Episode 88: How to win at FP&A with Psychology, Strategy and Tradeoffs with Taylor Otstot
Show Notes
Taylor Otstot is VP of Finance at Dashlane, and former Senior Director of Finance at GoDaddy. He joined GoDaddy a year before their IPO and was there for eight years as the domain registrar and web hosting company scaled from $1.5 billion to $4 billion revenue. “By the time I left, I was supporting about a billion and a half of that revenue, and I was running a team of about 14", Taylor says. "So not only was I part of a business that was going through a lot of growth, but personally had to go through a lot of growth.”
In this episode, Taylor reveals the psychological skills and strategy he uses to win in his career.
Printing Excel files (aka the worst budget he has ever experienced)
Why every conversation in finance is really a conversation about tradeoffs?
Letting go of what “made you great” when managing an FP&A Team
Psychology learnings that have transformed my finance career and how you can apply them to your career
Eight Lessons Learned the Hard Way, Reflection from Eight Years at GoDaddy.
How a hard experience showed him that in finance, “ titles unlock doors, but that doesn’t mean you’ll be invited in”
Why I am a big fan of decision frameworks and breaking out of your “normal default positions”
Burritos vs tacos and finance decision-making (with lessons for business reviews and business partnerships)
Why the “safe choice” isn’t normally the right choice in finance
Secrets to building a high performing team
The big Sales comp revelation
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