1149: Predictable, Profitable Growth in an AI-Native Business | Ed Hagan, CFO, Satisfi Labs

At 19, working part-time in a bank branch while attending college, Ed Hagan made a simple recommendation: expand the branch. The idea was taken seriously enough that he was transferred to the bank holding company’s finance and accounting department, where he suddenly found himself helping with acquisitions, preparing board materials, and contributing to an IPO. The exposure was far greater than he expected at that age, Hagan tells us, and it sparked a curiosity that would shape his entire career. That early experience with real-world complexity led him to KPMG—then Pete Marwick—because the firm audited the bank. There, he spent roughly 20 years, including a decade as partner, learning “every day” and taking on global finance transformation work. When the consulting arm later separated into BearingPoint, Hagan continued building capabilities, eventually moving to London to grow a financial services practice from just a few people to a couple hundred. After 21 years in consulting, he felt ready for a different kind of problem-solving. He joined a private-equity and family-office environment, then built a fractional CFO and outsourcing practice that connected him with growth-stage founders. One of those clients—Satisfi Labs—would draw him back into the intersection of finance and technology. Satisfi Labs, Hagan tells us, is an agent platform designed for live experiences like sports, entertainment, and tourism. The company blends proprietary technology with LLMs such as OpenAI and Gemini, packaging them into solutions that make “AI hireable.” Today, the platform supports about two-thirds of North American professional sports teams and continues expanding across venues, theme parks, museums, and tour operators.