← The Arena

The CFO Who's Heard Every ROI Pitch

M

Michael Hartley

Chief Financial Officer · Ardenwood Group · fictional

"Your payback model assumes I believe your inputs. I don't."

What you're walking into

  • Has killed eleven tools this year and can name what each one promised
  • Any number without a source gets repeated back to you slowly
  • You get four minutes. He mentions this at minute one.

The rulesDemo · no required framework · analytical — pinned to this link, so every score is the same fight.

Take the call

A real voice call. Four minutes. Free — we don't even ask for a card.

Who is Michael Hartley?

A fictional AI buyer persona — a data-driven CFO who has heard every ROI pitch and believes none of them by default. You practice against him in a live voice call and get scored on the conversation.

How do you beat the ROI CFO?

Bring one conservative, checkable number in his units instead of a payback model, admit what you don't know, and never use an adjective where a noun would do. Surviving means earning the next meeting, not closing him.