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W. Michael Hsu

Operator · Speaker · Creator of MEASURE ✖︎ HACK™

I knew everything about money. I still ran out.

30 minutes after they named me one of the most influential people in accounting, I was in a hotel lobby borrowing payroll.

So I rebuilt the system, and my team runs it better than I did. Well enough that the last 12 months meant 29 cities in 15 countries. What's left is what I can't hand off: the room full of founders and my mom's kitchen table.

Founder, Ultra CFO™Founder, Hi LinaCreator, MEASURE ✖︎ HACK™
W. Michael Hsu

Who I am

Two degrees. A CPA license. 18 years running one of the industry's most influential CFO firms. And I still drowned in my own financial theater.

Clarity turned out to be a different skill than expertise. Everything I build runs on that idea. MEASURE ✖︎ HACK™ is the method. Ultra CFO™ runs it for growing companies. Hi Lina puts it in every founder's pocket.

If you want more spreadsheets and Fortune-100 accounting, I'm not your guy. If you want practical business advice built on the principles of accounting, I'm the only guy.

Operating beliefs

10 things I believe.

Take any of these. Quote them, argue with them, put them on a slide. That's what they're for.

01
Builders fix the world's problems. Bad numbers should not be what stops them.

Entrepreneurs, operators, creators. They take the risk everyone else debates. That is who I work for, and it is why the work is worth doing properly.

02
Time, money, and energy are what you spend. Memory is what you actually buy.

You deploy the 3 into your life and get experiences back. Experiences settle into memory, and memory is the only balance that keeps compounding after you stop.

03
The business is one corner of your life. Run it like the only one and you lose the other two.

Personal, relationship, business. The trade people call ambition is usually just an unexamined choice, and it is the one nobody puts on a scoreboard.

04
Anyone can be kind with nothing to lose. Stay kind once you can afford not to.

Kindness without leverage is easy. Kindness with leverage is a decision you make again every time, and it is the one that says who you actually are.

05
Clarity beats more data. Every single time.

Founders rarely fail from too little information. They stall from too much of it, unranked.

06
Cash doesn't lie, but your P&L will let it.

Read cash flow before the income statement. It tells you what's real before what's reported.

07
You don't have a growth problem. You have an unmeasured choke point.

Growth is finding the single constraint, removing it, then finding the next one. The business only moves as fast as the choke point you haven’t named yet.

08
A budget is an excuse to spend. A forecast helps you see around corners.

Plan the year, then run it on a tight operating rhythm. That is how a forecast survives contact with reality.

09
Measure what moves the business, then hack the smallest lever that moves it most.

The whole method in one line: measurement earns you the right to a small, decisive intervention.

10
One number. One shot clock. Ten levers.

Name the single metric for the next 90 days, then the handful of levers that actually move it.

Murmurs

Short, signed, opinionated.

All murmurs →

No murmurs published yet.

Speaking

I bring this into rooms.

I speak to EO chapters and forums, YPO chapters, and Vistage groups about turning financial chaos into one confident decision. No theory dumps. No pitching from stage.

Trusted & recognized byEOYPOVistageEO AcceleratorForbesAICPAInc. 500Accounting TodayCPA Practice Advisor
The signature talk

Stop Flying Blind

One number. One shot clock. Ten levers. Every founder in the room computes their real runway live, using two numbers they already know, and leaves with the one metric that should drive their next 90 days.

Signature keynote · 40 min

Michael's session gave us real clarity on our numbers and where to focus next. We came in with questions about cash flow and growth, and left with a practical plan for 2026. It was thoughtful, useful, and exactly what we needed.

Nure Aiza, Learning Chair, EO LAC Bridge

Hosted the talk for members in 27 countries

We've been reflecting on some of the strongest sessions we've hosted in our Entrepreneurial Toolbox webinar series, and your presentation quickly rose to the top of that list — great content, strong engagement, and an audience that showed up.

Kate Stackhouse, CMO, MultiFunding

Re-invited Michael to the series

For chairs, learning officers & event organizers

Bring Michael to your room.

  • Keynote, 55-minute workshop, or forum session
  • Built for EO chapters, forums, and Accelerator learning days
  • Keynote fee from $10,000, chapter and forum rates available
  • Operators leave with one decision, not fifty slides
  • In person or virtual

Request a date

Bring this to your room.

The murmurs, by email

One short, signed idea, whenever I have one worth sending.

Signed, dated, opinionated thinking from two decades of operator work.