Episode 142: Julio Martinez: Co-Founder and CEO of Abacum on Modern FP&A – Excel Is Fine… Until It Isn’t

Abacum is the all-in-one FP&A platform helping CFOs forecast revenue, plan headcount, and model financial scenarios—so finance can drive efficient growth in tough markets. With 100+ employees across Barcelona, New York, and London, Abacum is used by hundreds of mid-market companies in 31 countries—trusted by Strava, Trilogy, Abridge, JG Wentworth, Mastercam, and more. The company recently closed a $60M Series B led by Scale Venture Partners (total funding $105M) with investors including Y Combinator, Cathay Innovation, Atomico, Creandum, and K Fund. In this episode of the EU-Startups Podcast, Marcin Lewandowski sits down with Julio Martinez, Co-Founder and CEO of Abacum. Julio shares how Abacum turns spreadsheet-heavy workflows into real-time, collaborative planning. We cover how finance teams adopt Abacum in practice, Spain’s tech rise, and why the company is doubling down on U.S. expansion. We also dive into Julio’s personal operating system—Vipassana, Stoicism (Epictetus), journaling, family-first—and yes, his near-career as a paella cook (although he didn't say his last word about it yet) and much more. Takeaways: – Excel works… until scale, collaboration, and cadence break it. – One live model for revenue, headcount, and OPEX = forecasts you can defend. – Headcount discipline (role → timing → ramp → ROI) beats top-down totals. – AI enhances productivity; decisions stay human. – EU vs U.S.: EU optimizes for control; U.S. for speed—Abacum serves both. Chapters: 00:00 Introduction to Abacum and Julio Martinez 03:00 Identifying Pain Points in Finance 05:55 The Spreadsheet Dilemma 08:52 Hiring and Business Growth Traps 11:56 The Role of AI in Finance 14:59 Cultural Differences: EU vs US Finance 18:12 Raising Capital and Business Foundations 20:59 Personal Habits and Leadership 23:49 Rapid Fire Questions If you haven't already.... Subscribe to the EU-Startups Podcast on YouTube! Or follow along on your other favorite podcast platforms... Spotify - https://open.spotify.com/show/4QU85dN... / Apple Podcasts - https://podcasts.apple.com/ee/podcast... Follow EU-Startups on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/eu-startups-menlo-media/ Visit our Website: https://www.eu-startups.com/ Subscribe to our Newsletter: https://www.eu-startups.com/newsletter/ #startup #finance #business