My job isn’t to be liked. It’s to tell the truth.
Sometimes that means raising the same issue more than once: the burn isn’t sustainable, the hire is premature, the pricing doesn’t work, the program needs to go. The job isn’t to make founders comfortable. It’s to keep them solvent.
Then it’s their call
I advocate hard, bring the data and don’t soften the message. Then it’s the founder’s company. Once they decide, I execute fully. No resentment, no “I told you so.”
Not the “no” person
Founders often see CFOs as gatekeepers: too expensive, not in the budget, next quarter. Good CFOs sit next to you, not across from you. We don’t clip wings. We make sure you don’t stall mid-flight.
A lot of financial management is expensive babysitting: tracking every expense, reports nobody reads, problems flagged after the fact. Good financial management prevents problems and gives founders the confidence to move faster.
The best pairs disagree
One founder I worked with saw five steps ahead. My job was making sure we took the next one with both feet on the ground. He wanted more sales reps; the numbers showed the current team still had room to grow. We argued, adjusted and landed somewhere better than either starting point.
Scorecard