Marketing vs FP&A: adventures in business partnering

Marketing vs FP&A: adventures in business partnering

From FP&A Today by Glenn Hopper

May 18, 2026 · 50 min · Episode 205

About this episode

David Manela discusses the relationship between marketing and FP&A, emphasizing marketing as an investment and the importance of financial goals in business partnering.

In the third in our series on finance business partnering we are joined by David Manela, who has had the role of CRO and CMO at Fiverr, Ideei, and Vivre. As managing partner and co-founder of Violet Growth he is in high-demand at some of the hottest scaling companies, designing a growth operating system that “speaks the CFO’s language from day one”. It is tailored to companies spending more than $10m annually on marketing and sales - with digital as the main growth channel.“Spending a dollar in marketing is no different than spending a dollar in infrastructure, on say a forklift that you might need for your warehouse. You need a return on a specific schedule, and you need a percentage of returns on that schedule. Don't start with a campaign, start with a financial goal.” In this episode on the highlights and lowlights of the FP&A relationship with marketing, David talks: His background from audit to marketing and P&L responsibility at companies Marketing as an “investment” not a “cost” The power of getting a marketing forecast based on cohort behavior Payback period and capital constraints at Fiverr Disconnected and expensive mistakes in business partnering The power of…

People in this episode

Host: Glenn Hopper

Guest: David Manela

Topics covered

  • finance business partnering
  • marketing investment
  • growth operating system
  • marketing forecasting
  • AI in marketing and finance

Keywords

  • FP&A
  • marketing
  • business partnering
  • financial goals
  • AI
  • growth
  • forecasting

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Fiverr, Ideei, Vivre, Violet Growth

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