# CFO Jill Woodworth’s Wellness Encore at Prenuvo **Channel:** CFO THOUGHT LEADER **Source:** https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MMYhd74Lm2Q **Transcript page:** https://www.withtranscript.ai/video/MMYhd74Lm2Q ## Chapters - 0:00 — Introducing Jill and the New Mission - 1:24 — Peloton IPO and Pandemic Surge - 3:04 — From MIT to Banking Leadership - 10:30 — How Peloton Opportunity Emerged - 15:23 — Preparing Peloton for Public Markets - 20:51 — Managing Peloton Through COVID Demand - 30:17 — Post-Pandemic Reset and Restructuring - 39:51 — Joining Prouvo and Learning the Business - 46:11 — AI, Data, and Finance Automation - 51:52 — Strategic Lessons from Peloton Crisis - 58:28 — Personal Interests and Future Priorities ## Transcript **[0:00]:** Hi, I'm Brian Gladen, CFO at CEUS. You're listening to the CFO thought leader podcast. This is episode 1098. I was really excited to get back into the health and wellness space and I really enjoyed my time at Pelaton and and obviously as a banker at JP Morgan. I worked with um some great companies in the health space as well. Planet Fitness was one of the companies I took public. So it it I just love the sector. And so I was fortunate to be introduced actually through a recruiter to the founder of Prouvo, Andrew Lacy. And I think it was a little bit similar to when I met John Foley, because it immediately clicked that this is a company to me that has the potential to redefine preventative health at scale. And I was so impressed. They have nearly 20 clinics around the United States today. **[0:58]:** Aspirations to um be a global brand. Um but but to to me really it's the mission, right? It's allowing people to take health into their own hands. And the hope of the company one day is that proactive screening is as ubiquitous as your annual physical. **[1:24]:** When Pelaton's stock debuted in 2019, CFO Jill Woodworth believed the playbook was airtight. She had shifted fiscal calendars, resegmented reporting, and shaped statements that tell a story, or so she explains. Then COVID hit. Orders flew ninefold overnight. Marketing was switched off and customer focus narrowed to a single metric, getting bikes from order to doorstep. In this episode, Jill recounts that surge, the $800 million cost that reset that followed, and the leadership lessons she distilled. Those lessons now guide her new chapter at Peruo, where wholebody MRIs and biomarker insights aim to make preventative health mainstream. You'll hear that story and much more on today's episode. Our talk with CFO Jill Woodworth begins after this. When it comes to company spend, most finance teams are on defense, reacting to surprise spend, chasing receipts, saying no. But there's a better way. Meet Rex, the AI powered spend platform that boosts a company's control, earnings, and speed. **[2:45]:** 99% of customer spend is compliant. 11 million hours saved on expenses and accounting through automation. 681 million plus dollars back to customers in business building rewards. Make every dollar count with **[3:03]:** Brex. **[3:04]:** Hello, Jill Woodworth is with us. She is Pelaton's former chief financial officer who guided its 2019 IPO, scaled finance through pandemic surges and recalls following a dozen years at JP Morgan and another dozen years at Morgan Stanley. Jill, welcome. Should say Jill Woodworth is the newly appointed CFO of Prouvo and we look forward to chatting with you about that as well. That's just news here today. So, but Jill, we always like to begin by saying take a look back for us and go back as far and I saw it was MIT if you wouldn't mind. You're at MIT. Are you already thinking finance? Who are you back then? That's a that's really funny because I think I went to MIT specifically for economics because I wanted to get into investment banking and I don't know really where that idea originated from but I loved math. **[4:05]:** I loved finance and management. And so unlike a lot of my uh peers at MIT who went there for engineering, I specifically went because it had at the time in 1990 the number one school in economics. So um I I knew it. What uh you step out and uh do you immediately join the workforce or what is your what is your plan? Um, you know, nowadays, right, people are preparing for their careers at the age of 10. Um, I had I had the luxury of scooping ice cream and working in pizza parlors and answering phones and babysitting, you know, really up until, you know, I went into the workforce um during my summers in high school and college. And so, um, but I did um, you know, interview at investment banks, a couple of consulting firms. um I sort of got self- selected into banking. **[5:05]:** Um it it was a really uh interesting experience where the consulting interviews I found very frustrating but the banking interviews were really to the point. Um they just wanted to know if I was going to work hard um and I had an interest in the industry and so um went right into a job at Morgan Stanley about a month after I graduated. Well, uh I know that it looks like you've had a pretty exciting banking career. You lived in different parts of the world, I believe, or operated from different parts of the world for a while. Um can you share with us what track were you on within these banks? You it was very different at Morgan Stanley and JG Morgan. at Morgan Stanley. Uh, you know, at the time when I started in 1994, it was a very forwardthinking organization in that when they saw people with potential, they wanted to move them around a lot, right? **[6:04]:** So, I got to do a lot of different things while I was there. I worked in um derivative products when I started um within the investment bank. I worked for a time in M&A. I worked in LA covering clients. Um, when I raised my hand and accidentally said that I knew Japanese, I ended up in uh Tokyo for 5 months. Um, and so it it was just I I'm not I didn't really have a a set plan, but I kind of went where people wanted to send me. And every experience was was amazing. and I spent time at Sydney, time in London, doing lots of different things. I like to say I had 12 different jobs in 12 years. But um and then my journey at JP Morgan was very different. Um I was very keen to get into the consumer and retail sectors. And in fact, at that point, I thought, should I go into industry and take an operating role and in in in a sector that I'm interested in or just keep going in banking? **[7:07]:** And um I followed a former colleague and went into uh JP Morgan and ran their equity capital markets business for consumer and retail companies for about 6 years and then from a banking perspective. So and that was incredibly joyful. I got to meet some of the most amazing companies um and had just an absolute privilege getting to know them and advise them and and and worked on dozens of IPOs of of household names. It was a lot of fun. Can you give us a sense of for those of us uh that may not be familiar or listeners who might not know the cultural differences between these two banks or similarities? Can you share with us what's what's distinctive from one to the next? You know, I think both um are, you know, Morgan Stanley was a great training ground for me. Uh as I said, uh very into um mobility, moving people around, promoting from within. **[8:10]:** Um a really incredible uh and well-run institution. Um but it is primary, its primary business is is really investment banking, asset management, sales, and trading. JP Morgan is different because it has, you know, Chase, right? It has a a whole commercial banking arm. It also has asset management and investment banking. And interestingly, as a retail banker, I was always looking at for opportunities. How do I partner with the commercial bank or the credit card uh parts of of JP Morgan so I can get better insights into the consumer um and the retail environment that I can share with my investment banking clients. So it's just operates at a at a at a very different scale and and slightly more diversified and you know have a ton of respect for Jan and the management team there and and it was such a fantastic experience. Again, it's almost as if you have these two volumes on a desk where you were in each of these banks building your career, maturing as a professional. **[9:17]:** I'm wondering, you know, did you become more assertive at some time during your career? You know, during the early part, we're just trying to sort of understand how things operate very often. And then once you have that comfort level or confidence in your skills, you begin to really look for opportunities and raise your hand. perhaps can you give us some you know how you evolve in terms of your assertiveness and perhaps the beginning of leadership skills emerge. Yeah, I think that Morgan Stanley, you're right. When you're young and your boss says, "Hey, I want you to go to London. I want you to, you know, go to Japan." You do it because you think that they know what's best for your career. And what's interesting at JP Morgan, I went in with a little bit more intention to say, I love the consumer and retail sectors. **[10:09]:** I'm looking for a role within these particular industries. And you do get more assertive, but I'm going to say something that's going to uh come as a big surprise to you. Uh the thing that really changed my mindset and I think made me a more successful banker was when I had my daughter. **[10:30]:** This is interesting. time management. What are you going to tell us? Yeah. So, um I my biggest a piece of advice that I give people is that for you to be successful at your job, you need to care about something else in your life more than your job. Be be a and because I think sometimes if you're giving 100% to your job, you don't see the forest for the trees sometimes. And you know, you can sort of get too stressed and it's everything is writing on everything that you're saying and doing in a meeting or a pitch you lose or win or a deal. And um I had my daughter during the financial crisis, interestingly enough. And um when I came back from parental leave, I you know was probably sleepdeprived. I came back after 3 months. She was born in January of 2009. Um, so right at the heart of it. **[11:32]:** And when I came back, all of a sudden, I just there was something else in my life I cared about. And I I don't know what it was. And I think it was my love and wanting to spend time with her, but I I was better at my job because I was 8020. I was I was focused. I went in. I I I spent the time on things that I thought were important. I didn't spend time on the things that weren't important. And it gave me just purpose in life outside of just work. And I feel like I credit her with the fact that I I feel like after that I was just more confident and better and I would, you know, I'd have to do some really big pitches. You know, I remember one in particular that I, you know, was with Jamie Diamond in the meeting and, you know, I just my performance level just increased and I and again, I think it's because I didn't put everything **[12:31]:** that I, you know, it wasn't everything that I cared about and if I lost, it was going to be okay. And it and sometimes would if when you put too much pressure on yourself, I feel like you don't perform as well in in in certain respects. What a what a great point. Uh I I think it's been made differently to us, but that it just sharpens your perspective on everything really, I suppose. Uh having a family and starting a family. That's uh wonderful. Thank you for that. the uh Pelaton CFO role was no doubt widely coveted and with your resume I I think you were probably on the short list all along but can you tell us a little bit about how you arrived there whether it was a head hunter part of your network um and of course we all know that you're boarding a roller coaster with the COVID years ahead of you and all of uh the unique business that Pelaton was. **[13:34]:** I I will say there was for the for the couple of years leading up to November 2017 when I met the found there was a period of time where I started to think I got a couple of clients who said hey would you be interested in an operating role um and I started to think hard about going down that path but there really weren't any opportunities that were of particular interest to me um a mutual friend uh introduced me to John Foley. Um he was in the market looking for a new CFO and in I mean I'm full of funny stories. This one's pretty funny. He actually called my boss at JP Morgan and asked if he could talk to me about a CFO role at Pelaton. And so um it I I heard about it first through my boss. Um, and so, you know, in banking, you know, that's always a little tricky. **[14:37]:** Um, and so, so my boss knew about it before I did, but um, he, you know, obviously he said, "I think this could be a really interesting opportunity for you." I went and I met I I I met John at a coffee shop. And, uh, within 30 minutes, I basically said, "I'm done with my 24-year career in investment banking." and and you know it's it's it's just there's there's so many different ingredients that make a good company. Obviously the management team and having a brand that people love and just everything that I could see at Pelaton I I thought this is um this is the right opportunity for me. So that was in November of 2017 and I started in January 20. **[15:23]:** Wow. And you are, it uh was clear to you as you step into the office, you're on the IPO path and that your first chapter is perhaps making it IPO ready or how would you characterize your first role there? Well, when I started immediately got thrown into another a fundraising process for their series F raise. Uh so uh which was incredible for me because it it it it forced me like drinking from a fire hose um to really understand the business. Uh but so I wasn't really thinking IPO really in for about a year. Um the the first year there was so much that I felt needed to change. Um obviously the business was at doing around 200 million of revenue. had a 12p person finance team. Um, but the issue really was that I I I looked at the financials, I looked at the segments, I looked at where things were on the P&L and I didn't understand the business from what I was looking at **[16:31]:** it. And so the first thing I needed to do was come in and I changed the fiscal year. where I changed when the budgeting process was done because it didn't coincide with a good period of time from a business perspective um and I resegmented the business because in my view even though I know most people look at a P&L statement and they think oh this is just numbers an income statement and and financial statements for that matter should tell a story should you should be able to understand what's going on in the business by looking at the P&L and so That's where I really was first initially wanting to get the business to to a place where I can explain, you know, very clearly to the board how the company is performing, what are the KPIs we need to be focused on, what really matters. **[17:21]:** And so I made a lot of changes in the first six to nine months while we were doing the series F to just change the way we were reporting and looking at the business. So was not focused on the IPO at that point. on a lot of hiring. Yeah. I mean, was it uh getting your accounting team in shape? Was it uh you know, making sure you had the controller and your FPNA responsibilities were mapped out or when you when you say you're getting the house in shape? Oh, well, I'd have to say the team that was there, I mean, there are still people at Pelatron today that that are on that team and some of the best people I've ever worked with. So I I it it wasn't it wasn't a quality issue with the team. Pelaton was attracting amazing people uh to to to the company. **[18:14]:** It really was just augmenting those teams and figuring out, you know, of course, as you then start to think about going public, okay, well, we need a team that's going to be doing our financial reporting to the SEC. We need an internal audit team. We now have a lot of money in the bank. we need a treasurer. Um, our our tax situation, you know, is going to get more complicated because we're going into uh Germany and Canada and London and we we obviously have manufacturing partners in Taiwan. I need a tax person. So, it was it was really just a lot of hiring and I was just very fortunate to attract literally the most amazing team. So very very fortunate and I think a lot of that is um you know the brand itself um you know there was a lot of purpose behind what people felt at Pelaton because we were changing people's lives and **[19:11]:** making them healthier and happier and that really resonated with the people that I wanted to hire. having taken uh helped take companies public in the past uh but you weren't on the operation side. Any thoughts on you know sort of rendering your first S1 um from the operation side as a leader? Well, I can tell you had I done this before I was a banker, I would have been a 10 times better banker because I, you know, it's very easy as an advisor to tell people, "Oh, you should go public and here's why you should go public and the process is so easy. It takes 6 months and here's what you need to do." It's very different living through it. It was effectively like having a second job for about 7 months. And uh so it was um very grueling and I was probably the most painful client that Goldman Sachs and JP Morgan ever had because I'd already been through the process and so had very definitive views on how I **[20:14]:** wanted the process managed. Um especially from a I wanted to be very vigilant around the timeline. Um but yeah, it it it's it's it's so much work. Um and it and it takes a village. It takes so much coordination. Um, and and but but at the end of the day, it was such a great learning experience because it made me having write that S1, it made me have a much better understanding of all of the different parts of our business. Um, and how to convey that in a very a very complicated business model in a very simple way. **[20:51]:** Um, all right. So, I want to talk to you about Pelaton. It's such a, you know, it was such an interesting company. I mean I I don't know have they written a book about all of what you go through eventually. I mean it is really exciting and there were so many people speculating you know how they would have you know addressed some of the challenges that are to come during co but I want to I want I know that in in 2019 and maybe we can begin here in late 2019 uh Pelaton invested heavily in manufacturing in logistics to shorten delivery windows and I want to I'm wondering how did you model demand risk then and what in hindsight would you change about some of the assumptions maybe that were made? So about uh six months prior to COVID, we did buy one of our third-party manufacturers. **[21:49]:** Um but I think you have to take a step back and understand, you know, we were working with a manufacturer in Taiwan. They uh we needed them to scale. The company prior to CO was growing 100% a year. And you know by us owning them it allowed us to invest more money in it so that it could eventually meet the scale that we need. So we didn't necessarily buy our manufacturer because of CO. So, but it it happened to be fortuitous because 6 months later when CO happened, it obviously gave us the flexibility to build a lot more fitness equipment than we would have done had we not been vertically integrated there. And then on the point about our delivery network, uh that was a deliberate decision that we made uh it was probably made around 2016. So even before I got there, if you um the the the member experience at Pelaton, it is was was the mo the holy grail was the most important thing that everybody at the company focused on. **[23:04]:** And if you looked at where we were letting our members down, it was in the delivery experience because we were using third parties. They were plopping it on the doorstep, you know, they were banging into walls. it wasn't a good experience. And so um we we felt and the at the time the company felt that it was important where we could get the scale to make it economically efficient that we build our own delivery network. So that's just the backdrop. I mean both of those things were things in motion prior to CO. Um and you know when COVID hit though you know overnight we our our uh our order volume grew ninefold. I I don't I it's hard for a hard goods business to scale 9x in one day. And as a health and wellness company and if and and I think people have to put their mindset back to how people felt in those early days of CO, right? **[24:14]:** It was scary and I lived in New York City, right? It was um it it was a really crazy uncertain time. People had never been in their homes under lockdown before. It was a once in a generation experience. And we had people just pleading and begging for some physical and mental outlet to get them through CO. And so, you know, our decisions made to scale up whatever we could do with our third party manufacturer, now our owned manufacturer, our delivery teams, we did it because we wanted to take care of our members, right? So at the end of the day, if if that was that was really our guiding light around doing everything we possibly could um to to rise to that occasion. Um I think the other thing to keep in mind is there were so many other challenges at the time because e-commerce was exploding. **[25:18]:** So it's not even like we could have gone to third parties if we wanted our products delivered. So we we really had to go it alone. But I I think the entire management team was really behind the fact that we were doing this for the right reasons. And you know, yes, it had to be unwound. And I'm sure there were things that we, you know, should have done differently, but you know, when you're when you're acting at a time when you're you're uh when you don't, it's so uncertain um and you think you're doing the right thing. It's it's just it's just hard to kind of it's so easy to play 20, you know, the had the 2020 hindsight or play money Monday morning quarterback and and but I felt like, you know, we we really rallied together as an executive team and and meanwhile, of course, we're trying to figure out even how are how are our instructors going to do classes? **[26:18]:** We were moving cameras into their apartments. we were, you know, moving our entire HQ into, you know, a work from home environment. There was just it was it was uh a lot. So I, you know, of course we we should have could have done things differently and and you know, the big question the big strategic question there for for us is should we have just abandoned our members? You know, should we have not done that? And so, um, but I think it was the right thing to do. So, I think that would have been the only other alternative that we just left all of that demand on the table and, um, we weren't serving our members. And so, I think that was really the balance we were trying to strike. I'm wondering if were there any finance controls or dashboards during that spike that you found useful um or that really helped with decisionm or is it was it just you know we're we're going to have to go on **[27:19]:** instinct sometimes. I mean what what was useful to you? What type of data under those circumstances were you seeking to Well, I mean, we turned off marketing right away and you know, up until that point was a brand built in acquisition marketing, right? We spent money to acquire customers. I'm sure there was a point in time where nobody could avoid a Pelaton commercial. And so, you know, when you think about that just be that was just or all organically driven, right? And so, usually I'm sitting there thinking about, oh, how much marketing dollars are we spending and what are we um and then what is that materializing in terms of sales? During COVID, it was just, you know, showing up at the doorstep as John Foley would say. And so, um, from our standpoint, it was, um, you know, we were very focused on order to delivery, right? **[28:16]:** Okay. You know, when we fir when COVID first started, it was, oh my gosh, the the bikes are at a four or five, you know, month wait, you know, it was like, how do we get that order to delivery down, right? How do we ramp up manufacturing and get bikes on boats and planes and by every mean every means we can and how do we get them into hands as quickly as possible. And so I would say during that time that was probably the thing that we were most focused on. What was our time delay between when our customers are ordering and when they they're delivering and and when they're actually getting the product. And you know, we had to take it down from four or 5 months to, you know, a week, you know, over over the course of several months. And it was a herculean effort. **[29:05]:** There were bikes uh assembled in parking lots in Taiwan at at one point. So, um we were doing all we could, but that was the thing that we were focused on. And then I think the other thing I you know it's not it's not in a dashboard but um the mental state of the employees right I mean most people in co businesses were dead right people were worried about job security at Pelaton it was all hands on deck it was a company that was about to go from you know a couple hundred million of revenue to 4 billion and so it was you We were asking so much of our people. We were hiring so many people. We were onboarding and digesting so much. To me, the other thing that I was keenly focused on was really staying very present with my team, probably even more so than I was doing in the office because I had to be so intentional about doing it **[30:07]:** in an online form for a work from home forum. So, I I think it was just making sure we weren't forgetting to **[30:17]:** I just want to um touch on the post-pandemic sort of demand reset when growth cooled and inventory swelled. Then which levers price cuts, vendor renegotiations, financing delivered the fastest liquidity or relief, however uh we can characterize that. What was the what was the lever that you turned to? Well, the the first lever we turned to uh which which was lowering the price of our bike, but a lot of that was because we had already introduced a new bike model uh the bike it was called the bike plus at the time and so our view was um we had a lot of inventory of our original bike and let's let's drop the price on that. Um, and you know, I think the price curve is is less elastic than I think perhaps we had thought at the time. Um, and obviously it created a lot of initial demand, but then that waned over time, but it's really hard to tell, you know, in the COVID taper how much was driven by pricing and how much was just driven **[31:32]:** by people wanting to now spend money on experiences. So um it it's it it's a it's a hard analysis but I think coming out of that um you know once we knew we were in a position where demand was was significantly tapering we you know the the bigger issue was having to take a lot of uh strategic actions um a lot around the business which I can address later if you if you would like but um that was probably the moment you know that was was one of the most challenging at the company was was the realization that we had to really reinvent the business model. I was going to ask looking back what structural changes in finance or FPNA would you recommend to help Pelaton you know as manage these demand swings? I mean, I I I think uh it it doesn't overlap. Uh but I'm I'm not sure that the issues that we had could have been avoided unless we had a crystal ball. **[32:45]:** I mean, you know, we we we saw sustained demand for nearly two years. Yeah. And so it it was impossible to predict and you know again then we started reaching up marketing we started you know obviously you know looking at price elasticity there were a lot of different tools but I I don't I I I just don't think a lot of the issues that we had to unwind could have necessarily been avoided unless we had had ever done any of that at all then we had left to demand on Well, well, thank you so much for answering our some additional questions there on Pelaton. We do appreciate it, Jill. And we do want to find out about your new chapter that you're opening uh as we learned just uh just this month, days into the job. Prubo, tell us about this company. What's it about? **[33:43]:** What are its offerings? Great. Um well, Fuvo is the leader in proactive screen. So what we do is we make whole body MRIs of our patients in less than an hour and they get uh incredible insights um into their health to look at every organ, every joint and they get a comprehensive report that's been written by uh a boardcertified radiologist and they learn more about their health in an hour than they've probably known their whole life. So um we you know from my perspective um this is in the field of preventative health care and to me this is really uh where I think our healthc care system also all been can can you tell us a little bit is it a a series B about its capital structure how big a company is this now so uh we haven't shared valuation numbers but we did share the fra uh the $100 million revenue mark and **[34:49]:** glad to hear uh I think earlier this year we had announced uh the closing of a series B round and just for you this is just another interesting chapter is it a founder who you connect you know you you shared an interesting story about Pelaton similarly is this another part of your network or how did you arrive here I I was really excited to get back into the health and wellness space and I really enjoyed my time met Pelaton and and obviously at the same anchor at J Morgan I worked with uh some great companies in the health space as well scient fitness was one of the compan it's I just love this sector and so I was fortunate to be introduced actually through a recruiter to the founder of printivo Andrew Lacy and I think it was a little bit similar to when I met John Foley because it immediately clicked that This is **[35:46]:** a company to me that has the potential to redefine preventative health at scale and I was so impressed they have nearly 20 clinics around the United States today aspirate and to um be a global brand. Um but but to to me really is the vision right that allowing people to take health into their own hands and the hope of the company one day is that proactive screening is as ubiquitous as your annual physical. Now, can you tell us what uh you the opportunity as you've just outlined for us? Are you here to uh scale it? Uh are you know what what are your priorities for this company for the coming year? Well, first I have to learn the business. Um and so I'm not I'm no help to anyone before I make sure that I have diving in and really understand every function. And it's it's been so fascinating so far just to hear about what our technology teams, our AI teams, um our clinical teams and what everybody is focused on. **[36:58]:** So for me it's it's just really understanding um the business. And one of the things that attracted to me uh me to the business is there's so many different ways to grow um you know and and new product offerings. the company just started doing blood biomarkers and we're going to be rolling that across our clinics as well to augment the work that we're doing on the MRI. Um so just learning the business to me is is paramount. I would say um it's it's got a relatively um small but mighty finance team today. So, it's really just about um you know figuring out where I need to um add folks to the team and uh in in my um experience both at Pelaton and then my time at Elation, you know, the most important thing is figuring out how to create a finance function that is serving the organization that it's not a siloed organization where they're just accounting and doing budgets in a silo. **[38:02]:** Um I truly love when uh the the finance team is really integrated with the different functional areas of the business. So my desire is to build a team where you know our head of our clinical practice doesn't want to be in a meeting without his you know finance strategic partner. So, I really want to make finance a truly ingrained part of the business because I think it helps um everyone make better decisions and it and it always makes sure that our executive teams have all of the information they need and analysis they need to make good decisions. Um, I myself want to become hopefully a strategic partner to the CEO and the rest of the team as we look at different growth opportunities, new products, different market expansion. Um, this is stuff that really gets me excited, especially when it's, you know, uh, you know, a company that's that's saving lives um through through early findings of of things that had they progressed without them knowing being asymptomatic **[39:09]:** could could be a a big problem in the future. And then of course as a CFO I would be remiss without saying that I I you know need to make sure that the company has the necessary balance sheet and operating plan um and and predictability and forecastability of the business. um and plan to give the company every hopefully every available option to them in terms of capital raising strategic um initiatives it and and partnerships that they want to embark on and get just make sure they have um that as the the full optionality and that financing never constraint. **[39:51]:** help help us better understand what uh the important information that you need to understand and be able to see into the business. What is it that allows you to understand how they're performing? Well, I think you know the first off it's it's um a pretty scaled business uh already with almost one clinic. Um those clinics are profitable. the company is profitable. Um, so I think it's obviously going to be important for me to keep an eye on clinic performance right within the four walls and making sure that we're making good decisions on the locations in which we are are are putting um our clinics and I think understanding the capacity and the es and flows. It's a relatively new business and so um it's it I I guess I'm answering your question with another question to myself which is I I still think we're trying to figure out right the seasonality right and the repeat **[40:58]:** visits of customers. There's still a lot to figure out. We're incredibly encouraged because I do think it's a massive secular trend that people want to look after themselves. I mean, the health and wellness industry globally is a $7 trillion industry growing to 9 billion. And so it's and that's just in the span of the next few years. And so it's I we're so new um and we're and we have so much to go in terms of building brand awareness and frankly education that this is even an option for people in healthcare to to take control and put themselves in the driver's seat. So, um, while there's, you know, things that I can look at and revenue and profitability metrics and clinic performance, I think the real things in terms of honing the model and getting to have a uh, a very robust forecast is over time just being able to better model the predictability of when people are going to return and and what does seasonality look like in Florida versus New York? **[42:05]:** When are people going to want to be doing these things? and and it's very hard too when you know we've got um different sales channels we're growing very rapidly and but so I think it's going to evolve and then I would say the two other things that are super important to me is our customer how our customers feel about us right how was our NPS tracking are people having a great experience I mean so much of this business was built because people absolutely had a fantastic fantastic experience told their friends. You know, I kind of liken Prouvo to the next Pelaton in the way that people used to, you know, talk they would talk about their favorite instructors at a dinner party. I think, you know, 5 years from now, it's going to be, oh, well, what did your scan say and what are you doing to to better your scan next year? **[42:59]:** Um and I by the way I went through the scan process as part of my diligence process when I took took the role and it was absolutely fascinating again I learned more in an hour and then I did the light and tie or see doctors sort of what you're explaining there isn't it uh sort of the customer experience is what you really want to begin to understand better and we talk about customer success with a lot of SAS firms and I'm curious if customer success ess means something different to you and whether similarly you you uh you envision having something of a maybe you already do have a and I don't know if healthcare is different but a customer success team and resources dedicated to uh you know tracking and understanding these behaviors more closely is that part of going to be part of your world already is I think you know the the the **[43:57]:** thing that you If you think about it, it is different than SAS, right? There isn't, you know, necessarily troubleshooting. It might be helpful for me to explain what happens effectively. You know, when you sign up for a scan, you fill out a a you know, a long medical history form that's super obviously helpful to put your findings into context. You then go for your scan. It's actually a very pleasant experience. I've never been in an MRI before, but it was less than an hour. I watched Netflix the whole time. Um, and then about a week later, um, a very knowledgeable doctor called me, um, and at the same time delivered a very detailed report and, you know, there are ways that I can follow up with Prouvo if I have more questions. Maybe all my questions aren't coming to mind in that 45minute call, but it was incredibly comprehensive. **[44:58]:** Went through everything from, you know, brain all the way down to feet. Um, everything going on in my body. And, you know, the followup was was also a bit on me, right? I I'm now doing some physical therapy because they identified some things in my back. Um, I obviously gave a copy of it to my, you know, my my GP. Um, and there's a few things that I can follow up on, but you know, it from from the Prouvo perspective, um, it's just making sure that all of that feels seamless, right, and and super high quality and that the information and the insights and the findings and the technology is is is um giving um the the the the customer incredible value. And so it's not really customer success. It's it's just making sure that that experience is um the best it can possibly be. **[45:57]:** And there's certainly markers along the way, right, that that we want to measure um how we're doing um on that front, but uh it it's it's a fairly compelling process infrastructure. **[46:11]:** We want to quickly just touch on AI with you and of course we're wondering if um as you get to know this company whether how are they using AI uh in what areas and whether you see uh you know strong reasons to invest more in these types of technologies. What would you tell us? So AI is pivotal to the business that it is helping us accelerate scan analysis. it it enhances the quality of our report uh and it's not replacing radiologists by any means but it is enabling us to uh be more scalable and and frankly more precise uh with our findings. Um, and so we really see a AI and our radiologists working together cuz we're making their life easier by creating the technology that um allows them to read clearer, better scans and allows them to um work more productively. Um, and so we do think over time, again, we're not replacing radiologists, but I do think AI is going to help us reduce not only the time it takes to scan someone, but the but but the costs associated **[47:29]:** with our scan. And so, you know, in the in the wayway future, right, I mean, the hope is that we can bring down the cost of of this service over time. Um and and that's obviously one of the ways in which we are are making it um ubiquitous. Um I will say uh as we as we get even better and and are able to invest more in AI, I do think um as patients return annually or by annually, AI is going to play an even more powerful role. And this, you know, hopefully there are some interesting product things that we can talk about in the future, but um AI will become more powerful because it may be able to offer better insights into how the body is changing over time with age to, you know, think about it. If I if I looked at a scan from you for a couple of years and then maybe AI can really help me project out for example what your what your spine might look like in 10 years or 20 **[48:29]:** years and then what are some ideas that you could have that actually might stem some of those negative changes. So I think there's it's just not a one-time diagnostic service. it could actually be something that has real uh value over someone's lifetime. Um and that'll compound with scale. Um and and we have um the largest data set of full body scans of of anyone. And so I think that's also a a hugely powerful uh research tool as well. Um, and our founder gets calls about it all day long about how we how we can partner with with people because of that incredibly um structure uh uh vast database that no one else has. When what about the finance uh function? Uh where do you think AI is likely to have the greatest impact? Uh and again um we know you're a new arrival there but so how widely AI is being used today. **[49:43]:** We're curious to have you look forward as you begin to understand the possibilities here. Where is it likely to impact your your finance function? Hopefully there'll be a point where you can write more debt for me and financial reports and eventually you know earning scripts and I I mean obviously I think the technology you know in in places like finance I think are going to be fairly obvious over time. Um, I think as I said, it's, you know, ultimately it's it's probably just cutting out a lot of w, you know, here's all of our financial numbers in our ERP and AI is going to take that and put it into a presentation for me someday, right? So, we're obviously not there. Um, but I do see over time it it probably um make you know it's it's like I kind of liken it to when I was a an analyst in banking, right? **[50:44]:** I used to have to walk over to a Bloomberg terminal, write down a stock price, and then go put it into a spreadsheet, right? Nobody would fathom doing that today. I think with AI and finance, I don't think we can actually fathom how much of our work is going to and then you kind of think, well, what are we going to do if we don't do these things? I I mean um but somehow as an analyst in banking, I always found more work to do when things when technology was making huge strides and leaps making our jobs easy. There was always work to do. So, I'm sure there will be something. But hopefully what it means is that uh you know people in finance especially at the lower levels are doing more value added work right and you know in startups and things there's there's a lot of manual work right **[51:35]:** systems are often patched together and so um hopefully that's where we'll see the leverage but um I I I think it'll probably take some time to get there. **[51:52]:** Yep. Well, we are up to our finance strategic moment question. This is where we ask you just to share a story or an experience uh during your career where you had a moment of insight and uh comes to mind when we ask for a finance strategic moment. **[52:12]:** I think for me it's it's a it's a bit of a aha moment or a moment where you say, "Oh my gosh, we have to do X right now." Like the you know, and it's it's a a memorable moment, if you will, right? Um, and so for me, I know we talked a lot earlier about, you know, we talked a little bit about the taper, but you know, what it all had to then culminate to is, well, how are we going to start to fix this, right? The demand is starting to taper. We obviously have a lot of supply. We've already sort of played around with price. That's not really going to move the needle. And you know, we have to think really big about something that is always the hardest moment of any company, which is we've hired a lot of people that we don't necessarily need anymore. **[53:10]:** And we added a lot of fixed costs into a business that we need to in fact reviableize. And so it there was this moment and you know John called me and and obviously we had to get the senior leadership team together and we had to come up with a strategy to take $800 million of costs out of the business and you know it was uh something we worked on in you know call it December and January of that would have been 2122 um and then in Febru because of course as a public company you're on the time clock and uh I had an earnings call that I needed to do by early February. So to to think about a a restructuring of that magnitude and a company so vertically integrated with supply chain and and you know member support and delivery people and people that worked in the studio and corporate and marketing **[54:12]:** and finance and people and legal. It was uh a herculean effort, but like we we just knew at that moment we're like we have to do something now and we have to announce it in February and we have to figure this out um how to restructure across this entire organization and so it you know the the and the strategy behind it we were a little bit under the gun right um it it was far more challenging you know for better or for worse Pelaton was a name that everybody was writing about. We were still in the news every single day about something and and so it was really it it was hard. And then of course 3 days before that earnings call, the board replaced the CEO and so that was getting announced on the same day as the restructuring. So, you know, it was a lot of change uh for me um at once, but you know, obviously very stressful, but you know, it was just a moment where you just said we we have to change, right? **[55:17]:** we we you know be and and it kind of goes I think to something I would say if someone was to um you know give me advice uh I would I would probably say you know don't you know keep wishing right face the reality and and you know because the last thing any company wants to do is cut their workforce so it was hard it was it was a hard moment but you know the company got through it and you know I'm still massively rooting. I'm still a du teleer. I love the quad grand instructors every about it. Um but yeah it took some years off my life **[56:05]:** and think about you stepping into that role for the first time, the CFO role for the first time again after this long banking career. as many CFOs as you had met, as many of them as you, you know, as much as you thought you understood about what they do with their days. What is it that surprised you that initial 30 or 60 days as you stepped into the role? What what is it that you were like, I didn't expect this yet? Um, so how great it was. Um because I was so used to having people that I would train be with me for a year or two and then go off and leave and go to private equity or go to a VC or go back to business school. It was amazing to think I have this team and I have this team I can grow a team I you know I can mentor and all of the things that I was felt like a fish out of water **[57:00]:** as a banker as finally just came into view for me. But I know that's not the answer you're looking for because that's a very personal answer. Um I I I think what I would rather say is um you know at at Pelaton obviously prepare for the unexpected, right? No, nobody was and and you could never prepare for a black swan event. I get that. But I think you know stress test assumptions you know convince your CEO that you need to look at a downside scenario. What if things don't go as as planned? You know raising money when you can not when you need to act quickly to course like all of these things um you know obviously happened. Um, but I think you know you get in companies, especially young companies that are growing quickly and you just always kind of think it's going to be a little bit up and to the right. **[58:00]:** I think that's changed a lot now in the last few years with the more challenging macro, but there have been periods of time where there's some people that have only seen the good times. And I think it's just important to keep in mind, right, that there's there's there's always a downside and always good to make sure you can operate the company and you have sufficient capital under a very wide variety of circumstances. **[58:28]:** We'd like to ask our guests to reflect a little on the personal side for us. We're wondering if there's something and you're new there, so there's lots of things your colleagues might not know about you, but what what's something generally maybe many people don't know about you? Well, I already mentioned Japan, so people then will probably know that I know a little Japanese. Um, I think uh I can play any song on the piano by ear. Wow. And that goes way back to your piano lessons in high school or I don't know. I I played since I was about three years old and had lessons till I was about 16 or 17. But I hated being told what to play and how to play it. I would But I would hear a song on the radio and I would go and I would try to I would figure it out. **[59:18]:** Figure it out. Wild. I love to do what a wonderful I'll be working in a piano bar and not be Do you like in your office do you keep you know you have a piano obviously in your home but I mean is it do you escape with it? No. Is it is it work or is it fun? Yeah. Oh no. It's just relaxing and fun. I'm wondering if there's been a resource or a book along the way that as far as business is concerned. Maybe maybe you escape with it. Maybe it's a novel or something. But no, I'm always interested in a re resource or or a book that you has influenced your thinking in some way. I'm going to go with a book I read about a year ago ago called Die Was Zero. And uh it it talks about uh how in life you need to maximize your happiness, not your wealth. **[1:00:08]:** Nice. Doesn't say not to make money or tell you when to retire, but it tells you to it it was very very just called it up. Bill Perkins is the author. We haven't had it before, so we're excited. We're always pleased when we get a new selection. So, thank you for that. And again, we are uh up to the hour. So, I have one last question for you. Uh and again, I'm going to ask you to look forward for the coming 12 months and just ask you to be specific if you can. What are your priorities? Well, I want to build a strategic uh finance function. and the company, you know, has been probably more heavily focused on um on, you know, back office accounting and making sure the books are closed. I think from my perspective, um the company has so many different ways to grow. **[1:01:06]:** I want to make sure I have the team and the resources for the executive team to look at ROI. Hey, should we open here or should we open where is a dollar better spent? Right? how to evaluate different product offerings. And so I really want to build out a strategic function so that you know we're not just using gut, we're also using some numbers and and the gut the guts worked so far far and frankly this is an incredibly talented super smart team. I just want to help now that the company is getting to a particular point of scale, help them uh you know validate if you will um the decisions that we make going forward. And so I'm really excited to build out that strategic finance function and and be a spokesperson for the team because I truly believe that this is a life-changing product. **[1:02:00]:** Jill Woodworth, thank you for joining us on CFO Thought Leader. Thank you.