How CJ Gustafson built Mostly Metrics, a newsletter for CFOs

The Business of Content

My newsletter: https://simonowens.substack.com/

I think everyone likes to think of themselves as being financially savvy, especially if, like me, you write about business topics, but how many of us truly understand finance terms that are bandied about like gross profit and lifetime value. Like we may know that the term EBITDA stands for “earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization,” but how many people actually know how to calculate it?

CJ Gustafson knows. After a decade in finance, he’s mastered all the accounting jargon, and a few years ago he realized that there was a market need for someone who could explain these terms in a way that’s both entertaining and informative. So he launched Mostly Metrics, a Substack newsletter about finance, strategy, and operations at startups.

CJ’s since grown the newsletter to over 42,000 subscribers, all while holding down his day job as a CFO at a tech startup. In my interview with him, we talked about why he launched the newsletter, how he balances his day job work and writing, and what his longterm plans are for the newsletter.