Brandon Metcalf

I’ve built and scaled multiple companies rooted in the Salesforce ecosystem and focused on solving the operational challenges that hold teams back. My background in staffing and my passion for building technology companies shaped how I lead — build for scale, move with pace, stay close to execution, and focus on what actually works.

Today, I lead Asymbl, The Workforce Orchestration Company. We help organizations design, manage, and scale hybrid workforces where humans and digital workers operate as one.

Our approach combines digital labor strategy to onboard digital workers, recruiting software to hire human workers, and deep platform expertise that connects it all across Salesforce, Slack, and the wider enterprise. That includes everything from intelligent agents and predictive systems to workflow automation and orchestration across applications.

Inside Asymbl, we run this model ourselves. Digital workers now operate across multiple functions of our business, working alongside our teams every day. We prove every innovation in our own operations before bringing it to customers.

The future of work isn’t human or digital.
It’s human and digital, orchestrated as one.

Ambassador

We are building what comes next in the world of work. People elevated by digital workers. That vision is already real inside Asymbl, and we are scaling it... fast.

We are adding two senior leaders to help steer the next stage.

The Vice President, People Operations will shape how our global workforce works and grows across the United States, India, Canada, and future international regions. This role sets the standard for how we design teams, support people, manage complexity, and create an environment where both human and digital workers can thrive. Ideally based in Austin, Texas.

The Vice President, Engineering is based in Jaipur, India and will guide the technical direction of our solutions. This leader will oversee architecture, development, QA, and DevOps, and partner closely across product and services to turn strategy into delivery. Deep Salesforce experience is required.

We are also hiring for several other roles across Asymbl, and not all of them are listed on LinkedIn, so please visit our career page.  We'll post it in the comments.

Medical, Vision, Dental, 401(k) and 3+ benefits

James has been very successful with leading consulting/services at Asymbl, starting when he joined to lead Blueprint Advisory several years back.   

Tune in November 12th to learn about his journey and success.

View company: Salesforce for Small Business

James Van Steenburgh, Chief Services Officer at Asymbl, is a self-described “Salesforce lifer.”

In our first ever SMB Spotlight, James takes us along on his 20+ year Salesforce journey, from early days to the agentic revolution.

SMB Spotlight: Asymbl drops right here on Wednesday, November 12th–and stay tuned for many more SMB Spotlights in the future!

Abacum

Co-Founder and CEO

Banco Sabadell

InnoCells is the New Digital Business and Corporate Venturing arm of Banco Sabadell (Spain's 4th largest bank).

I co-founded InnoCells and made it grow 10x in 18 months, assembling a dream team that humbled me every day.

I focused on:

- Venture Building. Together with a stellar team of developers, product owners and designers, we have launched four products to markets from scratch, including freelancers' bank Nomo (exited)
- Venture Capital and Digital M&A, concentrating in the UK, Spain, Israel, Mexico and the US. For instance, we have invested in Bud (UK), Kovrr (Israel), Active.ai (Singapore), UnDosTres (Mexico) and Biometric Vox (Spain), and fully acquired PayComet (Spain) and Instant Credit (Spain)

Co-Founder and CEO at InnoCells

- Investment vehicle focused on early stage start-ups launched in the Spanish market
- Portfolio companies, e.g. Citibox, Red Points, Signaturit, Miss Tipsi, psious and Woldcoo

BStartup, Member of the Investment Committee

- Venture Capital Fund focused on top start-ups based in Spain and within the Series A and B range
- Porfolio companies, e.g. Red Points, 21Buttons, ForceManager, Carnovo, Adsmurai, Coverfy, Buguroo, CornerJob, Exoticca and Captio

Sabadell Venture Capital, Member of the Investment Committee 

- Concentrated on Digital Business and Fintech Strategy @Sabadell Consulting, the in-house Corporate Development and Strategic Consulting team

Sabadell Consulting, Manager

Kovrr

Board Observer and Investor

Active.Ai

UnDosTres

Investor

Antai Venture Builder

- Leading European Venture Builder that has launched best-in-class companies such as Wallapop, Glovo, Carnovo, Nemuru, SingularCover and Prontopiso, among others

Board Director and Member of the Investment Committee

Atani

Citi

- Focused on episodic dealflow origination (growth capital, e.g. equity, Private Placements)

Corporate & Investment Banking, Vice-President (Zürich)

- Led M&A initiative with cross-country and interdisciplinary team to sell a business unit to Private Equities

M&A and Business Development, Associate (Sao Paulo)

- Concentrated on Valuation and Capital Markets

Corporate Finance and Capital Management, Associate (New York)

World Bank, IFC - International Finance Corporation

Private Equity Consultant (Washington, D.C.)

I always wanted to become a paella cook, but my path led me to spend 20 years in finance and tech - eventually becoming a fintech entrepreneur and a frustrated paella aficionado.

I did my time in Investment Banking across NYC, Sao Paulo, Zurich, and London. But I redeemed myself by pivoting to tech, where I launched four fintech products back-to-back.

Today, I’m the co-founder and CEO of Abacum, the leading FP&A automation platform helping finance teams in the mid-market drive efficient growth and deliver business impact.

My partner in crime, Jorge Lluch, and I built the product we wished we had in our previous finance roles. Solving a problem that used to make us bleed in the head has been a dream come true.

We’re on a mission to make finance teams the heroes of their organizations.

“Cool, but what exactly does Abacum do?”

• Drives efficient growth through more accurate revenue forecasts, advanced scenario modeling, headcount planning, and OPEX control.
• Provides real-time access to all your operational and financial KPIs in one place, automating Board decks, monthly performance reviews, and reforecasting reports.
• Boosts budget owner accountability with structured collaborative workflows and actionable to-dos.

On a personal note, family always comes first. I live in New York with my amazing wife and three high-energy kids. For me, success is when my kids use my back as a walking mat - keeps them busy and gets the knots out.

Quick facts: I practice Vipassana meditation. Fan of Stoicism, especially Epictetus. I journal daily. Vegetarian.

I enjoy mixed martial arts, surfing, and eating embarrassing amounts of chocolate. Originally from Spain, I’ve lived in India, Brazil, Switzerland, the US, and the UK, and I miss them all.

If anything from above interests you, follow along for more content. While I mostly talk shop, you might also catch the occasional post about my quest for the perfect paella.

Julio Martínez

New fundraising alert! 

Thrilled to welcome FOG Ventures as our newest investors!

FOG Ventures is a community of world-class operators and builders behind some of the most influential companies in Silicon Valley and beyond. 

Casey Woo leads FOG ventures (and Operators Guild) and I met him over coffee in SF. He's a high-voltage energy, fast thinker who's committed to “investing in the modern operating tool stack." 

He always says: “may the best product win.”

FOG Ventures has built a reputation for backing one company in every vertical and their portfolio is top-tier.

Being chosen as their FP&A platform of choice is an incredible honor and a testament to the strength of our product, our community, and our mission.

Their team and network did deep due diligence across platforms. The fact that this outstanding group of operators and forward-thinking companies have chosen us makes this partnership truly special…

We’ve now raised more than $100M with the support of our amazing investors Scale Venture Partners, Y Combinator, Creandum, Cathay Innovation, Kfund, and Atomico. I'm grateful for their trust and partnership!

Since our Series B earlier this year, our growth has accelerated like never before. We’ve had the privilege to partner with companies like CoreWeave, Replit, Abridge, Papaya Global, and many more.

Feeling more energized than ever for what’s ahead!

cc Stacey Bishop Noah Gross Rory O'Driscoll Jacky Abitbol Ming-Po Cai Gustaf Alströmer 🇺🇦 Peter Specht Sergio Álvarez Leiva Andreas Helbig

Co-founder & CEO at Abacum | FP&A that Drives Performance

When Abacum started scaling, I realized how quickly momentum can pass for stability.

Revenue was climbing and the team was expanding, yet small gaps kept appearing that were previously hidden when we were a smaller org.

In my new Crunchbase piece, I break down how high-growth teams can stay resilient without losing speed by connecting every investment with measurable outcomes.

The fastest growing startups aren’t just scaling, they’re continuously stress-testing their foundations in real time.

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CJ Gustafson's Agentic Finance Stack Report is a must-read for anyone in finance, especially those who are drowning in the AI-hype.

a few learnings I haven’t seen articulated this well elsewhere:

→ We're in the era of autonomy
There's a fundamental shift in how we view software and its role. We're talking about actual systems that can interpret context, make recommendations, and take action.

→ Learn the difference between "Rule-based" and "AI-enabled"
Rule-based means pre-defined workflows with fixed decision trees. AI-enabled implies pattern-based intelligence based on machine learning.

→ Finance teams are leaner than ever
AI doesn’t eliminate teams, it gives them leverage. Those who learn to adapt to it will become more valuable while those who don't risk falling behind. 

→ Sub-1% error is the new standard
Finance can’t accept “mostly right.” When money is involved, AI must outperform humans. Anything less doesn’t ship.

the explosion of new entrants across the stack is indicative of just how fast this market is shifting and I'm proud Abacum is part of it.

somebody (stellar) on the Abacum team slacked me a quote recently.

she said it reminded her of our culture.
and that I should include it in our next Stoa.
(that’s how we call our All-Hands at Abacum)

and then it hit me

we’re becoming more and more like the company we dream of being.

when a 10x high-performer shares what fuels her to stay at peak performance,
and asks you to pass that fuel to everyone else,
so the whole team keeps raising the bar…

it means we got something right.

“We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence then, is not an act, but a habit” (Will Durant, summarizing Aristotle)

as a founder, the hardest part isn’t the workload.
it’s the prioritization

every day, there’s noise.
emails, slacks, intros, investor pings, “quick” asks.
All important, all urgent

for a while, I tried to do it all.
Move fast, respond fast, keep momentum.
but you quickly realize speed without focus just creates chaos.

the key for me isn’t time management, it’s bottleneck management.

When I look at my day now, I ask myself one question:
is this the bottleneck between us and our number one company goal?

if it is, I go all in.
if it’s not, it waits or it goes to someone else

Everything that matters in a growing company is connected to a bottleneck.
find it, unblock it, move on to the next one.

simple, not easy.
it’s where real leverage lives.

"It took me a full week to prepare reporting – not only financials but also figures from other teams. It was an exhausting task."

Sound familiar? This is what Franziska Schuler (Finance & Accounting Lead at Leapsome) told us. 

And that’s the reality for so many finance teams. As you grow, every new entity, currency, and system adds friction, and suddenly finance becomes the bottleneck instead of the enabler.

Leapsome reached that turning point as they expanded into the U.S. They needed a way to automate what had become unsustainable: currency consolidation, investor reporting, and cross-entity visibility.

With Abacum, they built a workflow that took that week-long reporting cycle down to half a day. That's an 80% reduction in investor reporting time.

What I love most about their story isn’t just the automation, it’s the shift in how finance operates. 

That’s what modern FP&A should feel like.

If 2025 was about navigating volatility, 2026 will be about planning for it. As the saying goes, the only certainty is uncertainty.

Interest rates, labor costs, FX swings, tariffs, AI adoption...the spread between best-case and worst-case outcomes has rarely been wider. For CFOs, this means that the difference between surviving and thriving next year will come down to one thing: flexibility.

Here’s what that looks like in practice:

→ Build rolling budgets that update as the macro picture evolves.
→ Model multiple financing and headcount scenarios.
→ Hedge what you can (FX, suppliers, costs) and stress-test the rest.
→ Protect balance sheet agility (it’s your real safety net).

From what we’re seeing at Abacum, the best FP&A teams aren’t trying to predict 2026. They’re building the systems and habits to adapt to it.

If you haven’t already, now’s the time to build your scenario-filled rolling budget and strengthen your balance sheet flexibility.

Because next year won’t reward the most optimistic plan, it’ll reward the most prepared one.

when I first got into finance, I was great at telling leaders what happened. but when they asked why it happened, I didn’t always have the answers.

in a recent conversation with Dave Wieseneck and Christian Wattig, we talked about what it really means to break finance out of its silo.

it starts with sitting down with other teams, pulling in their metrics, and connecting them back to financial outcomes. 

→ pipeline conversion tells you where revenue is heading.
→ product usage shows you where churn might spike.
→ hiring plans dictate your burn before payroll even hits.

the secret to doing this without causing tension? lead with curiosity and add value first before asking for anything. 

your job as a finance leader is to connect the dots. but to do that, you need to go deep with other department heads and show them you’re there to help achieve their priorities before inserting yourself into their data and workflows.

once you build momentum through curiosity and insight sharing, you can bring the numbers together into a bigger story.

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