Watching Runway grow: The FP&A Guy’s front-row experience

Paul Barnhurst, also known as The FP&A Guy, has been closely following Runway’s journey since 2022. With 12+ years of experience in FP&A, Paul has worked across multiple industries, and now runs his own consulting business, providing FP&A services, training, and content creation. In this post, he shares his personal experience with Runway—from when he first heard about us, to watching us grow and publicly launch in 2024.

When I first heard of Runway

The first time I heard of Runway, I wasn’t quite sure what to make of it.

It was early 2022. I was knee-deep in research for the 3rd Generation FP&A Tools Market Guide, to introduce finance professionals to the latest planning tools designed to make their lives easier. I was collaborating with Anders Liu-Lindberg and Wouter Born on the project. Wouter had included Runway in a list of potential tools to research. That’s how I found out about them.

Runway’s website stood out. Not because it told me much, but because of what it didn’t say.

All they had were a few lines poking fun at financial tools, with cheeky remarks like, “Tell us how you feel about finance. We won’t tell.” It felt different—interesting enough to remember, even though I couldn’t tell if this was a real product or just a joke. I appreciated the candor of the website as finance often lacks a sense of humor. 

At first, I was skeptical

I’ve seen plenty of tools claim to revolutionize things, only to never launch or fail to find a market fit. Pre-seed tools often sit in demo mode for years, and I wondered if Runway might be one of those. When a friend told me, “I invested $5,000 into it early on,” part of me thought: you may not see anything anytime soon.

Months passed. Then I heard from an industry veteran who had tested Runway. He was impressed. He said, “It’s early, but it’s one of the most easy-to-use tools I’ve ever tested.”

This was and industry veteran so, of course, it made me interested. I started to wonder when Runway would come to market and how it might position itself.

That’s why, when I finally got a chance to meet Siqi Chen, Runway’s CEO, in December 2022, I jumped at it.

Meeting Siqi: not your typical CEO

When I met Siqi, it became clear right away that he didn’t fit the mold of a traditional finance software CEO.

For starters, his profile picture at the time was of him wearing a jester hat—definitely not what you'd expect from a startup CEO. I remember thinking, who is this guy?

During our conversation, Siqi openly admitted that his insecurity with numbers had driven him to start Runway. He found existing tools clunky and inaccessible. From his perspective, there was nothing in the market like Notion or Figma to make finance easy and understandable for everyone.

He said he was a technical person, not a finance person—and that he felt insecure about finance. He said that everyone working in a business should understand how it makes money. That's why he started Runway—to make that a reality.

“If nothing else,” he said, “even if this fails, at least I’ll leave with a better understanding of finance.” It wasn’t just about building software—it was personal.

A tool for thought, not just workflows

One of the things that really stood out about Runway was that it wasn’t designed to be just another workflow tool. Siqi calls it a tool for thought—something designed to help people think through business decisions clearly. This concept really resonated with me when I first heard it, and I’ve thought about it often since. 

Many finance tools focus on managing workflows and processes: organizing data, generating reports, etc. But as Siqi often shares, Runway is built to enhance human thought.  They strive to accomplish this by allowing everyone to play with business models, imagine what-if scenarios visually, and instantly see the impact of decisions.

This visual approach to financial planning is one feature I’ve often commented about and I believe it makes it easier for senior leadership. In my experience, many financial models are messy—”Frankenmodels” that are hard to adjust. They make conversations with executives difficult, and are the main reason you hear things like, “I’ll get back to you with that answer.” Runway’s goal is to give you the answer, in real-time, by adjusting variables visually.

The real challenge for finance leaders isn’t just managing workflows—it’s thinking strategically, collaborating across departments, and making better decisions faster.

Many companies might still prefer to do their modeling in spreadsheets—and that’s okay. Spreadsheets are great and infinitely flexible. But many people struggle  with designing a good financial model. They do not practice good design principles and that is why they often end up with “Frankenmodels” that eventually get in the way. Trust me I have built my share of Frankenmodels.

That’s where planning tools often step in. Runway’s goal is to simplifiy integrations and modeling, bring all your data into one place, and make finding answers easier.

Runway’s journey

Over the last two years, seeing so many demos, I have learned that building finance software isn’t easy. Most people think it’s just a spreadsheet with some reporting and integrations, but once you start building, it gets way more complex.

Siqi told me how Runway spent years developing its product—only to scrap the first version and rebuild from scratch. That’s not an easy decision, but his reasoning for doing that made sense to me. I have seen several founders hire go-to-market teams too early, only to realize they need to rework the product. Siqi did the opposite—he focused on getting the product right first.

I’ve seen companies rush to market, only to discover their tools don’t meet real-world needs. Runway took its time, and that was a smart decision. That does not mean they got everything right—like all tools, they have functionality to add as they grow and scale, but I was impressed by the time they took prior to launching publicly. 

By the summer of 2023, they were already gaining momentum—hiring key team members and closing a $27.5 million Series A. Their official launch in July 2024—with custom, limited-edition bomber jackets for customers and influencers—generated a lot of excitement. It was fun to watch, and even more fun to be a part of. It was my first time participating in a market launch and unboxing a surprise launch gift live.

Looking ahead

I like how Siqi thinks about the future of finance software and AI. He wants AI embedded invisibly throughout the tool, so users can get answers without even needing to ask. He says, “AI shouldn’t just sit there waiting for you to tell it what to do. It should work proactively, in the background, helping you without being intrusive.”

I think that's the right long-term approach, and I appreciate founders who focus on that approach. Right now, everybody wants to see and touch AI, and tell it exactly what to do. But in the long run, I believe AI is heading toward a future where it quietly works behind the scenes, enhancing human thought without trying to replace it.

I’m excited to see Runway grow, and I love that Siqi is focused on creating a tool for business thinking. It will be fascinating to see where they go next.