How to Run Finance in a Creative, 'Hit-Driven' Business, with Diya Sagar
In creative businesses, the art drives the upside — but the numbers determine whether the art can exist at all.
In this episode of The Growth-Minded CFO podcast, hosts Alex Louisy and Lauren Pearl speak with Diya Sagar, CFO of AWA Studios - a startup media company that publishes original graphic novels and develops them into film and television.
AWA Studios is an early-stage studio built on bold creative bets. There’s no recurring revenue. Outcomes are unpredictable. And every project carries risk. That reality creates one central challenge for finance: How do you bring stability to a business built on uncertainty?
The CFO in a Creative World
Diya has spent most of her career in the media industry and there's something unique about working in this space - success doesn’t compound neatly. Each project stands on its own, and timing, audience response, and distribution partners all shape the outcome.
As she puts it:
“Our creative business is 'hit driven' and therefore unpredictable, but creative people come to finance looking for us to provide definitive and certain answers.”
That tension defines the CFO role in a creative company. Finance must operate without the comfort of predictable revenue while still providing clarity and confidence to the rest of the organization.
Creating Certainty Where You Can
In a hit-driven business, certainty doesn’t come from forecasting outcomes but comes from clarity around fundamentals.
Creative teams aren’t asking finance to predict success. They’re asking much more practical questions.
“The questions they will ask of finance are: What's my budget? And when can I spend it?"
For Diya, this is where finance earns trust. By being clear, reliable, and consistent on the basics, finance creates a stable foundation — even when results remain uncertain.
That certainty gives creative teams the confidence to focus on their work, knowing the business behind them is steady.
Managing Volatility Without Killing Creativity
Volatility is unavoidable in the media industry. Big wins can be followed by long periods of development and experimentation. The risk for finance is responding to that volatility with too much rigidity.
Diya is clear about the priority:
“Creativity has to come first in a creative business.”
Finance’s role isn’t to constrain creativity but to enable it:
“I think our role as finance people is to provide the fuel behind creativity so that we can thrive as a business.”
At the same time, creativity without discipline isn’t sustainable:
“But without it [revenue], you know, there is no business.”
The balance lies in building guardrails that protect the company while still leaving room for bold ideas.
Guardrails, Not Handcuffs
Rather than saying yes to everything or no to everything, Diya sees finance as a partner to the creative organization - one that sets boundaries in service of long-term success.
“So it's a partnership, but equally, we have to always remember that creativity comes first and to create the right guardrails to support them.”
Those guardrails help the business absorb risk without stifling experimentation. They allow teams to take creative swings while staying aligned to an overall strategy.
Building a Sustainable Model in a Hit-Driven Industry
In the episode, Diya also disusses how in film, television, and publishing, it takes time to know whether something will truly resonate:
“It takes time for us to know whether we have a hit on our hands, because ultimately it needs to be seen by viewers.”
Rather than betting blindly, AWA looks for early signals that help guide resource allocation. External validation — from studios, platforms, or partners — helps determine where to invest more deeply.
“If they like a particular one of our stories that gives us an indication of, okay, this is something that they also believe in, not just us.”
This portfolio mindset allows finance to prioritize intelligently without demanding certainty too early, making the business more resilient over time.
The Takeaway: Finance as the Backbone of Creativity
Running finance in a creative, hit-driven business isn’t about predicting outcomes. Instead it's about:
Creating certainty where you can
Supporting creativity with structure, not control
Managing volatility without panic
Building guardrails that allow bold ideas to survive long enough to succeed.
In Diya Sagar’s world, finance doesn’t compete with creativity - it sustains it.
Without that balance, even the strongest stories may never get the chance to be told.
Full Episode
If you’re a CFO or finance leader navigating a creative, nonlinear, or hit-driven business, this episode offers a rare and honest look at what financial excellence really looks like in that world.
Listen (and subscribe) on Spotify