Founder Fridays: Trust, Clarity, Focus - Aleph’s Founder & CEO on removing noise & leading with AI

ALF is building an AI-native financial planning and analysis (FP&A) platform that turns scattered business data into a single “source of truth,” then lets finance teams—and anyone who lives in spreadsheets—work with that data directly inside Excel and Google Sheets. The pitch is straightforward: connect accounting, HR, and CRM systems, centralize the information, and deliver dashboards plus spreadsheet add-ins so planning and reporting happen where users already work.

The company’s founder journey blends finance fluency with hands-on software building. Albert Gotsy started in finance at Procter & Gamble, later worked at Bain where he was exposed to CFOs and finance teams’ pain points and also built software in rare PM-style roles. He describes a long-standing strength in spreadsheets and a technical bent that let him “hack” solutions when needed. That mix, he says, became the foundation for ALF—especially because the product is designed around how finance actually operates, not just how data is stored.

AI is central to both ALF’s product and its internal operations. On the product side, AI helps interpret meeting transcripts and translate them into actionable CRM context—an approach aimed at understanding deal stages and capturing the “story” behind sales conversations. In day-to-day execution, AI is also used for summarization and briefing workflows, including generating summaries and morning briefs for account executives. Internally, the company pushes an automation mindset across go-to-market, engineering, and operations, hiring people who want to do more with less.

ALF’s team strategy reflects a pragmatic take on remote work. The company is roughly 60 people (give or take two), with hiring continuing steadily. Instead of fully extreme async, ALF operates as a remote team within the Americas, keeping most employees within a four- to five-hour time-zone band—about 70% in the US and the remainder across Canada and Latin America. The goal is to preserve access to top talent while maintaining enough real-time collaboration to keep momentum.

Outside work, Albert Gotsy draws a parallel between endurance running and founding: both require sustained effort, but creativity often arrives when attention isn’t locked to a screen. He runs ultramarathons in Patagonia and uses time away from devices—sometimes even without music—as a mental reset. He’ll then return to work and refine ideas, occasionally using ChatGPT in voice mode to brainstorm.

The advice offered to new founders centers on emotional realism and decision-making discipline: expect difficulty, accept that early success odds are low, and trust one’s gut when data isn’t enough. Data-driven decisions matter as companies scale, but the early stage is described as “flying blind,” where intuition and enjoyment of the day-to-day problem-solving process can be the difference between persistence and burnout. The practical takeaway is to enjoy the work itself—smart people, hard problems, and iterative learning—rather than tying happiness solely to fundraising milestones.