BILLIONS · 2026-06-12 · 58 min
On this episode of BILLIONS, I'm sitting down with elite finance operator Martino Cadoni, current CFO of DeepL (one of Europe's leading AI companies) and the veteran strategist behind one of Central Europe's biggest banking IPOs. Martino cut his teeth in corporate America's legendary "CFO factory" the grueling General Electric leadership program, working relentless 996 schedules to solve high-stakes financial fires across the globe. From being flown to Budapest on a day's notice to re-evaluate multi-million dollar reserves in two weeks during a currency crisis, to managing capital and balance-sheet strategy as deputy CFO at HSBC, Martino knows exactly what it takes to build institutional readiness.In this masterclass, he pulls back the curtain on private vs. public markets, exposing the lethal structural mistakes tech unicorns make during down rounds and explaining exactly how legacy banking giants accidentally funded their own demise. In this masterclass, we break down: The GE CFO Factory: Inside the intense 996 operational rotation program that builds high-agency, first-principles problem solvers.
The man who built a bank for people banks don't want - Jason Wilk [Dave]81 / 100
Why focus on only ONE product built a $1B super-brand (on just $6,000) - Pete Maldonado [Chomps]
Why the world’s biggest tech companies may never IPO again - Peter Singlehurst [Baillie Gifford]
How a $75 sneaker bot became a $300M/Month financial engine - Steven Schwartz [Whop]
Very few growth moats will survive AI - Sandy Diao [Descript]