{"podcast":{"title":"In Depth","slug":"in-depth-1318680","podcast_index_feed_id":1318680,"rss_url":"https://feeds.megaphone.fm/FRCH6787238462","website_url":"https://firstround.com/","image_url":"https://megaphone.imgix.net/podcasts/9426cbf8-25fe-11ec-a0b4-fb6861cc1eaf/image/f27cea2953ad25c68029f33bc99ba58b.png?ixlib=rails-4.3.1&max-w=3000&max-h=3000&fit=crop&auto=format,compress","author":"First Round","episode_count":178,"summary":"Welcome to In Depth, a podcast from The First Round Review that’s dedicated to surfacing the tactical advice founders and startup leaders need to grow their teams, their companies and themselves. Hosted by Brett Berson, a partner at First Round, In Depth will cover a lot of ground and a wide range of topics, from hiring executives and becoming a better manager, to the importance of storytelling inside of your organization. But every interview will hit the level of tactical depth where the very best advice is found. We hope you’ll join us. Subscribe to “In Depth” now and learn more at firstround.com","last_synced_at":null,"page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/in-depth-1318680"},"episode":{"title":"Why founders should bet on first-time executives | Praveer Melwani (CFO, Figma)","slug":"why-founders-should-bet-on-first-time-executives-praveer-melwani-cfo-figma","published_at":"2026-05-14T11:00:00+00:00","page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/in-depth-1318680/why-founders-should-bet-on-first-time-executives-praveer-melwani-cfo-figma","show_page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/in-depth-1318680","url":"https://traffic.megaphone.fm/FRCH6810168610.mp3","audio_url":"https://traffic.megaphone.fm/FRCH6810168610.mp3","summary":"In this latest episode of Executive Function, Brett sits down with Praveer Melwani, CFO at Figma. Praveer joined Figma in 2017 as the company's first business operations and finance hire—when the team was around 30 people and not yet charging for the product—and stepped into the CFO seat in 2022, helping to lead the company’s IPO in 2025. In today’s conversation, Praveer breaks down the step functions that took him from IC to CFO, why Figma started acting like a public company three years before IPO, and how AI is rewriting capital allocation and the CFO job itself. In today's episode, we discuss: What separates a world-class finance leader from a traffic-cop CFO How Praveer went from Figma's first biz ops hire to CFO of a public company in nine years Why Figma started acting like a public company three years before its IPO What Praveer has learned working alongside Dylan Field for nine years Why Figma intentionally cut its 90% gross margin to invest in AI References: Adobe: https://www.adobe.com Brendan Mulligan: https://www.linkedin.com/in/brendanmulligan Cloudflare: https://www.cloudflare.com Dropbox: https://www.dropbox.com Dylan Field: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dylanfield/ Fidelity: https://www.fidelity.com Figma: https://www.figma.com GIC: https://www.gic.com.sg NerdWallet: https://www.nerdwallet.com Shaunt Voskanian: https://www.linkedin.com/in/shauntvoskanian/ Where to find Praveer: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/praveer-melwani Where to find Brett: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/brett-berson-9986094/ Twitter/X: https://twitter.com/brettberson Where to find First Round Capital: Website: https://firstround.com/ First Round Review: https://review.firstround.com/ Twitter/X: https://twitter.com/firstround YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@FirstRound…","meta_description":"In this latest episode of Executive Function, Brett sits down with Praveer Melwani, CFO at Figma. Praveer joined Figma in 2017 as the company's first busi…","key_points":[],"chapters":[],"topics":[],"duration_seconds":2628,"processing_state":"not_requested","actions":[{"name":"request_transcript","method":"POST","url":"https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/in-depth-1318680/episodes/why-founders-should-bet-on-first-time-executives-praveer-melwani-cfo-figma/transcription-requests","description":"Idempotently request low-priority transcript generation for this episode."},{"name":"read_markdown","method":"GET","url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/in-depth-1318680/why-founders-should-bet-on-first-time-executives-praveer-melwani-cfo-figma.md","description":"Read the agent-friendly Markdown representation of this episode resource."}]}}