Why is the role called “Fractional” CFO?
Fractional means that multiple non-competing companies share me as their Chief Financial Officer (CFO). Typically, this means I’m engaging with you as the CEO, and often the CMO and CTO, once or twice per week.
A “Fractional CFO” is a way to get CFO-level involvement in your company without having to incur the costs of a full-time headcount. More important than the cost considerations, it provides broad-based and on-demand perspective.
Helping You Achieve Your Goals
James Spurway, the Co-Founder, Head of Advisory and Investment Services of Indochina Consulting Pte. Ltd., can be retained as your company’s Fractional CFO on a very specific mandate. As fractional CFO, he’s often brought into an organization to help achieve a particular goal, such as raising capital or preparing for a sale, merger, or acquisition. In the past 27 years, he has helped raise hundreds of millions of dollars of debt and equity funding for multiple companies and has helped oversee a number of mergers and acquisitions.
In these cases, a fractional CFO is helpful in:
- Bringing expertise and validation to the company
- Sitting in on your board meetings
- Helping with strategic relationships
- Taking the Lead role on Fundraising
- Analyzing term sheets and contracts
- Overseeing due diligence
How does a Fractional CFO save you both time and money?
If you are starting your own business you have two choices. Do everything yourself and make the same mistakes that many Startup Founders have made, some of which you might be able to smile and laugh off, and others might be terminal – i.e. put you out of business, permanently.
I’ve made mistakes. Many. I’ve been worth US$200 Million, and US$2. Immersing myself in the Fundraising process for one of my own companies ended up sending me bankrupt in once instance. I got so focussed on the process that I took my eye of the market and the day to day business for a few months. My team made some mistakes and covered them up. Clients cancelled orders and they covered that up. Our cashflow dropped suddenly, and they couldn’t cover that up. But is was too late. Don’t make that same mistake.
Since there is a range of choices in picking someone who can act as your company’s marketing executive, the trick is to align your needs, opportunities, risks and budget to the potential resource. Here are the key questions to ask yourself:
- How important is this role? Do you need some tactical assistance or true C-level leadership to fill a gap in your leadership team?
- What’s at stake? Are you making important, but minor adjustments to your go-to-market capabilities or seeking major growth, improvements and impact?
- How quickly do you need results? Will you be looking for results to trickle in over some time, or do you need big things to happen, soon?
The short answer is somewhere between US$150/hour and US$1,500/hour. Which is to say, you might find some single person Financial Consulting companies who are interested in doing ad-hoc work on an hourly basis. Most times, however, the more established CFO’s are dedicated to their craft and this is their only income stream. Depending on their track record and who they have worked with or still work with, they have earned the right to charge more.
My offer is really simple. I know that the Fundraising cycle will normally be between 12 weeks and 24 weeks for a Seed round, and small Series A. You need to have someone like me leading that process and being the conduit between you and the investors as they are onboarded.
My daily rate is US$1,999.00.
Let’s look at the most common scenario where a company needs someone who has “been there and done that that” successfully before, i.e. Startup Fundraising.
The Fundraising cycle will normally take between 3-4 months. Previous engagements have shown that CEO’s/Founding Teams get the most value out of me when I’m accessible for at least 4 days in the first, 2 days in the second and 1 days in the third month, i.e. a total of 7 days.
We work on a minimum retainer of four days over a four month period, i.e. US$7,996.000.
For clients who also sign a contract with my company to raise debt or equity capital for your Startup, I will rebate you 50% of the Fractional CFO consulting fee at the end of month 4 or whenever the Fundraising campaign has successfully been completed, whichever happens first.
Click the button below to book a call with James Spurway to discuss the many ways he can increase your company’s revenue or reduce your company’s costs.
I’d like to book a call with James Spurway to discuss the scope of a Fractional CFO…