Hiring a CFO at a Series B fintech company is very different from hiring a finance leader at a traditional business. Here, it’s no longer about demonstrating that the idea works-it’s about rapidly scaling-and this requires dealing with mounting revenue, a growing workforce, evolving regulatory oversight, and dramatically increased financial complexity.
The CFO you hire needs to be someone more than just capable in terms of accounts and financial statements. This is about the definition of scaling in this context and who the CFO is responsible for making that happen.
So, what should you be looking for to ensure you hire the right kind of CFO, with Series B fintech scaling expertise?
Understand your own goals before starting the search – ask yourself, what specific challenges will I need the CFO to address for me in the next 2-3 years? For you, this could be to assist with a Series C, entering a new market, creating a runway to profitability, introducing a new product line or leading the path towards an acquisition or going public at a future point. “The candidate’s past experiences must also be relevant to the future path of your company – one who has worked through a fundraising event may not have the expertise to guide global expansion, or to take the company towards its first public offering”.
There’s a very particular financial and regulatory environment that companies in this sector have to operate in. The CFO must have a detailed grasp of payments, lending, banking relationships, compliance, risk, transaction economics, acquisition costs and regulatory reporting, depending on the nature of the business model.
This makes relevant sector experience so much more valuable.
Simply looking for “fintech experience” will get you nothing though – it’s about what they actually did there.
Did they scale the finance function? Did they improve financial controls? Did they navigate regulatory requirements? Did they support fund raises? Did they deal with investors? Were they able to construct financial models for scaling at pace?
Details count.
A Series B is generally a make-or-break round. Money will flow readily, but there will be corresponding demands regarding growth, margins, and the run to economic sustainability. At this juncture, a CFO needs to be as savvy about managing growth while preserving capital efficiency.
You want candidates who have demonstrated their ability to operate in similar complexities.
They will not necessarily have come from another Series B company; you might get strong candidates who transitioned from an early stage from Series B to Series C and then took on further scale and responsibility (e.g., int’l expansion, rapid revenue expansion). You are essentially trying to quantify the scale and the complexity at which they can successfully perform.
Fundraising continues to be a critical component of the CFO role for many Series B fintech companies.
At the Series B stage, your CFO might also emerge as one of the key voices of the firm to investors, assisting in the communications around the company’s financial performance, growth potential, business risks and long-term strategy.
When interviewing CFO candidates, discuss the specific fundraising process they have had direct experience in:
How much money did they raise? What was their part in that process? How did they set up the company for due diligence? How did they communicate with investors?
Candidates need to show they can do more than spit out buzzwords of fundraising; they need to articulate how an investor underwrites a scaling business.
High-growth companies are susceptible to outgrowing what worked at earlier stages. A Series B CFO has experience implementing more robust controls, reporting, and forecasting processes and technology. In interview questions for candidates, understand their approach to scaling a finance function in high-growth environments.
You’re looking for someone who builds structure and keeps the business moving. This can be crucial in fintech, where financial accuracy, controls, and risk management can impact reputation and regulatory status.
Top-flight contemporary CFOs aren’t siloed financial operations guys; they’re business folks. They’re comfortable assessing your costs of customer acquisition and customer lifetime value; what works with your pricing and margins, product economics and market expansion, and what’s it tell us about strategy?
In an interview setting – or through even a back-of-the-envelope case you send to prospects – you may want to ask: If we were to go into a new market, how would we analyze the potential?
At an early stage, Series B, the finance leader, the CFO, would sit very close to the CEO/board and investors and the existing leadership team, and they’d be expected to scale the finance function on an ongoing basis.
The skills needed are strong ones for communication, as, again, they would be expected to simplify potentially complex financial information, not hide behind technical language, and they would need to be comfortable calling out the CEO or leaders if the numbers don’t stack up for decisions made. Culture fit really is important too; if you hire a technically capable CFO who can’t work with leaders at a company, that CFO can be a problem.
Getting a CFO with that very particular blend of fintech, Series B, fundraising & scaling experience through standard recruitment channels is a struggle.
This is where an executive search firm’s role comes in.
A specialist search partner is able to proactively seek out passive candidates who wouldn’t otherwise think of leaving their current role, and who have the ideal experience match to meet the specific requirements of the business, as opposed to matching words on a CV.
When it comes to a senior appointment with the power to really make a difference to the company’s destiny, that deeper search may be worthwhile.
There are only so many conclusions you can draw about a CFO’s past company names anyway. Measure results. Did they manage to scale revenue, build out a team, raise money, cut costs, increase gross margins, put in better systems, go international, or lead the company into their next fundraising cycle? That history shows you all you really need to know.
Bringing on a CFO at the Series B stage is not just about getting someone to run the finance team. It is about finding a strategic operator who will guide the company through scaling responsibly while setting itself up for future readiness.
Hire someone who has context in fintech, experience in high-growth settings, understanding of how investors perceive information, and can convert financial data into strategic action.
Above all, ensure the candidate is not hired based on title or company brand names on their CV.
Hire for the scale that you are scaling toward.
