For funds & angels

The model still works
at the second board meeting.

The model that won the term sheet was built by a founder who then went back to selling. We keep the close tight, the cash view rolling and the model reconciled to actuals, so board questions get answered in the meeting rather than the following week.

Other partner types

You do the tax returnCPA & tax firms You underwrite the fileBanks & SBA lenders

You sit on the boardFunds & angels

You're selling the companyM&A & fractional execs

The full partner overview — boundary, mechanics, team →

What actually happens

Three problems diligence finds,
and one of them is cheap.

Bookkeeping is the least expensive of the three, and the only one anyone ever names.

The first two are ours to run. The third is what happens when nobody owns the function at all.

Within two quarters

The model nobody maintains after the wire

It was a fundraising artifact, not an operating one. By the second board meeting it has not been reforecast, and the founder is answering from memory.

The expensive mistake

"Clean up the books" fixes the cheapest one

Messy books, no close discipline and no forecasting capability are three separate problems. Only the first one gets named, and it is the one that costs least to fix.

What it costs you

You become the finance function by default

The founder calls you for help with a forecast you did not underwrite, and you are doing the work of a function that should have been hired.

The division of labor

Who owns what,
written down.

We work for the company, not the fund. That distinction matters for what we will and will not do with what we see.

You keep

The board seat and the governance role
Valuation, strategy and follow-on decisions
The relationship with the founder
Any reporting you require in your own format

We take

Monthly close, fast enough to matter
A rolling 13-week cash view the founder reads
A board pack built from a model that ties to actuals
Data room setup and fractional CFO work

What we never do

Tax preparation, audit or attest work
Marketing the round or setting the price
Sharing anything the company has not agreed to
Telling a founder what their company is worth

Use this at the next board meeting

Four questions that reveal
whether the function is real.

Clean books are not the same as a working finance function. These four separate a company that has one from a company that has a bookkeeper and a stale model.

“What day of the month do you close, and what was it last month?”
“Who updates the model, and when did they last reforecast to actuals?”
“Show me the rolling 13-week cash view.”
“If this round slips two quarters, what is the first thing you cut?”

Borrow this line

“Before the next board meeting I want three things: the close date, a reforecast against actuals, and a 13-week cash view. If nobody owns those, that is the thing to fix first.”

Asks for the function rather than the artifact. A founder who cannot answer the first question will not be able to answer the other three, and no amount of bookkeeping cleanup changes that.

Free · no email required

What you can send a founder today

Nothing here asks a founder for an email address. A referral that turns into a lead-capture form makes you look bad, not us.

Note

You diligenced a model nobody at the company can maintain

Written for seed and Series A investors. What to require of a portfolio company finance function, and why the cheap fix is the one everyone asks for.

Read it → send as-is

Checklist · PDF

Diligence-readiness checklist

What has to be true before a data room opens — deliberately not a document list. Two pages, ending in four questions a founder should be able to answer out loud. Your fund logo in the header on request.

Download → co-branding on request

Calculator

Runway and dilution calculators

Runway, burn and the raise and dilution math, all running in the browser with example values filled in. Send it to a founder whose dilution assumptions are wrong.

Open it → no signup

How it works

How a referral actually goes

Four steps, and only the first one is yours.

Yours

You send an intro email

That's the whole ask. No form, no portal, no partner tier, and no agreement to sign.

Within a week

We scope it in one call

Thirty minutes with the founder. If we're not the right answer we say so on that call and tell them what is.

Same conversation

They see a fixed price first

Tiers and scoped projects are published on our site. Nobody you refer gets a surprise number.

Once, then never again

You hear from us

A short note confirming what we're doing and where the boundary sits. After that we don't put you in a nurture sequence.

No referral fees,
in either direction.

We don't pay for introductions and we don't accept payment for ours. If we send you a client, it's because they need what you do. It keeps the advice clean, and it means you never have anything to disclose.