Finance chiefs often find themselves isolated. They sit in on every board meeting, pore over every metric, yet rarely have a peer they can confide in. That gap shows up in tough calls—complex fundraising, unexpected dips, tricky hires—where there’s no one inside the company to run ideas by. At last year’s Runtime summit, a16z’s Martin Casado and SpaceX founder Michael Truell zeroed in on this pain point. The takeaway: CFOs need a dedicated forum built specifically for their struggles. Enter the a16z CFO Community. It’s a year-long program grouping eight finance leaders at similar growth stages. They meet in person every other month for six sessions. Each gathering blends a frank, moderated conversation with a deep dive into core CFO topics: annual planning, forecasting and benchmarks, team building for scale, AI tools for efficiency, plus GTM and engineering productivity. Beyond that, the goal is to forge lasting bonds—so members can call on each other when real challenges strike. Three rules guide the setup. First, rigorous curation: about 80% of each cohort are true peers, with a few already a step ahead. Second, trust trumps scale: no investors or observers, just operators. Third, attendance matters—miss more than one session and you’ve forfeited your spot. The idea isn’t shaky Zoom meet-ups but high-commitment dinners where you can ask the questions you’d never include in a board deck. If you’re a CFO feeling the weight of decisions that can’t land on a slide, this community offers a brain trust. You’ll learn from those just ahead of you and help those right behind. The first group kicks off this month.