Latest / Exit Algorithms / What a CFO Does to Maximize Business Exit Value with Robert Checchia (#81)
Transcript
- Pete Vera, Exit Algorithms: Welcome to Exit Algorithms, the podcast where we decode what it really takes to unlock growth, streamline operations, and prepare your business for a high value exit. I'm your host, Pete Vera, and today I'm joined by Robert Checkia. He's a certified financial advisor with over 15 years across investment banking, private equity, venture capital, and corporate finance, and currently serves as the chief financial officer of Benzinga. One of the most widely recognized financial media and data platforms in the world. Robert, excited to have you here. Welcome to the podcast. Robert Checchia: Absolutely, Pete. It's my pleasure. Thank you for having me here. It's an honor and a pleasure. And yeah, I'm excited. We we had a great conversation and I was really looking forward to this. Pete Vera, Exit Algorithms: do you mind start starting off and share a bit about your background and yeah, in your business journey, your you know, your unique career path and what led you to Benzinga? Robert Checchia: Absolutely, absolutely. I grew up in New York originally and when I was a teenager my family moved to Brazil. my father was an entrepreneur, so you know, I saw him from that age build build a company from the ground up. And I always thought it was very interesting, you know, the challenges faced. But I'm a big numbers guy, so my background in in school was in physics. Okay, so I loved studying math and and and science and that sort of thing. but professionally I've always worked in finance. Okay, so my first job from the get-go was from a a a very large P backed company, but within one of the portfolio businesses. Okay, so that's that's where all my my career has been. Either on the upper the finance and operational side of P backed companies or on consulting, banking on the other side, right? On on making sure the capital allocation gets gets allocated in the best way possible. So I lived in Brazil for 20 years. I moved back to the States about eight years ago and I started in in the US back in in banking consulting moved on I had a great opportunity we did the S1 for a company that was gonna go public it ended up being sold at the last minute for with the tender offer was amazing. then from there I spent the last five years in fintech slash fin pub businesses. Okay, so that's how I got into Benzinga, but my whole career is in is in corporate finance and and operating with P backed companies. Pete Vera, Exit Algorithms: technology. I'm curious how is that how's that experience transitioned from finances on one side to to now this type of business? Robert Checchia: Absolutely. And that that's that's a great question to start. And I I feel like my my background in in science really helped me set up that mindset, okay, of how to analyze things because the the the logics, the the the common sense, the that that framework is the same, okay, but it's extremely different. And I I worked in banking on, for example, the industrials and retail teams, and it's completely different than from TMT, right? Or anything SaaS related. Let me give an example, right? When you when you're working when you want to understand the unit economics of an industrial's business, for example, or retail or anything like producing, manufacturing food or or anything any any you know thing that can be sold. You're looking at the line, the assembly line, you're looking what are the inputs and what are the outputs, right? But it's usually, hey, these there's there's a limited amounts of input variables, right? And then what what's the outcome of those? When you're talking about advertising online media, online advertising, SaaS products, there's not it's not one-to-one. There's multiple ways that you can acquire a subscriptions product, right? You can s come in one day and say, I saw you guys on on a Twitter, I saw you guys on a newsletter, I saw you guys call a call out on YouTube or something like that. So you will need many touch points, right, to to get to know the brand, to get to understand. before you actually become a consumer, right? And that's a big difference between, I went in and it's very discreet. I bought this pen. I bought this item here. Right. So understanding and I I had a I had to relearn what are the KPIs, what are the metrics, because in industrials a lot more time you could and and retail as well. You can go up and down, right? The macro is the sum of you can break it down and go to the micro and go back up. There's a lot of directionally correct but not fully mathematically like one plus one is not gonna equal two all the times when you're looking at media, when you're looking at traffic because you're looking at averages, you know, you're not looking at discrete numbers. When you talk about I have you know millions of viewers, how many of those millions of viewers became customers? And it's not always one to one. There's different buckets and the way you bucket things affects how you're gonna measure things afterwards. So Yeah, relearning those KPIs, those metrics, those economics was really interesting. But the framework of okay, let's break this down into the key component and really measure what matters was an endeavor in itself, Pete. Yeah, that was it was a challenge. Pete Vera, Exit Algorithms: We talked about this briefly on the pre show, but you know, you've seen some good CFOs, some bad CFOs. What what do you in your opinion are the biggest things that that make the difference? Robert Checchia: I try to emulate the the good CFOs I've worked with, which were where I've been very lucky and and grateful to have had good good leaders and good teachers. And even from the not so good ones, I've learned a lot of what sometimes not to do, of what how not to behave and how not to face a situation. I think that the the one the key difference between the good ones and the bad ones that I've worked with was the good ones they step out of their ivory tower. You know, they put on the hard cat the hard hat, they roll up their sleeves and they get out there and understand the operations. They spend time in the trenches. One of the best ones I've worked with said, get your butt out of the chair and go s go visit the operations. That's how you're gonna learn, right? Because when you see a spreadsheet, you have to know that that's you can you know, paper, spreadsheet, you can write anything you want, but for you to translate the reality into that spreadsheet is a completely different skill set. Okay, and what's more I think that's that's one of the key differences I've I try to emulate and what I've learned. The other one is to not get distracted by the noise. It's like how do they cut through all the noise and filter? there's a million types of data forms, especially nowadays, right? And see, okay, what are the key the eighty twenty rule? What are the the handful of variables that really move this business? And then go and attack those. Okay. So the the best C CFOs I've worked with, they would they would come in and say, hey, we have an issue with sales. And they would become salesmen. They would help, you know, for the next three to six months. I'm not saying, you know, go out and act sometimes talk to clients. I'm saying, hey, let me help you with analysis. Let me help you build a rinse and repeat process. Let me build you a strategy of of who to touch, of who to approach to to increase our revenues, right? That's the goal. Or saying, hey, we have an issue with margin, but why? Well the production process is an issue. And then you can pinpoint where where the issues are occurring. Right. So I've learned a lot and I I really try to emulate to get in the trenches, understand the operations, help where I can always and cover blind spots, okay, because sometimes you're gonna wait, nobody's looking at this. Okay, so we have to, you know, nobody's gonna fix our problem for us. So we have to let's go in and act, you know, in in in a certain capacity until we f we build enough of a framework to put someone there in place, right? So yeah, those are a a couple of the lessons I've learned along the way. Pete Vera, Exit Algorithms: a lot of growth stage companies early on, they don't have a real CFO per se, right? They might have a controller, book keeper, or whoever, but what what stage would you say a company really needs a a CFO? Robert Checchia: Gotcha. Now that's that's a great question too. A big part of my my career in in operations, especially with companies that are either starting up or or maturing, is they don't know what a CFO does. Okay. They think that a CFO is is a bookkeeper. So, Robert, here are all the bills. Here you're gonna do journal entries, right? And record everything in in in in SAP or QuickBooks or whatever, right? The bookkeeper records what's what's gonna happen. Okay, the controller helps build the processes and make sure that everything is you know being accurately recorded and we'll have valuable insights into into the business operations. The CFO his role is to say what does this mean and where we're going. Okay. So it's it's I want to take an example here. My my journey started with it's it's you got but you got to build it from the ground up. Okay. If you don't have solid data to do solid analysis, you're gonna make bad decisions. Okay. So my fur my the beginning of all my my you know finance tenure always is let's build this from the ground up. Let's set up the processes with accounting, let's set up the recurring processes of analysis, right? Okay, what and what are the lessons, what what are the numbers telling us? What does this imply? Right, and then the final one is let's take a step back and say, okay, what where are we going? Where do we want to go and how are we gonna get there? Okay. And a lot of times it's gonna say, hey, We don't have all the resources that we need to get to this point. So guess what? We're gonna have to say no to good things to be able to say yes to bigger and better things. Okay. opportune measuring your opportunity cost is essential. Okay, that's that's a key takeaway too. in my twenties, I worked relentlessly, okay. I worked 20 hour days for long times and y 'cause you think your your energy you treat it as an in infinite resource, okay. And as you get older, you start seeing, hey, it's really number one, it's really not. Okay, you think you're being productive, and many times you're not. And number two is you have to gauge, okay, yeah, I could spend five hours to generate this amount of revenues, or I could spend one hour and generate this amount, right? So let's start with the higher amount first and then we'll trickle down. but very long-winded way of answering. So when when should a company get a CFO? Probably when you're when you're asking that question, it's a little bit too late. Okay. Pete Vera, Exit Algorithms: Yeah, yeah. Robert Checchia: So I wouldn't treat the CFO as a bookkeeper. The CFO is is going to be a key component on planning, determining your strategy and executing. Okay, so by the time you're asking, hey, should I have a CFO? It's probably six months to a year too late already. Okay, so but but with that mindset in in in in in consideration, always bring in someone, a CFO that has that strategic component to it as well. Pete Vera, Exit Algorithms: I'd love to talk a little more about strategy too. while we're talking growth, let's talk capital strategy. you worked across VC, PE groups, investment banking. when does it when a founder is deciding between what type of financing they want to use to to grow. how do you go through that thought process of deciding which is the best? Robert Checchia: That's that's a great question too, because it it's and sometimes all money is green, right? You may think that, but no, there's there's a lot of strings that come attached to it, right? And I've seen a lot of I've seen a lot of startups that they that they get backing and they aren't accustomed to reporting into a financial sponsor, you know, and it's it starts creating attrition that even deterps the the operations, right? So my point is if you're going to have someone who's on your board if you're of of execu of of directors. If you're gonna have to import executives to your to your team, right? Be sure that you have and it's a different skill set, right? I I admire a lot entrepreneurs because they can build something out of nothing, right? But it and that's a skill set in its own. But for you to be able to work, play nicely together and report and be able to communicate effectively, right? Because here's the other thing. We have board meetings quarterly because that you know that's an arbitrary number or or or time frame that we have. But not all businesses, their cyclicality is quarterly, right? And sometimes you have to be very effective at telling the story to say, hey, we'll need eighteen months, you know, of run rate or or of this before we can see some turnarounds in in these in these metrics. And I think that being you know, someone told me the other day I I've I've completely stole this this phrase, which is The numbers, the rationality don't convince. The storytelling convinces. Okay. And that's that's what I believe in because you have to be very effective in communicating, telling the solid story if you're going to get backing from from someone who wants to be involved in your operations, okay. And the other part too is I think there's something to be said. not always when you're raising capital, go for the highest amount, but really pay attention to the smart money, the connections that you're gonna bring along the way too. Okay, so. Pete Vera, Exit Algorithms: Mm. Robert Checchia: Let me give an example. If you're if you're gonna start working, you know, with a PE firm, make sure that the PE firm is not someone who's just a blind financial sponsor, that they could open doors for you, that they can ha create synergistic opportunities. at Benzinga we're very lucky and grateful because our PE sponsor, they do this, they help us. They're really partners, okay? And and I've worked at much larger P group with l much larger P groups before and it was just a you know a vertical hierarchy of reporting. this is not the case. With Benzina our our our financial sponsors are partners. Okay. And we love it. They bring us clients. They give us insights. They give us good debate. They they give us even resources when we need to. Hey, we need to whiteboard this huge analysis. What do you guys think? You know, they assist with that too. So I would consider not only the the dollar amount, I would consider what what's behind it. So is it smart money? Is it a partnership? are you willing Pete Vera, Exit Algorithms: Mm. Robert Checchia: To work together, are you willing to to to have that you know symbiotic relationship? And and finally, I think that especially for for for founders and early stage companies, be very wary and protective of your equity. Okay, so if you can right try to service it with debt, don't don't give away your company for free or or for a low amount. That that's a big point I wanted to make too. Okay, so Pete Vera, Exit Algorithms: Yeah. Robert Checchia: Yeah, that's that's what I would consider, right? What are the implications of the money that you're bringing in? And at what points at what point is the best type of financing to your to your operation. Okay. Pete Vera, Exit Algorithms: you want to have your financials in order, obviously, before you take on more debt or or a partnership for growth. those are the same things also that you know you would you would put together before a business sale as well. I'm I'm curious what are what are some of the the most important things a company should do before considering you know a business sale? or taking on a a partner for you know for growth Robert Checchia: I wanna tell a short story here which is I worked I worked a lot in MA advisory, okay, and it was it I always felt not not always, but towards the end I felt this sort of guilt, okay, because the incentive was always to do a deal, not to do the best deal, okay, for your for your clients, for your mandate there at the company. And I remember I changed companies I I I changed jobs at that point and I went from being a pure MA advisor. Okay. We we had we were shop yes we did MA advisory, but it was much more of a a a value creation group, right? And that we called it sweat equity. Right. And what that meant is we yeah, we would we would talk to a bunch of business owners looking to raise capital or exit their businesses. And a lot of the times, okay, I'm gonna say at least 50% would say, buddy, you're not ready to go. Okay. I mean you can go to market now, but you're gonna get a fraction of what you're worth. Okay. And then we would sign the Yeah, and that that I fell in love with that model. That's I spent many years, you know, at that company too. but the key difference was we would go in, okay, as partners, we would set a baseline of growth for the plan. We would go two, three, sometimes four years or more, okay, and whatever we helped generate on that upside, we would get a a piece of, right? That that's what equity model. Pete Vera, Exit Algorithms: Hm, yeah. Robert Checchia: And I I love that and I think that's what that's what all founders should have that mindset, you know, before they go, no, I'll just go out to sell. What does that mean? Is what that means is you have to be prepared to maximize your value on a transaction. Okay. So number one, get clean, auditable numbers, okay, for at least the last two to three years. Okay. If you don't, if you no, yeah, here's the numbers, like they're not gonna ble they're not, you know, it's gonna be First of it's be very hard to sell. Second of all, you will get dinged. You will get discounted on your valuation. Okay. So it doesn't say, yeah, we implemented QuickBooks six months ago. That's not enough. Okay. You have to have a clean data room because every every question that you I can't answer. we'll need to get back to you is something that will be deterred. Okay. So number one, clean auditable financials. And that's not just the three financial statements. That's all the support and backing. I want every detail of every client of every invoice that I have. I want the full breakdown. I want to understand, right? Hey, is it j by geography, by client type, client concentration? I want to see where the money's coming from, where it's coming out of, and a quick parenthesis on that, since we're talking about founders, keep very clean your personal and and the company finances. Okay. That's another red flag that that gets dinged. Okay. So number one, clean financials, clean auditable financials. Okay. Pete Vera, Exit Algorithms: Mm. Robert Checchia: Two revenue quality. That's probably the most important thing when you're when you're going out because it's it's they want to see what is what's the engine, what's recurring revenue, okay, versus hey, we got a one time lump sum deal or or in in an industry that can't generate that type of profit anymore, you know. So I think that's a big part, and that ties into the storytelling, right? Because if you show, hey, I have repeat customers, hey, I have a broad client basis, it's not just all concentrated in one or two. Pete Vera, Exit Algorithms: Mm. Robert Checchia: larger deals, right? Hey, I have longevity, I have recurring revenues. That is a big part of the story that you're gonna tell too. So number one, clean financials, number two, defensible and and revenue quality, okay. And number three, coming from a a finance guy, is you have to have a clear view of your team and your organizational structure because they're gonna want to know what was the engine that got them up until this point and Is this engine replicable onwards? Okay. back in my consulting days, we actually had a case where we we went to this owner and it was huge company, okay? And we're talking like hundred million e inebitta. And we went to them and said, You can't sell this business because you have a key man risk. It's it's you and your partner and you have another hundred people, but they're all underlings, you know. Like if you got hit by a bus, you guys are done. Pete Vera, Exit Algorithms: Mm. Robert Checchia: You don't know what happens, there's no records, there's no organizational structure, it was very flat, right? So that there's something to be said there. I'm a big and I I I learned this the hard way in my career, which was you have to you have to have a skill set of build of building talent building training talents and retaining talents and keeping them incentivized along the way. Okay. And incentives aren't just money, it's it's recognition, it's power, it's exposition, it's giving them the opportunity. Pete Vera, Exit Algorithms: Mm. Robert Checchia: It's holding them accountable, you know. If there's there's we we can have a whole other days long chat about this, but I think the third big component on on going to sale going to a transaction is you have to have a clear, strong team so that it's replicable without you being there. Okay, or you will get discounted, or they're gonna say, hey, yeah, okay, you gotta stay here for an earnout and it's not good for you, it's not good for them, you know. And so that's that those are those are the key things that I'd say. another one, fourth one, bonus one here. Know your economics. Okay. So you have to know your your unit economics and explain them in a minute or less. Okay. How do you acquire clients? How much that client is worth, how long is that client with you typically, okay, and how you're monetizing all your fronts. So those four I'd say are are crucial. Please don't go out to market until you have these four figured out and in line. Pete Vera, Exit Algorithms: Uh-huh. Yeah. you gotta be prepared and and if you have all those four things you're you're easily gonna command a you know, a much higher multiple when you go to exit, right? Robert Checchia: Let absolutely Pete and let me let me say something here because sometimes people think, let's talk about valuation multiples, right? The higher your margin, the higher your your your recurring revenue proportion, right? The higher your valuation multiple. Okay. So that means it it's it's it goes upwards and to the right. My point is fight for the best revenue lines that you have, which are recurring, not those one time lump sum additions. Fight for the highest margin businesses. Okay. Those are your higher valuation businesses. Okay. You can have a company with with many revenue stream lines, but the lower multiple ones are the ones that have either low the lower valuation multiple businesses are the ones that have lower margins and lump sum revenues. Okay, if you have predictable high margin recurring revenues, those are worth a lot more. So if you're if you're Pacing towards an exit, focus on those. And Pete Vera, Exit Algorithms: Great advice. Yeah, that g ties back to what you said earlier too about, you know, measure at measuring your opportunity cost. If you chase those other revenues revenue streams, you you'll have, you know, less quality of revenue overall, right? Robert Checchia: Absolutely. Absolutely. Yeah. And and it's fun now, 'cause when you when you're doing when you're in a company that builds SaaS products or or or or or tools or software, right? It's very easy. You can build a plethora in your portfolio, right? But you gotta look and say, Hey, these are products, for example, that if they don't have a market, if they don't have an addressable market, maybe okay, you can have innovation division, you know, test things out and learn and and but Don't think that that's gonna 10x your business. Focus on the ones that are, you know, your your your your core engine drivers. That's that's a big component too. So don't think that all of your business lines are all gonna grow at the same time and are worth the same thing. I'd it's a key component really focusing on what matters more. Pete Vera, Exit Algorithms: as Benzinga expands, they, you know, probably gonna do some bolt ons. what would you look for in a potential partnership or acquisition you know, beyond just the the numbers? Robert Checchia: Yeah, I always look at the culture and and the strat number well that's maybe the second part. The first part that I I look at is the business fit. Okay. And by that I mean, hey, do they address a market that we don't touch on? Do they touch an audience that we don't touch on, right? And that we want to touch on. Okay. So that's that's a big component of of of what we look at. And it's not just healthy financials, you know, that sort of thing. I think it's more of Strategically, do they touch on something that we want to play, a space we want to play in, and that we don't yet? And would it be faster to buy versus to build? Okay, number one. And number two, again, numbers guys saying this, it almost sounds it almost sounds ironic, but it's it's do a judgment of the culture fit. Okay. If if there's if it it may look all good on paper, great margins, but if there's not a good culture fit between target company and and you know who's acquiring that will destroy value that attrition does destroy value okay so be be be cognizant of that and number three this and this is something again learn the hard way synergies cost synergies are are many times over over estimated okay you're not gonna be able to cut as much as you think you are number one and number two you can't cut your way to success okay you're not gonna say yeah we we bolted this company on and why are we winning? 'cause we cut their IT and and accounting and and nature art department. You know? Yeah, it could be you could make some savings there, but that's minimal compared to, hey, what are you what are you really doing? Is it are you entering a new geography, a new market, a new audience, right? That's that's the number one thing that I look for. Pete Vera, Exit Algorithms: if you're a business owner selling too, like that culture of fit is is crucial I think for both both sides. yeah. Robert Checchia: Absolutely. Absolutely. Yeah. Pete Vera, Exit Algorithms: I'd love to also, you know, open the can of worms here on AI. I know you're yours you deeply in you know entrenched in it in your world. and we talked a bit you know earlier on the on the pre show, I think, on you know, balancing that, making sure the human element is still there. I'm curious, yeah, how are you approaching AI these days in in your company and and personally as well? Robert Checchia: Absolutely no good great great point. I think but because Benzinga is we're a breaking news company. Okay, that's that's what we do. We have a team of journalists, financial journalists that cover the US markets twenty-four-seven. Okay. And just by that definition you could imagine, okay, yeah, you you guys could run AI and put out AR co AI content and articles. That's not the case. Okay. We rely heavily AI's helped us a lot internally, okay. within our production processes, reviews, data communication between different platforms. it's it's helped up it's helped us extensively in that in that factor. But we don't use AI outwards facing. Okay. So everything that that we put out, all content is human produced and reviewed, okay? Because I think that's that's our secret sauce, right? And then the the different ways that we monetize that content, yes, we use AI. So for example, one of one of the big points is advertising, right? So we have to see we w with the plethora of of data that we have now we can analyze and say, hey, you know, this is the persona of the clients that is best tuned and performs best on our on our variable performance for at for online advertising. That's a big insight that we used AI to generate. Hey, what are our data licensing clients looking into and let's see what we can produce, okay, in terms of analysis and review that kind of thing we use AI for. So I wanna say We use AI a lot for our internal processes, but we don't use AI to produce the product, the content that goes to the clients. That's the first point I wanted to make. The second point, I think it it speaks for itself, is we Benzinga didn't have a real data science and AI machine learning team two years ago. Today we have a world class team with I think it's almost fifteen people at this point. Okay. Now you may yeah, and you may look at that and say, but that's right, that's an expense line, right? Pete Vera, Exit Algorithms: Mm-hmm. Robert Checchia: We see it differently because the focus is not to bet generate a better dashboard or you know better communications and in data sources. It's how do we better productize the information, the data that we have. Okay. Turning I I like to say turning the the raw data into information and monetizing that. So there's a huge appeal of this team to turn things into monetizable products. Okay. So We are we use AI a lot for internal processes, right? Optimization. And we're using it a lot now to develop and analyze and build new products, okay? On a professional sense. On a personal sense, or my day-to-day, I don't know how I used to work without it. Okay. I don't know. each one has their their favorite tool set. Mine is perplexity, I'm a legit power user because I love it. Pete Vera, Exit Algorithms: Yeah. Same. Robert Checchia: You can you can create different spaces, you can upload different instructions, you can use all the different models, right? So it's for me definitely perplexity number one. but then the model usually clawed, right? That's that's my go to. And the thing is, does it replace did it replace anyone in my team? No, it didn't. But the bar for everyone has gone up a lot, you know. So well let's talk about reporting, you know, you when Pete Vera, Exit Algorithms: Mm-hmm. Robert Checchia: To do the quarterly business review deck would take us, I don't know, ten days, you know, putting together all the slides reviewing here and there. Now it's it's a lot faster, but also the analysis, right? You can connect, you know, you're all day talking on Slack, talking through emails. So you can connect everything in one spot and say, Hey, what was that what was that a thing again that we were talking about? Boom, there it is. Hey, give me an analysis of all the business line over the last quarter. Boom, there it is. What were the main wins? So Pete Vera, Exit Algorithms: Right. Robert Checchia: You you have to have but that that's in general. That's not from the advent of AI. You have to have very clean data, okay, before you can create a very easy workflow of analysis, right? So that's that's another big point, you know, back not to date myself too much, but I'm very strict. We were very strict with our team in keeping the conveyor belt recordings in order. Why? Because then you could automate a lot of things in Excel, right? Again, gonna date myself. with formulas and analysis for repeatable analysis. But now with AI, you still have to maintain, you know, the data in in a certain framework. I'm not an engineer, but what I keep hearing is when we benzing as a whole, we have this plethora of of fifteen years of of content of of producing, and then you put on top of that that MCPD AI is going in there, that's really useful for us. And I think that's that's what what you know business operators should take is How is this going to scale my productivity? Number one. And number two is don't use AI for the sake of AI. Use it somewhere where it really is gonna add value to you, you know? So because it again, if if I were to just look at the cold hard numbers and say, hey, okay, you have a team of fifteen people there, what did they add? Hey, they're adding all these products, all these new revenue lines. Okay. Pete Vera, Exit Algorithms: Yeah. Well said. Love it. what do you see as good use and bad use for for business owners? do you see any big mistakes out there? Robert Checchia: I do. I do. Actually I do. Okay. and and and thank you for opening up because I I I was gonna hop in and say this too. I have a friend, he's a president of a chemical company, a smaller one, in I think it's in North Carolina. and he told me he had to forbid the use of AI in emails because it was it started to become a game of chicken. One would answer with an a clearly an AI generated email this long that someone else would take Too long to read. So what was their answer? Okay, AI, read this and come up with a reply. And then it got to a point where nobody was reading emails anymore. So that's that's a bad use case. we we didn't have anything as exaggerated as that. But again, as as we as we mentioned before, the numbers, the rationality, they don't always convince, it's the storytelling. So you have to you have to be able to communicate effectively and not not always longer, bigger emails, more is is better. Okay. Sometimes it's it's hey, get to the point. And you've got to get there with two, three paragraphs. Okay. So I think that's a bad case where I've seen it before. we've we've aligned. My friend had to take a much more radical stand, right? But that's that's that's a big one. Don't use AI just for the sake of AI. Don't overcomplicate things, communicate effectively. And again repeating Benzinga's approach Don't you can't replace your core capa capabilities, your secret sauce. Okay. So don't rely on AI for that. You you use AI to scale, and that's what we're doing. We have internal workshops, we have best practices discussions, we have a bunch of things. We experiment, you know. I I learned about perplexity through our our engineering team, you know. I was a a Gemini user. No, no, no, you've got to look at this, right? So I think that's that's the best use case and don't don't fall You know, it it's very tempting to fall. we'll just replace everything here. No, don't don't fall for that mistake. Pete Vera, Exit Algorithms: Robert Rack, I got one final question for you. If you could give one practical tip for business owners who want to get their financial house in order and increase the value of their company right now, what would it be? Robert Checchia: Absolutely. I think it's it's one that it's the fourth item that we mentioned when we were talking about how to pace towards an exit, which is know your unit economics, know your story, know how you make money to it and be able to explain it in sixty seconds, okay, in in half a sheet of paper. This is how we acquire clients, this is how much they cost, this is how much they're worth, this is the flow that generates. Okay, so don't overcomplicate things. we have a We notice that ev when they use our tool it's a 14% increase in in in productivity. No, it's what's your acquisition, what's your CAC, what's your L TV, and and know your unit economics. Okay, that's that's the number one thing and be able to communicate that effectively. Because once you know that, you you'll be able to know where your money's being allocated and you'll be able to make the best possible business decisions. So this is useful yes for an exit, but mainly for you to grow your company, okay. Cut through the noise, focus on on on how your company really generates money and double down on that. That's my number one recommendation, my number one tip. Pete Vera, Exit Algorithms: Well said. And this been an incredible conversation today, Robert. we have where can listeners find it and learn more if they've enjoyed it as much as I have. Robert Checchia: Thank you. Thank you for saying that, Pete. Again, it's been an honor and a pleasure to be here. first of all, you guys can learn more about Benzinga at benzinga.com. We have a bunch of of online news. You guys can can different products, different subscriptions, views, but we're we're also available on all the main platforms. We're available to read articles on Bloomberg, on all the Yahoo Finance. We're our article and content is available all over the internet. but feel free to come and visit our webpage. And I'm personally available You guys can see me on LinkedIn, Robert Kekia, or my my email is Robert at Benzinga dot com. Always feel free to reach out to me. I like building bridges, you know, so if anyone wants to reach out to me, discuss, hey, bounce ideas, you know, or just get acquainted. I'm in the New York area, so feel free to reach out to me. Pete Vera, Exit Algorithms: Sounds great, Robert. I'll leave those in the show notes. Thank you so much for your time today. I loved having you on the show to Robert Checchia: It was my pleasure, Pete. Thank you again.