The first 100 days of the CFO in startup: structure, reassure, accelerate

Behind each fundraising, there is a promise. Accelerated growth, structuring, scaling. But between the announcement and the execution, there is an often underestimated link: the Chief Financial Officer.

In a startup, the appointment of a CFO – whether or it is the first of its kind or succeeds a “head of finance” – marks a phase change. It is no longer just the company of a product or a market: it is an organization that must demonstrate its ability to deploy capital, master its burn, and pilot to the next step. Clearly: make growth, But under control.

The first 100 days are therefore neither a period of comfort nor a transitioning airlock. They are there Invisible foundation of the cycle opening. Those who succeed them create confidence. Those who miss them compromise the trajectory.

Day 0: Understand what the fund is waiting for

The fundraising is not an objective, it is a tacit contract. Investors do not buy a vision; They invest in its realization, encrypted, sequenced, documented. The CFO is not there to manage the cash: it is there to Structure the path to proof.

Even before joining the company, a wise cfo:

• Analysis the CAP TABLE, the clauses of the pacts and the conditions of liquidity.
• Identify implicit expectations: how many runway? What Milestones of income or margin? What rate of recruitment?
• Takes the pulse of existing relationships between founders and investors.

It is not a question of being omniscient. But to know where we set foot – and above all, what the playground looks like.

Day 1 to 30: lay the foundations without slowing down the race

The startup has just raised. She recruits, signs customers, itere on her product. Everything goes fast. Too fast sometimes. The CFO arrives in a Standard -free systemwhere energy replaces the processes, and where instinct takes the place of piloting.

The first days must be used to resume control without breaking the movement. It starts with cash:

• Set up a cash forecast at 13 weeks, update every Friday.
• Identify risk areas: Unscontrolled recurring expenses, dependence on a customer, forgetting latent charges.
• Bring the forecasts of reality closer, to adjust the pace.

Then comes the accounting base. Even with a chartered accountant or an external firm, few startups have a Clean, up -to -date, readable assessment. You have to clean, reclassify, consolidate.

Finally, comes the relationship with investors. Again, the CFO plays a translator’s role: it transforms dispersed metrics (MRR, LTV, CAC, Churn …) in narrative structuredreadable in a board pack. Same summary, this monthly report marks a turning point: The startup becomes controlled, therefore credible.

Day 31 to 60: Create Scale’s framework

A startup that has just raised is a company that still has everything to prove. What investors have bought are hypotheses. The CFO must now equip them.

It starts with a Budget sliding at 12 monthsconnected to cash, commercial pipeline, and recruitment plan. It is not a question of being right. But to create a living model, which can be challenged, revise, compare.

This work is accompanied by structuring choices:

• Recruit a first or second finance profile (depending on the size): accountant, ops, management control?
• Formalize a coherent tool stack (Spendesk, Pennylane, Qonto, Payfit, Pigment, etc.)
• Create an anticipated data room: contracts, cap table, pacts, annual accounts, Saas Metrics, Kpis Growth … Better to have it before the next round is launched.

The CFO becomes here the scalability pillar : It does not slow down growth, it makes it possible.

Day 61 to 100: embody the trajectory and trace the suite

Credibility is acquired. It remains to transform it indeed a lever.

This is where the CFO can become, depending on the case:

• The architect of Go-to-Market (by modeling the acquisition costs, the unit margins, the points of balance by segment),
• The co-pilot produced (by encrypting the Build vs Buy arbitrations, the impact of the bundles, the profitability of the freemium offers),
• The right arm of the CEO (by scripting the conditions of a B series, or a bridge).

What now matters is no longer to alert or correct. It isorient. With figures. With scenarios. With an ability to say no.

Only one error: underestimate the role

Too many startups recruit a CFO to “relieve” the founders. But the real role of the CFO is not to take charge of the administration: it is Create the Conditions of Speed ​​without Chaos. He is the one who transforms a course into a trajectory, a model plane, a potential into metrics.