QUESTION:
I’m bootstrapping my startup. Is it worth hiring a temp CFO pre-funding? What would a CFO do for me at this point? My business is pretty simple right now.
ANSWER:
by Soody Tronson, Founder of Soody Tronson Law Group
The role of a CFO, is more than performance of accounting function. There are a few good organizations that provide part-time CFO’s for startups (e.g., www.cfos2go.com). Some top level reasons, even for a pre-funding start up, will be prospective planning, a solid business plan and financials, review of what compensation plans/criteria/consequences best fit the particular business objectives.
Often, strategic planning upfront (whether financials, intellectual property, clinical trial, etc.) is well worth the effort and minimizes avoidable costs/reworks down the line.
by Naomi Kokubo
Most startups I know simply use QuickBooks and Excel to do their financials. It doesn´t hurt to hire a temp CFO to look over your numbers and make sure you´re doing things correctly. The basic bookkeeping you can do yourself or hire a part-time bookkeeper to come in and do the books every other week. Unless you´ve raised serious capital or have a unique situation, you can probably get away without a CFO until you´re at a later stage.