The Trial Balance is CFO.com’s weekly preview of stories, stats and events to help you prepare.
Part 1 — Builder.ai CFO served subpoena by feds as witness in fraud probe
Andres Elizondo, the former CFO of now collapsed Builder.ai, has been subpoenaed by U.S. prosecutors and is expected to testify before a grand jury in Manhattan as part of an expanding investigation into the Microsoft-backed startup’s collapse.
Bloomberg reported Monday that FBI agents served Elizondo the subpoena in August while he was traveling through Dallas. Authorities in the Southern District of New York are seeking records and testimony related to the company’s financial reporting and the events leading to its sudden insolvency. Citing an anonymous source, Bloomberg reported that Elizondo is not a suspect or target of the investigation.
Builder.ai was founded by Sachin Dev Duggal, who dubbed himself as “chief wizard”. Recently, Builder.ai had been accused of masking traditional engineering work behind marketing claims, with reports saying the company relied on as many as 700 engineers in India to manually build apps while presenting the process as automated by its AI assistant Natasha.
Once valued at more than $1 billion and backed by Microsoft, Builder.ai reportedly discovered inflated sales figures earlier this year and reduced its stated revenue to about one-quarter of prior estimates. Duggal has denied all wrongdoing.
Observers have framed the company’s downfall as a warning for the AI startup boom, arguing that its model exposed the risks of hype-fueled valuations and exaggerated automation claims. Customers who used the platform reportedly lost access to their applications when the company’s infrastructure went offline, raising more questions about ownership, transparency and dependency in no-code and low-code systems.
The investigation underscores growing scrutiny of startups accused of “AI washing,” or overstating the use of artificial intelligence to attract investors and customers. For regulators, investors and CFOs, Builder.ai’s collapse highlights the blurred line between innovation and misrepresentation in a sector where jargon and salesmanship often outpaces substance and impact.
Part 2 — This week
Here’s a list of important market events slated for the week ahead. Note: Economic reports may be delayed due to the government shutdown.
Monday, Oct. 20
Tuesday, Oct. 21 — None scheduled.
Wednesday, Oct. 22 — None scheduled.
Thursday, Oct. 23
Friday, Oct. 24
- Consumer price index, Sept.
- Core CPI, Sept.
- University of Michigan Consumer Sentiment, final
Part 3 — Weekly listen: The CFO of Ramp starring Brian Baumgartner
Actor Brian Baumgartner, best known for playing Kevin Malone on The Office, spent a day last week “working” as the CFO of Ramp from inside a glass box outside of Manhattan’s Flatiron Building. The live stunt was part of a tongue-in-cheek marketing campaign, which also featured Baumgartner joining the Technology Business Programming Network to talk about what he learned from his brief time working as a CFO.
“What I’ve learned is, if you’re a CFO, you have to work much harder than people think you do,” Baumgartner said during the interview. “I’m starting to realize I have an efficiency issue, meaning I need to be more efficient.” Between joking about receipts piling up — “I was almost at 100 before I left for a few minutes” — and swatting at a fly “the size of a hummingbird,” he leaned into the chaos of corporate life in full view of pedestrians.
As curious about finance as he was self-deprecating, Baumgartner admitted that “working on the street with people watching is probably not the best idea.” He closed out the conversation in character, joking that he planned to “zoom out” and “focus on strategy” before offering an open invitation to show’s hosts: “I’ve got some Jäger here in the office if you guys ever want to stop by.”
