Aaron Vidas

Safe AI for more customers, profits + time

I’m an AI + ML entrepreneur who’s spent 15+ years founding and scaling 4 big data, strategy, and AI companies; including a VC-backed global data platform. In 2024 my Life split in two: one week I was marathon training; the next I was told “Prepare not to see the end of the month” because of a brain tumour.

What followed was a chain of miracles, a full recovery and level of clarity that changed how I lead.

Today, I helm DASS Services, the world’s fastest-growing AI consultancy. And DASS Group an AI-enabled holding company acquiring extraordinary businesses across the world.

I build companies that create outsized impact, and a lot of joy, along the way.

HOW I HELP

I work with luxury travel groups, building-supply companies, wellness brands, and professional service firms generating $5M–$2B+ in annual revenue to:

• Unlock their first “AI Win” in 90 days so they build belief in AI's actual capabilities 
• Help Founders, Boards, and CxO’s deploy capital, hire, lead, and succeed in the AI Age
• Build enduring companies whose value grows exponentially as ai-enabled systems take over
• Acquire exceptional businesses and elevate them through AI, process intelligence and elevated consciousness

If you want clarity, speed, and ROI in this new era, happy to talk.

WHAT I SHARE HERE

• The AI playbooks behind our average 787% ROI in 1–8 months on AI projects
• What’s real vs. hype in the AI Age
• How-to lead confidently while the world shifts beneath our feet
• How-to build extraordinary companies while staying vibrantly, fiercely alive through the highs and lows of Life

YOUR NEXT STEPS

Want your first AI Win in the next 90 days?

Grab the 90-Day AI Win Playbooks for your industry below and see how companies are unlocking profit, time, and joy through AI-enabled systems.

Then take a visit to dass-services.com 

Want an AI Workshop for your Board or C-suite?
Want me to speak at your event?
Want to explore a partnership or acquisition?

Visit aaronvidas.com

Founder

I'm a non-technical CEO. I just accidentally shipped a whole SaaS app in six hours.

I don't code, but my frustrated friend needed help tracking job openings at companies he cared about so he can apply. "I just want an email of the job description when they post something." 

The team at DASS Services NA told me to revisit Loveable as it's come along way (six months ago I had tried building with and hit rate limits and got frustrated). 

I booted up Loveable to see what I could do and built a working job monitoring app in six hours.

It tracks company job boards. Has roles based controls and a dynamic parser. Emails you when they post roles matching your criteria.

The obstacles were real: tight security requirements, my enterprise expectations for UX/UI, pushing to see what Loveable actually can't do.

What surprised me: just me talking to AI and watching it build in real time. It was super fun. 

Ideas to working product in real time with enterprise-grade security and controls (if you prompt it well). 

If you're hunting for a job at a company you love sign up at: 

https://lnkd.in/gagsYD3W

(Limited to 75 users to keep costs low)

The lesson? Six months ago, $10K's of people's time and overhead to build a simple app. Today, six hours for a non-technical CEO.

The tools evolved past the frustrating phase.

If you've been waiting to experiment, stop waiting and build what you want.

#ai #startup #saas #jobsearch #yvrjobs #singaporejobs

Thank you Mark Carney for saying the quiet part loud at World Economic Forum today.

The ways things have “always” been – from how countries talk to each other to our relationship to work – for the past ~80 years is going away.

That’s not a bad thing, because acknowledgement is the first step in any real growth.

As Prime Minister Carney points out any system's power comes “not from truth, but continues from everyone's willingness to perform as if it were true. And its fragility comes from the same source: when even one person stops performing…the illusion begins to crack.”

For example, in the Communist countries shopkeepers were required to put a “Workers of the World Unite” sign in their window. Even though neither the customer, nor shopkeeper, believed in the sign. The system stopped, and something better came along, when people stopped performing and putting up their signs.

The same goes for the time we find ourselves in. We choose to cling to performances and permitting institutions (and their leaders) to act in ways we know aren’t right. Thinking it will allow us to ‘keep on, keeping on.’

What we forget is at no other time in history have individuals had so much power. There’s more ways to learn, make money, communicate and travel than ever before. Since 1980 the world’s population has roughly doubled and poverty has gone down 80%.

That’s only upleveled now with generative AI were people who can’t code now have the ability to create products , companies and communities just by talking to their computers. Last week I made software that cost me ~$160K previously in 6 hours for $120 (and I don’t code).

That changes the calculus that leaders – in finance to government raised before the internet, smartphone existed – haven’t cottoned onto.

We can address situations of complexity, with speed and accuracy, for pennies in resources we couldn’t even 3 years ago. 

In business imagine products customizing to what an individual customer finds valuable so there's sustainable pricing power. Highly compensated people only doing what they’re naturally gifted at because AI is taking care of the 'boring and tedious.' Not sitting pretending to work on some spreadsheet because the boss is still there. Government Leaders able to ask ‘what-if’ questions about resource allocation of B’s and receive grounded answers in seconds so institutions can serve their communities incredibly well.  

That’s not just efficiency gains, that’s an entirely more vibrant way of living for all of us. However, it does mean we’ll have to act differently. Growing and holding entirely different behaviours and values as important.

And that all starts with acknowledging the performances, the antics, we're watching today don’t actually resonate anymore.

#leadership #ai #WEF

I take sales calls from creek beds so I can maximize flow, not valuation or profit, for DASS Services NA. 

In building 1K’s of ai-enabled workflows over the past year one thing has become clear to me: the best results come from completely re-doing how “the work” is done. Time, speed to reach desired outcomes relative to investment have collapsed with ai-enabled workflows. 

But ‘seeing’ how that can happen only occurs when your body, and brain, are in the right state of flow. When your ‘fight or flight’ response has shut off and you’re open to playing with new ideas. You don’t get there hunched over a screen. 

You get there being in nature, resting and exposing yourself to
new music, art and information. Literally moving differently, trying new dance moves, foods and neighbourhoods. 

Then the solutions come ‘out of the blue’ because the body and brain are relaxed, putting things together in the background. 

So we’ve built systems, and processes, to ensure the whole team can get outside, get exploring and get exposed to new stimuli. While still capturing the ideas and solutions that come to them (@wisprflow is a great place to start).  

If you’re running an AI Team, or are a CEO, get your AI people out the door and into the quiet. Challenge them to seek out new movies, music and places. I can guarantee they’ll come back with solutions of using AI in your business that’ll be really original, really resonate and really work. 

#ai #leadership #privateequity

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Forward deployed engineers: are you watching your projects get shelved by fear-based boards?

Better AI roles exist. You're just not seeing them.

My frustrated friend is stuck at a company where the CxO's, and Board, don't get AI. He said: "I just want an email when a role I'm a fit for at a company I love is posted."

So I accidentally built him a job monitoring app, now I'm giving it to you.

Here's the pain he was facing (maybe you are too):

You're building cutting-edge AI implementations. Then watching them get stalled by C-suites that don't understand you're on the edge of something entirely new.

Meanwhile, there's a company down the street that actually experiments. That's willing to try things that might fail but also might work really well. Where your skills would matter.

You just don't know they posted till it's too late.

Demand for your skills grows by the day. There's no reason to stay where you are.

The app tracks companies you care about. Emails you when they post matching roles.

No more manual checking. No more missed opportunities.

Stop missing opportunities at companies that get it. It's free.

Sign up today: https://lnkd.in/gagsYD3W

#aijobs #forwarddeployedengineer #ai #machinelearning #yvrjobs #singaporejobs

AI project managers: are you plateauing at your current company? Better AI roles exist. You're just not seeing them.

My frustrated friend is stuck at a company that doesn't get it. He said: "I just want an email of a role I'm a fit for at a company I love is posted."

So I accidentally built him a job monitoring app, now I'm giving it to you.

Here's the pain he was facing (maybe you are too):

Your wasting your governance frameworks, and translation skills, teaching basics on repeat while your growth plateaus where you are.

Meanwhile, there's a company down the street that you know 'gets' AI. Where you could advance to Director in 12-24 months. Where your talent would actually matter.

You just don't know they posted a job till it's too late.

The app tracks companies you care about. Emails you when they post matching roles.

No more manual checking. No more missed opportunities.

Stop missing opportunities at companies that get it. It's free. 

Sign up today: https://lnkd.in/gagsYD3W

#yvrjobs #aijobs #singapore #ai #venturecapital #privateequity #singaporejobs

Between interviews for new hires at DASS Services NA I came upon this book. Unfortunately the author misunderstands how AI, as a technology, functionally works. Influencing his conclusions about how it relates to our experience of the world and what it can do for humanity. 

Really, it’s the greatest augmentor, or lever, we’ve ever had to amplify creativity, joy and economic sovereignty for everyone. The trick is first choosing to see the world as working for You, not against you. 

If you have questions on if AI can ‘think’ and have consciousness; or how ‘superintelligence’ sits beside us to help, versus hinder us shoot me a comment. 

#ai #vc #leadership #higherconsciousness

We’re already preparing for a time where scarcity is not the dominate ‘way of thinking’ people perceive the world. 

Check out this very, very cool job at Google exploring the economics, and structures, of a world where computers are handing the boring and tedious of so much of our current lives so we can focus on the higher value stuff. 

This one is for my #LSE, #Stanford and #Columbia econ baddies. 

Chicago supply-side people, stay out of this one. ;)

#aijobs #ai #leadership

Venture Partnerships at Google | Angel Investor

Google is hiring a Chief AGI Economist 💫

It's time to prepare for a world with abundant intelligence. 

Here's the job description:

--
As a Chief AGI Economist at Google DeepMind (GDM), you will be at the forefront of understanding the profound economic transformations that will accompany the arrival of Artificial General Intelligence (AGI) and Artificial Superintelligence (ASI). 

You will lead a new area of research, exploring post-AGI economics, the future of scarcity, and the distribution of power and resources in a world fundamentally reshaped by advanced AI. 
--

Interested?

Here's the link to apply: https://lnkd.in/dSN8QZg4

Over the past decade, I founded and built an online education and training company that educated over 2 million registered students.

I am Co-Founder and CEO of Corporate Finance Institute® (CFI) and Co-Owner of Vipond Ventures.

Prior to founding CFI I worked in investment banking, corporate development, strategy and financial planning & analysis (FP&A) at both public and private companies.

Since 2005, I have been an active participant in capital markets across a wide range of industries and transactions including mergers, acquisitions, divestitures, and capital raising totaling more than $3 billion in value.

Honors & Awards:
→ Top 25 Education Software CEOs (The Software Report · Jan 2019)
→ Top Forty Under 40 (Business in Vancouver · Jan 2015)

Tim Vipond

EBITDA broken-down.

Everyone talks about EBITDA. Not everyone understands it.

If you work in finance, strategy, investing, or operations…

EBITDA is one of the most abused metrics in the entire industry.
Here’s the truth — in simple terms:

EBITDA = Net Income + Interest + Taxes + Depreciation + Amortization
It removes:

-interest
-taxes
-depreciation
-amortization

So you can see the company’s core operating performance without the noise.

Sounds great, right?

Yes… but also no.

EBITDA is useful for:

-comparing companies in the same industry
-evaluating operating performance
-some valuation multiples (EV/EBITDA)
 -assessing cash-generation potential

But EBITDA is NOT:

-a measure of real cash flow
-a measure of true profitability
-a substitute for understanding working capital or capex
-perfect for leveraged or capex-heavy businesses

And this is where most people mess up.

They treat EBITDA like it’s the full story.
 
It’s not.

It’s the starting point.

Great analysts don’t just report EBITDA.

They ask the deeper questions behind it.

-How much capex is needed to sustain this EBITDA?
-How much working capital does the business absorb?
-What does this look like after interest and taxes?
-What does true cash flow actually say?

EBITDA is where the analysis begins... not where it ends.

Learn more at Corporate Finance Institute® (CFI).

Tim Vipond, FMVA®

Co-Founder & CEO of CFI and the FMVA® certification program

Here's a visual guide of how to link the 3 financial statements.

A critical skill across all finance and accounting careers.

Understanding how they connect — as illustrated by the key flow points — is essential. 

The major bridge accounts are:
- Net Income
- Retained Earnings
- Cash Balance

Let’s break it down:

The Income Statement summarizes a company’s revenues, expenses, and ultimately its Net Income. This figure doesn’t exist in isolation — it feeds directly into both the Cash Flow Statement and the Balance Sheet.

On the Cash Flow Statement, Net Income is adjusted for non-cash expenses (such as depreciation) and for changes in working capital (like receivables, inventory, and payables). 

These adjustments reveal the company’s true operating cash flow. After accounting for investing (e.g., capital expenditures) and financing activities (e.g., borrowing, repayments, or dividends), we arrive at the ending cash balance.

That ending cash number connects back to the Balance Sheet under current assets. Meanwhile, Retained Earnings on the Balance Sheet increase by the period’s Net Income and decrease by any dividends paid. Together, assets are always balanced by a matching combination of liabilities and equity.

By tracing these flows, we can clearly see how profitability, cash generation, and financial position interact. Mastering this linkage is essential for financial modeling — and for understanding how value is created within a business.

This framework is part of our Three Statement Modeling Course at Corporate Finance Institute® (CFI). It's a foundational skill set for professionals in investment banking, equity research, FP&A, strategy, and corporate development.

What are the hallmarks of a good monthly cash flow model?

This template forces discipline around drivers and structure.

Note: this model is from our globally recognized FMVA program: https://lnkd.in/g3GA5teK

Instead of jumping straight to a cash balance, the model:

-Builds revenue from operational drivers (stores, pricing, productivity)
-Separates timing effects (AR, AP, inventory) from P&L performance
-Links the income statement → balance sheet → cash flow every single month
-Makes liquidity risk visible before it becomes a problem

Monthly granularity matters. It’s the difference between thinking you’re fine… and realizing too late that payroll or debt service is about to bite.

This is the kind of model you want if you’re:
-Running a growing business
-Stress-testing downside scenarios
-Managing covenants, burn, or runway
-Teaching others how real-world finance actually works

Learn more at Corporate Finance Institute® (CFI) today!

Not all valuation metrics are created equal.

Save a copy of our 60+ valuation metrics by industry.

Technology companies focus on growth and unit economics (EV/Sales, ARR, LTV/CAC), while Oil & Gas emphasizes asset value and cash generation (EV/DACF, EV/Reserves, crack spreads). 

Financials are balance-sheet driven (P/BV, ROCTE, CET1), Real Estate centers on cash flow durability (FFO, cap rates), and Retail looks closely at operational efficiency (SSSG, sales per square foot, inventory turns).

Utilities and Telecom lean on stability and predictability, Healthcare blends utilization and leverage metrics, and Industrials highlight operating leverage and bookings. 

Across sectors, the common theme is context: the “right” metric depends on revenue visibility, capital intensity, and business model.

Using the wrong metric can distort valuation. Using the right one sharpens insight, improves comparisons, and leads to better investment decisions.

Learn more in out extensive library of valuation courses at Corporate Finance Institute® (CFI).

Dashboards can be a powerful form of storytelling.

This is an PF&A dashboard from one of our data visualization courses. 

It blends revenue, expenses, margins, and balance sheet data into a single, digestible snapshot. 

But more importantly, it connects the dots.

From business unit trends and cumulative growth, to profit margin forecasts and five-year performance summaries, every chart here answers a key question. 

Are we growing? Where are costs creeping? How are margins evolving? What’s driving the bottom line?

For FP&A professionals, it’s not enough to analyze spreadsheets—you must translate complexity into clarity. 

The ability to visualize trends, isolate variance drivers, and align performance to strategy is what turns financial data into business insight.

Notice how the dashboard also highlights actual vs. plan, and delivers forward-looking projections—critical tools for driving accountability and shaping decisions. This is what strategic finance looks like.

A strong dashboard isn’t just a report. It’s a conversation starter. It informs, aligns, and empowers your stakeholders.

What’s one chart you always include in your monthly exec dashboards?

Check out this dashboard and more at Corporate Finance Institute® (CFI).

See the inner workings of our WACC Template in Excel.

Understanding your company’s Weighted Average Cost of Capital (WACC) is essential for making sound valuation and strategic decisions. 

CFI’s WACC template (featured in our FP&A and valuation courses) helps finance professionals calculate WACC with precision and confidence.

The model walks you through every step, from determining your capital structure to estimating the cost of equity and cost of debt. It also includes a detailed beta benchmarking table, helping you compare and select realistic assumptions based on comparable companies.

With its clean layout, transparent formulas, and automated calculations, this Excel tool lets you input key variables, like the risk-free rate, market premium, and tax rate, and instantly compute WACC.

The template also demonstrates how to unlever and relever beta, align FP&A assumptions, and connect your WACC output directly to valuation models. It’s ideal for investment analysis, M&A work, and executive reporting.

Included in CFI’s Financial Modeling & Valuation Analyst (FMVA®) program, the WACC template is just one of many practical tools designed to build your technical and strategic finance expertise.

Learn more and register today at Corporate Finance Institute® (CFI).

I’ve been reflecting on how much corporate finance has changed over the past 10 years... and how much it hasn’t.

On the surface, the shift is obvious. Data moved from static to live. Updates became automatic. Models are now connected, and AI has entered the workflow. Everything is faster, broader, and more visible than it used to be.

But when you zoom out, many aspects still looks remarkably familiar. Excel is still a core tool. The same three financial statements still anchor every discussion. Ratios didn’t change. Cash flow is still king. Valuation logic didn’t need a rewrite.

Then and now, finance is still about judgment under uncertainty. It’s still about making trade-offs, pressure-testing assumptions, and explaining messy reality clearly to decision-makers. The tools evolved. The expectations rose. The responsibility stayed the same.

Make sure you've got the right combination of skills for finance "now" at Corporate Finance Institute® (CFI)!

One of the biggest themes at Davos this year is skills & training.

There’s obviously a lot of talk about AI, but what’s been more interesting to me is how quickly the conversation turns to skills and training.

AI isn’t replacing finance professionals, but it is changing what it means to be a good one. 

What keeps coming up in conversations here is that companies need people who can apply judgment, use new tools intelligently, and keep learning as the ground shifts under them.

I'm excited for what's in store for our learners at Corporate Finance Institute® (CFI) this year as we continue to build out or AI for Finance offering (more exciting news to come on that soon!).

Being in Davos for the World Economic Forum has reinforced a simple idea:  the most valuable skill now is staying relevant.

This 10-step M&A process is from our M&A Course.

Learn how to build an M&A Model, and how it fits in the process.

Behind every successful merger or acquisition isn’t luck or a clever negotiation. It’s discipline. It’s process.

That’s why we built this 10-step M&A roadmap at CFI—to simplify the complexity and keep teams focused on what really matters:

Acquisition Strategy – Define your “why.”
Acquisition Criteria – Set the filters.
Target Search – Find and qualify.
Early Discussion – Open the door.
Valuing & Evaluating – Test the numbers + synergies.
Negotiation – Align on terms.
Due Diligence – Stress-test assumptions.
Contracts – Get it legal + binding.
Financing – Structure the deal.
Integration – Where the real value is created.

M&A is so much more than valuation and negotiation. The winners are the ones who:

Build strategy into every step
Run rigorous due diligence
Nail post-deal integration

Whether you’re buying, selling, or advising—this roadmap keeps you grounded, methodical, and value-driven.

This is an excerpt from our M&A Modeling Course at Corporate Finance Institute® (CFI).

The democratization of training and certification.

A great conversation with Olivia Kinghorst.

While the US is still our biggest country, we’re seeing incredible demand from international geos like Egypt, South Africa, Saudi Arabia, and Nigeria, to name a few.

I see a bright future for finance professionals where AI opens a floodgate of opportunity for more financial analysis to support decision-making.

We have a lot of exciting new training programs coming soon at Corporate Finance Institute® (CFI) .

The Master Budget connects the dots in FP&A.

Creating an effective budget requires a clear view of how every part of the financial plan interacts.

That’s the role of the Master Budget: a complete framework that integrates both operational and financial planning into one cohesive system.

The process begins with the Sales (Revenue) Budget, which sets the foundation by forecasting expected sales. From there, the Production Budget calculates the output required to satisfy demand. 

Supporting this are detailed plans such as the Direct Materials Purchases Budget, Direct Labor Budget, and Overhead Budget — all of which roll into the Cost of Goods Manufactured Budget.

Once production costs are tallied, they flow into the Cost of Goods Sold Budget. Adding in the Selling and Administrative Expense Budget brings us to the Budgeted Income Statement, which projects profitability.

On the financial side, the Cash Budget safeguards liquidity, while the Capital Expenditure Budget maps out future investments. Ultimately, everything culminates in the Budgeted Balance Sheet, providing a snapshot of the company’s anticipated financial standing.

In essence, the Master Budget is not just a compilation of schedules — it’s a strategic roadmap that aligns operations, optimizes resources, and drives financial objectives forward.

For deeper learning, explore our top-rated finance and FP&A programs at Corporate Finance Institute® (CFI).

Inside our monthly forecasting course.

An important tool in FP&A for translating strategy into measurable performance. 

This course from our FPAP program at Corporate Finance Institute® (CFI).

This revenue schedule model provides a clear view of business momentum by tracking results across months, quarters, and full-year totals in one integrated dashboard.

The structure highlights key trends: seasonality patterns, year-over-year growth, and the relationship between actual performance and forward-looking forecasts. 

By layering historical results alongside updated projections, teams can quickly identify variance drivers, adjust assumptions, and communicate expectations with confidence.

What makes this model powerful is its simplicity and consistency. Monthly detail rolls up into quarterly and annual views, ensuring alignment across reporting periods. 

It also supports scenario planning, allowing leaders to compare “current vs. previous” forecasts and measure how the outlook evolves over time.

Strong forecasting is about creating clarity, accountability, and faster decision-making.

We are focused on helping people develop a modern skillset.

At Corporate Finance Institute® (CFI) our mission is to empower anyone to become a world-class finance professional.

This year our focus will be on incorporating new technical skills and tools such as AI, while also focusing on fundamental skills like judgement, interpretation, and decision making.

Now is time to sharpen your skills, upgrade your resume, and leverage technology to your advantage.

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