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Scott Orn

Things Scott Says on Podcasts

Where to Find Them

Scott Orn has been a guest on This Week in Startups (12 times) , Earmark Podcast | Earn Free Accounting CPE and Oxide and Friends .

Recently: “Oxide's $445M Series D” on Oxide and Friends (October 2026); “The Top 6 Startup Finance FAQ’s | Startup Finance Basics w/ Kruze's Scott Orn” on This Week in Startups (December 2024); “Year-End Planning for Startup Success | Startup Finance Basics w/ Kruze's Scott Orn” on This Week in Startups (December 2024); “The Best Financial Advice VCs Give Startups | Startup Finance Basics w/ Kruze's Scott Orn” on This Week in Startups (October 2024); “Navigating the AI Boom | Startup Finance Basics w/ Kruze's Scott Orn” on This Week in Startups (October 2024); “Mastering Early-Stage Board Meetings | Startup Finance Basics w/ Kruze's Scott Orn | E1865” on This Week in Startups (December 2023).

What They Said

“Sometimes debt is like a hiding place, you know, like people, people don't want to make the hard decisions. And so they're just going to throw some more logs on the fire. But reality is you got to, you got to make hard decisions when you're running these kind of companies.” — Scott Orn, Oxide and Friends

Closing a discussion of venture debt and board dynamics, he says a good board and good lenders are a real asset. He has also seen founders take on debt to avoid facing a problem.

Oxide and Friends · 2026-10-18 Permalink → Listen →
Oxide and Friends Around 1:01:42 into the episode
Scott Orn

We're really lucky. We have really incredible venture capitalists who care about the company and care about the people. Like, again, that's very unique, you know? And then we've got great.

Bryan Cantrill

…like you've seen such a broader range because I'm like, of course we've got good investors in a good board meeting. Of course, like politics in a boardroom, like that would be awful. It's like, oh, you've got no idea. Because I'm sure you just seen it all in terms of bad investors, bad boardrooms.

Scott Orn

…right? Like we've got, you know, Brian, Steve, and Adam, you guys have years and years and years in your career. I've got now a year of my career in this company, right? And I've invested in the company, you know, back in the day as well. But like, we all have this very strong incentive to do the right thing, to keep the company on the rails. And if we have problems, solve the problems. Like sometimes debt is like a hiding place, you know, like people, people don't want to make the hard decisions. And so they're just going to throw some more logs on the fire. But reality is you got to, you got to make hard decisions when you're running these kind of companies. And, you know, so that, so that's my two cents. But yeah, you know, if you have, if you're listening to this and you're a startup and you have a great board, like, you know, consider yourself very lucky. Keep those relationships going. And, you know, and the same with lenders. Like, lenders are like Steve was talking about, just a very important part of the ecosystem. And if you have a good…

Bryan Cantrill

Yeah, that's awesome. All right. So, Adam, those are the wicked children have now like glazed over in detail. It's like, all right, God, forget it. I guess you guys know what you're doing. I don't even know. I feel like there was some, there was either, whether it's simple child or child that…

Adam Leventhal

Yeah, there's definitely, I don't know if this is where you're heading, but since we shed all of the Wicked Child listeners, we can now get into it. Yeah. One was, and this was from a user whose name was I Don't Want This. What is their product exactly? It's a server that is cheaper for some…

Bryan Cantrill

What I find wild about this, you're like, I mean, I guess I admire it that you want to ask that question of Hacker News and not like ChatGPT or Claude or Gemini that could literally give you an authoritative answer to that question. Okay, good sourced authoritative answers. No, no, I'd rather not…

Speaker names from our own diarization · position estimated from where the line sits in the episode
“I think the first rule of tax optimization is don't waste money trying to optimize your taxes, right? Don't make bad decisions because you're scared of paying the government a little bit, right?” — Scott Orn, Oxide and Friends

After the server company announced its Series D, Hacker News commenters asked why a profitable startup would end up paying taxes. The company's finance chief says it is already investing heavily in its technology and team, and the profit is what's left over after that.

Oxide and Friends · 2026-10-18 Permalink → Listen →
Oxide and Friends Around 44:23 into the episode
Steve Tuck

got to be.

Bryan Cantrill

Fully wicked. Okay. So, Scott, what gives? Why, how, how dare, how dare we pay taxes? What kind of rubes? What kind of morons are actually paying taxes? Yeah.

Scott Orn

Well, before we get into it, I want to give a shout out to my Kellogg professor, Mitchell Peterson. My favorite class at Kellogg was tax strategy. So believe me, I've thought a lot about this. But Steve has, we were talking before, and Steve had a good idea, which is the table stakes here is that we are investing super heavily in our technology and our team. Like we are pouring money into that. And so the profit of. That we're seeing here in 2026 is in excess of all that. And I think the first rule of tax optimization is don't waste money trying to optimize your taxes, right? Don't make bad decisions because you're scared of paying the government a little bit, right? So that's that's rule number one here.

Bryan Cantrill

That's actually, sorry, just to not to fix it. That's a that's a pretty wise statement there. Golden rule. Yeah, is that from is um is that a Mitchell Petersonism? I mean, yeah, that's a

Scott Orn

Scott Orn Scott Orn, Brian. That's

Bryan Cantrill

a Scott Orn. Excuse me. Excuse me. No,

Speaker names from our own diarization · position estimated from where the line sits in the episode

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