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Building an Operator CFO Mindset with Robert Checchia · The CFO Playbook

• Pod (00:00.75) Do not disturb everywhere. Excellent. All right. So right at the top of this, just for continuity purposes, I've just got a couple of lines of intro that I'll do, Robert. So you sit tight until I tell you that we're ready to go. All right. Kicking off in three, two. Hello and welcome back to the CFO Playbook podcast with me, David McClelland. And here on the CFO Playbook, we get under the skin of how world-class finance leaders leverage technology, set goals, make plans, manage teams, and much, much more. My guest today is CFO of Benzinga, the market data company taking on Bloomberg and Reuters. with a background across investment banking, PE and &A. He's now spending his time trying to turn a media business into a fintech one. Robert Checchia, CFA .'. (00:57.114) David, it is an absolute honor and pleasure to be here. Pod (00:57.538) Then we, hold it there, hold it there. Don't you worry. What happens there is that we play a clip. It's our tease. We're just dangling that hook for our viewers. So again, you sit tight. I've got one more link to do and then we're straight into it. Okay. Pick it up in three, two, the CFO Playbook podcast. He's here every month with exclusive finance leadership insights. So. Robert Checchia, CFA .'. (01:13.574) Apologies. Pod (01:25.772) Make sure you subscribe, browse through our back catalog and get in touch as many of you do. Your suggestions really do help to shape our show. Right, let's meet today's guest. Excellent. Right, Robert, standing by my friend, standing by. This is where we come to you in three, two, Robert Keckia, CFO of Benzinga. Welcome to CFO Playbook. Robert Checchia, CFA .'. (01:56.077) It is my absolute honor and pleasure to be here, David. Thank you for the invite and I was really looking forward to talking to you. Pod (02:03.048) Whereabouts you joining us from today Robert and we're at the end of the work week as we're recording today what's your work week look like for you. Robert Checchia, CFA .'. (02:12.378) Happy Friday. but that's just that's just the day of the week. I still have one, two more meetings this afternoon and probably four hours of emails and analysis to get done before the day ends. I am speaking from the New York metropolitan area, specifically from Jersey City, right across the river for those who are familiar with the area. Pod (02:14.21) Ha Pod (02:34.934) All right, so New York City, know it well, Jersey as well. Fantastic. Thank you for taking time out of, like you say, your busy Friday to join us. For listeners who may not know Benzinga, give us the short version and we'll expand on it in a bit more length in a minute. What does the business do? Robert Checchia, CFA .'. (02:54.156) Absolutely. So Benzinga is at the heart. We are a financial financial breaking news provider. Okay, we're we're a team of journalists covering financial markets, mostly focused in the US. And our moat, our reason to exist is to level the playing field in terms of data between institutional investors and retail investors. That's that's the core. And then from there on it's how we grow, how we expand, how we sell and monetize our our news and data. But at the core we are a a a a breaking news and data provider for the financial markets. Pod (03:28.216) bring together those two worlds, like you say, of institution and retail as well. It's an interesting, I mean, media as a whole is an interesting space. When you start to bring together technology and media, that becomes even more interesting. Disclosure, I used to work for one of those companies that you are disrupting. I spent a long time working with Reuters. So that was a long time in the past though. So don't worry, no, no feed that I'm shredding on now. Robert Checchia, CFA .'. (03:55.556) Ha ha ha Pod (03:57.519) So what I'd like to do today, Robert, is to start with Benzinga and how you've been part of its reshape, what the role of private equity has been playing there for you. And then I want to rewind a little bit, understand your journey to Benzinga and what from those experiences perhaps informs your approach at Benzinga now. And then finally... We'll look ahead. What can you say about the next steps at Benzinga and how CFOs perhaps like you need to evolve to? That's the plan. How does that sound? Robert Checchia, CFA .'. (04:32.422) That sounds amazing. Let's do it. Pod (04:34.336) All right, well, let's let's come back to Benzinga then. Give us some insights into why you were first brought into this role, what, three or four years ago now? Robert Checchia, CFA .'. (04:44.174) Absolutely. So Benzinga started again, it's it's a relatively new company. We're we're just over eleven years old. And this started as the founder, kudos to him, he was you know had this spark of genius and saw this opportunity to really level the playing field again between institutional and retail investors. And it started from nothing out of Detroit. And again, amazing job that that the founder and and the original management team have had had done. Okay. And they ultimately got acquired by a private equity group in 2020. And things continued to grow parabolically. Okay, it was a super accelerated growth. I came in through the private equity group, and my mission was to not let us lose the original secret sauce of of why you know the business business was so successful, but also apply more discipline and more professional management techniques, right? So we can go. and and take that big next step, right? And I've I've had a lot of great support, not only from the team, but also from our private equity sponsor, because it's it's one skill set to go from zero to one. It's another skill set to go from one to ten and then from ten to a hundred. Right. So we really want to supercharge everything that the company does well and implement and increment on on you know on on the culture on everything on that secret sauce and bring the company to the next level. So that's that's where I was brought in. And it's been a journey. I I've had I had a small passage through through Finpub, Financial Pu Publishers, but my career prior to that was all in different industries. So it's been really interesting, a great learning opportunity for me. Pod (06:11.116) Yeah. Pod (06:23.618) No, it sounds fascinating the journey that you are on there. so private equity obviously had come into Benzinga. Seeing the opportunity. to grow. It was already on quite a steep curve at the point at which you came in though. has it been a challenge to maintain that curve or is it really about maturing the processes, creating that foundation for that next stage of growth, that next stage of transformation? Robert Checchia, CFA .'. (06:54.298) That's a great question. I think it's been a little bit of both. Okay. Because ultimately, right, as with any any private equity play, the idea is to grow the the enterprise value of the business, right? So a big part of that was coming in and one of one of Benzing's superpowers was we we were very scrappy, very dynamic on attacking new markets, developing very quickly new products, new geographies, new clients, and and that is what we did very well, right? But between that mix, right, of of different portfolios of of profiles of products, there's obviously some that perform better, some that perform worse in terms of margin, in terms of replicability, scalability, and ultimately what what are those that add higher enterprise value? Okay. So a big part, a big part of the the the project here, the work is saying no to good things so we have capacity, bandwidth, even resources to say yes to bigger and better things. Okay, so it's being it's really being, my gosh, does this look like a good opportunity? Yes. But is it the best use of our time and resources and energy? Maybe not. So we have to shift the focus there. So it has been challenging in terms of adjusting that little piece of culture, which is okay, you're really gonna say no to this good project? Yeah, I am, because something bigger and better is on the way. Pod (07:57.528) Mmm. Pod (08:15.158) And I guess, you know, given the characterization of Benzinga and the market in which it operates, it's been a fast moving business. It's relatively young. It's create it has created a real hole for itself in the market. So I bet there are an awful lot of new ideas for products, for markets, for I guess anything really that would move the business forward. And it's up to somebody and you are part of that conversation to know. what to say no to, but also what to go all in on. And that will change, particularly given the rate of change with AI and all the other tech stuff that's happening at the moment. Those decisions need to be made in the moment right now, not with a view to 12 months away or what happened 12 months ago. Robert Checchia, CFA .'. (08:58.618) That's that's absolutely correct. And a big a big part of of Benzinga's DNA, Benzinga's culture, and something that I I learned a lot about here too is a lot of the products and solutions that we've developed came through direct feedback from our partners and clients. Like, hey, if you develop this, it'd be a good way for us to monetize and grow together. Hey, if you develop that, we could expand into this new online media, digital media presence. Okay. So we want to retain that. But it's it's at the same time, okay, is this something that one person is asking for, or is it something that, you know, there's a material volume, a critical mass there of people asking for? And what's the size of the opportunity at hand, right? We want to be the best and the fastest partners and providers of solutions, but we also have to measure, okay, let's let Pareto principle, right? Let's start with something that has more critical mass, that has more potential marketability. And then we we go down from there. Okay. So it has been interesting, but also it's been very it's been very fun because you get to analyze a bunch of different ideas. There's not a lack of ideas, Dave. It's it's it's really selecting the best ones. Pod (10:13.646) So how do, it's a topic that we've spoken about a lot on CFO Playbook and it's that shrinking of the gap between the back office, typically where the finance function sits and the front office. So my question to you is as a CFO, how do you get close enough to the business, to sales, to product, to engineering? to be able to ask the questions, kick the tires so that you know the decisions you're supporting the business in making are the right ones and not being made just by the sales and engineering teams, if you know what I Robert Checchia, CFA .'. (10:44.966) That's that's a great point. And I think I think we we may touch on this, but you know, my my opinion is is that a good CFO, what differentiates a good CFO from from a bad one, and I've tried to emulate the good ones that I've encountered throughout my career and and even learn from the bad ones, which what not to do, okay, is the good CFOs are operators as well, okay? They they understand everything, they're in the trenches. Benzinga's head headquarters is in Detroit. The first two years I was in the office every other week for the full week to really understand everything from the ground up. Okay. And that's not only for for knowledge, you know, my knowledge to make better business decisions and share the information and communicate better with the other executives and our private equity sponsor, but it's something that you earn the respect of everybody who's down in the trenches. When you're when you're shoulder to shoulder with people, we have this problem, this is urgent, we gotta fix it, and then you okay, how can I help? How can I adjust this? What can what little piece can I do? I'm not an engineer, right? But is there something that I can do to simplify to make your life easier here? You earn the respect, you earn the buy-in of the the entire team. Okay. So I think that that's that's a part that was crucial for my for my development here and and growth as a CFO, but also for us to maintain us to keep that knowledge in in-house and really be more selective, right? We you we we can distill better now through the sea of ideas, you know, and and and data points. We can shift through that and and say, okay, these things are what matters. Let's use these to make better decisions. Okay. So I I think that's important not only, you know, for for your personal development and growth of the business, but to earn the morale and the respect of the team. And it's gonna serve you better when you're you're making better informed decisions. Pod (12:32.494) It's a two way street though, isn't it? So on the one hand, you being close to the business, close to the front office, so that you can understand what happens day to day. That's great. Turning that around a little bit, it's easy to think of a finance function. I'm sure in some places that I know in some places that has been the case. There's an element of gatekeeping as well. It's like, yeah, we're the finance team. Don't you worry about that. We will look after it for you. So my question therefore is, When you come to something like helping the rest of the teams, the product teams, the sales teams, the engineering teams, understanding things like margins, you know, we spoke about how profitable and the growth that Benzinga has been on. How do you, when obviously you're trying to shape the products and trying to shape the services that you provide to make sure that you are able to grow margins as best as possible, how do you make sure that the rest of the business understands something like... Robert Checchia, CFA .'. (13:07.878) Mm-hmm. Pod (13:27.906) how the finance works, how the margins work. So it's not just the finance leaders who have a grip on the numbers, the rest of the business does as well. Robert Checchia, CFA .'. (13:37.823) That's a great question. I'm a big believer in in empowering people, okay, to make better decisions and and exactly that to not gatekeep. A big big motto I have is trust but verify. Okay. But I I I leave a relatively loose leash, okay, for the for the teams to operate. the source of truth for fine for financial information, margins, profiling, everything is the finance team, okay. But Really, Dave, it's it's it's built from the bottom up. Okay. So the first layer of the pi of the pyramid is you have to have all your accounting in order, you have to have all your books straight. And then what that involves is what that entices is you have all your processes, you know when closing is gonna be, you know when every report, the forecast, the the updated review, the updated margin breakdown, all of that you know when it's gonna be within the month. So what that does is it occupies less mental real estate, okay? The next part of the pyramid is for you to have more financial planning visibility. Okay. So, hey, I want to have, you know, still centralized maybe in finance, but a profile of of margins within the business, you know, of of each business within the company or you know, some specific other specific analysis. But once you get to that stage, okay, then what you do is I I you know we we it started with the org structure. So we redesigned the org structure to have real PL owners for each part of the business, okay. And within our our reporting calendar, within our reporting and planning calendar, we empower each one of those PL owners with all their breakdown of data. Okay, the same day every month, the same same template, same format, same breakdown, and everything. And then we can increment on that, right? We can build up and improve it. But they know that on every ninth of of the month, they will get their data pack with their margins by product, by team. everything broken down, what was commissions, what were their expenses, what were their allocated costs and expenses from corporate. So I feel like when you when you bring people to the table, empowering them with more information, more data, what happens is you multiply. You're not only your your eyes and ears and mouth. Everybody is speaking for you, rowing in the same direction, seeing things that you aren't seeing when you aren't present and reinforcing the same message. Okay. When you can show, hey, we have to get Robert Checchia, CFA .'. (15:58.715) The company needs to get to these targets. That means that your PL needs to get to this. And then they understand, that's the importance of my my my profile, my company. It's not just revenues. It's revenues at a certain margin, right? It's it's hey, this product mix, I can't just push this one because the margins or the profile is not as as good as the other one. So I feel like when you when you bring people to the table, when you empower them, when you celebrate the victories. Right. And and you know, not only that, but you it because it can't be just just the stick. There has to be the carrot too. And it is important to celebrate the the the wins. You multiply your efforts exponentially, you know. So it's it's that's that's my that's my my playbook that I've used repeatedly throughout my career. But I feel like it it it's always worked or or you know, and obviously small tweaks and adjustments, but it's really clarity, communication, designing, holding people accountable, and empowering. Pod (16:56.716) What I love about that empowerment piece that you described there is that it reflects what Benzinga does as a business. You you are empowering your customers with up-to-date financial, whatever media, you know, market data to enable them to make best decisions. And it sounds as though you are very much living that vision internally, as well as what you're delivering to your customers. Let's press pause on Benzinga for a moment though. And I want to go back into your... Robert Checchia, CFA .'. (17:21.766) Mm-hmm. Pod (17:25.762) professional background, Robert, because US based, as you've said right now, US born, but a formative part of your upbringing and well, maybe business industry grounding as well was spent outside of the US, was spent in Brazil, I think. What can you tell us about that? Robert Checchia, CFA .'. (17:44.141) Yes, yes. When I was I grew up in Queens, when I was eleven years old, one day my my my father came home and said, Hey, pack your bags, we're all moving to Brazil and that was yeah, that was fun. It was in nineteen ninety seven. I lived in Brazil for twenty something years, so all my my my education and a big chunk of my professional life was abroad. But at the same time, you know, I've I've always kept ties with the US. I've always come back and and you know, Pod (17:54.038) wow. Robert Checchia, CFA .'. (18:13.552) Just knew what was going on. And then one day I did this I did the opposite, right? I I woke up one day and I told my wife, listen, we're moving back to the US and we we did it. And I I the best decision I've ever made. So it's it's been, you know, the as as with everything in life, Dave, I think there's pros and cons. I think that it brought it having lived abroad for a long time in a different culture and having come back, you always you always have a measuring stick, you know, you always have something to compare. But I feel like it it really, you know, peep traveling in general opens your eyes, right? Expands your your your mind. Imagine living actually abroad, not for a short amount of time, but really, you know, consuming the culture. And I and that culture is not just entertainment or lifestyle. It is how management is done as well. Okay. I feel like when I moved back to to New York, and New York is a is a melting pot, I can identify like the profiling of, hey, this this type of culture. values this in in the business context and this type of culture values something else, you know. me personally, I'm very direct and very straight to the point. And I've I've acknowledged and know that there are certain cultures that don't appreciate that. Right. So it's it's it's knowing where where and when to apply the differences and that that really opened my eyes. Okay. So to to to answer your question. It was I think it was very rewarding at when when I, you know, when I moved back like, my God, what's gonna happen? Nobody knows even the companies, despite them being, you know, listed in in the New York Stock Exchange, nobody's is is as familiar. But today looking back and connecting the dots, I really do feel like that is my superpower, okay, is having lived through different cultures, work cultures and it it it it gives you you you become more resilient and adaptable to change. You know, you you have at the same time thick skin enduring changes, but you also know where to apply pressure and where not to and sort of you can you you you just get a different sense of empathy, okay, for different contexts. Pod (20:19.66) that sense of perspective that you speak of there, that kind of empathy, cultural context, really, really useful, particularly in international organizations. The business side though, something that I want to just delve into a bit further there, because when you moved over to Brazil, your father built a tech business. And that was a journey for him, and I'm sure the whole family as well. So my question then is, what did seeing entrepreneurship and business so close up, close to home, literally close to home, teach you and what impact has that had on what you thought about building a business career of your own? Robert Checchia, CFA .'. (21:01.296) That's a great question. that makes me reflect a lot on on on my past too. I think that what I learned, one of the main things I learned, obviously ethics, your word is your bond. Okay, because when you when you're starting something from the ground up, you depend, you're not always gonna have a formal enforceable contract with everything, right? So business ethics and and you know, just relying on on having good partners and honoring your word. Even if there's a short-term you know gain from swaying away from that, from what I've seen in the long run, it's not ninety percent, it's a hundred percent it pays out. Okay. So I think business ethics and and and you know growing together with partners, that's the that's number one. Number two, I would list as making decisions. You're you're never gonna have comp the complete data, you know, everything, all the context, all the data points. So making the best decision. in a timely manner with the information you have. That is well at least for me, it was a learning exercise. Okay. My my my background is in is in physics. I love science. So you're you come from an you know academia, you'd say, okay, you know, what's where's I know all the conditions here. It's given in the textbook, right? But real life doesn't work like that. And guess what? You're gonna have to make a million decisions with imperfect information and you're gonna have to make them on the fly sometimes and keep everybody informed and s and explain why you had those decisions. And be held accountable for them in in the future. So you have to you have to have a a time, you know, a a frame of reference and and a toolkit to go in, I made this decision because of XYZ and communicate that effectively to your sponsors, to your executive team as well. I think that was that was something that I saw firsthand, you know, and and is it it's not for the faint of heart, right? Because sometimes you you will make bad decisions, inevitably. But it's it's honoring that and and on average you're making good decisions, right? You're building that muscle. So that's a big a lesson that I learned as well. Pod (23:07.734) you can only make a decision based upon the information that you have with you at the moment. And sometimes we make the wrong decisions, but for the right reasons. So as long as you have confidence and you've got your framework, your principles about why you made that decision, then I don't think anyone can have any beef with you about that. Robert Checchia, CFA .'. (23:27.436) Absolutely. Absolutely. I think and there's a lot there's many other you know smaller points. invites to to my all my my CFO colleagues is you can have the best analysis templates, whatever. If your company isn't selling at at margin, it's all for nothing, right? So and I I'm saying this to myself as well. It's it's get get you know, get off the soapbox, get down from the high horse and really assist with the operations, improving operations. If you're not selling, if You know, cash is king. So if you're not selling, bringing it in, delivering with a good margin, everything else is in vain. So, you know, many other smaller lessons, but I I'd I'd list those those three as the the main ones. Business ethics, decision making with imperfect information, and always, always, always cash is king. The operation is is king. Pod (24:16.334) So you mentioned you actually started off with a physics career, I guess, or at least physics education, then your career has crisscrossed between banking and consulting and FinTech and &A, obviously some PE experience, which maybe helped to bring you into your current role as well. Which career transition have you found the most challenging? I'm, you know, for example, moving from one industry to another, one type of role to another, or maybe even the transition out of where you were in Brazil back to the US. Which are the lessons that you've learned from those career transitions that you take with you today? Robert Checchia, CFA .'. (24:45.765) Mm-hmm. Robert Checchia, CFA .'. (24:54.714) Great question again. wow, this feels like just just having beers here with my friends, my my you know, it's good to reflect on on on the story, right? I think there were there were a couple that were hard. Okay. The first hard one was going into consulting slash banking with with a different background because it's it's a very tight knit community, you know, and they are look always looking for the exact cook cookie cutter background, you know. profiling age, everything. So it wasn't a only about networking myself in. It was it was about proving myself in, okay, that I think I I I was successful in. But that was I'll put that as a medium challenge. I guess the hardest challenge was as your example was moving back to the US I moved here with with I didn't have any job so I I started you know I I took some steps back. I started my life back again from zero. So that was a big challenge. Because it's it, you know, I have to convince everyone, you know, I have a master's in Brazil. Okay, what is that? where did you work in Brazil? And not everybody's gonna be familiar. So you have to win, you know, you have to cross that initial gap, and then earn your way in, you know, network yourself yourself in and prove yourself in again. So that was another one. But after that, I wanna say breaking into consulting banking, moving back to the US, it's all been quote unquote easy from there. Okay. Every every other challenge has seemed a lot easier. I think from comparison, but also, you know, it it's it's there's a lot of prestige in in banking consulting, but it it it teaches you a lot. You develop thick skin, you know, and those that skill set is replicable outside of that, you know, space and industry. another point that I wanted to make here is when when you're in a situation, you know nobody invited me To go into banking, consulting. Nobody said, move back to the US. It's it's what I one thing that I'm very proud of is I saw the trajectory that my life was going in and I said, No, no, no, I want to change it, you know. So it's it's something that I I invite everyone is is if you're not happy, if if you're not fulfilled, if you don't feel like it's for you, you can always pivot, you can always shift away, okay, and you know, and rebuild and start again. Okay. So it's that's that's something that Robert Checchia, CFA .'. (27:19.396) despite being scary, I was, you know, I was very comfortable in many situations, in Brazil, in banking. And, you know, to say no to something that's assured and quote unquote comfortable for the unsure is a big leap. but today I I I look back, I'm like, my gosh, that's the best thing I could have done professionally and personally. Okay. So I invite everyone to reflect and change their trajectory if needed. A big part that I want to I want to mention here too, you know, unsolicited, Dave, but they've it is there's a lot of prestige in banking in in consulting, right? In that, you know, corporate glamour. There's controversial here, hot take. There's a lot of stuff that that, you know, again, it there's a lot of pros, but after leaving that and and diving in and becoming an operator, you cre you create, you know, a different view of things and and you take what's good. But at the same time, you know, I think that today I'm much more held accountable for my analysis, my my recommendations than I was before. Okay. So and I I feel that's thrilling and empowering, but it is also scary, okay? Because you don't all you don't just have to make the recommendation. You have to a year from now explain what went well and what didn't, you know. So you gotta own your results. That's exactly it. And that's maybe Pod (28:39.968) You gotta own them. Yeah. Robert Checchia, CFA .'. (28:45.242) May maybe it was the first company I worked at was a portfolio of of the three G Capital Group. they were they would drill into us, you own your results. Whatever you do, big or small, you own it. You own it, right? And I've I've carried that with me. I I talked I everyone I train, everybody that works with me is I don't care, you know, if you work extra hours or weekend or if you work less, you want to take this time off. It's all doable, right? You just let's schedule accordingly, make sure everything's covered. But what matters to me are the results that we deliver. Okay. And being held accountable for those. And you know, not shying away. it didn't go well. Okay. Let's fix it together. Right. Instead of pointing fingers or anything like that. I think that's something that I I've carried with me my my whole professional and even, you know, seeked into sunk into my personal life as well is always be always own your results for what you for your processes. Okay. You can have a it's easy, right? A post mortem right criticizing or in sports or whatever, yeah, you should have done should have done that. You be in the hot spot for a minute, make the decision, right, with imperfect information, and then own your results and have to explain it afterwards. That's something that I invite my my my CFO and my consulting banking colleagues to do as well. because when you do an MA deal, you know, in transaction, boom, the the the ink is dry, amazing. A year from now, let's sit down and see what was the value created, right? Was synergy captured, right? Pod (30:08.942) Yeah. Robert Checchia, CFA .'. (30:11.482) Did you effectively do your financial engineering and was it executed well? So that's something that I I've I value a lot at this point in my career. Pod (30:21.912) Well, you owned your journey back to the US and I'm sure you're owning your role now in Benzinga. And let's come back to where you are at the moment. And the company is, and we touched on it earlier, it's going through an evolution. It's not that desperately older company and it's evolving with the times as frankly, most media companies are having to do. So... evolving from a financial and kind of market data publisher into a fintech business. First of all, what does that actually mean? Make that feel real for us. And then what does that change mean kind of inside the business and also inside the finance function? Robert Checchia, CFA .'. (31:04.976) So I I just came back this week from a ad tech event in Florida called Digiday, okay. Not not to praise them or anything, but it was an awesome event. And we we were together publishers with everyone, every vendor from the ad tech side, okay. And a common theme was for across the board with with AI, LLM, everybody's traffic, site traffic is down between twenty percent all the way, I heard numbers between sixty and seventy percent. Okay. So that model, which today, you know, or or as of recently was already a lot smaller than from seven, eight years ago. You know, it's a lot harder for you to make consistently constant money on through digital advertising because the CPMs have come down because people, you know, they they go to less they they go people are are visiting less websites because they just go to Google and even less, they don't even use Google anymore. They you they just go to AI to Gemini, say, hey. What's this? They don't even go to the source page, right? Pod (32:05.538) The AI summary right at the top that's promoted means you're not clicking through to the websites anymore, which, like you say, is a real challenge for anyone who's relied on clicks on the internet. Robert Checchia, CFA .'. (32:16.932) That's exactly it. So with that, you know, the the the more traditional publisher model, we have to shift now into a fintech. And what that means is okay, how do we monetize this amazing content? You know, how do we monetize all this knowledge that we have from our a hundred plus team of journalists? So number one, we have to find off off site traffic and and and monetization mediums, right? But also how do we continuously add more value? So that that that becomes how do we create and develop and improve all our B2C subscriptions products okay where you can have an in-depth view of everything that we produce. Okay. Another point is we partner with brokerage firms, with asset managers, with really anybody who who hedge funds, anybody who manages assets and makes investment decisions, when you are at the forefront of providing them breaking news, immediate data that they can act upon, that is value. Okay. So it's it's being trustworthy. at a at a decent time frame right and in at a a good cost and again in the format that that's already chewed up so they can just process easier that's when that's where we we we're developing and turning into a fintech so partnering with all these players in in financial markets hedge funds asset managers brokerage firms and developing our subscriptions business right that's a big part of the pi of the pivot in in becoming a fintech okay and away from the more traditional publisher model, which, you know, newspaper is dead, they had to reinvent themselves. So I feel like the the industry's going through the same phase. Pod (33:56.665) So as you are helping the business to re-nose, re-adjust to this evolving model, should we say, what are the kind of problems then that you see that problems, challenges, opportunities, call it what you will, as a CFO that you anticipate you're gonna be tasked or asked to solve as you go through this transformation? Robert Checchia, CFA .'. (34:22.746) So that's that's that's a great point because nobody tasked me with with this the specifics. They what they tasked was grow, right? Grow get to this number. The pathway there was, you know, being being creative and and analytical and like we mentioned before, being an operator. Okay. So when when when you know I because we we have to be we have to put you know be careful with the nomenclature and words. CFO, right? And and in my view, CFO is also entices a lot of the COO role as well, operations, business development. Okay. So that's the main point. You know, I'd I'd say more than half my time is is business development, meaning growing the businesses we have and expanding either into new geographies or the new product development, new roadmap thing new roadmaps, things like that. Okay. So that no nobody sat down and said, Here you go, you know, go develop a new product. That it's the opposite. We, the executive team and myself also, okay, these are some ideas we have. Out of the 10, three have potential. Let's run with these three. Okay. I think that's that's the biggest challenge again, is saying no to the good ideas so you can say yes to the the amazing and and and great ideas. Okay. But it's it's also finding the path, okay? Because when when you know private equity sponsor comes in and says, Hey, this is your guidance, this is where you have to be. Revenues, margin, profile, cash generation, etc. Shoots. You know, it's it's a long stretch from where we are, maybe in the business. We have to develop. So what are we gonna do? Organic growth, inorganic growth. Within organic, how are we gonna expand? Is it geography? Is it a new sales team? Is it a new structure? And then it you know, when once once you start drilling down, one thing I'm very proud of is I installed and built the HR function. Why? It's not to do payroll, it's because To build incentives that align with our growth targets. Okay. And I I took that, you know, to myself because that's again the empowering people. You have to identify your talents, empower them, and reward, you know, when when they're rowing in the right direction. And, you know, when you're married, everybody's tied together. The business delivers results, you're just they get their their their fair share as well. Okay. So I'm sorry, if a little scattered, but that's a very long-winded way of saying. Robert Checchia, CFA .'. (36:45.306) The the the main challenge I I I I still have is cutting through the noise, finding what matters, and then doubling down and pushing those through the end. And those, you know, it's not an insured formula, assured formula. You're gonna make mistakes and things aren't gonna go as well as you planned. But, you know, if you do your due diligence, if you do do your homework and apply pressure, the the odds are, you know, more than none that that you will succeed. So I feel like that's a a big point was Cutting through the noise and doubling down and pushing and learning, right, so you can make informed decisions and put the right people in the right places, okay, to get things done. Pod (37:24.704) It's really good to hear people play such a, playing such a central role in, know, as you start to look towards what's next and about transformation, because in so many, so many conversations, particularly with tech companies at the moment, it's AI instead of people. So to hear you talk about investing in people, building up the HR function there, as you mentioned too, and then being the key to unlocking the growth organic in organic, that's really great to hear. Robert Checchia, CFA .'. (37:52.805) Yeah, d don't get me wrong though. It's I have a lot of friends still in in in banking and and different, you know, roles. And when they tell me their usage of AI, it's very centralized, you know, it's you can only use one tool or or and not the other. We have we, you know, our CEO was our CTO priorly. So that's there's no whether we're we're putting our money where our mouth is, you know. So so the CEO was our CTO. And we empower everyone to start and build their own tools in AI. In in you know, we we we give them licenses and and usage and tokens on many different platforms. And once they achieve a certain part of maturity, then we centralize it, we optimize, you know, we we build upon it and make it s more scalable. So, you know, one one thing that we do super well is the adoption and usage of AI. one thing I'm very proud of as well is we have we have never fired a person you know, we'll just replace them with AI. Okay. The it the the it's different. The bar raises. So everybody is incentivized and kind of mandatory for them to use AI to increase their productivity, but we have not replaced any headcounts due to AI. and another important piece for me to to note is everything that's internal, we use or try to use AI to to streamline to make it easier. But everything that's outside facing because that you know that's a common theme in publishers is All our contents i it'd be very easy to supplement, say, generate this with AI. Pod (39:26.958) There's a lot doing that. Robert Checchia, CFA .'. (39:28.634) We're not, okay. Every single piece of Benzinga content is human made. Okay. Obviously we we get ideas, we get, you know, concepts and things like that. Even monitoring, you know, hey, this this is something that that should be covered now. But every single piece of content that Benzinga produced is AI it is human made, not AI made. So that's that's a big part of it. on on on that note, you know, again on on AI is we've we empower people but We also keep the guardrails, you know, so nobody can go rogue with the tools. but I feel like we we've we've really hit a good part, a good point where they they test it out, they bring it to our centralized data data analytics and science team, we identify the winners and then we scale up on that and disseminate it across the company for everyone to use our improved tools, AI tools. Pod (40:20.47) Yeah, it's about humans taking advantage of AI, not the AI taking advantage of humans. And it sounds as though you are getting the balance right there and empowering the humans to use AI to create new value within the company and supporting them as they do that. Great to hear. Robert, just as we start to wrap up our conversation on Benzinga right now, in a nutshell, what would you say success? Robert Checchia, CFA .'. (40:37.414) Absolutely. Pod (40:45.63) looks like for you? What kind of time horizons are you able to look at? Five-year plans, probably not, but 12, 18, 24 months. What does success look like for you in whatever time horizon you feel is a useful horizon to look Robert Checchia, CFA .'. (41:02.0) Gotcha. No, I guess success for me professionally today is for us to make that growth and and and you know, change that that view of of us being a a true fin tech. Okay. And I don't think that's too far away. I'd say in the next twelve to twenty four months. And really taking the company to the next level, you know. It's we d we didn't mention this, but I I've worked in different industries, different countries. This is something I'm very, very passionate about personally. Okay, being on on the publisher side. And because you you there is a real, you know, tangible utility to to our consumers, right? And I take that to heart. So as long as we're we're we're delivering good products and helping people make better investment decisions, that's that's what success looks like for me. Pod (41:50.329) Great to hear. Robert, before I let you go, there are some quick five questions that we put to all of our guests on CFO Playbook. First of those is, if you could automate one part, just one part of your role tomorrow, what part would it be? Robert Checchia, CFA .'. (42:07.566) Great question. I would automate a lot of the well, th they're they're by nature un aut you know, you can't automate the all them completely, but there's a lot of ad hoc analysis requests that take time for you to sit down and do. That's the the human side that AI can't replace because you have to have the stylistic and hey, I want to communicate this. How do I get there? Right. That you have to turn off your phone, you know, turn everything off, your alerts, and sit down and do things and say, okay. Pod (42:08.814) You Robert Checchia, CFA .'. (42:36.698) This these sources of data, this is what I want to communicate. How do I chew this up? Right. But that piece in answering questions, I've used a lot of AI. I don't want to mention any tools specifically, but there's a lot of that that you know the first steps can be done if you're organized and you feed your your second brain in AI accordingly. Pod (42:58.004) It's not about outsourcing the deep thought. Absolutely not. It's still applying the right thought in the right place. Good stuff. Maybe related. I'll let you decide that. What emerging tool or habit or idea do you think every CFO, whether they are emerging or established, that they should be paying attention to right now? Robert Checchia, CFA .'. (43:23.302) I think there's a lot of there's a lot of budgeting, you know, AI tools out there. you know, one ad hoc contract controlling, you know, management tool or or things like that. I think those are all good, but they you know, they're small additions, they're they're I don't want to say niche, but they're they attack one little problem. the CFO's job is also to be a good communicator, an effective communicator. Okay. So One tool that I recommend everybody using is is they create their second brain in whatever you know Gemini perplexity, whatever Claude, wherever they want, and feeding that through email, their emails to that tool, feeding their Slack, feeding their internal teams, whatever it is, and you know, creating an agent to in to maintain a steady communication tool that is effective. The other part too is it's our job to be good communicators and a part of that too is to maintain the emotional and financial discipline within the company 'cause sometimes everybody's running out around with their hair on fire and you're gonna be guys, let's calm down, let's be pragmatic, this is how we attack it. So having that, you know, instantaneous feedback of, hey, how is this going? Hey, help me with this and not ha I have to go to my analyst and say, How is this going again? well Can you remind me of of that lawsuit or or of this thing that we're looking into? Right. So I feel like you you gain so much time with that that you become in a more effective manager and communicator. And again, this is something that it's it's you have to be organized, okay? Because we have all our files, analysis, reports, everything done centralized. So it's no it's in nobody's inbox, it's in nobody's desktop. It's living, breathing master versions in the drive, the shared drive. Pod (44:45.39) You Robert Checchia, CFA .'. (45:13.604) And then you can reference that into your tool and you can get quick summaries, quick analysis. So for example, I have I have a bot that tells me every day across all the businesses what contracts were closed, were signed, how much we collected, what's pending. It goes through my email, email, gives me like a digest every morning. I have a CFO digest. This is what's happening based on your internal communication and what's happening in the market. Okay, so I I feel like you know, you you just scale, you're much more productive with that. Okay. And you know, it you have to be a little bit tech savvy, but it takes some time to set everything up. But I think that's crucial to everybody's productivity. Very long winded answer, I'm sorry. Pod (45:55.223) And which finance leader, past or present, would you most like to see sitting in your CFO Playbook podcast hot seat? Robert Checchia, CFA .'. (46:04.934) Love that too. I would love to see I would love to invite some some colleagues again from the consulting world to to have this experience of operating and and seeing through recom from recommendation all the way to implementation and being held accountable because I like to I like to see the novel experiences unwind and their reactions and responses to that. that would be one The other one I would love to sit down with is, you know, there's some some of my old colleagues and bosses that you lose touch with, but there's there's always re war stories and reminiscing. I'd love to catch up with them too. Pod (46:45.644) And finally, Robert, here on the CFO Playbook podcast, we are building an actual playbook. Yes, a collection of top advice from finance leaders that we plan on turning into a resource for the community. So what is a top piece of advice for a finance leader that you would like us to enter into our CFO Playbook on your behalf? Robert Checchia, CFA .'. (47:11.738) Value and empower your team. That's crucial. I'd say that one and again with ethics. Ethics pay pay off in the long run. Okay, so don't don't be don't fall into a short term gain, you know, focus on the long run and and let your ethics drive that. Empower, trust, but verify and and lead with example, you know, earn earn the respect from your team. So people are are the drivers and ethics and I I can't not say being from You know, the finance guy here is Cassius King. Please always keep that to heart. You know, that's the most important part that sometimes some people forget. Pod (47:48.746) It has been great to speak with you today. Thank you very much for joining us on CFO Playbook. Robert Checchia, CFA .'. (47:54.756) My pleasure, David. Thank you. Pod (47:57.45) And thank you all for joining us too. Don't forget to join us every month here on CFO Playbook for more insights from finance leaders, but for now from me, David McClelland and all of the team here. Bye bye.