Providing a community
to finance leaders

At Startup CFO, we can offer any finance leader in Tech the right membership package to progress their career. Our heritage, being founded by four experienced Tech CFOs, means we have a deep understanding of what it takes to succeed.

For those just starting out on their startup or scaleup career, our basic membership provides the peer-to-peer support you need. As your career accelerates, Pro membership becomes the ideal compliment to your professional journey.

Signup for Pro Membership

The leading community
for finance leaders in Tech

TRUSTED BY TEAMS AT

Basic

A plan to receive peer-to-peer support on your journey to becoming CFO

Apply here

Free

  • CFO Slack group for peer-to-peer support
  • Join our virtual lunch and learns
  • Join a selection of expert talks in London, Amsterdam and Manchester

Pro

A plan for the CFO really focused on their personal and career development

Apply here

£600 a year

  • CFO Slack group for peer-to-peer support, includes searchable history
  • Accelerate your career with exclusive Leadership L&D programmes covering: CFO Retreat (our 2 day programme) and group coaching with those identified as your peers, this will include a number of all female groups
  • Mentor pairing service
  • Premium L&D programmes on building a SaaS business, and both our Exit Masterclass and IPO readiness programmes
  • Four parties a year. Meetup, socialise and let your hair down with your peers
  • As well as the virtual events and expert talks that form a part of the free membership

Testimonials on our premium programmes including Exit Masterclass

"Exit masterclass was a hugely supportive programme for me. In each session you learn from someone who sees the deal through a different lens (CEO, CFO, lawyer, banker). The breadth of advisory input in the talks is amazing and the network you build in your allocated cohort takes your peer-to-peer relationships to a deeper level."
Freddie Dixon
CFO Bright Network
"It's been a fantastic opportunity to help prepare for our own potential future exit. It's been particularly valuable to get a retrospective on several successful exits from all the perspectives that matter - both principal and advisory. It's also been fun to spend an extended period of time with a group of peers, and get into how they think about positioning for an exit."
Anthony Rawlinson
CFO Papier
"The Exit Masterclass was incredibly well put together. The focus on both technical and practical insights of an Exit created a thought provoking and holistic view of the process. The backdrop of Chatham house rules brought candour and transparency to the setting, leading to some unique insights without any hubris. Perhaps most valuably, we have built on the Exit Masterclass to build in Exit thinking in our strategic planning."
Dan Jorgenson
CFO EnterpriseAlumni

Peer-to-peer support, expert talks and group coaching for CFOs

We understand how to identify the needs of finance leaders in Tech and how to support their journey. Bringing together a group of peers for a series of expert talks or group coaching demands a close understanding of the growth curve for a CFO.

Whether you commit to our group coaching sessions in London, or escape with like minded professionals on one of our CFO retreats. Our insights into our individual members’ needs allows us to ensure that you are truly paired with a group of your peers.

Providing a space to decompress
our coaching and retreats can
re-energise your career

Our commitment to mastermind coaching has taught us that CFOs can really hone their skill set as the problem-solver on the C-suite. Having a close grasp of the details and reflecting objectively on the dynamic in any executive environment can enable transformations in a high growth business.

However the intensity this brings can leave finance leaders seeking support from an experienced coach or, perhaps, the rejuvenation that can only be achieved by escaping the office with like minded individuals. Our coaching groups and CFO retreats are the ideal way for Pro Members to learn, grow and expand their capabilities as the business grows.

Talk to Our Team

Let Startup CFO be your trusted partner in building a high performing finance team that propels your startup towards excellence.

Contact us now and begin the journey together.

Get in touch

Frequently asked Questions

The community was founded in 2011 by a group of CFOs working in Venture-backed Tech businesses. The idea was to curate a peer support network and run some great events for Tech CFOs. Taking on the role of CFO in a high growth business involves learning to deploy your financial and commercial skill set in an environment that has few parallels with established businesses. In a startup or scaleup you are partnering with founders, fund raising, building operations that can cope with rapid scale and progressing towards an exit. At times you’ll be doing all these things in parallel, and that’s why you deserve to be closely supported in your learning and development (L&D) on that journey. 

Startup CFO is the largest and most active Tech CFO community in the UK and EU. We’re 5x the size of our next nearest competitor. We have some sponsor income which we have used to subsidise new programmes we have curated, including Exit Masterclass, IPO readiness, SaaS for CFOs and the presenting for CFOs programme we are launching in 2024. We know that we can support the career progression of a range of finance leaders from Heads of Finance to CFOs, however the only way to run our programmes at the highest possible standard is by having members pay a subscription. The Startup CFO founders are all CFOs and know what it takes to succeed and we’ll continue to focus on the UK market to the extent that member subscriptions allow us to deliver programmes at the very highest standard.

We meet all our members in the programme allocation process and know a very high proportion from engagement in our regular group events. We use this information to identify personalities that are likely to operate effectively and learn and grow together.

We are asking all UK members to transfer to a Pro membership, including those running a UK Tech business whilst spending a material proportion of their time in the UK. Overseas members will remain in the Pro Slack group for the time being, but do not receive the wider benefits of the L&D opportunities. 

If you take out a Pro membership and do not utilise the coaching opportunities, CFO programmes such as Exit or CFO retreats, we are not able to provide any refund, nor roll over to the next year. We recommend that members plan ahead for the programme they’d most seek to benefit from. 

We seek to make the L&D opportunities for Pro members as all inclusive as possible, typically everything is covered by Startup CFO. We may occasionally ask you to cover train fares, or other transport costs to the location of a CFO retreat, for example. And from time to time we might suggest an indicative voluntary contribution to a charity for one of our member parties. 

Our Pro members are not able to cancel during the calendar year, however a Basic Member can upgrade to Pro part way through the year and we’ll seek to Prorate the membership in those cases. 

Whilst we do not allow cancellation of memberships during the year we do offer a money back guarantee. After six months have passed, we are happy for any member, who might feel they are not receiving value for their membership fee, to book time in with one of the SCFO team. We’ll be happy to review your usage of the Pro Slack group and our L&D opportunities, listen to any feedback and will always fully refund a membership fee where it’s clear the member has not derived value in that time period.

We expect the vast majority of our members to be able to expense their Pro Membership, or just put it through on the Company card. As you might expect we provide a VAT receipt for that purpose. If you are an independent portfolio CFO you will qualify for a 25% discount from the standard pricing as we know that those CFOs will need to incur the cost within their consulting business. 

The group was originally set-up for finance leaders reporting to founders or CEO’s. That focus is really key and has allowed us to push certain topics and peer discussions that are really important for those operating at C-Suite level. We have allowed the last few years for companies that are through the audit thresholds (particularly the revenue one, so >£10m) for CFOs to nominate two of their direct reports. And we recommend that is used sparingly as all companies are restricted to three memberships in total. 

We take payments on credit or debit card and expect the majority of members to have this funded by their Employer as part of the training or L&D budget.

The community was founded in 2011 by a group of CFOs working in Venture-backed Tech businesses. The idea was to curate a peer support network and run some great events for Tech CFOs. Taking on the role of CFO in a high growth business involves learning to deploy your financial and commercial skill set in an environment that has few parallels with established businesses. In a startup or scaleup you are partnering with founders, fund raising, building operations that can cope with rapid scale and progressing towards an exit. At times you’ll be doing all these things in parallel, and that’s why you deserve to be closely supported in your learning and development (L&D) on that journey.

Startup CFO is the largest and most active Tech CFO community in the UK and EU. We’re 5x the size of our next nearest competitor. We have some sponsor income which we have used to subsidise new programmes we have curated, including Exit Masterclass, IPO readiness, SaaS for CFOs and the presenting for CFOs programme we are launching in 2024. We know that we can support the career progression of a range of finance leaders from Heads of Finance to CFOs, however the only way to run our programmes at the highest possible standard is by having members pay a subscription. The Startup CFO founders are all CFOs and know what it takes to succeed and we’ll continue to focus on the UK market to the extent that member subscriptions allow us to deliver programmes at the very highest standard.

We meet all our members in the programme allocation process and know a very high proportion from engagement in our regular group events. We use this information to identify personalities that are likely to operate effectively and learn and grow together

We are asking all UK members to transfer to a Pro membership, including those running a UK Tech business whilst spending a material proportion of their time in the UK. Overseas members will remain in the Pro Slack group for the time being, but do not receive the wider benefits of the L&D opportunities.

If you take out a Pro membership and do not utilise the coaching opportunities, CFO programmes such as Exit or CFO retreats, we are not able to provide any refund, nor roll over to the next year. We recommend that members plan ahead for the programme they’d most seek to benefit from.

We seek to make the L&D opportunities for Pro members as all inclusive as possible, typically everything is covered by Startup CFO. We may occasionally ask you to cover train fares, or other transport costs to the location of a CFO retreat, for example. And from time to time we might suggest an indicative voluntary contribution to a charity for one of our member parties.

Our Pro members are not able to cancel during the calendar year, however a Basic Member can upgrade to Pro part way through the year and we’ll seek to Prorate the membership in those cases.

Whilst we do not allow cancellation of memberships during the year we do offer a money back guarantee. After six months have passed, we are happy for any member, who might feel they are not receiving value for their membership fee, to book time in with one of the SCFO team. We’ll be happy to review your usage of the Pro Slack group and our L&D opportunities, listen to any feedback and will always fully refund a membership fee where it’s clear the member has not derived value in that time period.

We expect the vast majority of our members to be able to expense their Pro Membership, or just put it through on the Company card. As you might expect we provide a VAT receipt for that purpose. If you are an independent portfolio CFO you will qualify for a 25% discount from the standard pricing as we know that those CFOs will need to incur the cost within their consulting business.

The group was originally set-up for finance leaders reporting to founders or CEO’s. That focus is really key and has allowed us to push certain topics and peer discussions that are really important for those operating at C-Suite level. We have allowed the last few years for companies that are through the audit thresholds (particularly the revenue one, so >£10m) for CFOs to nominate two of their direct reports. And we recommend that is used sparingly as all companies are restricted to three memberships in total.

We take payments on credit or debit card and expect the majority of members to have this funded by their Employer as part of the training or L&D budget