Startup CFO

Experienced part-time CFOs for your fast growing startup

Get the finance help your startup needs!

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Healy Jones

Why Your Startup Needs a CFO

Not every startup needs a part-time or outsourced CFO - but if you do, you REALLY need one! Your part-time Chief Financial Officer should be an experienced financial professional who helps your startup set your financial and operational strategy, create and track important KPIs, run your financial systems and reporting, and manage your cash flows and spending.

The best startup CFOs also help with fundraising and investor relations, although the CEO/founder should always be the one primarily engaging with potential investors.

Does Your Startup Need a CFO?

To determine if your startup needs a CFO, ask yourself the following questions:

  1. Is my startup having problems with basic bookkeeping and record keeping?
  2. Are my basic financial statements in order?
  3. Do I have detail on KPIs such as customer churn, customer acquisition cost, etc.?
  4. Do I know when my company will run out of cash, and have an understanding of my current burn rate and spend categories?
  5. Do I have a board approved budget that shows me a roadmap of how my startup will achieve its goals?
  6. Does my team have projections and guidance on who and which employees they can hire to meet the company’s goals?
  7. Am I experiencing issues negotiating the financial details of customer or vendor contracts?
  8. Have I prepared the diligence materials that a prospective investor will need to make an investment decision?
  9. Do I have a strategic and financial vision on my long-term pricing, revenue growth scenarios and spending plans?

If you’ve answered "no" to Questions 1 and 2 indicate that you need a good outsourced startup bookkeeper, possibly bundled with a controller. Questions 3 and 4, you should consider hiring someone to help with financial modeling or part-time FP&A. Questions 5 and beyond indicate that you need CFO level help, which, for many startups, can be achieved by hiring a part-time finance professional who understands the industry your business operates in.

What do Fractional Startup CFOs Cost?

A fractional CFO can be an important asset to a startup. They assist with financial modeling and decisions, preparing for board meetings, and handle operational details. Getting part-time CFO really helps the management team. Typically fractional CFOs have three to four clients and charge one of two ways: An hourly rate, like $250-$350 per hour, or a fixed monthly fee. Those with fixed monthly fees normally allocate one full day per week to your startup.

Find an Outsourced CFO for your Startup

Click a card below to select CFOs you want to contact

If you have any questions you can look through our FAQ or Contact Us

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Steve Bennet

Angel Investor, Professor and CFO

Palo Alto, California

Services: True Global Ventures, Bodega Partners, Rollbar, Xenio Systems, WaterSmart Software, San Jose State University, Sand Hill Angels, Cross Coin Ventures, Qvivr, Callisto Media, Menlo Incubator, AppBistro, Fliqz, Inc., TextDigger, Inc., iControl Networks, Pharmacy TV, Outlook Ventures, University of California, Berkeley, Stratex Networks, Arthur Andersen & Co., U.S. Department of the Treasury

Tools: Quickbooks Online, Netsuite, Bill.com, Expensify

Education: The University of California, Los Angeles, Lehigh University

Past Companies: True Global Ventures, Bodega Partners, Rollbar, Xenio Systems, WaterSmart Software

Summary

Steve Bennet is founder and managing director of Bodega Partners and is an active participant in the Silicon Valley entrepreneurial ecosystem as start-up CFO, Angel Investor, and Professor.Over the past 25 years, he has been CFO, investor, and/or board member of over 100 technology start-ups, primarily in the software, Internet, and mobile sectors. CFO roles include Xenio Systems, Qvivr, Callisto Media, Revel Systems, iControl Networks (acquired by Comcast), Appstores (acquired by InMobi), Greystripe (acquired by ValueClick), Fliqz (acquired by VBrick Systems), Valchemy (acquired by IBM), GolfWeb (acquired by CBS Sportsline), Orbital Data (acquired by Citrix), TextDigger (acquired by Federated Media), and Pharmacy TV Network (acquired by RMG Networks). Some of these resulted in excellent financial returns to founders and investors, while others did not.Steve has a passion for both entrepreneurship and education. He has taught entrepreneurial finance since 1995 and is currently adjunct faculty at San Jose State University. Previously, he was a lecturer at U.C. Berkeley. His focus is on experiential education and has developed new courses at SJSU, including the Entrepreneurship Lab (ELAB), Venture Lab (VLAB), Startup Founders and Funders, and the Silicon Valley Experience. He is also on the Steering Committee for the Silicon Valley Center for Entrepreneurship and UCLA Venture Capital Fund. Prior to and concurrent with Bodega, Steve was a Founding Partner at True Global Ventures, Partner at CrossCoin Ventures, Venture Partner at Outlook Ventures, Board Member of Sand Hill Angels, Partner at Menlo Incubator and held various financial and management positions at Bay Logics, Digital Microwave, and Arthur Andersen.Steve earned an undergraduate degree in economics from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania and MBA from the Anderson School at UCLA. He blogs at www.professorvc.com and tweets @ProfessorVC.

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Solange Bullukian

Founder and Managing Director at Scale2Growth

San Francisco Bay Area

Services: Strategic Planning, Cash Management, General & Admin Infrastructure, Organizational Capabilities

Education: HEC School of Management

Past Companies: Twist Bioscience, Agilent Technologies, Hewlett Packard

Summary

Scale2Growth Founder and Managing Director, Solange Bullukian has over 20 years of experience of executive finance roles as CFO, CAO, VP of Finance and Business Development on a global and international scale within both Fortune 500 and start-up companies in High Tech, Computer, Semi-Conductor and Life Sciences industries.

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Adam Metzger

Managing Partner at ACM Consultants

Brooklyn, New York

Services: Trading, Derivatives, Fixed Income, Portfolio Management, Capital Markets, Valuation, Hedge Funds, Equities

Education: University of California, Berkeley

Past Companies: Seamless Payments, Harmony Labs, BetterPT, Civic Hall

Summary

Adam has almost 20 years of leadership experience in finance & capital markets, investment management, and business development. For the past several years, Adam has been working as a CFO/advisor for startups and growth-stage companies to provide them with strategic, financial, and operational guidance.

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John Shults

Founder at UpRound Finance

Austin, TX

Services: Financial Modeling, Strategic Financial Planning, Corporate Finance, Mergers & Aquisitions, Due Diligence, Variance Analysis

Education: University of Arkansas

Past Companies: BackOps, Sand Hill Angels, Stephens Inc.

Summary

John Shults is the founder of UpRound Finance. John has been the acting CFO for 50+ venture-backed companies across the SaaS, e-commerce, healthcare, and consumer electronics industries. He has helped these Seed through Series B-stage companies raise a combined $185m in equity and debt financing and presented at the board meetings of several premier startups on the east and west coast. John began his career in investment banking and graduated Magna Cum Laude with a degree in Finance from the Walton College of Business at the University of Arkansas where he was also a member of the varsity tennis team.

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Douglas Jendras

President at Jendras Enterprises L.L.C.

New Fairfield, Connecticut

Services: Financial Controls, Strategy, Revenue Growth, Cost Restructuring, Negotiation, M&A Due Diligence

Education: Pace University, State University of New York at Albany

Past Companies: AboveNet Communications Inc., Metromedia Fiber Network, MCI Telecommunications Corporation, IBM

Summary

Doug Jendras is a highly entrepreneurial executive with rich experience in private organizations, including new and emerging ventures. His expertise is in strategic business analysis and execution to achieve the financial goals and obligations of corporate governance and fiduciary duty. Highlights of his career contributions and achievements thus far include: - Identified and implemented controls over distribution of $4B investment, standardized customer-pricing, renegotiated contracts and restructured leadership team to ensure startup's ability to grow. - Rallied the workforce, rebuilt financial and operational functions, and created customer value to increase annual revenue 5x and position a post-bankruptcy telecommunications company for $2.2B acquisition. - Led Network Operations group to achieve revenue targets and grew EBITDA margins to over 40% through lean and shareholder driven management of $90M annual operating budget for 7 consecutive years. - Negotiated business deals with Fortune 500 companies to provide incentives that resulted in the generation of $500M+ revenue stream.

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Lea Dessi-Olive

CFO-Part Time at Seed to B Startups

San Francisco, California

Services: Financial Modeling, Organizational Design, Strategic Planning, Financial Analysis, Due Diligence, Business Development, Business Process Improvement, Change Management, Pricing Strategy, Investor Relations

Education: University of Chicago

Past Companies: Atomic, StyleSeat, Accenture Management Consulting, PNC

Summary

Lea has spent most of her career partnering with executive teams to ensure they intelligently deploy capital and resources, make smart decisions based on data, and optimize their runway. She started her career in corporate finance & management consulting and has spent the last several years working with 15+ startups helping them scale from seed to series C. She thrives in fast paced environments and excel in both details and high level strategy. That means doing everything from building dynamic financial models to developing growth strategies, pricing models, hiring plans and fundraising.

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Jeremy Sanders

Cloudbased CFO at BenchmarkCFO, Inc

Los Angeles, California

Services: Finance, Strategy, Forecasting, Budgeting, Strategic Planning, Business Planning, Start-ups, Financial Analysis, Financial Reporting, Financial Modeling, Business Development, Go-to-market Strategy, Venture Capital, Internal Controls, Operating Budgets, Restructuring, Analytics, Human Resources, Change Management, Recruiting, Process Improvement, Due Diligence, Cash Management, Strategic Alliances, Revenue Growth, Cost Restructuring, Negotiation, Fundraising, Margin Enhancement, Advisor, Outside Director

Tools: QuickBooks Enterprise, QuickBooks Online, Other

Education: Florida Atlantic University, San Diego State University

Past Companies: UniZ Technology, Ideator, Sanders Advisors, Citizen Healthcare

Summary

With more than 10 years of international CFO experience, Jeremy has a proven record of establishing cross-functional partnerships to deliver stellar results. He is an agile, strategic, and hands-on leader driving operations within analytics, marketing, sales, and business development areas in early-stage and middle market companies. Jeremy has been accountable for budgets up to $130 million and allocating resources to drive organizational and profit growth globally. An active startup mentor, advisor and community leader, Jeremy has also been a startup founder and is particularly adept at streamlining, organizing, and leading company staffs productively.

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Brian Plackis Cheng

Fractional COO and CFO at Tech Startups

Santa Barbara, California

Services: Financing, Financial modeling, Pricing

Education: Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute

Past Companies: software.com, MCI, cielo24

Summary

Brian Plackis Cheng has successfully scaled B2B tech companies from $5M to $100M+ through IPOs and M&A. Versed in strategy, building products, go-to-market and field operations with deep expertise in AI, messaging and online media. He raised $60M with 5 exits. As the General Manager Americas and Europe led Software.com (messaging co) through IPO and $6.8B sale. Brian works best with founders who are product visionaries who need help scaling organization, business strategy, fundraising and BOD development during accelerated growth. He has lived and worked in Europe, Asia and US.

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Bob Togie

Financial Consultant and interim CFO

San Jose, California

Services: Strategic Planning, Financial Analysis and Modeling, Due Diligence Preparation, Program Management, Finance Organization Development

Education: MBA, Haas School of Business, UC Berkeley BS Electrical Engineering, UCLA

Past Companies: Hewlett Packard, Microsoft, Ericsson, MediaKind

Summary

Bob Togie is a financial executive with extensive experience working with multinational high-tech companies and growing business. Bob partners with business leaders develop strategic plans and analysis, startup operations, and plan for growth.

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James Jones

Interim CFO and COO at Technology Startups

San Francisco Bay Area

Services: Capital Raising, Strategic Finance, Financial Planning and Analysis, Mergers and Acquisitions, Accounting Design and Implementation, Investor and Analyst Relations, Contract Review, Bank and Treasury Management, Corporate Compliance

Tools: QBO, Xero, NetSuite, Intacct, Adaptive Insights, Host Analytics, Expensify, Bill.com, Salesforce

Education: Harvard Business School, United States Military Academy at West Point

Past Companies: Goldman Sachs, Accenture, Kana Software, Inc., Singularity University

Summary

James has over 15 years of leadership experience in investment banking, strategic consulting and corporate finance. For the past several years, James has served as Interim Chief Financial Officer for early-stage, technology companies focused on enterprise and consumer SaaS software, artificial intelligence, consumer electronics, medical devices, blockchain-enabled solutions, and advertising technologies. He provides strategic insight to CEOs, founding teams and Boards of Directors by aligning corporate vision and financial forecasts, monitoring performance, conducting financial and operational analyses, implementing and improving processes and systems, and scaling infrastructure and teams. James has partnered with executive teams to raise hundreds of millions of equity and debt capital. James received his MBA from Harvard Business School and BS in Systems Engineering from the United States Military Academy at West Point.

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Daniel Morton

CFO for Entrepreneurs and Family Offices

Vancouver, Canada

Services: International CFO, Financial analysis, Tax, Private equity

Education: UofM, London School of Economics

Summary

Daniel is a seasoned finance professional with 20+ years of international experience in CFO and M&A Advisor roles in technology and telecom sectors. After working in Investment Banking in Europe advising mid-stage companies mainly in tech, Daniel held several CFO roles with operations in North America, Europe and Asia. For the past 5 years, Daniel provided CFO and M&A advisory services to a global family office with a strong focus on IP portfolio based in Asia.

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Jay Goldberg

CFO, Investor Relations, & Corporate Development

Northern California, Remote

Services: Finance, Strategy, M&A, Communications, Management

Education: BA, UC Berkeley, MBA University of Chicago

Awards: CFA

Past Companies: Qualcomm, Peregrine Semi, Deutsche Bank, Lazard, Coca-Cola

Summary

Jay has spent his career at the intersection of Finance and Technology. He creates shareholder value by constructing compelling corporate narratives weaving together financial data and strategic analysis. He quadrupled the stock price with one company alone in 18 months. He has participated in over 20 IPOs and has written a book on how to take a company public, and counsel companies on how to successfully achieve liquidity events. This powerful combination of skills and experience affords him the ability to catapult shareholder value. On the corporate development side, he has created dozens of M&A target lists through banking and his own consulting practice. He negotiates and closes strategic partnerships that drive revenue and expand addressable markets. Drawing on his experience in China, he helped Qualcomm negotiate and stand up a joint venture with government entities there. He can provide you with strategic options and construct financial narratives to achieve your aggressive global objectives. His expertise is in the external-facing functions of Finance including Investor Relations, Corporate Development and Strategic Corporate Communications. He speaks fluent Mandarin and maintain deep connections in Asia.

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Vito Palermo

Chief Financial Officer and Chief Operating Officer

San Francisco Bay Area

Services: Interim CFO/COO, Strategic and Operational Projects including Business Planning, FP&A, Cash Management, Pricing, Corporate and Business Development, Capital Raising, M&A

Education: Stanford University Entrepreneur and Innovation Certificate, MBA St. Mary’s College

Awards: 6 time Telly Award winning Executive Producer

Past Companies: Secret Golf, Procket Networks, Extreme Networks, Bay Networks (formerly SynOptics), Metawave Communications, MeSoft, Kaazing, Scancafe, University of California, Mahindra Genze, Quantivo, Innova Dynamics, Her Universe, Pareto, SDN Central, Wiretap

Summary

Accomplished financial and operational executive with track record of implementing cross functional operations to support startup, rapid growth and multibillion-dollar global corporations. Over the past 25 years has been a CEO/COO/CFO, investor, board member and/or strategic advisor for more than 36 companies. He has held COO and CFO roles at public networking and communications companies (NASDAQ: EXTR, MTWV and NYSE:BAY) with annual revenues up to $2.3B and has had operating budget responsibility from $1M to $2B annually. As a strategic advisor and Interim Executive Officer, he has supported startups and new business initiatives in Internet Security, SDN, Network Storage, SAAS Software, Digital Media, Electric Vehicles, Renewable Energy, AgTech, Marketing Analytics, Telehealth and Personalized Medicine. Vito frequently negotiates business partnerships, joint ventures, distribution agreements and licensing contracts that drive market share, revenue and cost reductions. He has the unique ability to translate a deep understanding of business operations into development of growth strategies, new pricing and business models and the creation of dynamic financial models to drive company performance while providing strategic insights to CEO’s, leadership teams and BOD and aligning corporate strategy, operating objectives and financial performance. Vito is passionate about supporting and mentoring entrepreneurs and executive teams to help bring new business and consumer innovations to market while generating superior investor returns.

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Mike Batesole

CPA, CMA, CFO & COO for Startups

Bay Area

Services: Strategy, Cash Management, Budgeting/Forecasting, Coaching, FP&A, Operational and Financial optimization, BOD and Investor presentation and support

Education: Haas School of Business, UC Berkeley

Past Companies: Forte Enterprise Software (Public bought by Sun), VA Software (Public), Dorado, SaaS (Private Series D round bought by CoreLogic), Shaklee, Consumer products (Public), Origin House, Cannabis (Public bought by Cresco Labs)

Summary

As an experienced CFO, COO, and Board member across multiple industries, Mike brings a broad range of experiences to solve problems and/or to identify and maximize opportunities. Mike partnered with executives and cross-functional teams to define and execute strategy. Most recently at Origin House, Mike partnered with the management team to define strategy, mentored the finance team, improved cash management, led the budgeting/forecasting process and implemented a timely financial reporting model. At Shaklee, Mike partnered with the executive team to define and execute strategy that resulted in doubling the size of the business to $900 million through international expansion, new product categories, increased the customer LTV and reduced CAC. Mike takes a hands-on and collaborative approach when partnering with Senior Management to address the needs of the business, whether it is entering new markets, expanding or pivoting the business model, restructuring the business, implementing policy/procedures required to scale, financing, coaching the team or simply contract negotiations. See what others say about Mike’s skills and working style in the recommendation section of his LinkedIn profile.

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Bernie Mahon

CFO and Financial Consultant

San Francisco

Services: Business Planning, Financial Analysis and Modeling, Strategy, Capital Raising

Education: Vanderbilt (MBA), University of Scranton

Past Companies: Chronosphere, Advano, Deep Space Industries, Morgan Stanley

Summary

Bernie has spent his career across finance as a CFO and consultant at growth technology companies, over a decade in investment banking, and as a Big 4 CPA earlier in his career. This breadth of experience enables him to partner with executive teams and provide financial, strategic, and operational analysis and guidance. He has experience across verticals, including SaaS, hardware, internet and space; and has worked with late Series A stage through public companies.

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Trey Pruitt

CFO Consultant | SaaS & Consumer Internet

Los Altos, CA (Silicon Valley)

Services: Business Modeling & Forecasting, Operational Planning & Budgeting, KPIs, Management & Board Reporting

Tools: SaaS and Consumer Internet (marketplace, e-commerce, subscription, ad-based businesses)

Education: Stanford (MBA), Duke (BA)

Past Companies: TheFind (acquired by Facebook), Snapfish

Summary

Trey provides fractional and project-based CFO consulting services to SaaS and Consumer Internet companies. For the last fifteen years, he has helped clients make data-driven financial and operational decisions and achieve great results. If you are a CEO who needs an experienced CFO and strategic thought partner, he could be a good fit for your company.

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Gene Domecus

Interim/Fractional CFO/COO

Burlingame, CA

Services: Strategic planning, Financial models for fundraising, Int'l expansion

Tools: Quickbooks, NetSuite, Adaptive Planning, Bill.com, Expensify, Carta, Gusto

Education: MBA, Santa Clara University, BA, University of the Pacific

Past Companies: Macys.com, Bella Pictures, Rafter, Blurb, Peerspace, Freestyle VC

Summary

Drawing on over three decades of experience serving as both COO and CFO at multiple venture-backed startups, Gene pays attention to detail without losing sight of the overall strategic direction and translates financial goals into company and individual KPI’s aligned with the strategy. Less is more when it comes to focusing teams on the most important drivers of the business. He has successfully raised over $400M in equity and debt financing rounds at companies where he held financial leadership positions and managed revenue growth from zero to $800M during his tenure.

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Deepak Gupta

CFO/COO - Part-Time at Seed to B Startups; Investor; Coach

San Francisco Bay Area (Silicon Valley)

Services: Capital Raising (debt or equity), Strategic planning, Modeling , Forecasting

Education: MBA, University of Chicago, MS, VCU, BS Virginia Tech

Past Companies: Price.com, Centric Learning, PRYNT, UNYQ, Nitros

Summary

Deepak has been a CFO for the past nine years for startups at many stages. He is also part of the CFO group at Bessemer Venture Partners. He was a Managing Partner at Blue Bear Ventures, a UC Berkeley Deeptech fund, and advises entrepreneurs at the UC Berkeley Haas Business school. He has fourteen years of venture investing experience across four institutional funds. Prior to investing, he was part of 4 medical startups as either an entrepreneur or in management roles, having two exits with Cepheid (NASDAQ: CHPD), a molecular diagnostic company, and Neuropace (NASDAQ: NPCE), a medical device company. He holds a BS in Mechanical Engineering from Virginia Tech, an MS in Biomedical Engineering from Virginia Commonwealth University, and an MBA from the University of Chicago Booth School of Business.

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Nitin Mittal

Interim & Fractional CFO for tech and eCom startups at Acctuate

New York, NY

Services: Fundraising & Financing, M&A, Turnarounds & Restructurings, FP&A and Strategy

Tools: NetSuite, Oracle, QBO, SageIntaact, Xero, Bill.com, SQL

Education: Columbia University, University of Michigan

Past Companies: Solera, Branded, Flow Commerce, RadioShack, The Royal Bank of Scotland, Credit Suisse

Summary

Nitin has 20+ years of finance experience with over a decade in the software/SaaS and eCommerce industries. He has served in a CFO capacity for a dozen technology companies, leading finance departments at multiple VC and PE-backed businesses with revenues ranging from $5 to $500+ million, employees ranging from 50 to 9,000, and global operations spanning the US, Europe and Asia. Nitin has structured and negotiated complex equity and debt financing exceeding $360 mm as well as M&A transactions of ~$500 mm, leading the post-merger integrations on over a dozen acquisitions.

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Nick Hofmeister

CEO of Full Gauge Strategies, former CFO and founder

Cabot, VT

Services: All aspects of fundraising support, Has raised > $300M, Early stage strategy development through operational plan

Education: BS Computer Science, Northwestern University, MBA, MIT Sloan

Past Companies: Microsoft, Bain & Co, Sapphire Energy, Triton Algae Innovations, Front Range Biosciences, Divergent Technologies, AbstractOps, Mentor, advisor, or Board Director for 20+ additional companies.

Summary

Mission: Improve the lives of entrepreneurs and help startups be successful. Multi-company entrepreneur, founder, and executive across biotech, technology, and automotive. Raised $300M+. Co-founded 5 startups. Mentor and advisor to 20+ startups. Dad to 3 dogs, husband, volunteer firefighter, classical music major, gardener, and amateur BMW motorsports driver and mechanic.

Startup CFOs - Partner with kruze

Kruze clients are industry leading, funded Delaware corporations - if you are an experienced startup professional who consults with fast growing companies let us know! We’d be happy to learn about your experience and see if adding you to our network makes sense.

What is "Kruze Certified"

Kruze works with hundreds of startups every year, helping with everything from taxes to payroll to accounting to fund raising. We’ve helped many of these fast-growing companies find part-time CFO help, and we once we are comfortable with a finance professional’s qualifications and experience, we add the “Kruze Certified” designation! If your company needs senior finance help, talk to us today!

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Startup CFO FAQs

What does a startup CFO do?

The main responsibilities of a startup’s CFO are to:

  • manage the startup’s financial reporting
  • build and maintain the startup’s projections and budget
  • execute capital raises, like venture capital rounds
  • handle legal and negotiations for the CEO, such as leases, insurance, etc

The CFO should be helping translate the company’s metrics into insight that the rest of the management team can use to make strategic decisions - important decisions like when to make additional hires, when to ramp up sales or marketing spend, how potential contract will impact unit economics, etc.

Learn more about what does a good startup cfo do

Should seed stage startups have a CFO?

Most seed stage startups do not need a full time CFO. While it’s tempting for a “business” founder to take a Chief Financial Officer title, this is probably not the most important role for most seed stage companies to have filled with a full time person (COO may be a better title for that business founder).

A part-time CFO or experienced accounting CPA firm is a better fit for most seed (and most Series A startups) because they can be an experienced, frugal way to get the output that you’d expect from a CFO without the cost.

When does a startup need a CFO?

Startups should consider hiring a Part-Time CFO at a minimum of one quarter before a new fundraise. (Note that for many startups, a part-time CFO is the right option vs. a FTE CFO.) Startup CEOs will be VERY busy during a fund raise. Having a CFO to work on the projections, prepare KPIs, answer financial reporting questions - and in the best case - come with existing venture capital relationships, will drive a lot of leverage for the CEO during this challenging time.

Part-Time CFOs work well for Seed, Series A-C Startups. Past Series D, a startup will usually hires a CFO to manage the now growing accounting department, but expect to pay $240K+. There are signs that your startup is ready for a CFO (even when your company is only at the Series A or B stage). Some of these signs include the CEO having to interact on an almost daily basis with the CFO, the CEO or COO having to work closely on multiple client contracts with the sales team, the CEO having to deal with multiple accounting questions a week, etc.

And if your startup will consider going public within the next 12 to 18 months, you need a full time, public company experienced CFO.

Learn more about when does a startup need a CFO

What to look for in an outsourced CFO?

Not every fast-growth company needs an outsourced CFO, but when it’s time, it’s time! Here are some of the key items to look for when hiring a senior finance professional on a contract basis:

  • Look for someone who knows your stage - a company gearing up to get ready for a $100 million venture raise is very different from a company with more modest capital needs
  • If you operate in a speciality industry, you may need a specialist. Some industries, such as biotechnology or technology hardware manufacturing, have unique capital and cash flow needs. Finding an outsourced expert can help you craft a financial strategy unique to your business.
  • Get someone who can provide the right amount of attention for the foreseeable future. Fractional CFOs are in high demand, and finding someone who has enough time to dedicate to your business can be a challenge. Working with someone who doesn’t have the bandwidth to give you the attention you probably need maybe a mistake.
  • Choose a partner who will compliment your leadership and management style. For example, if you’re not a details-oriented CEO, finding a finance leader who is comfortable diving into the details may be best.

Startup CFO Services

Expect your outsourced Chief Financial Officer to help with the following

  • closing the monthly books and managing financial reporting
  • manage the budgeting process and the financial projections, including keeping track of the company's expected cash out date
  • fund raising logistics, advice and coordination, including supplying investors with financial and other due diligence material
  • contract negotiation for items like new leases, large vendor contracts, etc.
  • manage the company's cash and cashflow/burn, and make recommendations around hiring or changing the burn rate.

Basically, a startup CFO's services will include anything and everything the company needs to help translate the founders' vision into realty from a financial lens.

Outsourced CFOs near me

A common question we get is "how to I find an outsourced CFO near me?" Kruze works with outsourced CFOs near most major tech centers in the United States, including San Francisco, Silicon Valley, Southern California, New York, Austin (Texas), Boston (Massachusetts) and more. If you are looking for an outsourced CFO near you, see if Kruze can help you!

A Strategic CFO Partnership

Based on your startup’s needs, Kruze Consulting can provide the services of an entire in-house financial team at a lower cost than staffing your own finance department. As a Finance as a Service (FaaS) provider, Kruze can provide you with CFO and executive-level services, giving your startup the crucial financial reporting and strategic advisory services you need. Our seasoned financial experts can support your startup throughout all stages of its growth, and we have the systems and infrastructure to quickly onboard your company and provide you accurate, reliable, and timely financial services.

Client testimonials

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We're huge fans of Vanessa and the folks at Kruze Consulting. They set up our books, finances, and other operations, and are constantly organized and on top of things. As a startup, you have to focus on your product and customers, and Kruze takes care of everything else (which is a massive sigh of relief). I highly highly highly recommend working with Vanessa and her team.

Vivek Sodera

Vivek Sodera

Co-Founder @ Superhuman

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As a startup, moving quickly is a top priority for us and we just needed to get our tax return done. After we uploaded our docs, we got our tax return in 3 days! E-filing was confirmed by Day 4. Super responsive and helpful!

Casey McKerchie

Casey McKerchie

VP, Operations of Calm.com

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Avochato has been growing rapidly in the past year – in fact, too quickly for us to keep up with books, taxes, and budgeting for growth. Partnering with Kruze Consulting has been fantastic to manage, track, and analyze our finances while we continue focusing on building our customer base. Kruze’s team knows what startups need.

Alex De Simone

Alex De Simone

CEO @ Avochato

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Everybody, go to Kruze Consulting. They do a great job. I personally can tell you, they've done a great job for our companies, including Calm.com. I'm sure they’ll do a great job for you.

Jason Calacanis

Jason Calacanis

Angel investor

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I had a great experience working with Kruze Consulting when we raised Series A. They know what VCs need to see, and how to present a startup’s books and finances. If you are going to raise venture capital, you need experts like Kruze.

Chris Mansi

Chris Mansi

CEO @ Viz.ai

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Kruze Consulting is the perfect Accounting, Finance and Tax partner for Los Angeles Startups. Kruze delivers exceptional monthly reporting and financial projections. When we need help with benefits or payroll, Kruze solves our problems. Kruze does our taxes for a fraction of what previous accountants have charged. Thank you Kruze for being a great partner.

Brett O'Brien

Brett O'Brien

CEO @ FLYR

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Being a repeat tech entrepreneur, I know how challenging it is to find the ideal CFO - not only is it often expensive to find the right one, but CFOs who combine expertise with scrappiness, market vision and perspective with detail orientation and 'roll up your sleeves' execution is near impossible for an early stage company. So I've been thrilled to work with Kruze Consulting, who not only provide all the ideal characteristics of a top-tier tech CFO, but also live and breathe entrepreneurship themselves. I've known Scott and Vanessa for many years and their deep personal integrity and strong reputation in the industry and made it an easy decision to work with them again.

Tina Fitch

Tina Fitch

CEO @ HobNob

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NIH, NSF, and SBIR grant compliance can add a lot of overhead for a start-up. The Kruze team makes it easy, so we can spend our time growing the business instead of shoveling paperwork.

Charlie Silver

Charlie Silver

CEO @ Mission Bio

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As a startup, it’s incredibly important to keep track of where our money is coming from and where it’s being spent. Kruze Consulting really helps keep our books and taxes in order so that we can focus on the core business. Extremely responsive and very professional, the accountants at Kruze Consulting are a pleasure to work with. We’d highly recommend their services.

Peter Lai

Peter Lai

CEO @ Emburse

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Prior to Kruze, as a remote-first team, we were weighed down by a lot of the bureaucracy involved with having a distributed workforce. Kruze has supported us above and beyond basic accounting needs by ensuring we have everything we need to expand and support our team wherever they may be located

Zack Fisch

Zack Fisch

Pequity's Head of Operations & Legal

About Us

A CPA Firm Specialized in Startup Accounting & Finance

A CPA Firm Specialized in Startup Accounting & Finance

Startups are our niche, and our passion. Our clients have raised over $10 billion in venture capital financing. We are one of only a few outsourced accounting firms that specialize in funded early-stage companies - we only offer financial and tax services to fast growing startups in the Seed, Series A, Series B and Series C stages.

The Right Accounting Partner for Your Startup’s Next Round

The Right Accounting Partner for Your Startup’s Next Round

We know how to de-risk your startup’s next venture capital round. Our team makes sure you are ready to fly through your next VC’s accounting, HR and tax due diligence. And when you use us as your bookkeeper, we set up and keep up-to-date a due diligence folder so you can get that next round of fundraising.

A Leader in Cloud Accounting Software

A Leader in Cloud Accounting Software

Our practice is built on best of breed cloud accounting software like QuickBooks, Xero, Netsuite, Gusto, Zenefits, Expensify, Avalara, Brex iand Bill.com. Technology makes us more efficient, saving our clients money and letting us offer higher value services like FP&A modeling, 409A valuation and venture debt consulting. Startups deserve to work with CPAs using modern software.

Trusted by Top Venture Investors

Trusted by Top Venture Investors

Top angel investors and VCs refer Kruze because they trust us to give the right advice. Our clients are portfolio companies of top technology and Silicon Valley investors, including Y-Combinator, Kleiner, Sequoia, Khsola, Launch, Techstars and more. With us, your books and taxes are in order when it’s time to raise another round of venture financing.

What types of startups does Kruze Consulting usually work with?

What types of startups does Kruze Consulting usually work with?

Kruze Consulting works with a variety of funded Delaware C-Corps, but the majority of our companies have secured Seed, Series A, Series B and Series C. We look to partner with our clients, going beyond the typical outsourced accounting relationship and seeking to provide a higher level advisory role. We feel honored to be a part of making the world a better place, even if it’s one debit and credit at a time.

Accounting, Finance, Taxes, & Payroll all in one solution

Accounting, Finance, Taxes, & Payroll all in one solution

Startup CFO services, startup accounting and bookkeeping services, startup annual taxes, expense reports, payroll, benefits: we've got you covered. Our software provides custom tailored dashboards that can be provided weekly or monthly, depending on your preference and plan. Founders are often so busy building their company that they don’t have time to take care of their finances. Traditionally, these companies have had to work with a basket of people to get their work done, including bookkeepers, accountants, AP clerks, CFOs, consultants, and tax accountants. At Kruze Consulting, our founders have one point person, saving time and money.

READY TO CONNECT FOR A FREE CONSULTATION?

We are the experts at helping seed/VC-backed Delaware C-Corps with their accounting and finances!

Talk to an experienced accountant, not a generic sales person

 Kruze Consulting
Alex Janeck
 Kruze Consulting
Edith Silva
 Kruze Consulting
Bryan Sandt
Viz AI

$250M+ VC Funding Raised


"I had a great experience working with Kruze Consulting when we raised Series A. They know what VCs need to see, and how to present a startup’s books and finances. If you are going to raise venture capital, you need experts like Kruze."
Chris Mansi

Chris Mansi

CEO

Startup Venture Capital Assistance

With former venture capitalists on staff, our team is here to help you navigate the fundraising process and manage your board of directors

 Kruze Consulting
Scott Orn
COO | Former VC
 Kruze Consulting
Healy Jones
VP FP&A | Former VC
Pequity

Scale Remote Operations & Team


"Kruze has supported us above and beyond basic accounting needs by ensuring we have everything we need to expand and support our team wherever they may be located"
Zack Fisch

Zack Fisch

Head of Operations & Legal

Clients who have worked with Kruze have collectively raised over $12 billion in VC funding.

We set startups up for fundrising success, and know how to work with the top VCs.

 Kruze Consulting
Vanessa Kruze, CPA
Founder & CEO
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Experienced team helping you

Our US-based account management team is staffed by CPAs and accountants who have, on average, 11 years of experience.

 Kruze Consulting
Bill Hollowsky, CPA
VP of Accounting Services
 Kruze Consulting
Claudine Vantomme, CPA
Controller
 Kruze Consulting
Morgan Avery
SUT/R&D Sr. Tax Accountant
 Kruze Consulting
Beth Bassler
Controller, CPA
Protara Therapeutics

Grew from a 2-person startup to a NASDAQ listed public company.


"The Kruze team helped us grow from a 2-person startup to a NASDAQ listed public company in 2 years. We wouldn’t have gotten public without Kruze’s support. Anyone thinking of launching a startup should make Vanessa their first call!"
Jesse Shefferman

Jesse Shefferman

CEO

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Get in Touch

Please help us connect with you

How can we reach you?

Our first response is typically via email, so please check your inbox.

Help us have a productive first consultation by providing some additional information.

What year was your startup incorporated?

What is your stage of funding?

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Approximately how much funding have you raised?

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Optional - if you’d like to share anything else to help us prepare for our consultation, please let us know. We are also happy to sign an NDA, just let us know.

  Talk to a leading startup CPA