What I Told the New CFO First
Day one, he asked what to look at before the board meeting in two weeks. I told him three things, none of them in the model he'd been sent.
Angle
Finance
26 posts
October's Forecast Misses by Seven Figures
The revenue figure the board has quoted since October will miss the audited final by $1.4M. The CFO already knows, and the gap isn't error.
Three Numbers, One Page
The CFO ran a 30-tab model. The CEO ran the company on three numbers in pen on the back of an agenda. Most founders get which one steers backwards.
The CFO who reported gross instead of net
Gross revenue grew thirty percent. Net grew six. The board update used the bigger number. The next round used the smaller one.
Unhedged currency exposure
The contract was in euros, the costs in dollars, and the rate moved before the cash arrived. The deal lost its margin on an exposure nobody hedged.
The Tax Line Your Model Left at Zero
The books closed and the company owed $212,000 in taxes nobody had modeled. Franchise and sales tax come due whether or not you're profitable.
The deferred revenue you accidentally spent
The customer prepaid for a year. The cash landed. The team treated it as runway. Six months later, when the refund came due, the cash was gone.
The annual contract booked as monthly revenue
ARR was smooth. Cash was lumpy. The board slide flattened both into a number that was neither.
Your 72% gross margin was mostly fixed cost
Gross margin held at 72% for three years. Then diligence recomputed it at 58%. The costs in the COGS line had quietly stopped being variable.
The unit economics spreadsheet nobody opened
It lived on page four of a Notion doc, was updated quarterly, and was wrong by sixty percent. Nobody noticed until the term sheet.
Eleven months of runway, not eighteen
He thought he had eighteen months. He had eleven. The gap was every assumption he never wrote down.
The forecast got worse when it got bigger
One CFO's model grew from one tab to eleven and the variance to plan got wider. A forecast you can't rebuild from memory has stopped steering.
The Forecast Meeting
A forecast built as a best-estimate becomes a commitment the moment it leaves the spreadsheet. Three warning signs the conversion has already happened.
Your Best Margin Is Your Worst Customer
Gross margin reports what ingredients cost. Fully-loaded unit economics reports what the business lost. The two numbers are rarely the same.
Why a Strong Quarter Doesn't Reach Your Bank Account
A strong quarter shows up on the P&L, then leaks out the personal card. Why owners overspend, how to stop it, and where to route the freed cash.
Scaling Punishes Every Shortcut You Took
Sales are climbing, so why the knot in your stomach? Scaling exposes every shortcut hiding in your cash, team, and process. What to fix before you push volume.
The Anatomy of a Durable Business
Say you closed a record month, $500K in new revenue. The team is buzzing, but the bank account feels lighter, not heavier. That gap after a win is a signal.
5 Money Habits Founders Skip
You run $800K through the company and still wince at your student loans. Five habits close the gap between business books and personal runway.
Price Low and You'll Attract the Wrong Customers
The instinct is to price low and grab share. That instinct quietly costs you the clients you actually want.
A budget that survives payroll week
The knot in your stomach on payroll day is a budget you never built. Build one that keeps the lights on: a goal, your own numbers, a rolling forecast, a buffer.
Six Cities Where Seed Capital Lasts Longer
SF and NYC can eat a seed budget before your first hire. Six lesser-known cities, from Da Nang to Tel Aviv, stretch the same capital much further.
Funding a Startup From Your Own Pocket
Bootstrapping isn't the frugal version of venture funding. It's a different game with a different scoreboard, and four decisions that keep you solvent.
Five Startup Costs That Never Make the First Budget
The budget balances on paper: payroll, rent, product, marketing. Five costs that run the account dry never made the spreadsheet.
The cash gap in a record month
Your best month on record, and the cash still isn't in the bank. Where it went, and four habits that keep a small company solvent through a bad month.
The margin hiding in the utility bill
The quarterly utility bill is a P&L line, not an act of conscience. Three habits that cut energy spend and drop straight to margin.
Tax mistakes that quietly drain founder cash
You left the cubicle to own your time, not overpay the tax agency. What you keep comes down to claiming every expense, incorporating right, and a real CPA.