What are we optimizing for?

I was on The FP&A Today podcast with Glenn Hopper this week, and he asked me a great question:

“When you come in as the first CFO at a startup, where do you start?”

Here’s what I said:

I start by figuring out what we’re optimizing for.

Not every company needs the same thing.

Some need investor readiness.

Some need a handle on burn.

Some just need to sell something this month.

As CFOs, it’s easy to walk in with our own checklist:

• ✅ Clean books

• ✅ Great dashboards

• ✅ Fancy spend policies

But here’s the thing:

None of that matters if the company doesn’t survive the next 60 days.

The most valuable thing I can do early on?

Listen.

I listen to the founders, the team, the product, the financials.

And I figure out where I can make the biggest impact, fastest.

Sometimes that’s helping them get compliant.

Sometimes it’s rebuilding the model or cleaning up reporting.

Sometimes it’s something way outside the typical CFO playbook — like helping optimize the sales pipeline, hire the right people, close a big deal, or find a better technical partner.

Startups don’t have the luxury of optimizing everything.

We get one or two shots to move the needle in the right direction.

So my job isn’t to check boxes,

It’s to figure out what really matters and help the team deliver on that.