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Fractional CFO
What a growing company needs from finance before it needs a full-time CFO: cash you can see, a forecast you trust, and numbers you can make decisions from. Written from our fractional CFO work.
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45 articles
Raising Outside the AI Wave: Benchmark Against Your Own Lane
Record venture headlines don't describe the market most founders raise in. Why non-AI founders should benchmark against their own category, and how.
September 10, 2026 Fractional CFOYou Probably Don't Need a Full-Time CFO. You Might Need a Controller.
Founders often hire for the finance title they've heard of instead of the function they need. A simple sequence by revenue stage for bookkeeper, controller, fractional CFO, and full-time CFO.
August 18, 2026 Fractional CFOWhy I Don't Run the Books Myself
Prism Edge covers CFO, M&A, and AI under one roof. Why the books are run by a specialist accounting team, and the CFO runs the layer above them.
July 23, 2026 Fractional CFOThey Tripled Marketing Spend. Revenue Didn't Move.
More marketing spend without better measurement is just faster burn. Three reasons spend decisions fail at $2M revenue, and how to split the budget.
April 21, 2026 Fractional CFOHow Long Does Your Close Take?
Close cadence tells you more about a finance function than the P&L. What a slow close hides, and why you fix it before you forecast.
March 10, 2026 Fractional CFOYour Budget Is Only Useful If You Check It Against Reality
Everyone builds a budget; almost no one compares it to actuals. Why a budget enables agility, and how a monthly budget-vs-actuals review works.
February 17, 2026 Fractional CFOFundraise From Strength, Not From "Sign or We Die"
A great deck can't hide four months of runway. Why to extend runway before you pitch, the options founders overlook, and when to start.
December 9, 2025 Fractional CFOThe Safest-Feeling Finance Firms Can Be the Riskiest
Clear scopes, flat fees, and branded processes feel safe. What you may actually be buying, and why ticket portals break how startups work.
November 18, 2025 Fractional CFOFounders Decide Alone More Than They Realize
Founder loneliness is carrying decisions nobody else sees in full. Why a thinking partner who knows your numbers is valuable, and why that value shows up slowly.
October 9, 2025 Fractional CFOCrisis Doesn't Create Competence. It Reveals It.
What leaders who handle pressure well actually do: stay calm, contain instead of escalate, take responsibility, and rebuild trust with evidence.
September 9, 2025 Fractional CFOSilos Start at Eight People
Information silos form early, and finance-to-sales is the costliest gap. Why sharing the numbers with your team beats protecting them from it.
August 19, 2025 Fractional CFOThe Numbers Whisper Before They Scream
The quiet signs a company is drifting, why dashboards don't make decisions, and how to avoid panicking over one bad month.
July 10, 2025 Fractional CFOThe Most Dangerous Time to Hire Is Right After You Raise
Fresh capital creates pressure to hire. Why a raise should reduce uncertainty, not fill an org chart, and the signals to wait for before adding headcount.
April 17, 2025 Fractional CFO"We'll Figure Out Pricing Later" Is a Dangerous Sentence
Pricing isn't a marketing detail. It decides your customer, sales motion, cost structure, and positioning, and who you attract.
March 18, 2025 Fractional CFOYour Annual Budget Turns Into Fiction in 60 Days. Use a Rolling Forecast.
A locked annual budget stops matching reality fast. Why a rolling 12-month forecast with documented assumptions is how you actually run the business.
February 11, 2025 Fractional CFOVendor or Partner? What You're Actually Buying From a Finance Firm
Founders assume their finance firm is watching the money. Many are only executing tasks. The difference between a vendor and a partner, and a one-sentence test.
January 16, 2025 Fractional CFOOptionality Beats Optimization
Two spending options can show the same return and carry very different risk. Why fixed costs collapse your choices and how to decide where to commit.
December 17, 2024 Fractional CFOMy Job Isn't to Be Liked. It's to Tell the Truth.
A good CFO isn't the "no" person or an expensive babysitter. They push back hard, make the case, then back the founder's decision fully.
November 14, 2024 Fractional CFOBefore You Hire, Diagnose
Most hiring decisions are misdiagnoses. How to tell a capacity problem from a systems problem, and why lean finance still needs leadership.
September 10, 2024 Fractional CFOStop Watching Burn Rate. Watch Your Burn Multiple.
Burn rate without context means nothing. What burn multiple is, how to calculate it, and the ranges Series A investors look for.
August 8, 2024 Fractional CFOOne Profitable Month Is an Accident. Here's How to Tell a Trend.
A single green month can be a timing quirk. Four tests to pass before you tell your board you've turned the corner.
July 18, 2024 Fractional CFOThe 30-Second Test for Whether You Understand Your Business
Four numbers every startup leader should know from memory, what each one tells you, and why they double as a fast fundraising-readiness check.
June 18, 2024 Fractional CFOSeries A Partners Don't Read Your Deck. They Look for Three Numbers.
A partner skims a deck in about ninety seconds looking for three numbers. Which ones, what they mean, the benchmarks, and where to put them.
May 9, 2024 Fractional CFOUseful Beats Right
People resist predictions and act on options. Why financial advice needs a recommendation, and the better questions founders should ask their CFO.
April 9, 2024 Fractional CFO"We're Profitable!" On Paper, or in the Bank?
You can show a profit and still miss payroll. The difference between accounting profit and cash flow, where the gap comes from, and how to check yours.
February 15, 2024 Fractional CFOWhat Should a Founder Pay Themselves?
No salary signals grit; market salary signals legitimacy. Both extremes can hurt the company. How to set founder pay as a decision-quality question.
January 16, 2024 Fractional CFOUnit Economics Don't Improve With Scale. Scale Exposes Them.
"It'll get better at scale" is one of the most dangerous assumptions in startup finance. Why scale amplifies the unit economics you already have.
December 14, 2023 Fractional CFOStartups Don't Die From Growing Too Slowly. They Die From Scaling Too Soon.
Most startups die in the messy middle. The warning signs of premature scaling, the hidden cost of expansion, and how to choose growth you can afford.
November 14, 2023 Fractional CFOYour Biggest Competitor Is "Do Nothing"
Most prospects aren't choosing between you and a rival. They're choosing whether to change at all. What that means for CAC, and why "we have no competitors" hurts you with investors.
October 19, 2023 Fractional CFODoes Your Plan Survive a Bad Month?
Most founders plan only for the upside. A three-scenario method for financial decisions, and how to speak to the board and the bank account at the same time.
September 19, 2023 Fractional CFORaise for Milestones, Not Months
"Raise 18 to 24 months of runway" is backwards. Why investors fund progress, not time, how to size a round, and why bigger rounds need better systems.
July 13, 2023 Fractional CFORevenue Isn't Cash
Booking revenue and collecting cash are different things. Why runway depends on collections, what DSO tells you, and how annual contracts can hide weak product-market fit.
June 13, 2023 Fractional CFOHigh Margins Won't Save You From Runaway CAC
Gross margin, product-led growth, and MRR can all look healthy while the business leaks. Why acquisition cost and net revenue retention tell the real story.
May 18, 2023 Fractional CFOInvisible Burn: The Spending Nobody Re-Checks
The most dangerous burn is the spending you've stopped noticing. What invisible burn looks like and a 30-minute audit to find it.
April 18, 2023 Fractional CFOEvery Option Grant Is a Financing Decision
Cash comp eats runway; equity comp eats ownership. Why founders should treat every option grant like cash, and how to check one before you make it.
March 9, 2023 Fractional CFOEvery Financial Model Is Wrong. Investors Know That.
Investors aren't looking for accurate projections. They're looking for logic. What to show about assumptions, sensitivity, and how you'll adapt.
February 14, 2023 Fractional CFO"Can We Do This?" Is the Wrong Question
Most decisions aren't about feasibility; they're about trade-offs. How a good CFO turns "can we?" into a real decision, and finds a way to yes.
December 15, 2022 Fractional CFOIf You're Asking "Do We Need a CFO?", You Needed One Three Months Ago
The five signs a startup has outgrown founder-run finance, and why doing it yourself costs more than it saves.
November 15, 2022 Fractional CFOA Pivot Isn't a Failure. It's Proof You Listen to Data.
The best founders don't hide their pivots, they explain them. How to tell the pivot story to investors honestly, with the numbers that drove it.
January 13, 2022 Fractional CFOYour Dashboard Has Too Many Metrics
More metrics don't make better decisions. The right ones do. An essential eight-metric financial dashboard, and the rule for cutting everything else.
November 16, 2021 Fractional CFOYou Probably Don't Have 18 Months of Runway
Most runway numbers assume everything goes to plan. A simple three-scenario cash model shows how much time you really have, and when to act.
September 14, 2021 Fractional CFOInvestors Fund Precision, Not Potential
If you can't show how every dollar turns into more dollars, you're not ready to raise. The investor-ready financial package, piece by piece.
July 15, 2021 Fractional CFO"I'm a Product Person, Not a Finance Person" Caps Your Company
Every product decision is a financial decision. Founders who don't do finance are still making financial calls every day, just without seeing the numbers.
May 18, 2021 Fractional CFO"That's Not My Department" Is a Red Flag in a CFO
A good CFO spots the problem. A great one owns the fix, even when it lives in marketing, product, or sales. Why the best CFOs treat the whole business as their job.
March 16, 2021 Fractional CFOVisionary Founder, Realist CFO: Why the Pairing Works
Founders see what could be. CFOs see what could go wrong. How the best founder/CFO partnerships turn that tension into a plan that is both bold and doable.
January 14, 2021What's next for your company?
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