📈OnlyCFO 2024 Stats | Trust as a Moat

Why brand & trust will matter more than ever in 2025. Plus a peak into OnlyCFO's stats for 2024.

Brand/Trust Moat

The number of moats in the tech space is decreasing as software becomes more of a commodity. But… there are still a few moats left. I have written about a few of these moats, and they are my best-performing articles (keep reading for what those are).

Brand and trust is one of the final remaining moats, and it has never been more important.

Given how quickly technology moves today and the abundance of vendor options, potential buyers will more often default to vendors with trusted brands over the technological differences (unless the technology differences are huge).

Why do nearly 30K people read the OnlyCFO newsletter?

Some of you may read for the small chance I am actually Fabio or because you accidentally subscribed and can’t figure out how to unsubscribe….but hopefully most of you read because of trust.

You trust that I will:

1. Provide relevant insights and information for company leaders and investors

2. AND that I will do #1 in an entertaining way

There is LOTS of information available to people, so I have had to earn your trust and maintain that trust to convince you to keep opening up emails that come from a Fabio-looking statue.

Going back to selling software…companies that don’t earn trust and build a mini brand will have a significantly harder time competing in the future because it is significantly harder to compete on technology alone. This doesn’t mean your brand has to be huge, but you must have a strong brand/trust with some group of ideal customers. It also starts off small.

OnlyCFO 2024 Review

OnlyCFO Newsletter had a great year so I wanted to share some of the journey as we close out 2024 - 110% YoY subscriber growth, started accepting sponsors, started a OnlyCFO webinar, and more…

Subscribers

It’s not about the number of subscribers, but the quality. And there are some REALLY cool people following along (VCs, founders, execs at the largest cloud companies, etc).

But…it’s also cool to see the newsletter growth. I started a Twitter account 3 years ago when I was bored and the nerds on that app seemed to like what I had to say about finance stuff…so two years ago, I started writing more in-depth on Substack.

Now we are approaching 30K subscribers!

Geography

OnlyCFO is read in all 50 states and 169 countries. If you know anyone in Papua New Guinea, please ask them to subscribe🤣.

Recommendations & Friends

The OnlyCFO newsletter has 100+ great authors recommending it via Substack. Below are the top 10 that have driven the most subscribers.

Articles

I wrote 75 articles in the past year! 🤯 Below are some of the ones that stand out.

• 👀Most Views: Creating Sales Commission Plans

• 💵Best Sponsored Content: Sample Chart of Accounts & Departments

• 💪Most Reader Shares: Is ARR Dead?

• 🎙️Most Discussed: The Death of Point Solutions

• 📭Highest Email Open Rate: Warning Signs of a Layoff

• 🧨OnlyCFO Favorite: Software’s Future is Vertical

• 😡Most Upset VCs: VC Money Makes You Dumb

OnlyCFO Webinar

I started an OnlyCFO Webinar series that covers relevant topics for finance and other company leaders. We have over 500 people registered to be on the recurring events.

The next event is on January 8th. The topic is Metrics & Benchmarking - I hope you sign up to attend (it’s free).

Feedback

I hope you enjoyed all my newsletters in 2024, but reply to this email with any feedback or topic suggestions for 2025.

Enjoy the rest of 2024 and I’ll see you next year!

---

*If you are interested in sponsoring OnlyCFO in 2025, send an email to onlycfo@onlycfo.io. I am only booking through H1 right now and they are almost full.