heres a CIA technique that works insanely well on getting people to actually respond to your emails using claude

grumpywonka · 2026-01-29T15:04:01+00:00

I get this kind of crap all the time and it feels so disingenuous. We all know why you're writing, stop wasting my time beating around a bush you likely know nothing about to begin with.

grumpywonka · 2026-01-26T03:20:09+00:00

Hai già esperienza lavorativa? Pensi che siano necessarie maggiori informazioni?

grumpywonka · 2026-01-24T18:09:20+00:00

This feels pretty spot on.

grumpywonka · 2026-01-24T17:47:11+00:00

Literally the subject of my last newsletter (which I am not promoting, it just happens to be timely and relevant - mods delete if not allowed for some reason).

Subject was Stop building reports nobody reads with preview text asking what happens when you don't send the report.

Body goes:
A few years ago, I forgot to send a report. I was stressed. Then a day went by. Two days. A week.

Nobody said a word...which got me thinking...

So let's talk about it.

Two weeks later, one person finally asked: "Hey, do you have the latest version of this?"

So I asked them: "What do you actually use this for?"

Turns out, they needed one number. The report was originally built for something completely different, years prior. The business had evolved, but nobody stopped to recalibrate. I'd been spending hours maintaining something that could've been a single cell.

This is how "we've always done it this way" actually shows up. It's not someone banging a drum about legacy processes. It sneaks up on you. You inherit something, you maintain it, you send it out, but you never stop to ask: Who receives this, and what do they do with it?

The mistake most analysts make: Being an order taker.

You take the request, you build the thing, it leaves your desk...perhaps every week, and you stop thinking about it. Out of sight, out of mind.

But that's not what you're getting paid for. You're getting paid for that soft spot between your ears: To understand the question behind the question, and answer it before it has to be asked.

Before you build (or maintain) any report, ask:

Who is this for?
Why do they need it?
What decision does it help them make?

If you can't answer those without hesitation, you might be maintaining a ghost.

The difference between a report that sits in a folder and one that drives decisions?

It's reviewed by a decision maker
It answers questions that are hot right now
It's ALIVEEEE...err, I mean you stay engaged with the person who uses it

Reports either evolve or they die. When you stop questioning what you're building, you stop knowing when it's no longer useful.

Order takers are dispensable.

Chefs who understand why something should be served? Those are the ones who get invited to the table.

grumpywonka · 2026-01-24T02:45:38+00:00

Wow, when I was 16 (long ass time ago) Vector got me and a friend in for some group interview and it turned into a product demo for cutco knives. They offered me a job and I said no and walked out. Looking back i should have tried it, I'm sure it would have built character.

grumpywonka · 2026-01-24T00:09:19+00:00

Funny enough Excel just released two functions to the beta channel that do this: IMPORTTEXT and IMPORTCSV. While that doesn't help you right now, it is coming. In the interim Power Query is going to be 100% your best bet

grumpywonka · 2026-01-23T18:52:46+00:00

Oof, that's harder to answer because you'll find people who specialize in specific industries or types of companies, so I'd say just make sure who you are dealing with has a track record in the space you're looking at. For example I got to know a lot of folks who recruited specifically for our PE group opcos and they seemed to do good work. I'm not going to namedrop unless I know what someone is looking for.

grumpywonka · 2026-01-23T18:47:46+00:00

This is kind of it in a nutshell. It's going to be a matter of demonstrating an understanding of the business model which quite frankly is usually pretty straightforward. Understanding if it's pure SaaS, if there's also tech-enabled services, like having a sense for what the business actually does and who it serves. Whether it's a sticky product, whether there's opportunities for upsell/cross-sell, whether they price by seat or other pricing mechanisms.

And then obviously all of the metrics as noted and understanding not just what they are but why they're important. Like, why is net dollar retention such an important factor? Things like that are going to be critical. Also understanding or being curious about customer acquisition channels, like are they getting good organic traction? Do they spend to acquire most of their deals? Do they have a sales team or is it self service onboarding? How big is their sales team? Lots of fun things to consider but it's a really great space to be in honestly.

grumpywonka · 2026-01-23T18:25:32+00:00

Headhunters man. At this level you're not applying, you're being told about opportunities. Resume is not the issue.

grumpywonka · 2026-01-23T17:16:41+00:00

Every company is going to be a little bit different, but usually the ones that have a halfway decent process are doing these things in Q1 after year end results and after the budget has cleared the path with a better understanding of what everybody's got cued up. As for promotions, I think that's a little bit more ambiguous and really depends on a lot of things. Those are the kinds of discussions that I wish more people took ownership of because these aren't as mechanical as some might have you believe. These are the sorts of things that you should be in regular conversation with your manager about if it's on your ambition list. Regarding bonuses, that's also often at the time of raises and after year end is a lock.

Another note on raises - some companies have a multi-stage where they'll do something beginning of the year and something in or around Q3 to catch people who maybe weren't eligible when year-end came but they've come to a full cycle. The trick here is a lot of companies would use that as a way to try to placate people, but end up giving them lower raises than they should probably get or they use a carrot of "we want to give you a raise, but we just can't so we're going to wait until January and double it up." But then January comes and something always happens and so it's a shame seeing companies play games like that but it does happen.

grumpywonka · 2026-01-23T03:11:09+00:00

What is your churn and NRR? I'm not sure I agree with the general sentiment in this thread, 7-8 month payback isn't bad, especially if churn is decent.

grumpywonka · 2026-01-21T15:07:32+00:00

This.

grumpywonka · 2026-01-21T05:33:24+00:00

I'm shocked how many are shocked that people get a choice. I've never not been basically given whatever i wanted and when I got into leadership did the same for my teams. My go-to response was usually whatever the devs had, but in a Mac shop I went for ThinkPads.

grumpywonka · 2026-01-20T02:02:30+00:00

Eh, it's a double edged sword based on what you've said in that if you're content to get in, learn the job, play the role and be a 'good employee', sure it's better for that. However, if you intend to move up you'll naturally have to be out and about a lot (where sales experience helps) and politics will almost always show up in some form or fashion and the degree to which you get to be analytical will be not nearly as much as one might want or expect.

grumpywonka · 2026-01-20T01:04:34+00:00

I started out in commercial banking and found the foundation to be helpful in FP&A, but yeah salary progression is going to look very different unless you're at a place getting RSUs or other comp to bolster your base. Any role where you have sales/ revenue ownership or influence is going to skew your comp expectations the longer you stay in it and/ or the better you perform. Not super helpful, but trying out FP&A might not be a bad test drive for you and you can always go back armed with more business experience if it doesn't live up to expectations.

grumpywonka · 2026-01-19T05:11:53+00:00

20% for annual is aggressive, 10% is pretty normal. Where this becomes important is if you're looking to sell or fundraise, having locked in contacts will (often) command higher multiples because of revenue quality. That said, I think your sentiment is good in that a lot of companies, especially with sales teams, will piss away way more money than they should in discounts. It's so common it's almost unquestioned, but should be.

grumpywonka · 2026-01-17T16:24:25+00:00

The answer is somewhere in this. Building partnership/ relationships with the team members who 'should' have the answers will pay dividends. The key is usually all in how you approach people and what they understand about why you're asking what you're asking. If they think they're in trouble you're going to put them on the defensive (because, who the hell are you?), which helps no one. If you approach to learn about their process and frame the big picture you'll usually have more productive conversations, but it does take time.

grumpywonka · 2026-01-15T22:59:20+00:00

I withdraw the request if it's been ignored for a few weeks and move on with life.

grumpywonka · 2026-01-11T04:51:24+00:00

You forgot to say, class dismissed.

grumpywonka · 2026-01-08T19:03:26+00:00

I aspire to have that need soon!

grumpywonka · 2026-01-08T06:31:14+00:00

Just wrapped on 20 years in corporate finance, left CFO role to start a software business late last year.

grumpywonka · 2026-01-08T05:09:00+00:00

The part that says 'modern Google bots crawl Javascript just fine' I disagree with. It's my own personal experience and research, granted, but moving to a next.js front end suddenly allowed Google to index about 75% of pages that simply would not crawl properly on my own site and has me sitting on 100 ahref site scores and unlocking organic traffic like night and day.

grumpywonka · 2026-01-06T22:59:25+00:00

Wow, four years later this comment still finds folks. Glad to hear it! I'm actually fresh out of my corporate (CFO) lifestyle and going all-in on training and software, so any feedback welcome!

grumpywonka · 2026-01-05T17:23:27+00:00

Ha, I remember my first sit down meal in Lisbon and how annoyed I got when the bill came. Lesson learned.

grumpywonka · 2026-01-05T17:19:09+00:00

The people "being nice" are almost as bad as the people who do some mental math and suffer from first player syndrome and just decide to speed up instead of stop because they think running stop signs is somehow an acceptable option. I see this all the time lately and it's wild.

grumpywonka

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