Julio Martinez: Abacum’s Bet on AI-Native Finance Leadership
If you’d like to join me – and peers – for deeper conversations on innovation and leadership, get on this list for Fortt Knox Executive Communities, launching soon: mba.fortt.com.
This is an AI-assisted summary of my Fortt Knox 1:1 with Abacum CEO Julio Martinez. View the full interview here:
Julio Martinez frames Abacum as an AI-native rethink of how finance teams operate in an era of volatility, data overload, and rising expectations on the CFO. He argues that the modern CFO is no longer a back-office scorekeeper but a chief business performance officer. That shift collides with legacy systems built decades ago, siloed data, and analytics tools that surface numbers without context. Abacum’s ambition is to close that gap by creating a real-time, trustworthy data foundation and layering AI on top to surface insights, narratives, and decision support.
The conversation moves between product strategy and personal history. Martinez traces his values to a childhood shaped by parents committed to education and social impact, especially a father who dedicated decades to training workers in impoverished rural Spain. That grounding created a lifelong tension between purpose and profit. After time in investment banking, development finance, and venture building, Martinez found entrepreneurship as a “third way” that combines business rigor with societal impact.
He describes Abacum’s early years as a long, difficult build. Product maturity took far longer than expected, competitors failed, and patience became a defining discipline. That experience hardened a core belief: durable advantage comes from deep foundations, not speed alone. Looking ahead, Martinez sees Abacum’s strategic imperative as extending its AI lead while continuing to invest heavily in core engineering, even as others chase efficiency shortcuts.
Today’s Toughest Problem
Martinez defines the hardest problem as extracting usable insight from massive, fast-moving financial and operational data during a period of macro and geopolitical uncertainty. Finance teams now manage more data than ever, while being asked to play a more strategic role in guiding companies through volatility. Boards and CEOs increasingly expect foresight, not just reporting.
Traditional analytics and dashboards fall short because they surface metrics without context and require heavy manual interpretation. New AI approaches change the interface with data. Large language models help generate narratives and make information accessible to non-finance stakeholders. Large time-series models improve forecasting accuracy with fewer data points. The combination creates faster understanding, not just better charts.
The challenge is not accuracy alone. It is trust, speed, and usability. Finance leaders need to answer strategic questions in hours, not weeks, and with confidence in the underlying data. Abacum’s focus is on enabling that shift by unifying data sources and using AI to flag drivers, anomalies, and risks, while keeping humans in the loop for judgment.
Origin Story
Martinez’s origin story is anchored in purpose. He was born in Barcelona as an only child to parents whose lives revolved around education and social impact. His father grew up in extreme rural poverty under dictatorship-era Spain and later devoted decades to building training programs and businesses that created jobs for thousands in impoverished regions. That legacy of responsibility and gratitude was deeply ingrained.
Growing up in a rapidly modernizing Barcelona shaped Martinez’s worldview. The city’s post-Olympics transformation exposed him to global ambition and opportunity. As a student, he was drawn to philosophy and meaning, but gravitated toward business and finance for its practical power. That path led to investment banking and corporate finance, environments rich in learning but often distant from the impact he valued.
Over time, Martinez reconciled those tensions. He came to see entrepreneurship as a vehicle for both rigor and meaning. Building companies, creating jobs, and enabling others to perform better became his way of honoring his upbringing while operating at scale.
Death Valley
Abacum’s lowest stretch was not market rejection but time. The company underestimated how long it would take to build a truly robust FP&A platform. The product was complex, deeply integrated, and required exceptional engineering discipline. While some competitors rushed to market, Abacum stayed focused on fundamentals, even as others collapsed or sold cheaply.
This period felt like crossing a desert. Capital expectations had been set on faster timelines. Legacy vendors still worked “well enough” and had brand recognition. Internally, conviction had to outweigh anxiety. Martinez describes this phase as requiring patience, board alignment, and relentless customer focus.
A key inflection point was accepting that good things take time. Rushing would have compromised the product and the company’s long-term position. Emerging from this phase with a differentiated, trusted platform validated that discipline and set the foundation for rapid growth later.
Core Belief
The defining belief that emerged is simple: slow can be smooth, and smooth can be fast. Martinez borrows the idea from martial arts. Mastery requires repetition, patience, and attention to fundamentals. Cutting corners leads to mistakes and injury. The same applies to software.
At Abacum, this belief translates into deep investment in data foundations, architecture, and engineering talent. AI is an accelerator, not a substitute. It magnifies the impact of strong teams rather than replacing them. The goal is not to ship features quickly, but to build systems customers trust with mission-critical decisions.
This philosophy also shapes leadership. Martinez emphasizes conviction, long-term thinking, and clarity over hype. In an industry prone to rushing toward trends, Abacum’s culture prioritizes durability and customer love as the ultimate competitive advantage.
Strategic Imperative
For 2026, Abacum’s imperative is to extend its lead in AI-driven finance while strengthening its moat in core technology. Martinez sees AI as genuinely value-creating, not just marketing. Customers are already benefiting, but much more remains to be built.
The company is investing aggressively in engineering and product depth, even as others emphasize efficiency and headcount reduction. Martinez is explicit that complex problems still require the best people, supercharged by AI, not replaced by it.
At a broader level, he views Abacum as part of a larger shift in the global startup ecosystem. Remote work and cross-border talent flows, accelerated by COVID, have strengthened innovation hubs in Europe and beyond. Abacum aims to be a global leader born from that moment, helping finance teams navigate uncertainty with confidence, speed, and insight.
If you’d like to join me – and peers – for deeper conversations on innovation and leadership, get on this list for Fortt Knox Executive Communities, launching soon: mba.fortt.com.