FinPod

What happens when interest rates rise faster than your business can adapt?
In this episode of Corporate Finance Explained, we break down one of the most overlooked risks in corporate finance: interest rate risk management. Using real-world examples from the 2022-2023 rate hiking cycle, we explore how treasury teams protect companies from rising borrowing costs, why some businesses weathered higher rates while others struggled, and the financial strategies that separate disciplined risk management from dangerous speculation.
You'll learn how companies manage fixed vs. floating rate debt, how interest rate swaps, caps, collars, and forward-starting swaps work, and why matching financing structures to business cash flows is more important than trying to predict where interest rates are headed. We also examine real-world examples from Ford, regulated utilities, leveraged buyouts (LBOs), and commercial real estate to show how interest rate decisions impact financial performance.

Can a company gain millions of customers and still be guaranteed to fail?
In this episode of Corporate Finance Explained, we break down the unit economics behind sustainable business growth and explain why revenue growth alone is one of the most misleading metrics in corporate finance. Through real-world case studies including MoviePass, Netflix, Amazon Prime, Salesforce, and Blue Apron, we explore how the strongest companies create long-term value while others collapse under the weight of unsustainable economics.
You'll learn why finance professionals rely on metrics like Lifetime Value (LTV), Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC), churn rate, cohort analysis, and CAC payback period to evaluate whether a business model can actually scale. We also explain the famous LTV:CAC ratio, why the ideal range matters, and how retention drives long-term profitability.

Is a 1% tax enough to change how corporate America returns billions of dollars to shareholders?
In this episode of Corporate Finance Explained, we explore the economics of stock buybacks, the new federal 1% excise tax on share repurchases, and why capital allocation decisions can create enormous shareholder value or destroy it.
Stock buybacks have become the dominant way companies return capital to investors, but not every repurchase creates value. We break down how buybacks affect earnings per share (EPS), why valuation matters, how the new buyback tax changes the math, and why companies like Apple and JPMorgan approach repurchases very differently than businesses that have made costly capital allocation mistakes.

How can a company own almost nothing and still become one of the most valuable businesses in the world?
In this episode of Corporate Finance Explained, we break down the economics behind platform marketplaces and why companies like Airbnb, Etsy, and Upwork have fundamentally different business models than traditional retailers.
Unlike conventional businesses that own inventory and physical assets, marketplace platforms create value by connecting buyers and sellers. But building a successful platform is far more complex than simply attracting users. We explore the financial mechanics behind network effects, take rates, liquidity, customer acquisition, and marketplace economics, along with why some platforms become incredibly profitable while others burn through billions of dollars without ever reaching sustainable growth.

Want to build financial models that other finance professionals can trust?
In this episode of What's New at CFI, Meeyeon sits down with Duncan McKean, CFI's VP of Financial Modeling, to discuss Financial Modeling Guidelines, a practical course designed to help analysts build cleaner, more transparent, and more professional Excel models.
Instead of building a model from scratch, this course starts with a messy legacy model and walks you through transforming it into a best-in-class financial model using industry-standard modeling practices. Along the way, you'll learn why model structure matters, how to improve readability and transparency, and the habits that separate experienced financial modelers from everyone else.