In this episode of CFO Weekly, James Vanreusel, Founder and CEO of Vanreusel Ventures, joins Megan Weis to explore where AI is genuinely improving forecasting, reporting, and analysis, where the hype gets ahead of reality, and why fundamentals like pricing, margins, liquidity, and unit economics still matter more than many founders want to admit. James brings a career that spans Wall Street institutional equity sales, microfinance, and more than a decade of fractional CFO work with VC-backed companies and international nonprofits.

Having served as the full-time CFO of a microfinance bank in Samoa before moving to San Francisco to launch his corporate finance consultancy, James has seen financial sophistication from both ends of the spectrum. He shares how his team uses AI to do higher quality work faster, why experienced judgment is still the filter that matters most, and how to tell a tool that solves a real business problem from the latest shiny object. He also explains why every financial decision comes back to return on investment and what the CFO role will look like over the next three to five years.