Upfront Investment vs. Long-Term Upside

In this episode of Run the Numbers, CJ sits down with Varsha Udayabhanu of Invisible to unpack what enterprise AI adoption actually looks like beyond the hype. They cover forward deployed engineers, eight-week solution sprints, value-based pricing when outcomes are hard to meter, ARR vs. services revenue, and why “momentum” beats traditional SaaS metrics. A tactical look at trust, expansion, and building durable AI revenue.

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SPONSORS:

Brex is an intelligent finance platform that combines corporate cards, built-in expense management, and AI agents to eliminate manual finance work. By automating expense reviews and reconciliations, Brex gives CFOs more time for the high-impact work that drives growth. Join 35,000+ companies like Anthropic, Coinbase, and DoorDash at https://www.brex.com/metrics

Metronome is real-time billing built for modern software companies. Metronome turns raw usage events into accurate invoices, gives customers bills they actually understand, and keeps finance, product, and engineering perfectly in sync. That’s why category-defining companies like OpenAI and Anthropic trust Metronome to power usage-based pricing and enterprise contracts at scale. Focus on your product — not your billing. Learn more and get started at https://www.metronome.com

RightRev is an automated revenue recognition platform built for modern pricing models like usage-based pricing, bundles, and mid-cycle upgrades. RightRev lets companies scale monetization without slowing down close or compliance. For RevRec that keeps growth moving, visit https://www.rightrev.com

Rillet is an AI-native ERP built for modern finance teams that want to close faster without fighting legacy systems. Designed to support complex revenue recognition, multi-entity operations, and real-time reporting, Rillet helps teams achieve a true zero-day close—with some customers closing in hours, not days. If you’re scaling on an ERP that wasn’t built in the 90s, book a demo at https://www.rillet.com/cj

Tabs is an AI-native revenue platform that unifies billing, collections, and revenue recognition for companies running usage-based or complex contracts. By bringing together ERP, CRM, and real product usage data into a single system of record, Tabs eliminates manual reconciliations and speeds up close and cash collection. Companies like Cortex, Statsig, and Cursor trust Tabs to scale revenue efficiently. Learn more at https://www.tabs.com/run

Abacum is a modern FP&A platform built by former CFOs to replace slow, consultant-heavy planning tools. With self-service integrations and AI-powered workflows for forecasting, variance analysis, and scenario modeling, Abacum helps finance teams scale without becoming software admins. Trusted by teams at Strava, Replit, and JG Wentworth—learn more at https://www.abacum.ai

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LINKS: 

Varsha: https://www.linkedin.com/in/varshaudayabhanu/

Company: https://invisibletech.ai/

CJ: https://www.linkedin.com/in/cj-gustafson-13140948/

Mostly metrics: https://www.mostlymetrics.com

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TIMESTAMPS:

00:00 Intro

03:21 What Invisible Technologies Does

05:34 Enterprise AI Adoption Gap

07:38 Forward Deployed Engineers

09:44 Evolving GTM in AI Services

10:36 Solution Sprints

12:37 Sponsor — Brex | Metronome | RightRev

15:56 Upfront Investment vs. Upside

18:38 Bespoke Deals

20:37 Value-Based Pricing in Enterprise AI

22:12 Value Sold vs. Value Delivered

23:31 Enterprise Revenue as a Portfolio of Bets

24:53 Time-Bound Solution Sprints

27:06 Sponsor — Rillet | Tabs | Abacum

30:32 Humans in the Loop & Expert Incentives

33:38 Niche Human Expertise

34:10 Rethinking KPIs Beyond ARR

35:44 Momentum Metrics

39:00 Evaluating GenAI Financial Profiles

40:47 Expansion as the Atomic Unit

42:19 AdTech Lessons on Distribution & Brand

43:23 Why Brand Matters for Enterprise

47:10 Commoditization Risk

48:31 Long-Ass Lightning Round

53:20 Credits