for the "highest possible level".

Books Mentioned in this Episode

The Innovators: How a Group of Hackers, Geniuses, and Geeks Created the Digital Revolution by Walter Isaacson

https://www.amazon.com/Innovators-Hackers-Geniuses-Created-Revolution/dp/1476708703

Resources:

https://unasoftware.com/

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