The Financial Failures in Startups for Founders to Fix Bad Data and Build Profit with Alyona Mysko

Written By Paul Barnhurst

In this episode of Financial Modeler’s Corner, Alyona Mysko shares her journey from a PwC auditor to a fintech founder creating FuelFinance, a no-code financial planning tool tailored for startups and small businesses. She discusses common financial modeling challenges faced by first-time founders, the complexities of the manufacturing and fashion industries, and the importance of simplifying financial models for better decision-making. Alyona emphasizes the power of effective communication and scenario planning, helping entrepreneurs and modelers make sense of numbers to drive business success.

Alyona Mysko is the Founder and CEO of FuelFinance, a fintech startup delivering no-code financial planning tools designed specifically for startups and small businesses. With a professional background starting as an auditor at PwC, Alyona transitioned into financial analysis and fractional CFO roles before launching her own company. She brings deep expertise in financial modeling and a passion for simplifying complex financial data to empower founders and entrepreneurs. 

Expect to Learn

  • How Alyona’s audit background influenced the creation of a finance platform for startups

  • Why first-time founders struggle with financial modeling and how second-time founders differ

  • The complexity behind manufacturing and fashion business models and modeling nuances

  • The importance of simplified dashboards focusing on key metrics for decision-making

  • Why communication and storytelling in financial modeling is essential for impact


Here are a few quotes from the episode:

  • “Finance is just like fuel for a business. If you understand your numbers, you can go fast.” - Alyona Mysko

  • First-time founders don’t know what they don’t know. Second-time founders know to start with the financial model.” - Alyona Mysko

  • “Communication is 50% of your success as a financial modeler.” - Alyona Mysko

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In today’s episode: 
[02:31] - The Story Behind FuelFinance
[06:00] - Aylona’s Background
[11:03] - Industry-Specific Modeling Challenges
[18:14] - Cross-Functional Realization
[23:57] - Revenue vs. Cash Flow Realities
[28:14] - Balancing Model Simplicity
[35:11] - Key Career Lesson
[39:41] - Rapid Fire Section
Full Show Transcript

[00:01:59] Host: Paul Barnhurst: I'm thrilled to welcome our guest this week on the show, Alyona Mysko. Welcome to Financial Modelers Corner.

[00:02:06] Guest: Alyona Mysko: Hi, Paul. Thanks for the invite. Happy to be here.

[00:02:09] Host: Paul Barnhurst: Really excited to have you. I love the merch there. The soccer jersey for fuel your company? Does it say Adidas on that?

[00:02:18] Guest: Alyona Mysko: Yes. Is it? It is.

[00:02:21] Host: Paul Barnhurst: Yeah. First you had me convinced it was a real jersey. And then? Then you let me know it was company merch. And I was like, you did a good job. So we start every episode with this question. Tell me that horror story. Worst financial model you've ever had to work on, deal with, maybe build yourself. You can go wherever you want.

[00:02:39] Guest: Alyona Mysko: So first of all, I have a financial background. So I turned to be a startup founder, but I used to be a financial person by myself. So I did hundreds of financial models from scratch for startups, for small medium businesses, and I definitely saw many of them, but I think the most hilarious were funny story about financial models that I had in my career. It was a case when one of my friends, he was preparing like he started up for fundraising and he needed to build financial models. It usually happens for investors, not just for himself but for investors. And he just decided to figure it out on his own. So he downloaded it maybe five years ago or something like that. So he just downloaded some templates. He googled this template, he downloaded it, and it was like, you know, like some of these templates for very complicated big businesses. So when you already have data and your company exists on the market for years, you have data to build like this financial model with so many assumptions there, like many different sheets there. So everything is just for big business. And he downloaded this template. He even paid like 500 bucks for that or something like that. And he just tried to put his numbers there. And he came to me and he said, you know, I don't even understand where to put numbers here. So it was such a funny moment. And when I saw this financial model template, I just told him, you know, this is not like for you. This is like for big businesses. So you need to understand what you build. And I think this was maybe the funniest story about financial models that I ever had in my life. So always remember this story. But and always like I don't know, curious to see like and funny to see like how founders like to try to use something that actually doesn't fit them like for their stage.

[00:04:36] Host: Paul Barnhurst: Yeah. I mean, right, a big complex model for you might see in a large scale company is definitely not what you need for a startup, right? You want to keep it simple because the reality is things are going to change quickly, especially for a startup or if you're a big, mature business. Okay, yeah. Your drivers, you can dial it in pretty close. So definitely have seen that a lot as we talk to people. And this is a question we just started asking. So you're the first one I get to ask this to. It's a relatively new question someone asked me to ask. If I ask you to define what is a financial model, how would you define that? What do you consider to be a financial model?

[00:05:15] Guest: Alyona Mysko: I usually say that this is a story of the business that is usually told with numbers. So that's, I think, how I define a financial model. And I always say when I talk to other entrepreneurs that this is one of the most important tools and instruments that you can use for you and for your business. When you want to figure out like how your business really works with numbers. So this is definitely like your big business calculator. I don't know, something like that.

[00:05:49] Host: Paul Barnhurst: I like that kind of, you know, the storytelling with numbers. Big business calculator. I appreciate that. Next, I would love for you to just take a minute. We haven't done this yet. And just tell our audience about yourself, your background, what you're doing today. Give us that rundown.

[00:06:05] Guest: Alyona Mysko: Yeah. So I started my career being an auditor and big four in PwC. So after that.

[00:06:13 Host: Paul Barnhurst: We won't hold that against you.

[00:06:16] Guest: Alyona Mysko: I don't hear a lot of stories that someone who used to be an auditor turned to be an entrepreneur or startup founder. So not the usual case, but yeah, somehow I jumped out of being an auditor. And I decided that for myself, I was looking for something more interesting. And I started to be a financial analyst. After that, I turned to be a fractional CFO or like a financial model, or mostly like person who made financial models for startups and for businesses. And yes, after working with many businesses, I understood that all of them have the same problems, so they need to do their finance. They think that finance is boring for them. So I started actually building a solution. So financial planning and analysis solutions for startups. And after that turned to be also for small medium businesses. And mostly it was like my pain point because I was doing like all of that things from scratch all the time, collecting all of the data manually, pulling this data to 1 to 1 system to Excel or Google Sheet or whatever. And I started to build this product. It started just like, you know, from no code solution, from just completely Google spreadsheet templates.

[00:07:34] Guest: Alyona Mysko: And I met my co-founder because he used to be one of our first customers. And, uh, he actually had a challenge, like to have one system for the whole company. And the name of this company is Petcube. They do pet cameras. So they have this manufacturing business model, which is very complicated with controlling working capital and all other things. And we started to work together and we decided to test this like my no code MVP solution for them. And they became profitable in five months after using this product and we decided, okay, something works here, so we should maybe scale that higher first. Engineers start to build the product and help other companies to read the numbers and be much more financially efficient. And yeah, so from that period we started to build fuel finance together. We raised our seed rounds now already like on series A with our metrics and everything. So yeah, that's that's the story. But I used to be a financial person and now I'm also a CFO for my own startup. So wearing several hats actually CFO and COO all together.

[00:08:51] Host: Paul Barnhurst: Yep. Got to go from audit to running your own business to now running the business. Kind of doing your own modeling for others. And I'm curious, you started an audit of PwC. How do you think that role prepared you? How did that help you for what you're doing today? You know, modeling and then kind of ultimately starting your own business.

[00:09:13] Guest: Alyona Mysko: I think that from the audit I learned several things. So first of all, it was interesting to understand different business models, how they works, how they actually work, because I used to be an auditor for airlines and also for banks, so like for different businesses. And it was interesting to understand how it works, what is important for them like and that's completely different things. And that was I think the first, um, the first insight. So I actually started to understand what is important in financial reports. Boards with red flags can be there. But I think another point that I learned, maybe from the perspective how BWC actually makes their business. So because when you are an auditor, so you definitely know that. So you track your hours and you track your hours for different projects. And that's like how this business works. So they need to have like this margin. And I think I learned and it was maybe a boost for myself because when I used to build this fractional CFO person, I was like, okay, how many hours I spend here? So I actually had the skill from audit and from PwC, and this was a skill that I was like, no, there should be some better way how I can allocate my hours. So is it the way we can automate this work. So I think that thing so how this business works was also like for like an inspiration for me uh, to do already like some tech product just to spend less hours on like many different, many other things.

[00:10:51] Host: Paul Barnhurst: You mean you don't like doing manual things over and over?

[00:10:57] Guest: Alyona Mysko: No.

[00:10:58] Host: Paul Barnhurst: So, you know, audit, you mentioned you really enjoyed learning about different industries. Did you have a favorite industry, maybe one you found really fascinating that you particularly enjoyed, or even as you built models and worked with different companies? Do you have an industry that maybe you find most interesting? Um.

[00:11:14] Guest: Alyona Mysko: I think that I have industries which I found like the most difficult industries. Maybe, maybe from some perspective they are also interesting.

[00:11:26 Host: Paul Barnhurst: What are some of the most difficult industries? Let's start there.

[00:11:29] Guest: Alyona Mysko: I think maybe, uh, for me it's always about manufacturing. So if companies have, like their manufacturing business. So they need to plan, not just like, I don't know, like revenues. You have it in SaaS, but you need to plan your inventory and you need to plan your working capital and always balance like and have this model to build like demand supply. So they will match because in other case you just lose money or you have so many products and you can sell them or you have not enough products and you lose revenue. So I think that this business model for me is the most complicated one, because like some even small mistakes in your plan, they can impact. So I definitely can say the same about other business model. But I think in manufacturing, especially when you have some like products that have some terms, like when they will be already like, you know, some products or whatever. And um, this I think is the most complicated business model for me. So you need to track so many things and how to build like this revenue model with demand because you need to understand, okay, what is the market? What is the demand? Was there competitors there. So what is market share. So so many different things you need to take into account. So for me I think it's like both sides. So it's very interesting, very, very interesting and on the same side it's very difficult. So I think that's maybe some I think maybe uh, beauty brands was like one of the most interesting thing and how they track some fashion brands because they even buy.

[00:13:06] Host: Paul Barnhurst: That's interesting because you tried the products or interesting for the industry.

[00:13:10] Guest: Alyona Mysko: Interesting for the industry. Like I'm trying the products also, but I think that they I was surprised that they buy these reports. So they are like very specific reports in the fashion industry they use. So what trends will be. So what people will buy. So all of the things and how you implement this like some I don't know like market information into your business into your business model and financial model. That was the very interesting thing for me.

[00:13:40] Host: Paul Barnhurst: Yeah, I have a sister that worked in the fashion design industry and that's a very fast moving industry. History, right? You really. If you miss the mark on something, it can make a huge difference in how much inventory you're left with and how quickly you can get it out. And so I can see where that's a challenging one to model. And there's a lot that goes into that. So as far as manufacturing I've pretty much steered clear of that one. So I can't speak to that one much.

[00:14:06 Guest: Alyona Mysko: What is your actually what is your favorite type. Like I don't know businesses.

[00:14:12] Host: Paul Barnhurst: It's a good question. I don't know if I have a favorite one. I like sass for sure. I mean, I think and not just because you're right, it's, uh, one where you get paid up front and you're recognizing revenue throughout the year. I just think it's a fascinating industry, and I think it's really interesting to watch how much it's changing with AI and pricing. Right. At first it was everybody just did kind of a fixed monthly fee or an annual upfront. Now you see all these different ways of hybrid approaches. How much should be variable? What should be variable. How do you really determine the value and try to maximize that across your customers? So I think it's kind of a fascinating industry.

[00:14:54] Guest: Alyona Mysko: Yeah. That's interesting. I think also another my favorite one is when you have this combination of hardware and AI. So this is for SAS like hardware and SAS.

[00:15:04 Host: Paul Barnhurst: So this is yep I've dealt with that hardware and SAS or you have a lot of implementation costs. Or I had a business that was a marketing company and the core product was mostly SAS. But then on top of that, we generally build for every single piece of mail. You know, there's over 50 million pieces of mail that went out a year. We also had a call center in the business, and so we had about 50 different products. So that was a complex one to forecast. That was a real challenge because you had seasonality, like, do you do five mail drops in a month or you do four, and then you had on demand campaigns where they could, you know, put them in the system one day and you mailed them out the next day. And so trying to have a lot of variability. And I learned a lot. That was one challenge I spent six months building the model.

[00:15:51] Guest: Alyona Mysko: Six months crazy.

[00:15:53.02] Host: Paul Barnhurst:: Well mostly learning the business because our billing platform was such a mess. We didn't know what what tied to what product because they hadn't updated it over the years. And we got done. And then a year later, I rebuilt the whole thing when I really learned the business.

[00:16:06] Guest: Alyona Mysko: Collecting actual data for financial models and other big stuff.

[00:16:11] Host: Paul Barnhurst: Yeah, I mean, I had to build my own basically data models. I pulled all our data out of Salesforce and created all my own mapping tables for what the products really should be, not what they were, because I couldn't, we couldn't get them all fixed. I mean, I fixed what I could at the source, but we weren't buying new systems, so I just had to manage it. It was. I learned to love Power Query. What can I say?

[00:16:32] Guest: Alyona Mysko: Yeah. That works.

[00:16:35] Host: Paul Barnhurst: Yeah. You know, it worked. And we got to the point where we could really understand what was going on in the business, have good conversations and hold them accountable, which is ultimately the goal. Yes, especially in a big business, when you're an fpna, you want to help make better decisions. And the data is garbage. It's really hard to make good decisions. Oh.

[00:16:53] Guest: Alyona Mysko: Or you can just make but not correct decisions.

[00:16:56] Host: Paul Barnhurst: Yeah, you can make. I mean, you have to make decisions, but if the data is garbage and you make a big enough wrong decision, right, it can cripple or even kill a business. If it's a small decision, just be directionally correct and move on. Yeah, but if it's a big decision, you really try to. You want to make sure you have at least good enough data that you're, you know, a pretty high level of confidence. You're never going to be 100%. And you I'm sure you never see bad data with startups, right? It's all clean and great shape.

[00:17:26] Guest: Alyona Mysko: Never. I don't know, maybe several percent of companies who have good clean data. I don't know. They all have mess in their CRM systems. In the accounting system, all the data actually is different in different sources. So it's so I don't know, it's so messy. I think this is the biggest problem that we see. Like when we just collect all of this data and we understand that actually no one understands what the real numbers. So every team has their own numbers.

[00:17:57] Host: Paul Barnhurst: It is so true. I mean, even being a business of one, I'm terrible at keeping my CRM up to date, which I used to always complain at the salespeople. And now I'm like, all right, I can relate.

[00:18:07] Guest: Alyona Mysko: We do the same. We just like, cleaned up our HubSpot finally.

[00:18:11.50] Host: Paul Barnhurst:: Yeah, you get it. It's funny how once you become an owner, you realize some things where when you're just in a finance role, you're like, why aren't they taking care of this? Ah, now I get it.

[00:18:21] Host: Paul Barnhurst:While my background is in FP&A. I am also passionate about financial modeling. Like many financial Modelers, I was self-taught. Then I discovered the Financial Modeling Institute, the organization that offers the advanced financial modeling program. I am a proud holder of the AFM. Preparing for the AFM exam made me a better modeler. If you want to improve your modeling skills, I recommend the AFM program. Podcast listeners. Save 15% on the AFM program. Just use Code Podcast.

podcast listeners. Save 15% on the AFM program. Just use Code podcast.

[00:19:08] Guest: Alyona Mysko: That's actually inspired by a little bit by Formula One. So I was thinking, what is finance for the business? And I definitely it has happened before all the changes with electricity like electric cars, whatever. But I started to think that usually for the business, their finance is just like fuel. So if you have everything great there, you understand your numbers. You can make great decisions. You can just write very fast. So it can definitely fuel your business. So and that's the thing from different perspectives. So you have enough money or you have like you're good with your numbers to fundraise more or you can get loans with your numbers or you're just profitable and you have like all this money to write very fast so you can reinvest them. So I think this is like how we think about that. And I think another inspiration that we had like from formula one. So you have this team and you write like all the time nonstop. And you have this team who fix your cars like and I think about fuel like, this is like your team like, and the product will actually fix you a little bit so you can just write faster. And that's also the reason why we name it like fuel.

[00:20:25] Host: Paul Barnhurst: Got it. No, I like that. So are you a I'm going to take it you're a Formula One fan.

[00:20:31] Guest: Alyona Mysko: A little bit.

[00:20:31] Host: Paul Barnhurst: Yeah I figured as much when you tied it to formula one, but totally makes sense. The whole idea of fuel and the financial numbers. Right? If you're if you have good financials, you're in a good place. It can help fuel the business.

[00:20:45] Guest: Alyona Mysko: Yes. That's true.

[00:20:48] Host: Paul Barnhurst: And you know, as we know, some companies are in great shape. Others not so much. I'm sure you've seen it all. You know, you work obviously with a lot of early stage companies. Why do you think, you know, founders and leaders of early stage companies often struggle so much with financials and financial models. Because I've definitely seen it in a few of the models I've built. And I've talked to a lot of people who have seen it. What do you think maybe are some of those reasons they really struggle in this area?

[00:21:18.] Guest: Alyona Mysko: I already have some formula for that, so I understand that. First time founders, they usually don't know what they don't know. So second time founders, they already know everything. So I see this huge difference. Second time founder will start with a financial model with everything done correctly with the finance. And I think that like first time founders, they don't have this knowledge that finance is important. So. And I think the market looks like that. Everyone tells you the product is important. Revenue is important. Like everything like product and revenue or marketing or whatever. But no one tells us that the financial side is important. And I think that it's usually some thoughts about finance that maybe QuickBooks or accounting. And no one actually saying that like, no, that's more that's like I don't know, understand your numbers, make data driven decisions or sometimes like your cash balance and even like runway. It's not just numbers. It's your time that you understand you can buy like with money to, I don't know, run till the next fundraising. And I think that like many founders don't understand that and they just don't know until they have this first problem with their finance. So when they have this first problem like usual or this is a cash gap, or they have like two months of runway already and they like oh my gosh, no, we need to do something with our finance. And I think only when they already made some mistake, they learned from that and they started to think about that. But that's also disappointing point because I always like saying how many mistakes this like founders could avoid and maybe how many great businesses actually can survive if they would think about like such things at the start. Not after all the mistakes done.

[00:23:19] Host: Paul Barnhurst: Yeah, I saw a number somewhere and I can't remember the exact number, so I'm sure I'm butchering it. But businesses that look at their financials monthly were much more likely to survive. It was like double or triple the rate of those who only look at it periodically, like, you know, quarterly or less. And so it really is amazing how much of a difference it can make to just be on top of your financials. And it's like you said, right? Most growing businesses don't die because they're not making revenue. They run out of cash.

[00:23:53] Guest: Alyona Mysko: Yeah, that's number one problem I think.

[00:23:56] Host: Paul Barnhurst: Right. You have a growing business. You're going to burn a lot of cash, I'm sure, as you've experienced probably personally as you grow your own business.

[00:24:07] Guest: Alyona Mysko: But I'm joking. But that's, we are lucky to have me, the person with financial backgrounds.

[00:24:13] Host: Paul Barnhurst: Yeah. No, it definitely helps. I, uh, it's helped me as there's been times where I'm like, hmm. Yeah, I really need to get on some of these people to pay me. Just because I have the revenue doesn't mean I have the cash.

[00:24:25] Guest: Alyona Mysko: That's cash is king. We all know that. So at least cash. Yeah. I mean.

[00:24:30] Host: Paul Barnhurst: At the end of the day, without the cash, you don't have a sustainable business. Pretty simple.

[00:24:35] Guest: Alyona Mysko: Yes, you can survive without that.

[00:24:38] Host: Paul Barnhurst: You know, you can go a while like Enron, but eventually you'll get caught.

[00:24:42] Guest: Alyona Mysko: This is the best example.

[00:24:44] Host: Paul Barnhurst: Probably not the best example, but you know, I figured everybody would recognize that one. So, you know, we talked a little bit about why they struggle. I really like what you said. Second time founder versus a first time makes a big difference. But you know, as you're helping founders build the model, how do you find that balance? You know, kind of building those financial numbers and bringing in operational metrics. Because at the end of the day, you know, really understanding the operations should help drive the financial model. So how do you think about that as you're working with founders and startups?

[00:25:20] Guest: Alyona Mysko: I think that, um, we are building so we simplify like so. Yes, financial model usually can be complicated instruments depending on the stage of the business. But we try to simplify that and building on top of that, some dashboards, graphs. And I think the goal of the graph of the dashboard is not just visualization part, but make everything simpler. So just to show not all of the graphs, but for example, five important metrics for this founder, for this stage, for this type of business. And what I see like working with many founders usually especially like a early stage founders because it depends, but they want to see just five, ten important metrics and they want to understand how to make decisions out of this metrics. So model or report or just like I don't know, something that you create. It doesn't make sense because the greatest impact that what decision the founder or entrepreneur will make out of this information. So in that case we just try to show, okay, this 510 things are important and you should start from them. And after that you can already go to all other things and figure it out or make like drill down or deep dive in these numbers. But we usually try to simplify it with the most important things and everything after that for founders, because it's different, like how financial people read financial models and reports and how founders and entrepreneurs see that. So I can say the same from my experience. So I used to be a person who created this very detailed financial models. And when I started Feel Finance, I was like, ah, seems like I need like very simple financial model for my current stage. I don't need like this overcomplicated stuff because I just will spend and lose time, and time is very important and I just need something very fast and the most important metrics for myself. And it was completely new, different perspective. How I saw So financial model, uh, already being an entrepreneur?

[00:27:35] Host: Paul Barnhurst: Yeah. I'm sure being an entrepreneur and doing a startup gives you a different perspective on modeling. I know everybody I talked to has done a lot of startups. We'll just talk about how different it is from a big, huge company to a startup and what you model and how you think about it. Like, I was talking to somebody and I've always liked the, uh, bottoms up for building a budget because all the drivers and assumptions and that someone start up, they're like, no, no, no, I like top down. Like I usually don't have all the detail to do bottom up.

[00:28:06] Guest: Alyona Mysko: Yeah that's true. Top down works better.

[00:28:10] Host: Paul Barnhurst: And so it's just a matter of it's so different from size to size. But I have a question for you. I think this is something a lot of modelers struggle with. I've struggled with it way more than I probably should admit. How do you balance, you know, keeping the model simple. Well, making sure you meet all the customer's needs and you cover everything. How do you think about that? Any advice on kind of managing the two? Because I could tell you're smile. I know you've struggled with this. I think we all have modelers. So any tips or advice on how to balance those two?

[00:28:43] Guest: Alyona Mysko: I think that's from my experience. The best case it always about communication. So if you're a financial modeler like financial person and you talk with entrepreneurs and founders. So I always recommend to start with questions. What are the pain points. Why exactly this founder entrepreneur decide to build this financial model? What is the goal here? And I think that when you understand the goal of this person, because the goal can be I want to fundraise or I want to understand if my company will be profitable or I just want to understand how much money I need to invest in that. So it depends a lot. And based on that, because we talked with you like before, that financial model is a story of the business. And if you're a financial modeler, you should be ready to tell the story for entrepreneur with numbers. And you just like to keep this person involved. If you can tell the story in the way the story solved the first problem and the first goal for this person, so you can build whatever you want, the most complicated, the least complicated things. But you should be ready to present it in very easy ways, with several graphs and with your recommendations and with your thoughts on how you see this thing. So in that way it will work and if you will start with a problem. So like what was the goal, what was the problem and how and here how you can solve it. So here is an answer in your financial model on your problem and goal. So it definitely will make sense. And after that you can make it more detailed or less detailed. But the final person with whom you work already will be involved in that. So I think that's maybe how to keep this balance. And you can make I can name it like for yourself, you have this type of backend, very detailed things, many assumptions, whatever. But for founder and entrepreneur, if you work with them. So make a good front end for this person. So not very detailed, just short summary.

[00:30:45] Host: Paul Barnhurst: I appreciate that. And I'm going to put a big bold light with the words that communicate. It doesn't really start with Excel right? We all think, hey, you have to be great at Excel and you have to know the basics of Excel. You have to be able to build a model. But if you don't know how to communicate and then tell that story, it's you can't be a good modeler, especially in what you're doing. If you're talking with startups and you're trying to help them tell their story and understand their problems. It starts with communication. And so I really appreciate you saying that. And I think sometimes people forget that. So many people just think it's all about, you know, cool formulas. And I can remember that when one. How complex can I make formulas? I've. I've made myself a fool more than once by trying to get cute with formulas. And it's like, no, just keep it simple.

[00:31:34] Guest: Alyona Mysko: Yes, keep it simple. That's so true. And communication and even like I think for understanding what type of financial model you should build, you should be able to communicate with entrepreneur founder with whom you work and understand, okay, what their business is about. So like how to actually generate revenue because you can make different types of financial models. But it should work for their specific case. And always I see that this case are so individual all the time. There are some small hints, some information or like some thoughts or like, I don't know, like how entrepreneurs actually thinks about their goals or whatever. So it's always about communication.

[00:32:21] Host: Paul Barnhurst: Love it. So I think that's a great place to transition to. Some of our standard questions kind of end with just reminding people before we get into this section that it really is. It starts with communication and understanding people's pain points. It's not about starting in Excel and just building. Even though many models may be similar. Everybody has a unique business, has their own problems, challenges, and if you don't understand them, you're not going to meet their needs, which is really what the model is all about. It's not about building a three statement that balances. Yes, it needs to balance, but that's not the goal. Nobody cares what formula you use xlookup or index, match or whatever argument you see on LinkedIn this week. I'm sure there's one out there, right? And so these are some of the standard questions we ask each guest. The first one, do you have a favorite shortcut for Excel.

[00:33:14] Guest: Alyona Mysko: I actually love pivot tables but I don't have favorite shortcut. I think maybe because.

[00:33:20] Host: Paul Barnhurst: That kind of your favorite is would that be your favorite feature pivot tables?

[00:33:24] Guest: Alyona Mysko: Yes, I think.

[00:33:25] Host: Paul Barnhurst: So. Here's the question. Have you tried the new pivot by function where you can create a pivot table with a function?

[00:33:31] Guest: Alyona Mysko: What would be the function with creating pivot tables?

[00:33:34] Host: Paul Barnhurst: Yeah it's called no. There's a function called pivot by that you can actually create a pivot table as a function instead of loading it into a pivot table. It's fairly new so you have to give it a try. It has some cool flexibility.

[00:33:50] Guest: Alyona Mysko: That's cool I will try it. I love this uh, add on Excel, so definitely should try this one new.

[00:33:56] Host: Paul Barnhurst:  Bad financial models can lead to bad decisions or worse. So, how do you minimize the risk of a bad model? You make sure the models you build are great. The Financial Modeling Institute developed the Advanced Financial Modeler accreditation program to help modelers like you. The AFM program offers a step-by-step approach to building world-class financial models. The program ensures that you know the best practices in model design and structure, and will help you brush up on your Excel and accounting skills to be the one on your team to build great models. If you want to impress your boss and your clients, get AFM accredited. Podcast listeners. Save 15% on the AFM program. Just use Code Podcast at www.FMInstitute.com/podcast.

[00:35:03] Host: Paul Barnhurst:  yeah so give that one a try. Alright, so we'll go with our favorite pivot tables. So not big on the shortcuts. And that is totally fine. You're not the first. What's the number one lesson as you look back over your career so far. What's the number one lesson you've learned that's helped you the most in your career?

[00:35:20] Guest: Alyona Mysko: Always do several Scenarios. Your financial model.

[00:35:25] Host: Paul Barnhurst: Scenario modeling. And what taught you that? Is there a particular experience that stands out or just cumulative over the years?

[00:35:35] Guest: Alyona Mysko: I think maybe it's cumulative experience, but I should say that this experience comes from financial models. So when you always do different scenarios, it actually taught me how to do business. You always need to have several scenarios in your mind. So you will do one thing or another thing. Okay, if this tool will not work, you have another three. And I think this scenario mindset it always good in preparing your little bit of resilience. Because this is not crucial for you. Then one scenario will not happen because you always have another three in your mind. And it helps you to be prepared all the time, not even as a financial person, but also as a founder. It always helps me. So I am the person who always have different scenarios for all situations, and I think that always helps me.

[00:36:27 Host: Paul Barnhurst: Yeah, I could sense that. A lot of that came from also being a founder of oh, this didn't work. How do we pivot? I've definitely had to learn more and more of that of the value of, okay, so what am I going to try now that didn't work. What do we do next? And I think, you know, having different scenarios and really thinking through the different potentials helps you a lot because right, the one thing we know about every model is it's wrong. That's the only thing we can be sure of how wrong we'll find out. But it's wrong. I think you break it to you, but all your models are wrong.

[00:37:02] Guest: Alyona Mysko: Yeah, that's very true. And already outdated. If you have already done it, it shouldn't be changed.

[00:37:08] Host: Paul Barnhurst: Isn't that the worst? You finish the budget and you're just like, all right, none of these numbers can even be hit. And it's January. Like, what's wrong with this picture? Uh, we've all been there. You're kind of speaking of models, right? I get to talk to a lot of, uh, self-proclaimed finance nerds Excel, Google Sheets, all those fun things. And many of them have really unique things they've built with models. So what's maybe the most unique thing you've done in a spreadsheet in your personal life?

[00:37:38] Guest: Alyona Mysko: Oh, I just yesterday told it to my friends. So, uh, I actually built, um, like, it's not financial. It's our plan. So I have my weekly planning of hours. So how I spend hours. And I do this plan actual analysis also every week. And I do just in Google spreadsheets. So this is very simple table. I understand how many hours I will spend this week, how I will spend them. And recently I added another part to that. So I added, um, so I read this book, great CEO within. And uh, there is like this chapter about managing your energy, being a CEO and founder. And usually it means that you should challenge yourself, do much more complicated things in your company. No one actually can do that. And you should also do this. Most high energy tasks for yourself. So low energy you should try to understand how to automate the delegate that things. And I also added additional filters to that. So what type of task were like I don't know, most complicated for me and very interesting. Something operational and boring. And also what was like high energy low energy. And they have this summary in the end. Like what percentage of time was spent how? And uh, I also have this list of my weekly goals like win goals. And I usually compare, okay, how this win goals are connected to my hours spent. So how can I actually review it and do better next week. You always review your plans at least every month, and you do. Next time you're better. Plans from this plan? Actual analysis. And I think the same now I do with my hours. And it's, I think very insightful for me now.

[00:39:30] Host: Paul Barnhurst: Thank you for sharing that. I won't even admit how little I track my time, so I don't get myself in too much trouble. But that's good, I like it. Love the energy. I could picture the spreadsheet. Right. So now we're going to rapid fire. So I'm going to lay the ground rules of how this works. You can't give me it depends. No consultant answers. You have to pick a side, kind of a yes or no. Then at the end you can elaborate on 1 or 2, because I realize there's nuance to pretty much every single one of these. But if you had to pick one side, where would you go? Ready?

[00:40:04] Guest: Alyona Mysko: Yes.

[00:40:05] Host: Paul Barnhurst: All right. Circular references. Yes or no? No VBA in models. Yes or no?

[00:40:12] Guest: Alyona Mysko: No.

[00:40:14] Host: Paul Barnhurst: Do you prefer horizontal? Like lots of sheets or vertical? Kind of putting almost all your data in one sheet.

[00:40:21] Guest: Alyona Mysko: It depends, but let's do lots of sheets.

[00:40:26.22] Host: Paul Barnhurst:: All right. We'll go with horizontal. And I agree with you. It does depend. All right how about this one. Dynamic arrays in models. What do you think. Yes or no.

[00:40:35.22] Guest: Alyona Mysko:: Um I think yes in some cases also.

[00:40:40.86] Host: Paul Barnhurst:: External workbook links. Yes or no?

[00:40:44] Guest: Alyona Mysko: No.

[00:40:46] Host: Paul Barnhurst: That was a pretty easy one for you. Named ranges. Yes or no?

[00:40:51] Guest: Alyona Mysko: Yes.

[00:40:53] Host: Paul Barnhurst: How about do you follow a formal standard like one of the boards for your modeling, like fast or smart or you just kind of have your own principles you use? Oh.

[00:41:04] Guest: Alyona Mysko: I think it also depends. Sometimes I use standards, but sometimes I still very creative.

[00:41:11] Host: Paul Barnhurst:: All right. We'll give you it depends on that one.

[00:41:13] Guest: Alyona Mysko:: It depends okay.

[00:41:15] Host: Paul Barnhurst: We'll let you have that. Should financial modelers learn Python in Excel?

[00:41:20] Guest: Alyona Mysko: Yes.

[00:41:21] Host: Paul Barnhurst: What about Power Query also?

[00:41:23] Guest: Alyona Mysko: Yes.

[00:41:25] Host: Paul Barnhurst: How about power BI also?

[00:41:28] Guest: Alyona Mysko: Yes. And even some machine learning also. Yes.

[00:41:31] Host: Paul Barnhurst: I think your quickest answer was Power Query. Why does that not surprise me? You work with messy data.

[00:41:36] Guest: Alyona Mysko: Yes, but you have messy data. You should work with that. So it's not okay to work with it in Excel or Google spreadsheet. So you need something better, more powerful.

[00:41:46] Host: Paul Barnhurst: So you need SQL. You need whatever you have to Python. You have to have a way to clean the data. 100% agree. All right. Do you think Microsoft Excel will ever die?

[00:41:56] Guest: Alyona Mysko: I think no, but I think it will be changed a lot in the next several years. Hopefully.

[00:42:07] Host: Paul Barnhurst: Hopefully I see someone wants some changes. Do you think I will build the models for us in the future?

[00:42:14] Guest: Alyona Mysko: Yes.

[00:42:16] Host: Paul Barnhurst: All right. Do you believe financial models are the number one corporate decision making tool?

[00:42:23] Guest: Alyona Mysko: I think it's important, but not only one tool to make decision.

[00:42:30] Host: Paul Barnhurst: So give me 1 or 2 of the other tools you think you should be using.

[00:42:34] Guest: Alyona Mysko: At least you should have your actual data for the previous periods. And I think you should also have some operational perspective. So not just like numbers, it can be something behind the numbers. And um, your teams can provide some more explanation because you can see from one side you have high expenses like I don't know, like on marketing or whatever, but it can be like some longer term like before you will see return on investment out of that and you need some explanations why there they are like that. So it can be some another part of project with calculating ROI or whatever. So usually you need much more details behind the numbers.

[00:43:18] Host: Paul Barnhurst: Got it. What's your lookup function of choice? Choose Vlookup index match Xlookup something else. Do you have a favorite lookup function?

[00:43:27] Guest: Alyona Mysko: I don't have a favorite. I think I used the most Vlookup function, uh, but I just like use it the most. I don't know if I can name my favorites.

[00:43:41] Host: Paul Barnhurst: That works. Is there any of those you want to elaborate a little bit on? I know you struggled. You wanted to say it depends several times.

[00:43:48] Guest: Alyona Mysko: Yeah, I think let me remember what I was struggling.

[00:43:55] Host: Paul Barnhurst: You hesitated a little bit on VBA horizontal or vertical? Um,

[00:44:03] Guest: Alyona Mysko: Yeah. Same like in the case when I was struggling, because I think my mind actually has so many cases from, you know, these smaller cases, with smaller financial models for smaller businesses to some bigger ones. And I think that some of the answers can be good, like for smaller businesses, and some can be much better for bigger businesses, because usually when you do like some, I don't know, financial model for smaller business, you want to be like very easy, fast and everything in one template. But if you do like a financial model for business, like with many business units, with many type of products or revenue streams, it's just impossible to have everything in one place because it will be so long and so messy. And yes, I think because of that, just because I tried to understand for whom it will be so for what type of final user?

[00:44:59] Host: Paul Barnhurst: No, I mean, and that's exactly it. There's nuance in all of these, right? Like circular references I think almost everybody says no, but there are some cases where people will use them. And I get it. And you have to be really, really cautious. So everybody has a different opinion.

[00:45:17] Guest: Alyona Mysko: Yeah. Saying like it can be messy. And when you have it you try to find after that from what source it was.

[00:45:24] Host: Paul Barnhurst: Yeah. There's a reason I tried it. I pretty much never use them now. But I get why some people do.

[00:45:30] Guest: Alyona Mysko:Who use it. Yeah.

[00:45:31] Host: Paul Barnhurst: It's the worst when you get a circular reference and you're like, okay, where is it? And you don't, you don't expect one true detective. So never fun. All right. So we're coming up on the very end of our time. Really enjoyed this chat. Just two quick questions for you and then we'll let you go. First, if you could offer one piece of advice to our listeners to be a better financial modeler, what's the advice you would give them? What's your kind of parting advice?

[00:46:00] Guest: Alyona Mysko: I think work on your communication skills. I think that's all like financial modelers, like what I see from the market. They are great with their hard skills. But I saying soft skills and this communication skills is something that all financial people should work on. And this is I believe this is the same like 50% of your success as you have 50% of your hard skills. So it's the same importance. And when you have great communication, empathy, and you can listen to the final user or entrepreneur, so you can do much more. So you can see much bigger picture. So your impact will be bigger. So that's how I think communication skills will be number one.

[00:46:48] Host: Paul Barnhurst: Got it. That's great advice. And the last question is you know, if somebody wants to learn more about you or feel finance, potentially get in touch with you, what's the best way for them to do that?

[00:46:59] Guest: Alyona Mysko: I'm usually on LinkedIn, so alone I'm the same as here. So always answer all messages there. Or you can just check Fuel Finance or our website. So yeah , LinkedIn I'm very active.

[00:47:16] Host: Paul Barnhurst: All right. Great. Well, we'll definitely put your, uh, your website and your profile on LinkedIn in the show notes. And thank you so much for carving out some time. It was a pleasure chatting with you today. I really enjoyed it.

[00:47:28] Guest: Alyona Mysko: Thank you. And thank you for having me, Paul.

[00:47:30] Host: Paul Barnhurst: Yep. Thank you Alyona, and you have a great rest of your day.

[00:47:33] Guest: Alyona Mysko: Thank you so much.

[00:47:35] Host: Paul Barnhurst:  Financial Modeler's Corner was brought to you by the Financial Modeling Institute. This year, I completed the Advanced Financial Modeler certification and it made me a better financial modeler. What are you waiting for? Visit FMI at www.FMInstitute.com/podcast and use Code Podcast to save 15% when you enroll in one of the accreditations today.




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