How Speak’s Global Controller Scales a Lean Finance Team with AI

Kelly Larocca runs a two-person finance function at a Series C company scaling past $100M ARR. Here’s exactly how she does it.

Download the playbook

A word from John Glasgow, CEO of Campfire

Every week, I have dozens of conversations about AI in finance.

Here’s what I’ve noticed: most are high-level, a few are theoretical, and very few are grounded in what actually works inside a high-growth company, which is why Kelly Larocca’s perspective is so refreshing.

Kelly is the Global Controller at Speak, a Series C language-learning company growing at breakneck speed. Until recently, her entire function was just two people, supporting a business scaling past $100M in ARR.

How’s she doing it? AI, of course.

Her playbook is different from most AI content you’ll read, though. It shows how a modern finance leader thinks about automation, where AI actually creates leverage, and how to partner with vendors (including Campfire) to compound efficiency over time.

What's inside the playbook

Three key frameworks from a finance leader who's actually doing it.

Strategy

Stack small wins, not big launches

Why Kelly avoids sweeping "AI transformation" projects in favor of narrow, high-volume workflows that compound over time.

Tactics

Treat AI agents like team members

The onboarding, training, and feedback loops that make agents actually work, using expense reporting as a real example.

Stack

How to evaluate AI-native vendors

Kelly's green flags, red flags, and the exact evaluation process she runs before any new tool joins Speak's finance stack.