CFOVILLE

Brianne Puglisi

Brianne Puglisi has been part of three IPOs, but Kardigan’s initial public offering in June was her first one as a CFO.

The prior experience, she said, helped her lead cardiovascular biotech company Kardigan to gross $460 million in IPO proceeds and see a 38% first-day pop in share price. Puglisi is not a clinician or a scientist, though, something she recognizes is unique in biotech.

“I started my career at KPMG—I was based out of their New York City offices—and I was working mostly on Fortune 500 clients across a number of different industries. And what drew me to the life sciences sector was really the chance to be part of this ecosystem…working with people who are pursuing much-needed therapies for patients,” she said.

Puglisi told CFO Brew how she communicated with the “super sharp,” highly educated investors in biotech about the company’s three cardiovascular therapies and why public markets were the better funding mechanism for such a young company.

How did the prior two IPOs you worked on inform how you approached the Kardigan IPO?

I think one of the biggest challenges, which is certainly a challenge for Kardigan, was telling a multi-program story clearly. Take Kardigan’s profile, for example: We are not a single asset biotech. We needed investors to understand three late-stage [clinical] programs, not just one, and that took a lot of time and repetition. Having that foresight and knowing the effort that would be involved to engage with the investor community at the right time, [we had to] start telling the story in a way that would resonate. It’s something that experience teaches you.

What’s on Puglisi’s mind right now?—DM

      

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COMPENSATION STRATEGY

Kreinick/Getty Images

Bringing home the bacon is going to be harder without peanut butter pay. (Forgive us the food references—we’re hungry.)

Only 32% of US companies are planning across-the-board, or “peanut butter”, pay increases next year, a dip from the 36% that said they did this year, according to a recent survey from compensation data company Payscale.

In 2026, merit-based increases are the name of the game: Nine in 10 US companies said that’s the form of pay increase they’re giving to employees.

“We are seeing organizations realize that they need to deploy pay strategically,” Ruth Thomas, Payscale’s chief compensation strategist, told CBS News. “They need to think about business transformation, and part of driving that is allocating pay budgets differently.”

Will 2027 be any better?—NP

      

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DIGITAL PRIVACY

Nick Iluzada

Ba-da-ba-ba-ba: Release the files—the McDonald’s loyalty program files. After requesting a copy of his data from the burger chain, a Wired journalist received a 515-page file on his McDonald’s habits that was far more detailed than expected, he wrote this week.

According to Wired’s Reece Rogers:

• The McDonald’s loyalty program tracks purchase behavior, like favorite menu items and most-visited locations, which is apparently fairly standard.
• The “concerning” part was how McDonald’s used this data to predict how often he’d visit in the future, what he’d spend, what he’d order, and the likelihood that he’d stop being a customer (0%).

“We use information such as past purchases to provide a more engaging, personal customer experience,” a McDonald’s spokesperson told Wired. The loyalty program’s 210 million active users are also the “single most important digital metric” for McDonald’s, its CFO said earlier this year.

Other companies may be doing this too, Morning Brew reports.—ML

      

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market forces

Francis Scialabba

Today’s top finance reads.

Stat. Around 0.6%. That’s how much retail spending fell in July, the biggest drop since May 2025, while consumer sentiment also declined by 8% earlier in August. The numbers suggest that US consumers are pulling back on spending. (CNN Business)

Quote. “We immediately decided that given the value of the franchise and the iconic nature of the team, that we would be really smart to pursue it. The deal came together in three days. It’s that simple.”—Bob Iger, former Disney CEO, on teaming up with private equity executive Josh Kushner to buy the Los Angeles Lakers for $12.5 billion. (LeBron Wire)

Read. With AI handling the grunt work, this summer’s interns are taking on greater responsibilities, including dealing with clients. (WSJ)

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