Your board is judging your CFO choice more than you think

Why a world class fractional CFO beats a mediocre full time hire every time

Author

Michael Morgenstern
July 15, 2025

Happy Tuesday Brex Community,

The CFO timing question isn't about revenue, it's about strategic inflection points. Many CEOs hire reactively at $10M+ when complexity overwhelms their fractional setup. The best hire proactively 6-12 months before major raises, M&A, or expansion. Elite CFOs don't manage numbers. They architect capital efficiency and unlock 20-30% better deployment. Until that inflection point, a seasoned, well referenced fractional CFO delivers the strategic impact without the overhead. Start building your CFO pipeline 18 months early through your VCs network, so you can hire fast!

Now for Fractional CFOs, boutique versus big firm is the wrong framing. The right question: who's actually doing the work? Your board evaluates CFO quality as a proxy for your judgment. You want someone who thinks several moves ahead, who positions capital like a chess master. Pick for judgment, and always structure incentives for alignment. You’re not hiring a resume. You’re hiring someone who sees the whole chessboard and plays to win with you.

Happy to share ideas on terrific fractional CFOs and would love to hear from the CFO readers in this community. Reach out!

Growing together, Michael Morgenstern 

  • Navigating Credit Risk and Macro Volatility with AI

    Designed as a fireside chat and networking w/ bankers, fintech execs, founders, and investors. Featuring Rahul Ramesh, Chief Credit Officer at Brex.

    Apply Here Brex Host: Shai Goldman 

  • Brex Sushi Class W/ Day Zero 7/24 in SF

    Designed to teach the art of hand-rolled sushi and connect early-stage founders
    Apply Here Brex Host: Jonathan Chang

  • Brex Supper Club w/ NEA (Chief of Staff Edition) 7/31 in SF

    Designed as a private conversational dinner for Chief of Staffs in the Bay Area

    Apply Here Brex Host: Jonathan Chang

  • Brex Baseball Club 8/12 in SF

    Designed as a mixer for founders and investors in the Tony Bennett Suite at Oracle Park

    Apply Here Brex Host: Anshul Shah

Kira is a next-gen fintech infrastructure platform that lets any business launch embedded financial products, powered by stablecoins and vertical AI agents. With $3M in revenue in its first year and clients like Banco Industrial, N1co, and one of the world’s largest retailers, Kira is abstracting the complexity of cross-border payments, global payroll, and treasury automation — all with instant, compliant infrastructure.

Ambassador’s POV:

Every fintech company is about to become an AI company, and Kira is paving the way They’re not just building faster rails. They’re giving businesses the tools to launch financial products with automation and compliance at the core. This isn’t a bet on a future trend. It’s already working and they are one of my favorite teams in market.

 

The financial stack you can bank on. Trusted by 1 in 3 US startups, Brex allows you to manage your spend from MVP to IPO. Interested? Sign up here using the referral code NEWSLETTER and get 25,000 bonus points, $5K AWS credits, $2.5K OpenAI credits and up to $150K in SaaS discounts.

Don’t hesitate to reach out,🦾!