Anthony: Hello, I’m Anthony, founder at SeedLegals and today we’re talking about CFO’s. Most companies, most startups don’t really know what a CFO is. Bigger companies, later stage companies have CFOs, early stage companies, the CFO is very rarely the first hire. So somewhere along the journey, you’re going to need a CFO and, to take care of that story and pick the right time to hire one or a half of one or a fraction of one, we’re going to talk to Searle from Hire CFO. Hello, Searle.

Searle: Hey, how are you, Anthony? Good to meet you. 

Anthony: Likewise. All right. And two South African accents. Yep. So Hire CFO. You provide fractional CFOs to companies. Yes. So let’s start with what is the CFO? Because most companies, I think most founders think that it’s kind of like a glorified bookkeeper, more expensive bookkeeper. But then you hire a CFO and then you ask them to do the books. So that’s a full conversation.

Searle: Now that’s a good question. We were discussing that earlier. Titles are used sometimes interchangeably and sometimes right and sometimes wrong, but it’s a CFO stands for chief financial officer. And that’s basically CFO and FD are used a lot together. But in a nutshell, it is someone who’s typically, accountancy trained with at least I’d say 15 years experience plus. And they help. It’s changed in the last 10 to 15 years. In the old days they used to look at the numbers, present numbers and talk about numbers. Now it’s changed a lot. They become a lot more commercial and strategic. And literally they’re the right hand man to the CEO. So strategy you know whatever. What should we do? Should we open up offices abroad or is it too early? You know, things like that. So a partner  to the CEO and you kind of touched on it. When does a company need one? Well, there’s no quick answer, but, what we offer is fractional CFO services, kind of I call it pay as you go.

And it’s a win-win because startups and even medium sized companies, two things, A they don’t need a full time CFO and B it’s too expensive. You know, the UK minimum CFO, you’re talking 150 K, so it’ll be between 150 and 250. So a lot of money. So we help companies that need our help. But it’s on a daily basis. Our sweet point seems to be about 1 to 2 days a week. And that works out averagely between, I’d say 30 to 50% they save on unemployment costs.

Anthony: Okay. So what stage companies would typically come to Hire CFOs? 

Searle: Do you know what? It’s interesting. The broad range we’ve got from a half a million turnover and our biggest client in the states is 70 million turnover. So, it’s a broad range, but typically they’re SMEs between 1 million and say 5 or 6 because, as you probably know, to get to 1 million has its challenges. And to go from 1 to 5 is another whole set of challenges, etcetera, etcetera. And yeah, it’s helping them, as I say, fundraising. Just with reporting and that. But it could just be some advice.

Anthony: Okay. So to wrap up for somebody watching this, what would be the key things to indicate that they might want to be looking for a CFO or Fractional CFO.

Searle: So there are a few things. One is and this often happens, the founder is doing his own accounting. And their own modeling and their own cash flow, whatever they do, not themselves. That’s one sign they should be focusing on running and growing the business. 

Anthony: Or they’re the CFO. 

Searle: Yeah, exactly, exactly. Other things, what we’ve covered, which they all know. Actually they’ll say they know, but they sometimes don’t trigger that. They need someone. They want to raise money, they want to sell a business, etc., etc.. That’s a really hard one. Because the truth is, forget the title, whether it’s an FD or a finance manager, every company will need one. The issue is that a lot of people don’t know you can have someone one day a week, I’m sorry, one day a month. And so it’s very affordable. There’s always stuff to do like, you know, managing your business. One of the most basic things is a cash flow forecast. And I get a lot of these young tech guys, they’re brilliant but they say, nah, I need to do one. I’ve got 50 K in the bank. I’m good. And I say, yes, you do.

But you know, you’ve got a VAT return in one week and you’re a corporation. You’re going to have 2000? So I haven’t really answered but basically at and typically growing and scaling the business they grow in, maybe looking at different territories or different countries, hiring staff, things like that is a kind of an indication they’re scaling. That they’re going to need financial help. 

Anthony: All right. So where can people find Hire CFO and where can they find you to learn more? 

Searle: Oh well, they can find me everywhere and anywhere. I’m all over LinkedIn. Our website obviously is, hirecfo.com. We are primarily in the UK and the US. The US is growing really quickly and also in the Middle East. 

Anthony: How many CFOs do you have on your books? 

Searle: We have. I lose track as we kind of, every week or so, we’re getting more. There’s roughly 32 of us. 20 in the UK, 12 in the US.

Anthony: Okay, so Seed Legals is partnered with Hire CFO to help startup founders get those fractional CFO resources. I’m delighted that we’ve chatted. Thanks for sharing knowledge.

Searle: I’m excited about this opportunity of helping, you know, literally adding value and, you know, helping clients. And I didn’t say it earlier, but, and it’s in a nice position to be, we only take on clients who we know we can help. We’ve had some people that have come to us and we’ve said sorry, like we don’t believe in their business or what they’re doing, and we say we can’t help you raise.So yeah, looking forward, I think it’s going to be a good partnership. 

Anthony: All right. Fantastic. Thank you so much Searle. 

Searle: Thanks.