Sat in on Sam Jacobs P&L Fluency session in Pavilion today and it was a great reminder that GTM leadership is really a finance role in disguise... The slide below says it all very simply, and really resonated: • “Growth is optional, math is not.” 👉 You can debate strategy all day, but the numbers don't lie. • “Retention compounds, CAC does not.” 👉 Most teams obsess over acquisition and underinvest where the real compounding happens. • “Averages lie, cohorts tell the truth.” 👉 Blended metrics hide problems. Cohorts show where your model actually works (or doesn’t). • “You can’t outgrow bad unit economics.” 👉 More volume just scales the pain. If you lead revenue and haven’t built real P&L fluency and the ability to convert it into Unit Economics, or you are like me and simply looking to refresh your knowledge, this is a high-ROI use of your time. Highly recommend Pavilion and this class, along with several others they provide! Link to Join is in the Comments 👇 .

The first cohort of the "Intro to P&L Fluency" course by Sam Jacobs, Pavilion's Founder & CEO, kicked off today! Financial fluency is one of the key aspects which distinguises world-class GTM leaders from the rest. A refresh on this topic is particularly relevant today, as the rules of the game and benchmarks are rapidly changing with the decline in growth rates, the rise of AI-native companies, and investors' focus on capital-efficient growth. Kudos to Sam, Larissa, and the Pavilion team for putting together this incredible course. Glad to be part of it!

Introduction to P&L Fluency with Sam Jacobs at Pavilion was an excellent course. Great overview and guidelines on how to quickly evaluate companies.

It’s always a good time to revisit unit economics and valuation fundamentals. And with the turmoil in SaaS public stocks and continued AI momentum [both upstream capex + downstream model/application layer], Pavilion's recent course on P&L fluency led by Sam Jacobs felt quite timely. A few points that stood out: →NRR still has the strongest correlation to enterprise value among all SaaS metrics. Companies with 130% NRR command a 5.8x trailing twelve-month revenue multiple — and the drop-off at lower NRR tiers is significant. →It’s a solid argument that the big SaaS players [particularly sticky systems of record] aren’t going to lose big logos entirely [i.e., GRR will likely stay healthy], but their ability to predictably upsell/cross-sell new features [and therefore NRR] is at risk if AI upstarts offer a superior product experience and smooth integration with existing workflows [+ data], i.e., without breaking them. →The flip side, of course, is that without gross margins improving for AI startups, they just don’t have the same margin cushion to fund enterprise-grade GTM. Yes, we're seeing product-led sales motions buoyed by bottom-up developer love, but I’m curious to see how far this can stretch without FDEs being a necessity. →I particularly enjoyed this framing from the course: "Growth is a privilege, not a right." It's earned by companies whose unit economics support it. You can't outgrow bad unit economics through scale alone. Which is not to say that you will be profitable from day 1, but at *some* point the math needs to work. And work well. Graph below via Aventis Advisors Q4 SaaS Valuation update:

Why are sales always told you need 3 x pipeline cover? Sam Jacobs inadvertently made me think of this from his P & L fluency course on Pavilion where companies all use the 10x multiplier (which is an awesome course btw, should check it out!) So 3 x Pipe coverage ... Cool. But coverage of what, exactly? It's harder than ever to build pipe. Shout out to the 3,654,267,345 sales emails every decision maker gets a month. 🫠 Your prospects are drowning. So, the pipeline you DO have? You need to understand what it's actually worth. Here's what I've found when you dig into the detail: AE self-generated pipe converts roughly 2x higher than outbound. Demo requests convert around 3x higher. Referrals? Lets say 5x higher. So when someone tells you "you've got 3x coverage, you're fine"... coverage of what? Because 3x of cold outbound is not the same as 3x of referrals. Not even in the same postcode. Now also layer in the harsh reality. January is a ghost town. February is just about kicking in. Summer holidays eat into July and August. Event season pulls you off the phones. December goes quiet. Your actual selling window is probably more like 7-8 months. Maybe less. And if your average sales cycle is 6 months? You needed that pipeline generated yesterday. So here's what I've seen help AEs plan properly, just in case your manager hasn't walked you through this yet: - Break your pipeline down by source. Know your conversion rate for each. - Work out your real selling months... not 12, be honest with yourself. - Map your sales cycle length against those months. When's the latest you can generate new pipe and still close it this year? - Front load. If you're waiting until Q2 to ramp activity, you're already behind. Most AEs will also have accelerators on comp, so earlier you hit the more you earn! - Prioritise the sources that convert best. Self-gen and referrals aren't optional extras, they're your highest value pipe. The AEs who consistently hit the target aren't always the ones working harder, they work smart. They did this maths in January and planned around reality instead of vibes. Happy Friday, thanks for coming to my ted talk. Sorry if this ruins your weekend planning 🙃

P&L fluency is a must for anyone on the revenue team. Luckily, Pavilion helps you get there. Forecasting and Annual Planning course is underway.

Pavilion is on 🔥 ! Brand new P&L Fluency course led by the one and only Sam Jacobs delivers in its inaugural class. P&L fluency isn’t about finance. It’s about decision-making. Key takeaways: • Revenue is not fuel. Cash is. Growth without efficiency just burns faster. Businesses don’t run on “gas” (revenue) — they run on cash generation. • The P&L tells a story in under 90 seconds if you know where to look: → Growth trajectory → Cost structure → Operating leverage → Trends over time • Gross margin is strategy. It determines how much room you have to invest, experiment, and survive market shifts — especially in AI-heavy or complex models. • Expenses aren’t bad. Misaligned expenses are. Sales, R&D, and G&A should map clearly to value creation — not just historical budgeting. • Rule of 40 still matters — but context matters more. Growth may be worth 2–3x profit at certain stages, but eventually efficiency has to show up on the page. • Financial statements answer different questions: Income Statement → performance over time Balance Sheet → health at a moment Cash Flow → reality Big reminder: 👉 You don’t need to be a finance person to read a P&L — but you do need P&L fluency to be an effective operator.

Proud to share that I’ve just completed Pavilion’s Introduction to P&L Fluency certification, leveling up my ability to translate GTM work into revenue, margin, and enterprise value conversations with finance and the board. This program sharpened how to analyze income statements, model unit economics, and frame investment decisions in the language CFOs actually care about. If you’re a GTM or revenue operator who wants to move from “budget request” to “modeled ROI case,” I can’t recommend digging into P&L fluency enough. Thank you Sam Jacobs for leading this course and looking forward to taking the next step in my Pavilion journey by going through the CRO School. #GTMleadership #RevenueLeadership

Sat in on Sam Jacobs P&L Fluency session in Pavilion today and it was a great reminder that GTM leadership is really a finance role in disguise... The slide below says it all very simply, and really resonated: • “Growth is optional, math is not.” 👉 You can debate strategy all day, but the numbers don't lie. • “Retention compounds, CAC does not.” 👉 Most teams obsess over acquisition and underinvest where the real compounding happens. • “Averages lie, cohorts tell the truth.” 👉 Blended metrics hide problems. Cohorts show where your model actually works (or doesn’t). • “You can’t outgrow bad unit economics.” 👉 More volume just scales the pain. If you lead revenue and haven’t built real P&L fluency and the ability to convert it into Unit Economics, or you are like me and simply looking to refresh your knowledge, this is a high-ROI use of your time. Highly recommend Pavilion and this class, along with several others they provide! Link to Join is in the Comments 👇 .

The first cohort of the "Intro to P&L Fluency" course by Sam Jacobs, Pavilion's Founder & CEO, kicked off today! Financial fluency is one of the key aspects which distinguises world-class GTM leaders from the rest. A refresh on this topic is particularly relevant today, as the rules of the game and benchmarks are rapidly changing with the decline in growth rates, the rise of AI-native companies, and investors' focus on capital-efficient growth. Kudos to Sam, Larissa, and the Pavilion team for putting together this incredible course. Glad to be part of it!

Introduction to P&L Fluency with Sam Jacobs at Pavilion was an excellent course. Great overview and guidelines on how to quickly evaluate companies.

It’s always a good time to revisit unit economics and valuation fundamentals. And with the turmoil in SaaS public stocks and continued AI momentum [both upstream capex + downstream model/application layer], Pavilion's recent course on P&L fluency led by Sam Jacobs felt quite timely. A few points that stood out: →NRR still has the strongest correlation to enterprise value among all SaaS metrics. Companies with 130% NRR command a 5.8x trailing twelve-month revenue multiple — and the drop-off at lower NRR tiers is significant. →It’s a solid argument that the big SaaS players [particularly sticky systems of record] aren’t going to lose big logos entirely [i.e., GRR will likely stay healthy], but their ability to predictably upsell/cross-sell new features [and therefore NRR] is at risk if AI upstarts offer a superior product experience and smooth integration with existing workflows [+ data], i.e., without breaking them. →The flip side, of course, is that without gross margins improving for AI startups, they just don’t have the same margin cushion to fund enterprise-grade GTM. Yes, we're seeing product-led sales motions buoyed by bottom-up developer love, but I’m curious to see how far this can stretch without FDEs being a necessity. →I particularly enjoyed this framing from the course: "Growth is a privilege, not a right." It's earned by companies whose unit economics support it. You can't outgrow bad unit economics through scale alone. Which is not to say that you will be profitable from day 1, but at *some* point the math needs to work. And work well. Graph below via Aventis Advisors Q4 SaaS Valuation update: