The beauty of ugly models
Last week at NY Tech Week, something unexpected happened.
I bumped into a former student from my Startup Financial Modeling 101 course.
He paused mid-step. Eyes widened.
And then he told his friend, “Wait... I was just talking about her!”
😳
But then he really gave me an ego boost:
He said my class completely rewired how he thinks about finance in his startup.
Not because of a sexy new metric.
Not because of some clever Excel trick.
But because of one distinction I taught that finally made the math make sense:
The difference between
Models built by accountants
Vs.
Models built by founders.
Here's why:
When most startup founders work with accountants to build models or use model templates built by finance people
They're handed beautifully formatted spreadsheets.
Gorgeous tabs. Drop-down menus. Nested logic.
....And no way to understand how real-world decisions drive outcomes.
Close another customer?
Run a campaign?
Build a new feature?
In an accountant-built model, those actions feel totally disconnected from the bottom line.
The math is backwards. The logic isn’t intuitive.
It’s a report - not a tool.
What I teach founders is that messy, founder-built models are often better.
Not prettier. Not more elegant.
But better.
Because they reflect how you actually think.
Because you can tweak them.
Because they remind you that modeling isn’t about compliance—it’s about betting.
If your model helps you see how actions drive outcomes,
Even if it looks like hot garbage,
It’s doing its job.
That’s what clicked for him.
And it’s one of my favorite moments to watch:
When a founder realizes that modeling isn’t about being good at Excel;
It’s about getting better at decision-making.
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