Season 4 Episode 20: Inside the Mind of a High-Growth CFO

30M+ users. 200+ countries. Two major exits.

What does it take to lead Finance at that level?

This week on Alchemy Uncensored, Conor McHugh is joined by Rishi Gupta, CFO of Airalo, the world’s first and largest eSIM marketplace.

With nearly two decades of experience scaling high-growth consumer tech businesses across MENA and India, Rishi has built finance teams from the ground up and led two successful exits in the region, Souq to Amazon in 2017 and BitOasis to CoinDCX in 2024.

In this conversation, Rishi shares the thinking and experiences that have shaped his journey to CFO, including his approach to first-principles thinking, building high-performing teams and making decisions in fast-moving, competitive environments.

They also look ahead at one of the biggest questions facing the profession today: how will AI change the finance function over the next five years?

This is not just a conversation about becoming a CFO.

It is about what it takes to build, scale and lead Finance when the business around you is moving fast.

What you will hear in this episode:

📌 The career decisions that shaped Rishi’s journey to CFO

📌 Lessons from two successful exits in MENA

📌 What Finance needs to become as a business scales

📌 How to decide where to invest and where to hold the line

📌 Using first-principles thinking to solve difficult problems

📌 How to build a genuinely high-performing finance team

📌 Advice for ambitious finance professionals who want to become CFOs

📌 How AI could reshape Finance over the next five years

📌 What skills could become more valuable as automation increases

This episode is proudly supported by Alaan الآن, the Middle East’s leading corporate card and expense management platform.

Alaan helps companies eliminate petty cash, reimbursements, and manual reconciliations by automating expense tracking, approvals, and accounting, giving finance teams greater control and visibility without the manual work.

A big thank you to Alaan for supporting this season and helping us bring these conversations to life.

Whether you’re already leading a finance function, working in a high-growth business, or building towards a future CFO role, this episode offers a fascinating look at what modern finance leadership really requires.

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