STRATEGIC ADVISORY
Startup Consulting Services
Paro’s fractional startup consulting services keep everything in motion so you can pivot, scale and accelerate to the next stage.
Use Startup Consulting From Fractional CFOs to Scale Smarter
Many early-stage businesses don’t have a full-time CFO, which leaves founders straddling finances alongside everything else. A fractional startup CFO can help you build value, keep your vision on course and add consistency and power to your financial operations.
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Debt & equity financing
Identify opportunities, strengthen your business cases and enhance fundraising with financial visibility. -
Investor relationship management
Build stakeholder trust with regular updates and on-demand financials to proactively preserve business value. -
New market & strategic business planning
Focus your team on the things that drive growth:key business drivers, operational strengths and mission-critical metrics. -
Forecasting & reporting
Put processes and tools in place to identify and model risk, opportunities and strategies for growth. -
Compliance
Maintain the high compliance standards that investor-backed companies are held to.
Trusted by Thousands of U.S. Businesses
From small businesses and startups to mature companies, our experts meet you where you're at with the exact skills and experience you need. Here's why we're the preferred choice for businesses across the country.
100%
US-based talent
60+
industries served
250+
skill sets
15
avg. years of experience
Elevate Fundraising With Battle-Tested Startup Expertise
Debt and equity financing take a large portion of a founder’s bandwidth. Whether securing a
loan or negotiating with venture capitalists, startup consulting services can help you fund
your vision faster.
Outsourcing a startup CFO helps you:
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Find the appropriate investors for your business and your long-term goals.
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Prepare your narrative and know your numbers inside and out.
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Ensure that financial operations and business-as-usual remain strong while you’re focused on raising capital.
For many startups, you only have one shot. Paro’s startup consulting services can get you buttoned up with an airtight story backed by data—in fact, fundraising ranks among our top 10 strategic advisory capabilities.
Perfect Your Pitch
Preparation
Prepare the necessary reports for your VCs and get an outsider’s perspective on your story.
Pitch Deck
Surface convincing financial data to flesh out your story and make it compelling.
Post-Pitch
Use modeling and scenario planning to prove performance to your investors across all variables.
As you advance, a Paro CFO can help you evolve your story. Learn more about raising capital round-by-round.
Accelerate Your Fundraising Efforts
Fundraise faster with Fundraising as a Service (FaaS). Our experts support the investor relations legwork, from identifying investors to scheduling investor meetings, so you can devote yourself to your core business.
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Offload investor outreach through expert email and LinkedIn campaigns, executed on your behalf.
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Widen your investor net with expanded access to investor databases.
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Receive weekly progress reports to seize on momentum or pivot your strategy.
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Save time with a low-touch management solution while maintaining control and visibility into the process.
Make a Startup CFO Your Point Person for Investor Relations
A regular cadence of communication inspires confidence and acts as a jumping off point for
ideation and action. Your financial forecasts and reports are the currency of these
conversations, especially in times of uncertainty, when stakeholders scrutinize even closer.
A fractional CFO can act as an investment relationship manager. Our startup consulting will
help you:
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Manage your strategy for liaising with stakeholders, including both current and prospective investors.
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Align leadership, accounting and legal teams to centralize messaging on your financial data and strategy.
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Maintain investor confidence by building transparency and communication around your valuation and continued growth.
Paro CFO consultants help you stay agile and prepared to meet investor demands or preserve your valuation. Learn how a CFO works to preserve business value and maintain your runway.
Recommended Reading
CASE STUDY
CASE STUDYData Startup Raises $15M Series A, Gains Strategic Financial Roadmap from Experts
How a growing startup secured its capital needs and developed a lean and efficient finance function.
Read more › SUCCESS STORY
SUCCESS STORYFractional Expert Increases Month-End Close Speed Post-Fundraise
During a funding round, an education tech company needed a financial leader to strengthen its day-to-day operations to help prepare for an audit.
Read more › CASE STUDY
Paro CFO Helps Startup Raise $1.25M by Creating Robust Financial Model
A strong financial model anchors funding wins and serves as a post-fundraise roadmap for growth.
Read more ›Uncover Opportunity With Additional CFO Services for Startups
In addition to fundraising, Paro CFOs can evaluate the health of your business and provide
strategic guidance on process optimization, business planning and next steps.
Get support in planning and executing your next turn, whether it’s expansion, going public
or entering an M&A deal.
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Conduct the right due diligence for future business deals.
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Establish the right KPIs and milestones for your growth strategy.
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Build your forecasting and data muscle to drive decision making.
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Assess your operational efficiency to save time, costs and compliance headaches.
Why Should You Work With a Paro Startup CFO?
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They understand startups.
- 60% worked in high-growth environments
- 20% have been business founders
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They fill your gaps.
- 55+ industries including VC/PE, healthcare, SaaS, real estate, IT, construction and more
- Tech proficiency in top accounting and business systems
- 15 spoken languages
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They perform at a high level.
- 20 years average experience
- Verified experience at Fortune 500s
- 1 in 5 hail from top U.S. banks
Fundraising Advice and Success Stories from Paro Experts
Watch fractional CFO Craig S. and our Co-Founder Michael Burdick discuss fundraising amid uncertainty.
“There are exponential returns and value of having a third-party sounding board preparing and
helping you through that process. The further along you get, the more it is about numbers and
execution.”
– Paro CFO Craig S.
Ignite Growth With On-Demand Talent
Elevate your business with technical and industry expertise from seasoned professionals, ready when you are.
FAQ
While many startups prioritize hiring for growth over financial discipline, a CFO can create legitimacy and investor confidence through a body of solid financial reports. Someone who’s coaching the numbers and guiding strategy allows everyone else to focus on what they do best. Though a startup doesn’t have to hire a full-time CFO if it’s trying to stay lean. A fractional CFO can help a startup gain its footing before a full-time hire is needed.
A startup CFO helps build your foundation to scale your organization and meet the demands of your investors. The CFO will help the CEO or founder:
- Strategize a path forward by prioritizing the right goals and targets.
- Provide reports, forecasts and other financials to fuel data-driven decisions.
- Reduce costs and streamline operational efficiency to support scalability.
- Back fundraising efforts and communicate financials to the board.
- Adhere to compliance and legal requirements and apply controls to the finance team.
A startup CFO, specifically, should be able to conduct financial analysis (e.g., forecasts) and, in turn, have strong presentation skills to communicate that data effectively both internally and externally. The CFO should also have a strong understanding of the fundraising process and the due diligence involved in securing investors. An eye for efficiency is also important in a high-growth environment.
A base salary for a full-time CFO can cost a company up to hundreds of thousands of dollars, depending on its size and stage. Hiring a fractional CFO can provide you with the expertise you need at a fraction of the cost, without the price of benefits or the possibility of giving up additional equity in the company.
While the CEO is setting the stage and providing a vision, the CFO is laying the groundwork and coordinating the data behind that vision. They optimize your processes, identify risks and opportunities, monitor valuation and create the reports you need to sell your story. They also act as a devil’s advocate to rehearse tough questions.
An interim CFO is someone who jumps in to help for a limited period of time, whether a few months or a year. Though an interim CFO is often employed when a full-time CFO departs, businesses can also hire an interim CFO before transitioning to full-time leadership in order to get support with major projects, like fundraising or an M&A transaction. A fractional CFO can also assist a full-time CFO or finance leader that is inexperienced in a specific area. With Paro, you can dial your engagement up and down based on your needs and budget.