Services for Early-Stage Startups
From Founding to Stable Growth
Financial & Business Advisory
Financial planning and business planning go hand-in-hand. In my years consulting startups, I’ve noticed that financial planning doesn't get as much attention as other parts of setting up the business. I believe this is a mistake! I can help you and your organization build a financial plan that you can use to monitor the success of your business.
This involves:
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Evaluating and updating financial plans in alignment with the overall business strategy and timeline.
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Acting as a strategic thinking partner, assisting clients in defining their business strategy through thoughtful analysis.
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Pinpointing crucial Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) to gauge business performance.
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Identifying and addressing gaps and obstacles.
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Setting up financial process and procedures to support regular financial reviews and reporting.
Fractional CFO
The role of a CFO managing financial controlling tasks is critical to a management team and organization. However, in the early stages of a startup it can be difficult to fill this role on a full time basis while also trying to hire for product scaling activities. I can help your organization with some of the more key functions of financial controlling as a fractional CFO until that time that it makes sense to bring on a full time team member for that role.
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Owning the financial plan, budget, and forecast
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Working with the various team members to stay on track or monitor deviations from the budget
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Preparing cash management plans for management
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Establishing and monitoring KPIs
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Supporting management with investor relations topics related to financials and KPIs
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Identifying risks and gaps
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setting up annual budgeting and quarterly financial review processes and procedures
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joining relevant meetings to determine the financial impact of various organizational topics
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Monitoring / responding to email traffic ongoing basis
Fundraising Advisory
Fundraising is vital to the survival of a startup. Founders are often surprised by the amount of time they spend on this activity and daunted by the task. Often times it can be a fulltime activity during the fundraising process. I help clients navigate the overall fundraising process including:
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Helping you identify appropriate investors for your business and figure out how best to approach them
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Drafting and/or refining your pitch deck and financial model based on what I have personally seen in the market as an Angel Investor
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Prepping for investor meetings (mock pitches), attending meetings and providing feedback on how you can tweak and refine your story
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Preparing next steps after the meeting for investors who are interested (the due diligence data room)
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Reviewing term sheets