PRODUCTEA with Leah, Growth & Senior Leadership
Honest, unfiltered conversations with the best from tech - spilling the tea about product, growth, and senior leadership topics.
www.leahtharin.com
PRODUCTEA with Leah, Growth & Senior Leadership
103: CJ Gustafson - The Silent Recession: Why Product Leaders Need CFOs Now
CJ Gustafson (ex-PWC tech CFO, finance provocateur) unpacks how tariffs and economic chaos are gutting SaaS valuations, why AI budgets are CEOs’ midlife crisis splurges, and how to recession-proof your product strategy.
Timestamps & Key Moments
00:00 - Tariffs: The SaaS Killer You Didn’t See Coming
$1.8T wiped from global equities overnight (worst drop since COVID).
Median SaaS multiples crash below 5x forward revenue: “Your customers move atoms, even if you don’t.”
07:46 - CFO Survival Tactics
Freeze hires, kill multi-year contracts, and review budgets monthly.
Track pipeline exposure to non-tech buyers: “Lululemon’s cloud spend matters more than your roadmap.”
13:42 - Product vs. Finance: The Gross Margin Gap
“PMs who ignore unit economics are selling features off the back of a truck.”
Why product teams must align with CFOs: “If you don’t understand how you make money, you’re just hanging art in the Louvre.”
20:36 - Valuation Apocalypse: Who Survives?
Infrastructure software (Snowflake) vs. niche tools: “Investors treat DCF models like horror movies now.”
Recommerce platforms could quietly thrive as luxury retail stalls.
27:22 - The Silent Recession Playbook
Over-communicate with employees: “Silence breeds panic.”
Pivot to maintenance/workflow tools and re-commerce: “Nobody’s buying new brake pads? Fix the old ones.”
33:23 - Growth Teams: RIP?
49% of engineering budgets go to growth… for now.
“AI nukes influencer marketing. Own niche communities or die.”
40:36 - “How Do We Make Money?” (The Only Question That Matters)
CJ’s #1 question for PMs: “Stop building for the Louvre. Build for margins.”
Why deodorant-branded swag won’t save your burn rate.
🔥 Hot Takes
“Your SaaS Isn’t Tariff-Proof”
Even if you sell software, your customers (Lululemon, Ralph Lauren) rely on physical supply chains. Their budget cuts will strangle your ARR.
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