Ep. 205 Jay Zapata, Chief Executive Officer at SATOKIE | Data Center Go-to-Market Podcast

On this podcast, I often ask founders when we talk about buying committees, decision committees, to tell me about their favorite stakeholder, where they know they're in good shape, and their least favorite stakeholder, where when that person shows up it's like, "Uh-oh, we're gonna go off the rails here." So [laughs] when, when you think about that, are you in a lot of these conversations able to deploy your CFO superpowers? Are they usually involved in these kinds of power origination or managed services kind of conversations? And if, if not, who's usually driving these kind of initiatives forward?

Yeah.

Um, you know, it's, it's funny, it's funny you mention, you know, favorite stakeholder, least favorite stakeholder.

Sometimes I think I'm both, right? [laughs] So for our team, um, because the, the goal, my goal as, you know, a CEO and founder is to try and empower my team, um, to accomplish what they want to accomplish and solve problems within our space.

Um, that's, you know, essentially the whole e- ethos of our company.

But then I'm also a finance professional, right? And, and sometimes I try and not be a finance professional, but it's really hard [laughs].

Um, and so it's difficult for me to look at, you know, let's call it a weekly report or a monthly report, and not dig into the numbers.

Um, and so some- sometimes I end up being the, the least favorite stakeholder sometimes of, of the team because I can, I can be very headstrong about, "Hey, this is not, you know, the performance we need to see," or, "Hey, this is not an, you know, a decision that we wanna go down because it doesn't meet, you know, specific financial metrics." Um, and so understanding that balance as, like, a founder- Versus a pr- a finance professional, um, I think has been really critical in the last 12 months as we've really kicked it into high gear of our growth stage of our company.

Um, and for me, it's still an adjustment because i- I, you know, it's diffi- it's difficult to choose [laughs] uh, to, you know, either look at it from a financial lens or look at it from a founder lens.

They're not always, uh, the same lens, right? And so from that standpoint, um, it, it's been, uh, an advantage, right, for the most part.

Um, but sometimes it can be a disadvantage when I'm trying to be optimistic, um, but I have my CFO hat on and, and need to be conservative.

On this podcast, I often ask founders when we talk about buying committees, decision committees, to tell me about their favorite stakeholder, where they know they're in good shape, and their least favorite stakeholder, where when that person shows up it's like, "Uh-oh, we're gonna go off the rails here." So [laughs] when, when you think about that, are you in a lot of these conversations able to deploy your CFO superpowers? Are they usually involved in these kinds of power origination or managed services kind of conversations? And if, if not, who's usually driving these kind of initiatives forward?

Yeah.

Um, you know, it's, it's funny, it's funny you mention, you know, favorite stakeholder, least favorite stakeholder.

Sometimes I think I'm both, right? [laughs] So for our team, um, because the, the goal, my goal as, you know, a CEO and founder is to try and empower my team, um, to accomplish what they want to accomplish and solve problems within our space.

Um, that's, you know, essentially the whole e- ethos of our company.

But then I'm also a finance professional, right? And, and sometimes I try and not be a finance professional, but it's really hard [laughs].

Um, and so it's difficult for me to look at, you know, let's call it a weekly report or a monthly report, and not dig into the numbers.

Um, and so some- sometimes I end up being the, the least favorite stakeholder sometimes of, of the team because I can, I can be very headstrong about, "Hey, this is not, you know, the performance we need to see," or, "Hey, this is not an, you know, a decision that we wanna go down because it doesn't meet, you know, specific financial metrics." Um, and so understanding that balance as, like, a founder- Versus a pr- a finance professional, um, I think has been really critical in the last 12 months as we've really kicked it into high gear of our growth stage of our company.

Um, and for me, it's still an adjustment because i- I, you know, it's diffi- it's difficult to choose [laughs] uh, to, you know, either look at it from a financial lens or look at it from a founder lens.

They're not always, uh, the same lens, right? And so from that standpoint, um, it, it's been, uh, an advantage, right, for the most part.

Um, but sometimes it can be a disadvantage when I'm trying to be optimistic, um, but I have my CFO hat on and, and need to be conservative.