Strategic finance for startups that don't have a CFO yet
Vantidge is a strategic finance firm in New York. We're the finance team for seed and Series A startups until they hire their own.
What strategic finance means here
Your bookkeeper tells you what happened last month. Strategic finance tells you what happens next. How long the cash lasts, what a new hire does to runway, how much to raise and what it costs you in ownership.
We build your operating model on your actual books. Ledger, bank, billing and payroll come in every night. The model doesn't go stale between board meetings. A first version lands within a week of getting access.
What you get
- An operating model tied to your books, with your drivers and live formulas. You can download the whole thing in Excel any time.
- Your systems connected and checked against each other every night. If the bank and the ledger disagree, we flag it.
- Dashboards you and your board both log into.
- Month-end rolled into the model and a draft board deck.
- Raise math, meaning how much to raise and what it does to the founders' stake.
- A diligence war room when a term sheet or an LOI shows up. Data room, request tracker, written answers and us on the calls.
Who it's for
Startups that need finance but don't have a finance team. In September 2026 we read the org charts of 45 New York startups and four had a CFO. Three of those were past Series B.
It's a fit if you're hiring for finance or know you should be, if nobody trusts the model you have, or if a raise or a sale is coming. It's not a fit if you already have a finance team that owns its data, or you only need your taxes done.
How it compares
A full-time finance hire takes months to find and is one person. They still have to build the model and connect the systems before they're useful.
A fractional CFO brings judgment for a few hours a week. Most don't connect your systems or sit in your numbers every day, and diligence support varies a lot.
An outsourced accounting firm closes the books and files the taxes. That's the input to strategic finance. It isn't the same thing.
Vantidge builds the model, wires up the systems, keeps it current and runs the diligence off the same numbers. When you do hire a CFO we work with them.
Raising a Series A without a CFO
Series A investors want a model that ties to your historical books and a data room that answers their list quickly. We build the model first, then set up the data room and track every request to a posted answer. More on how diligence works.
Selling the company without a banker
Playground sold to Procare, a Roper Technologies company, in September 2026 with no banker and no finance team. The buyer had three consulting firms. We ran 439 diligence requests, 714 files and 27 diligence calls. Read the case study.
What it costs
One monthly price, set by the scope. You get the number in writing after a 30-minute call. Nothing gets connected until you sign off.
Vantidge was founded by Sophie Finke. Book a 30-minute call or email sophie@getvantidge.com.