Zapier's CFO on Closing the Books in 5 Days, AI Hiring Bars, and M&A Discipline

Zapier's CFO on Closing the Books in 5 Days, AI Hiring Bars, and M&A Discipline

From Run the Numbers by CJ Gustafson

June 1, 2026 · 50 min

About this episode

CJ Gustafson interviews Ryan Roccon, CFO of Zapier, discussing AI hiring standards and financial automation.

In this episode of Run the Numbers, CJ sits down with Ryan Roccon, CFO of Zapier, to cover AI hiring standards, automating month-end close, measuring ROI on AI spend, and why determinism still beats agents most of the time. — SPONSORS: EY has been part of Silicon Valley since it was just a valley, helping the most successful names in tech go from startup to exit to megacap. With teams across strategy, tax, audit, and transactions, EY helps you get your financials right early, long before your investors start asking for it. You build the next big thing, and EY will help you build it right. Learn more at https://www.ey.com/techstartups SpendHound cuts your SaaS and AI spend by up to 30% using real pricing benchmarks across 10,000 vendors, so you always know what fair pricing looks like before your next renewal. Rated #1 on G2 in SaaS spend management, it's free forever for teams up to 1,000 employees. Sign up by June 12th and get $500 just for getting started. Go to https://www.spendhound.com/cj Brex is an intelligent finance platform with AI-powered agents that capture expenses automatically, enforce policy before the spend happens, and close your books in minutes instead of…

People in this episode

Host: CJ Gustafson

Guest: Ryan Roccon

Topics covered

  • AI hiring standards
  • automating month-end close
  • measuring ROI on AI spend
  • M&A discipline

Keywords

  • AI hiring
  • month-end close
  • ROI
  • M&A
  • financial automation

Sponsors

EY, SpendHound, Brex

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Zapier, Aleph

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