CFOs Are Not Replaceable Parts
There is tremendous variation across the CFO function. That’s a good thing – but you need to know your business to make the right hiring decision.
The fractional professional marketplace is booming, and not just for us finance and accounting professionals. At last count, more than 110,000 LinkedIn profiles use the word fractional, up from 2,000 in 2022. There are a number of think pieces (and just a bit of good data) showing this trend, but one thing remains clear: more and more companies are not only aware of fractional support, they are actively seeking it out, especially in the C-Suite.
From our perspective, part of this boom is growing awareness among small and mid-size businesses (often $50M and below) that executive expertise matters. We're hearing it more and more: folks know they need a CFO. But finding the right fractional leader for your stage and company isn't simple. Executives aren't replaceable parts. Their unique experiences, interests, and passions drive their specialization—just like anyone else.
In this Q&A with Level partners Sarah and Kim, we break down why variation exists across the CFO function and the predominant "flavors" of CFO expertise. We'll help you ask the right questions to understand what your business really needs from a CFO right now. Our goal? To help you navigate the fractional finance marketplace with confidence.
Q: Ok. So CFOs don't come standard. Sure, every CFO can handle the table stakes – clean books, tax filing, monthly reports. But where does the variation live? What kinds of CFOs exist, and how do we map those archetypes to business needs?
KIM: First, CFOs are people. We all have different talents, skill sets, and career experiences. Just because we think in numbers doesn't mean we're automatons. CFO work is deeply human, and emotional intelligence is non-negotiable.
Second, CFO specializations emerge from real business needs, so it helps to map archetypes against business problems. Here are a few:
Compliance Wizard: This CFO comes into a company, perhaps in a heavily regulated industry, and cleans up financial compliance issues. They oversee audits and book cleanups, but more importantly, they spot where you're leaving money on the table due to compliance gaps the team hasn't seen or doesn't know how to address. They need creativity too, especially in understanding how to keep the company moving amid changing regulations. More than "no" people, they're solution seekers first.
The Investor-Whisperer: This CFO comes in when a company's doing well and ready for investors. They're true sales partners to the CEO, telling the financial story with clarity, credibility, and vision.
The Accelerator: This is a change specialist who unsticks stagnant growth. This is me, by the way. I spend 75% of my time helping teams cast a growth vision and craft the pathway to get there: revenue, marketing, biz dev. I help teams understand what's working and what isn't, make a new plan, and then model how those changes will drive profit.
SARAH: I love this summary, and want to add The Rock. This CFO is the yin to the CEO's yang, the grounding, day-in, day-out force. If you're a dreamer, a creative, a bit of a mad scientist who's great at selling with imagination and enthusiasm, you need a CFO who's the point of decision for vendors, customers, and staff. Visionary CEOs don't need to be the operational foundation. And when you're out selling, you don't have time for this work the way it needs to be done.
This person might also be an Accelerator or Investor-Whisperer, but they'll have an unrelenting operational focus on building smooth, efficient systems.
KIM: That’s a great one. Let’s add The Packager too: If you’re in growth mode and are thinking about an exit, there is a specific CFO for that. Getting a company packaged up to get the maximum price is a difficult and specific skill set, and it may not be in your gross CFO’s wheelhouse.
SARAH: Right. Essentially, there’s a CFO for whatever lifecycle stage your business is in: launch, raise, scale, and exit, and there are also specialists who can come in and solve really specific, difficult finance and accounting problems, as in the case of compliance.
Q: What kind of special finance and accounting problems, beyond compliance, might CFOs help solve? What market forces are prompting CFOs to develop new areas of specialization?
SARAH: ESG is a big one. If you're pursuing PE, venture, or even private loan funding, you'll need to comply with their ESG standards as part of the funding mechanism. This is outside usual covenants and reporting, and it looks different for every industry, but it's coming across everyone's board because ESG covenants are now part of quarterly reporting packages. The CFO builds the team to oversee that work and often answers to it.
It's something CFOs are learning in real time. I've had to learn how to track carbon from individual containers, get electricity rates from overseas factories, understand and document how our energy and sewage use impacted the communities where we manufactured. I could talk forever about solar markets: I had to learn how to price kilowatt hours on a grid and map weather. I'm a CFO. This wasn't on my radar. But I had to produce that reporting, and it's very technical and absolutely critical.
KIM: Just to put a pin on how specialized that is: I have been in the CFO role for over a decade now, and I’ve never had to do ESG reporting. None of my clients have needed to report on that due to the nature of their structure, their product, their funding, etc.
AI is also driving specialization in the CFO role. I've been doing more expertise-building in AI as I help clients think through their AI investments. In small or mid-size companies that want to jump into AI headfirst, especially under $20M, the CFO needs technical fluency to not just understand the tools, but imagine how adoption might meaningfully impact business health. Much of my AI expertise focuses on tying AI adoption to real, measurable ROI. CFOs also need technical fluency for proper risk assessment around AI adoption, particularly on data privacy and security. Without a CTO, companies put this work on the CFO's plate. Often, the CFO is the ultimate decision maker on AI investment.
SARAH: Absolutely. Anything related to IT and digital transformation is now on the CFO’s plate too, because we need to know the ins and outs of the cyber insurance policy, the data flow, and who is responsible for data security. If anything happens, the CFO will have to answer to it, as the senior risk management executive.
Q: Are there any rules of thumb for how CFO skill sets map over particular industries?
KIM: I think there are a few trends, yes. A SaaS startup, for example, needs the sophisticated Investor-Whisperer early on: they need someone who understands the VC space and can credibly prepare them to raise.
SARAH: Right – and it’s also smart to recognize that just because a CFO knows the VC space, they may not be as solid in PE. Those routes require different knowledge and experience. Find someone who has walked your funding path before, and can tell everything you’ll need to know.
KIM: You need a Compliance Wizard if you’re in a heavily regulated industry; cannabis might be the most extreme example, because, put simply, they simply can’t operate like any other business out there. They can’t even use a bank – by federal law, cannabis retail businesses cannot have accounts with an FDIC insured bank. They can’t have business credit cards. Their taxes are extremely complex.
Nonprofits often need that Compliance Wizard too, at least early on, to make sure that their books are being recorded properly. For smaller nonprofits with stable funding and a clear, narrow mission, that might be enough. But as nonprofits grow, or when they're facing tough decisions about their future, they need an Assessor: someone uniquely skilled at problem identification who can map organizational objectives to actual performance and then build a long-range plan.
The Assessor asks hard questions that nonprofits often avoid: Are you trying to grow? Why or why not? Should you expand geographically or deepen impact locally? What's your growth thesis, and why do you think it will work? Who are you serving, and are you serving them well? Do you have an endowment strategy? A multi-year cash plan that accounts for restricted versus unrestricted funds?
For nonprofits, this CFO helps define organizational identity. They define what work is important by modeling the scale of impact they can realistically achieve given their funding model and capacity. Without this clarity, nonprofits risk mission creep, unsustainable expansion, or saying yes to grants that pull them away from their core work. The Assessor keeps the mission and the money aligned.
I think about Sarah as an Assessor, by the way; she has an uncanny ability to almost immediately understand what a company needs, what their problem is, and then to marshall the right sources and skill sets to fit.
SARAH: Ha - thanks, Kim. I describe myself as an operationally-focused CFO – and assessment is absolutely one of my core skill sets. When I look at revenue lines or expenses, I always translate that number back to the person or the task that generated it. Making that tangible connection is essential to getting a holistic picture of how a business runs. Seeing and acting on those relationships is absolutely the skill set of an Assessor. Once we take action, I think of myself as a Rock; I love putting all the pieces together and watching the clock run.
Q: How Can I Know What’s Right for My Business, Now?
SARAH: You need self-awareness to choose the right person for the right moment. It's tempting to hire an Accelerator; yes, you want to grow, yes, you're going to scale, yes, you want to start now. But if your books are a mess and you don't have a strong operational foundation or pipeline in place, you're not ready for a CFO like Kim.
KIM: Right. I had a client who said this exact thing – it took him about four years to get his ducks in a row so we could work together. And when we could, we grew so much more smoothly and successfully because of the legwork he'd done in advance. He needed someone like Sarah who could identify the problems, establish financial controls and processes, and operationalize the finance department. You can't add gasoline to a fire when the wood is wet; Sarah dries out the wood so I can set the blaze.
SARAH: My best advice is to start with an honest assessment: Can you produce clean financials on demand? Do you have reliable forecasting? Are your financial processes documented and repeatable? If you're hesitating on any of these, you likely need a Compliance Wizard or an Assessor first.
You need an Investor Whisperer if you are actively preparing for or in the middle of a fundraise, obviously. Do you have a compelling financial narrative that shows not just where you've been, but where you're going? Can you defend your valuation, your projections, and your use of funds under investor scrutiny? Do you need someone who can command credibility in the room with VCs, private equity, or strategic partners? If you're nodding yes to these questions, you need that CFO to help you translate your numbers into a vision that investors want to buy into.
If you are constantly out front, selling, pitching, building relationships, and if things are slowing down because your capacity is crunched, find yourself a CFO who is also a Rock.
KIM: Don't forget the Packager, though that's easy to self-select into. If you're thinking about an exit in the next 12-24 months, find the CFO who can help your business get what it deserves. They'll maximize your valuation, present your financials compellingly to buyers, and shore up gaps in documentation, systems, or reporting that could hurt your sale price or slow down due diligence. Ideally, they've been through M&A from the seller's side too.
CFOs are not replaceable parts, and honestly, that's what makes finding the right one so powerful. When you match the right CFO archetype to your actual stage – not the stage you wish you were at – you unlock real transformation: smoother growth, successful raises, maximized exits, or the operational stability you've been chasing. It all starts with honest self-assessment: know where you are, understand what you need, and trust that the right expertise at the right moment changes everything.
Every month, we share a conversation with Level pros answering your pressing finance and operations questions, and sharing insights from behind the scenes of building fractional careers. Like what you’re reading? Subscribe to our newsletter. You’ll get every conversation direct to your inbox.
