October 16, 2025 • 19 mins
Get ready for an inspiring chat with Evan Goldberg, co-founder and EVP at Oracle NetSuite, as he sits down with host Adam Larson at SuiteWorld 25. In this special bonus episode, Evan looks back on over 27 years of building the world’s #1 cloud ERP and shares honest stories about his entrepreneurial journey—successes, setbacks, and all the learning in between. Evan opens up about what sparked the idea for NetSuite, how seeing his own company grow helped shape the product, and how today’s AI tools, like NetSuite’s new “Ask Oracle” feature, are changing the game for finance teams of all sizes. Whether you’re leading a startup, part of a fast-moving finance department, or just excited about the future of business tech, you’ll love Evan’s insights on innovation, building for scale, and the skills tomorrow’s leaders will need. Tune in for a friendly, down-to-earth conversation packed with wisdom and a dose of real-world inspiration.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Adam Larson (00:00):
Hey, guys. Look where we're at here at Sweet
(00:02):
World, 2025 in Las Vegas. We areexcited to share some new
episodes with you that werecorded here live in Sweet
World in Las Vegas talking aboutAI and innovation and what CFOs
can do to be better leaders inthis organization. So we're so
excited to have you here, sostay tuned for some great
episodes. Well Evan, thank youso much for coming on the Count
(00:27):
Me In podcast.
We're excited to be here atSuiteWorld to talk chatting with
you, and I wanted to kind ofstart a conversation. You
started NetSuite twenty sevenyears ago. Did you ever imagine
that it would become like thenumber one cloud ERP?
Evan Goldberg (00:41):
Yeah, I would say I imagined it, but there's a lot
of hard work and toil andinnovation that stands between
that wish and the actualfulfillment.
Adam Larson (00:52):
Of course. Yeah, because it's when you're what
kind of what inspired you tokind of get into this space to
do that?
Evan Goldberg (01:00):
Right. So, well, I ran another startup before
NetSuite, and we didn't succeedat our vision. We did work
similarly hard. And one of thethings I came to realize is that
if you're an entrepreneur orwere an entrepreneur back in
(01:22):
1998, there weren't a lot ofgreat tools to help you manage
your company, and you had tokinda cobble a bunch of stuff
together, and you never couldget sort of an integrated view
of what was happening in yourbusiness. So that's what
inspired me to say I'd like tosolve that problem for
entrepreneurs.
And I like to say that NetSuitewas a company designed by
(01:43):
entrepreneurs, forentrepreneurs. I started it with
Larry Ellison, obviously aincredibly successful
entrepreneur himself.
Adam Larson (01:50):
Definitely. Was there a certain point in time
that you realized that NetSuitewas going to be ahead of its
time, that it was going thatdirection?
Evan Goldberg (01:59):
Well, when I first saw it, I mean, we went
from using QuickBooks for thevery small number of months
until we had kind of the basicsof NetSuite accounting up and
running. And then we uploadedour our QuickBooks file. And
when I saw it in the browserthat I you know, and I think I
(02:19):
was at my in my home at thetime, that I could get those key
metrics about my businessanytime, anywhere. I was like,
yeah, this is gonna work.
Adam Larson (02:27):
Yeah. And it seems like that because when you talk
to other people who use thesoftware, they seem to have that
same feeling, like it grows thatthat NetSuite scales with you.
Evan Goldberg (02:36):
Absolutely. I mean, that's certainly what we
built it for, knowing that ourcustomers are themselves fast
growing companies. We were afast growing company, so we, you
know, we were using our owntechnology to help us grow, and
that that their companies changerapidly, their systems need to
adapt and scale with them, beable to handle not just
(02:57):
increased volume, but increasedcomplexity, and that they need
it to be flexible, that theyneed to be able to themselves
adapt the system for theirparticular unique business
processes and what makes themspecial as a company.
Adam Larson (03:10):
Definitely. So you made some pretty big
announcements yesterday at thekeynote. What would you how
would you describe what makesthis moment different with this
announcement? Well,
Evan Goldberg (03:20):
you know, we've certainly all seen the power of
these AI tools over the past fewyears. And I I I do think it has
some similarity to when theInternet first sort of, you
know, took the world by storm in'90 1994, 1995. And at first,
people were like, wow. I can getinformation out so, so easily.
(03:42):
It took a few years for it toreally start to impact the
business world in more likeexchange of information and
storage of information, and andthat's certainly where NetSuite
kicked in.
So I think there's somethingsimilar happening now with AI,
where at first, you know, it wasreally neat to see all the
things you could do. You couldask it questions about things
(04:02):
you were interested in and getinstant answers. Now we're
seeing more of how can itparticipate in, you know,
business. How can it be comepart of the sort of whole
ecosystem of running yourbusiness? And and so so many of
the announcements that have comehere at SuiteWorld have been
about the that idea that it canbecome sort of a partner in your
(04:27):
business, both, you know, insideNetSuite as a user and also, you
know, using these tools outsideNetSuite and having it be able
to exchange business informationand utilize that business
information.
And so we demonstrated it, youknow, obviously to the crowd
yesterday and and today, but Iwas also just out on the show
floor, and we're show you know,we're showing it in action.
(04:47):
Customers are coming up and andasking questions to ask Oracle
and checking out thesetechnologies that are that are
real, that are happening now. Soit's a really exciting time.
Adam Larson (04:58):
One thing you said yesterday, was like, ask Oracle
as a a was a jet engine, not acopilot. Mhmm. And maybe you
could talk about what what doesthat mean for business leaders
when they're working with thisAI?
Evan Goldberg (05:08):
Yeah. Well, I mean, I think that they there
there's obviously going to besome change management because
people are gonna have to go fromhow they're used to interacting
with business applications, andmuch of that is gonna continue
to work. But I think as they seehow easy it is to be able to
just ask questions and getanswers, I think that's, you
(05:30):
know, it's going to be a naturaltransition. I mean, the approach
that has worked for humans forliterally hundreds of thousands
of years. Just, you know, saywhat you want and hopefully get
what you want.
Adam Larson (05:44):
Yeah, definitely. So how do you balance innovation
at an Oracle NetSuite,especially when you have to
speed, you have to build allthese things so quickly, but
also keep trust with Accountingand finance professionals are
very skeptical people. Theyreally want to know the details.
Evan Goldberg (05:59):
Right. It's not a coincidence that one of the
first features we released thatused AI is financial exception
management. And now we'reshowing sort of the already the
second generation of that hereat SweetWorld to show, you know,
even more types of exceptionsthat it outside of just sort of
your GL entries, but then othertypes of transactions that it
(06:20):
can look for anomalies. But sointerestingly, like, that's what
we knew was sort of the firstthing. It's like, let's just see
if it can dive into your dataand bring back exceptions with
the human in the loop.
You get to look at it and seewhether this is the right thing.
And if we can sort of win overaccounting and finance
professionals with that, andthey start to trust that, maybe
(06:42):
they'll trust some of the otherworkflows that we're really
starting to automate towardsthis autonomous close,
autonomous accounting, as wewere talking about, just making
it much easier to get your jobdone so you can focus on those
really more strategicinitiatives to help your
company.
Adam Larson (06:59):
So let's talk about an autonomous close. It's
something that, I mean, at IMAwe have slots of webinars,
people talking about the bestway to close, close fastly.
Evan Goldberg (07:08):
Right.
Adam Larson (07:08):
You know, some organizations say the continuous
close. What is it about theautonomous
Evan Goldberg (07:12):
close? Yeah, mean, I think a continuous close
is a good way of looking at italso. It's just this idea that
many of these things that you doafter the end of the period,
with the help of AI and with thehelp of some of the tools like
NetSuite, you can get them donesooner. You can get them done in
a pro form a way so that even inthe middle of the month or the
middle of the quarter, you getan accurate picture of the state
(07:36):
of the business. So if you haveto make decisions based on your
current financial position andbased on your projections, you
can do that with confidence.
And again, a lot of what happensat the end of the period is
there's a kind of set routine todo it. It requires a lot of
communication. Well, AI is goodat both of those things and can
(07:59):
do it twenty four seven, threethree six five. So I think, you
know, it's a combination of thepower of AI along with, you
know, the evolving, I guessyou'd say almost culture of
companies that are just, youknow, want to operate always in
real time on the best possibleinformation they can have.
Adam Larson (08:17):
Well, and that's going to change whole mindsets
of organizations. And what isthat going to look like? What
skills are tomorrow's leadersare going to need?
Evan Goldberg (08:26):
That's a great question. And I think that
everybody is thinking about whatdoes my job look like in the age
of AIs and, you know, what do Iwhere should I be focused? I do
think, obviously, everybodythat's coming here at Sweet
World is getting a big stepforward because they're getting
to see in action, like rightthere in the demo grounds, what
(08:49):
it's gonna look like to be ableto query and get answers right
in real time about yourfinancial information, your
financial position, and how thenext generation of sort of
anomaly detection is gonna work.So certainly, I'd encourage
everybody that's, you know,using NetSuite in a finance role
to become familiar with thesetechnologies so you can sort of
(09:09):
hit the ground running when theyhit in in, you know, in the
coming months and years.
Adam Larson (09:14):
So what about when somebody is, like, a small and
medium sized business, and theysee such a big organization like
OrkornetSuite? Is this systemfor them as well?
Evan Goldberg (09:22):
I mean, I think one of the most exciting
prospects for AI is it's gonnamake it even easier to implement
NetSuite. It's gonna make iteven easier to use NetSuite
built in to ask Oracle, which isour, you know, sort of
conversational centerpiece. Itis sort of the jet engine, as I
said. But as part of that iswhat we call NetSuite Expert
(09:43):
that helps you figure out how toconfigure NetSuite, how to do
things in NetSuite. This is allabout making companies that have
limited resources, where youhave people doing 10 different
jobs at once, be able to getfurther faster with NetSuite,
you know, without necessarilytaking training, without, know,
(10:03):
going and learning, you know,complex workflows.
It can both tell you how to doit and ultimately do it for you.
So I think actually AI is goingto make Oracle NetSuite way more
accessible to companies at everystage of the evolution.
Adam Larson (10:19):
Yeah, because I talk to CFOs for smaller
organizations and they have towear so many different hats, and
so when you're talking aboutthat, it seems like this is like
the perfect kind of solution forthem.
Evan Goldberg (10:29):
Right, I mean they can, and know, and just in
terms of bringing people intoyour finance organization and
having them come up to speedquickly, this is what it's all
about. Right? They can becomeproductive very quickly. And
this is AI that knows yourcompany already, and it knows
your configurations, and itknows how you do things. That's
the whole idea of reallybuilding NetSuite ultimately
(10:51):
around this AI, around, AskOracle.
And so that someone coming in,not only can they learn to use
NetSuite very quickly, but theway that it use they use
NetSuite with Ask Oracle isgoing to be attuned to how
you've set up your NetSuite, howthings operate in your company.
And again, just rapid time tovalue for new people is
(11:12):
something that small companiesreally want and need, because
they just got to, you know, theyneed everybody to hit the ground
running, and this is going to bepart of that solution.
Adam Larson (11:21):
Well, in the way you're building it, I like how
there's a knowledge base,because a lot times people worry
about, with AI, thehallucinations, incorrect
information. But if you'rebuilding it on the information
for your organization, it worksbetter.
Evan Goldberg (11:32):
Certainly. And trust and transparency are two
absolutely critical elements ofNetSuite Next, that you can see
where every number comes from,what's behind it. But these
models, these large languagemodels, they're not perfect,
obviously. And so one of thethings that we wanna do is make
sure that we're getting veryrapid feedback from our
(11:54):
customers. We're gonna have amulti month preview period where
everybody can try it in theiraccounts, and so that's gonna
give us an ability to tune iteven better than we've done sort
of in the labs, once it's sortof out in the field.
Adam Larson (12:07):
Yeah. Definitely. So you've been leading Oracle
for or NetSuite for almost threedecades now. What kind of
excites you about what'shappening next?
Evan Goldberg (12:15):
I mean, this is the most exciting time for
technology since the Internetand in many ways more exciting.
I had an aborted trip tograduate school for AI back in
the early nineteen nineties.And, you know, the as we all
know, looking back, the the thetechnology was not ready for
(12:36):
prime time. But it got me soexcited because I've always been
in software to help peopleaccomplish their daily tasks
more easily. And it's just it'sbeen obvious for a long time
that if we could actually getthese things to be practical and
scalable, these neural nets andnow these large language models
(12:57):
and transformer architecture,that we were going to be able to
make it much easier for peopleto accomplish their daily tasks.
And that's what everybody wantsout of software, and there's,
you know, there's sort of a nobetter time, to be in software.
I do think it is ultimatelygonna be more of the Internet
was great, connected people. Itwas the kind of, you know,
(13:19):
infrastructure on which we wereable to build NetSuite,
obviously. But I think this isultimately going to be more
impactful in terms of people'sability to get more work done
faster, more effectively, moreaccurately, and be able to do
what they truly want to do inbuilding their business, which
is focus on their customers,their products, their services,
(13:40):
and not necessarily on some ofthe nuts and bolts that are
necessary and important, buttake up a lot of time.
Adam Larson (13:47):
So what about the next generation of accounting
and finance professionals? Whatwould you say to them to get
ready to come into this newworkforce?
Evan Goldberg (13:53):
Right. And as I mentioned, I think, obviously,
how these tools are using AI andbecoming proficient with that.
You know, people talk aboutthings like prompt engineering.
I mean, that's not what we'reaiming people to be doing with
NetSuite. We are aiming for themto be able to ask the question
the same way you'd ask to aknowledgeable colleague.
Like, you don't do prompt Imean, it is true sometimes you
(14:16):
do have to ask questions alittle bit differently when
you're talking to differentpeople, but mostly, you ask your
questions in a natural way, andyou get your answer back in a
natural way. So in that regard,I don't think that's as much
what finance professionalsshould be looking at. Of course,
they still need the skills thatthey've always had because,
know, you need to be able tounderstand when the system
(14:37):
explains to you how it's doingthings, need to understand the
principles just as well as itdoes so that you can feel
confident. We're gonna doeverything to make you feel
confident. But those skills arecertainly, absolutely, continue
to be applicable.
But I think that up leveling tomore strategic discussions means
(14:58):
learning more about the strategybehind, sort of behind the
numbers. What are strategic waysyou can use your skills to help?
Ultimately, everybody who's inan accounting or finance
department wants to make thebusiness run better, wants to
make the business achieve itsgoals more quickly. And there
are obviously lots of strategicways to do that with the limited
(15:21):
resources that every businesshas. That's where I think people
should be thinking aboutapplying their applying their
expertise.
How do we strategically use thefinancial resources we have to
reach our goals faster? Andthat's a lot better thing to be
thinking about and working onthan trying to track down some
(15:43):
error in a GL entry.
Adam Larson (15:45):
Very true. So let's say somebody's listening to this
conversation. They're anentrepreneur. They want to get
going. They want to be a startupfounder, kind of like you were.
What advice would you give tothem to build something that
lasts?
Evan Goldberg (15:59):
That's a great question. And there's always
that balance when you'rebuilding a company between
wanting to get your product orservice to market and wanting to
get out there fast and thenwanting to build something
that's scalable. And you reallyhave to be you have to do sort
of both at the same time. Youhave to, like, be building the
boat as you're sailing it, so tospeak. So that's, I think, the
(16:21):
the the it's a tricky balance toget right.
But in the long run, as long asyou keep that North Star in mind
and you have that vision ofwhere things are gonna go, I
think you can get you you canget a good balance. And you'll
make some mistakes, you'll dosome things in a short term way
that you wish you'd thought morelong term. You'll spend more
(16:43):
time on something thinking aboutthe long term. I wish we'd
gotten this feature or thiscapability or closed this
customer or whatever it is morequickly. But keeping those sort
of two sides of the equationalways in your head, and each
time just trying to make thebest possible decision you can
about how to balance the fear,what they call, like the fierce
(17:06):
urgency of now with buildingsomething sustainable that will
last.
As long as you know that both ofthose, I think entrepreneurs
make really good decisions. Ifeel like we went through the
whole journey that so manyentrepreneurs do, and
fortunately, I think we weregood enough that we're still
here today twenty seven yearslater.
Adam Larson (17:26):
Yeah, that's great. Because it's it's it's it's also
about building a goodfoundation. I kind of was
listening to some of thekeynotes yesterday and some of
the their stories is they needyou need to build things with
you that are scalable, kind oflike Absolutely. With, like, the
way NetSuite can kind of growpeople with that scalability.
And so it's interesting tryingto make those decisions to lay
that foundation, and I'm surethat's a hard hard decision
Evan Goldberg (17:46):
to Right. You know, it's actually what we
think about in NetSuite isobviously we want it to be very
approachable and usable, and allthese AI features are gonna make
that true. But we also want itto be solid and scalable and be
able to handle your company fromvery small to very big. So so
we're thinking about those tradeoffs between, obviously, ease of
(18:07):
use and power. And, again, Ithink we don't always get that
balance exactly right.
Then we adjust and we fix it.But I think overall, you know,
the 43,000 plus customers, we'vebeen able to get a great balance
for a really exciting set ofcompanies that, like, as we're
seeing here at Sweet World, aredoing incredible things in
(18:29):
their, whatever their world is.
Adam Larson (18:32):
Well, Evan, thank you so much for coming on the
podcast. It was great chattingwith you today.
Evan Goldberg (18:35):
So great to be here. Thank you.
Announcer (18:47):
Profession. If you like what you heard and you'd
like to be counted in for morerelevant accounting and finance
education, visit IMA's websiteat www.imanet.org.
Hey, guys. Look where we're at here at Sweet
(00:02):
World, 2025 in Las Vegas. We areexcited to share some new
episodes with you that werecorded here live in Sweet
World in Las Vegas talking aboutAI and innovation and what CFOs
can do to be better leaders inthis organization. So we're so
excited to have you here, sostay tuned for some great
episodes. Well Evan, thank youso much for coming on the Count
(00:27):
Me In podcast.
We're excited to be here atSuiteWorld to talk chatting with
you, and I wanted to kind ofstart a conversation. You
started NetSuite twenty sevenyears ago. Did you ever imagine
that it would become like thenumber one cloud ERP?
Evan Goldberg (00:41):
Yeah, I would say I imagined it, but there's a lot
of hard work and toil andinnovation that stands between
that wish and the actualfulfillment.
Adam Larson (00:52):
Of course. Yeah, because it's when you're what
kind of what inspired you tokind of get into this space to
do that?
Evan Goldberg (01:00):
Right. So, well, I ran another startup before
NetSuite, and we didn't succeedat our vision. We did work
similarly hard. And one of thethings I came to realize is that
if you're an entrepreneur orwere an entrepreneur back in
(01:22):
1998, there weren't a lot ofgreat tools to help you manage
your company, and you had tokinda cobble a bunch of stuff
together, and you never couldget sort of an integrated view
of what was happening in yourbusiness. So that's what
inspired me to say I'd like tosolve that problem for
entrepreneurs.
And I like to say that NetSuitewas a company designed by
(01:43):
entrepreneurs, forentrepreneurs. I started it with
Larry Ellison, obviously aincredibly successful
entrepreneur himself.
Adam Larson (01:50):
Definitely. Was there a certain point in time
that you realized that NetSuitewas going to be ahead of its
time, that it was going thatdirection?
Evan Goldberg (01:59):
Well, when I first saw it, I mean, we went
from using QuickBooks for thevery small number of months
until we had kind of the basicsof NetSuite accounting up and
running. And then we uploadedour our QuickBooks file. And
when I saw it in the browserthat I you know, and I think I
(02:19):
was at my in my home at thetime, that I could get those key
metrics about my businessanytime, anywhere. I was like,
yeah, this is gonna work.
Adam Larson (02:27):
Yeah. And it seems like that because when you talk
to other people who use thesoftware, they seem to have that
same feeling, like it grows thatthat NetSuite scales with you.
Evan Goldberg (02:36):
Absolutely. I mean, that's certainly what we
built it for, knowing that ourcustomers are themselves fast
growing companies. We were afast growing company, so we, you
know, we were using our owntechnology to help us grow, and
that that their companies changerapidly, their systems need to
adapt and scale with them, beable to handle not just
(02:57):
increased volume, but increasedcomplexity, and that they need
it to be flexible, that theyneed to be able to themselves
adapt the system for theirparticular unique business
processes and what makes themspecial as a company.
Adam Larson (03:10):
Definitely. So you made some pretty big
announcements yesterday at thekeynote. What would you how
would you describe what makesthis moment different with this
announcement? Well,
Evan Goldberg (03:20):
you know, we've certainly all seen the power of
these AI tools over the past fewyears. And I I I do think it has
some similarity to when theInternet first sort of, you
know, took the world by storm in'90 1994, 1995. And at first,
people were like, wow. I can getinformation out so, so easily.
(03:42):
It took a few years for it toreally start to impact the
business world in more likeexchange of information and
storage of information, and andthat's certainly where NetSuite
kicked in.
So I think there's somethingsimilar happening now with AI,
where at first, you know, it wasreally neat to see all the
things you could do. You couldask it questions about things
(04:02):
you were interested in and getinstant answers. Now we're
seeing more of how can itparticipate in, you know,
business. How can it be comepart of the sort of whole
ecosystem of running yourbusiness? And and so so many of
the announcements that have comehere at SuiteWorld have been
about the that idea that it canbecome sort of a partner in your
(04:27):
business, both, you know, insideNetSuite as a user and also, you
know, using these tools outsideNetSuite and having it be able
to exchange business informationand utilize that business
information.
And so we demonstrated it, youknow, obviously to the crowd
yesterday and and today, but Iwas also just out on the show
floor, and we're show you know,we're showing it in action.
(04:47):
Customers are coming up and andasking questions to ask Oracle
and checking out thesetechnologies that are that are
real, that are happening now. Soit's a really exciting time.
Adam Larson (04:58):
One thing you said yesterday, was like, ask Oracle
as a a was a jet engine, not acopilot. Mhmm. And maybe you
could talk about what what doesthat mean for business leaders
when they're working with thisAI?
Evan Goldberg (05:08):
Yeah. Well, I mean, I think that they there
there's obviously going to besome change management because
people are gonna have to go fromhow they're used to interacting
with business applications, andmuch of that is gonna continue
to work. But I think as they seehow easy it is to be able to
just ask questions and getanswers, I think that's, you
(05:30):
know, it's going to be a naturaltransition. I mean, the approach
that has worked for humans forliterally hundreds of thousands
of years. Just, you know, saywhat you want and hopefully get
what you want.
Adam Larson (05:44):
Yeah, definitely. So how do you balance innovation
at an Oracle NetSuite,especially when you have to
speed, you have to build allthese things so quickly, but
also keep trust with Accountingand finance professionals are
very skeptical people. Theyreally want to know the details.
Evan Goldberg (05:59):
Right. It's not a coincidence that one of the
first features we released thatused AI is financial exception
management. And now we'reshowing sort of the already the
second generation of that hereat SweetWorld to show, you know,
even more types of exceptionsthat it outside of just sort of
your GL entries, but then othertypes of transactions that it
(06:20):
can look for anomalies. But sointerestingly, like, that's what
we knew was sort of the firstthing. It's like, let's just see
if it can dive into your dataand bring back exceptions with
the human in the loop.
You get to look at it and seewhether this is the right thing.
And if we can sort of win overaccounting and finance
professionals with that, andthey start to trust that, maybe
(06:42):
they'll trust some of the otherworkflows that we're really
starting to automate towardsthis autonomous close,
autonomous accounting, as wewere talking about, just making
it much easier to get your jobdone so you can focus on those
really more strategicinitiatives to help your
company.
Adam Larson (06:59):
So let's talk about an autonomous close. It's
something that, I mean, at IMAwe have slots of webinars,
people talking about the bestway to close, close fastly.
Evan Goldberg (07:08):
Right.
Adam Larson (07:08):
You know, some organizations say the continuous
close. What is it about theautonomous
Evan Goldberg (07:12):
close? Yeah, mean, I think a continuous close
is a good way of looking at italso. It's just this idea that
many of these things that you doafter the end of the period,
with the help of AI and with thehelp of some of the tools like
NetSuite, you can get them donesooner. You can get them done in
a pro form a way so that even inthe middle of the month or the
middle of the quarter, you getan accurate picture of the state
(07:36):
of the business. So if you haveto make decisions based on your
current financial position andbased on your projections, you
can do that with confidence.
And again, a lot of what happensat the end of the period is
there's a kind of set routine todo it. It requires a lot of
communication. Well, AI is goodat both of those things and can
(07:59):
do it twenty four seven, threethree six five. So I think, you
know, it's a combination of thepower of AI along with, you
know, the evolving, I guessyou'd say almost culture of
companies that are just, youknow, want to operate always in
real time on the best possibleinformation they can have.
Adam Larson (08:17):
Well, and that's going to change whole mindsets
of organizations. And what isthat going to look like? What
skills are tomorrow's leadersare going to need?
Evan Goldberg (08:26):
That's a great question. And I think that
everybody is thinking about whatdoes my job look like in the age
of AIs and, you know, what do Iwhere should I be focused? I do
think, obviously, everybodythat's coming here at Sweet
World is getting a big stepforward because they're getting
to see in action, like rightthere in the demo grounds, what
(08:49):
it's gonna look like to be ableto query and get answers right
in real time about yourfinancial information, your
financial position, and how thenext generation of sort of
anomaly detection is gonna work.So certainly, I'd encourage
everybody that's, you know,using NetSuite in a finance role
to become familiar with thesetechnologies so you can sort of
(09:09):
hit the ground running when theyhit in in, you know, in the
coming months and years.
Adam Larson (09:14):
So what about when somebody is, like, a small and
medium sized business, and theysee such a big organization like
OrkornetSuite? Is this systemfor them as well?
Evan Goldberg (09:22):
I mean, I think one of the most exciting
prospects for AI is it's gonnamake it even easier to implement
NetSuite. It's gonna make iteven easier to use NetSuite
built in to ask Oracle, which isour, you know, sort of
conversational centerpiece. Itis sort of the jet engine, as I
said. But as part of that iswhat we call NetSuite Expert
(09:43):
that helps you figure out how toconfigure NetSuite, how to do
things in NetSuite. This is allabout making companies that have
limited resources, where youhave people doing 10 different
jobs at once, be able to getfurther faster with NetSuite,
you know, without necessarilytaking training, without, know,
(10:03):
going and learning, you know,complex workflows.
It can both tell you how to doit and ultimately do it for you.
So I think actually AI is goingto make Oracle NetSuite way more
accessible to companies at everystage of the evolution.
Adam Larson (10:19):
Yeah, because I talk to CFOs for smaller
organizations and they have towear so many different hats, and
so when you're talking aboutthat, it seems like this is like
the perfect kind of solution forthem.
Evan Goldberg (10:29):
Right, I mean they can, and know, and just in
terms of bringing people intoyour finance organization and
having them come up to speedquickly, this is what it's all
about. Right? They can becomeproductive very quickly. And
this is AI that knows yourcompany already, and it knows
your configurations, and itknows how you do things. That's
the whole idea of reallybuilding NetSuite ultimately
(10:51):
around this AI, around, AskOracle.
And so that someone coming in,not only can they learn to use
NetSuite very quickly, but theway that it use they use
NetSuite with Ask Oracle isgoing to be attuned to how
you've set up your NetSuite, howthings operate in your company.
And again, just rapid time tovalue for new people is
(11:12):
something that small companiesreally want and need, because
they just got to, you know, theyneed everybody to hit the ground
running, and this is going to bepart of that solution.
Adam Larson (11:21):
Well, in the way you're building it, I like how
there's a knowledge base,because a lot times people worry
about, with AI, thehallucinations, incorrect
information. But if you'rebuilding it on the information
for your organization, it worksbetter.
Evan Goldberg (11:32):
Certainly. And trust and transparency are two
absolutely critical elements ofNetSuite Next, that you can see
where every number comes from,what's behind it. But these
models, these large languagemodels, they're not perfect,
obviously. And so one of thethings that we wanna do is make
sure that we're getting veryrapid feedback from our
(11:54):
customers. We're gonna have amulti month preview period where
everybody can try it in theiraccounts, and so that's gonna
give us an ability to tune iteven better than we've done sort
of in the labs, once it's sortof out in the field.
Adam Larson (12:07):
Yeah. Definitely. So you've been leading Oracle
for or NetSuite for almost threedecades now. What kind of
excites you about what'shappening next?
Evan Goldberg (12:15):
I mean, this is the most exciting time for
technology since the Internetand in many ways more exciting.
I had an aborted trip tograduate school for AI back in
the early nineteen nineties.And, you know, the as we all
know, looking back, the the thetechnology was not ready for
(12:36):
prime time. But it got me soexcited because I've always been
in software to help peopleaccomplish their daily tasks
more easily. And it's just it'sbeen obvious for a long time
that if we could actually getthese things to be practical and
scalable, these neural nets andnow these large language models
(12:57):
and transformer architecture,that we were going to be able to
make it much easier for peopleto accomplish their daily tasks.
And that's what everybody wantsout of software, and there's,
you know, there's sort of a nobetter time, to be in software.
I do think it is ultimatelygonna be more of the Internet
was great, connected people. Itwas the kind of, you know,
(13:19):
infrastructure on which we wereable to build NetSuite,
obviously. But I think this isultimately going to be more
impactful in terms of people'sability to get more work done
faster, more effectively, moreaccurately, and be able to do
what they truly want to do inbuilding their business, which
is focus on their customers,their products, their services,
(13:40):
and not necessarily on some ofthe nuts and bolts that are
necessary and important, buttake up a lot of time.
Adam Larson (13:47):
So what about the next generation of accounting
and finance professionals? Whatwould you say to them to get
ready to come into this newworkforce?
Evan Goldberg (13:53):
Right. And as I mentioned, I think, obviously,
how these tools are using AI andbecoming proficient with that.
You know, people talk aboutthings like prompt engineering.
I mean, that's not what we'reaiming people to be doing with
NetSuite. We are aiming for themto be able to ask the question
the same way you'd ask to aknowledgeable colleague.
Like, you don't do prompt Imean, it is true sometimes you
(14:16):
do have to ask questions alittle bit differently when
you're talking to differentpeople, but mostly, you ask your
questions in a natural way, andyou get your answer back in a
natural way. So in that regard,I don't think that's as much
what finance professionalsshould be looking at. Of course,
they still need the skills thatthey've always had because,
know, you need to be able tounderstand when the system
(14:37):
explains to you how it's doingthings, need to understand the
principles just as well as itdoes so that you can feel
confident. We're gonna doeverything to make you feel
confident. But those skills arecertainly, absolutely, continue
to be applicable.
But I think that up leveling tomore strategic discussions means
(14:58):
learning more about the strategybehind, sort of behind the
numbers. What are strategic waysyou can use your skills to help?
Ultimately, everybody who's inan accounting or finance
department wants to make thebusiness run better, wants to
make the business achieve itsgoals more quickly. And there
are obviously lots of strategicways to do that with the limited
(15:21):
resources that every businesshas. That's where I think people
should be thinking aboutapplying their applying their
expertise.
How do we strategically use thefinancial resources we have to
reach our goals faster? Andthat's a lot better thing to be
thinking about and working onthan trying to track down some
(15:43):
error in a GL entry.
Adam Larson (15:45):
Very true. So let's say somebody's listening to this
conversation. They're anentrepreneur. They want to get
going. They want to be a startupfounder, kind of like you were.
What advice would you give tothem to build something that
lasts?
Evan Goldberg (15:59):
That's a great question. And there's always
that balance when you'rebuilding a company between
wanting to get your product orservice to market and wanting to
get out there fast and thenwanting to build something
that's scalable. And you reallyhave to be you have to do sort
of both at the same time. Youhave to, like, be building the
boat as you're sailing it, so tospeak. So that's, I think, the
(16:21):
the the it's a tricky balance toget right.
But in the long run, as long asyou keep that North Star in mind
and you have that vision ofwhere things are gonna go, I
think you can get you you canget a good balance. And you'll
make some mistakes, you'll dosome things in a short term way
that you wish you'd thought morelong term. You'll spend more
(16:43):
time on something thinking aboutthe long term. I wish we'd
gotten this feature or thiscapability or closed this
customer or whatever it is morequickly. But keeping those sort
of two sides of the equationalways in your head, and each
time just trying to make thebest possible decision you can
about how to balance the fear,what they call, like the fierce
(17:06):
urgency of now with buildingsomething sustainable that will
last.
As long as you know that both ofthose, I think entrepreneurs
make really good decisions. Ifeel like we went through the
whole journey that so manyentrepreneurs do, and
fortunately, I think we weregood enough that we're still
here today twenty seven yearslater.
Adam Larson (17:26):
Yeah, that's great. Because it's it's it's it's also
about building a goodfoundation. I kind of was
listening to some of thekeynotes yesterday and some of
the their stories is they needyou need to build things with
you that are scalable, kind oflike Absolutely. With, like, the
way NetSuite can kind of growpeople with that scalability.
And so it's interesting tryingto make those decisions to lay
that foundation, and I'm surethat's a hard hard decision
Evan Goldberg (17:46):
to Right. You know, it's actually what we
think about in NetSuite isobviously we want it to be very
approachable and usable, and allthese AI features are gonna make
that true. But we also want itto be solid and scalable and be
able to handle your company fromvery small to very big. So so
we're thinking about those tradeoffs between, obviously, ease of
(18:07):
use and power. And, again, Ithink we don't always get that
balance exactly right.
Then we adjust and we fix it.But I think overall, you know,
the 43,000 plus customers, we'vebeen able to get a great balance
for a really exciting set ofcompanies that, like, as we're
seeing here at Sweet World, aredoing incredible things in
(18:29):
their, whatever their world is.
Adam Larson (18:32):
Well, Evan, thank you so much for coming on the
podcast. It was great chattingwith you today.
Evan Goldberg (18:35):
So great to be here. Thank you.
Announcer (18:47):
Profession. If you like what you heard and you'd
like to be counted in for morerelevant accounting and finance
education, visit IMA's websiteat www.imanet.org.
Popular Podcasts
CrimeLess: Hillbilly Heist
It’s 1996 in rural North Carolina, and an oddball crew makes history when they pull off America’s third largest cash heist. But it’s all downhill from there. Join host Johnny Knoxville as he unspools a wild and woolly tale about a group of regular ‘ol folks who risked it all for a chance at a better life. CrimeLess: Hillbilly Heist answers the question: what would you do with 17.3 million dollars? The answer includes diamond rings, mansions, velvet Elvis paintings, plus a run for the border, murder-for-hire-plots, and FBI busts.
Crime Junkie
Does hearing about a true crime case always leave you scouring the internet for the truth behind the story? Dive into your next mystery with Crime Junkie. Every Monday, join your host Ashley Flowers as she unravels all the details of infamous and underreported true crime cases with her best friend Brit Prawat. From cold cases to missing persons and heroes in our community who seek justice, Crime Junkie is your destination for theories and stories you won’t hear anywhere else. Whether you're a seasoned true crime enthusiast or new to the genre, you'll find yourself on the edge of your seat awaiting a new episode every Monday. If you can never get enough true crime... Congratulations, you’ve found your people. Follow to join a community of Crime Junkies! Crime Junkie is presented by audiochuck Media Company.
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.