What is a Part-Time CFO?
A part-time CFO is your strategic finance leader in the seat: a standing member of the leadership team on a regular weekly schedule, not a fractional consultant advising from a distance. The right one shortens the distance between where the business is and where it needs to be next - whether that is a raise, an exit, or simply running it on numbers instead of instinct.
The short answer
A part-time CFO is a senior financial executive who serves as your company’s CFO on a regular weekly schedule — typically one to three days per week — as a standing member of the leadership team. You get the same strategic finance leadership as a full-time hire at 20-40% of the cost. Engagements typically include:
- 13-week cash forecasting and capital allocation
- Board-grade financial reporting and KPI design
- Investor and lender communication
- Fundraise, M&A, and exit readiness
- Finance team leadership and systems modernization
The market calls this a fractional CFO. We do not, and the difference is not semantic. A fractional CFO, as the market sells it, is a consultant on a project clock, spread across many clients, advising from a distance. A part-time CFO is on your leadership team on a schedule, holds the lender and investor relationships, and owns the decisions. The harder question is: how do you tell either apart from the wave of recently-laid-off controllers, unemployed bankers, and one-engagement-deep operators who rebranded as “fractional CFOs” after 2023?
That is what this page exists to answer.
Why the Depth Matters
Experience by the Numbers
Founder-attributable, not aggregated firm vanity metrics.
25+
Years of strategic finance leadership
CFO and senior executive roles, capital markets, asset management, and strategic planning since 1999.
2020
AI in finance operations since
Building AI-driven finance and operations since the ORtelligence CFO seat — long before "AI-augmented" became a marketing line.
3
Firms co-founded
AI-driven compliance, AI scheduling, and the AI/automation practice inside Catalyst.
5x
Institutional AUM growth
Helped grow a boutique institutional long/short equity asset manager from $3B to $15B in AUM.
Part-Time vs. Interim vs. Full-Time
Five engagement modes, plus the one the market sells, on one decision tree. Pick the right shape for the actual problem - we will tell you honestly which one fits.
| Mode | Cadence | Best for | Investment |
|---|---|---|---|
| Part-Time CFO | 1 - 3 days per week, regular schedule, ongoing | Companies $5M-$75M needing a CFO on the leadership team without a full-time hire | $5,000 - $15,000 / month |
| Interim CFO | Full-time, 3 - 9 months | Coverage of an empty seat - departure, integration, fundraise, or pre-hire stretch | Project-based, see Pricing |
| Part-Time COO | 1 - 3 days per week, regular schedule, ongoing | Operations is the bottleneck and a CFO won't fix it | $5,000 - $15,000 / month |
| Interim COO | Full-time, 3 - 9 months | COO transition or stabilization during integration | Project-based, see Pricing |
| Full-Time CFO | 5 days per week, salaried | $75M+ revenue, complex multi-entity, IPO-bound, or daily M&A flow | $250K - $400K+ fully loaded |
| Fractional CFO (the market's model) | A few hours or days a month, project clock | A consultant advising from a distance across many clients. Not how Catalyst works. | $3,000 - $15,000 / month market range |
Anti-Commoditization
How to Tell a Real Fractional CFO From a Six-Month Rebrand
The fractional CFO market exploded after 2023. Here is how to vet any provider you talk to — including us.
| Metric | Industry Red Flag | Catalyst CFO Advisors |
|---|---|---|
| Years in Finance Leadership | 5 - 10 years; often an ex junior or non-exec finance FTE | 25+ years across Wall Street, asset management, and CFO/COO seats since 1999 |
| AI & Automation Depth | "We use ChatGPT" — no track record building or running AI in production | AI in finance ops since 2020; venture work spans AI compliance, healthcare/telehealth, AI scheduling, and the AI/automation practice inside Catalyst |
| Founder-Operator Experience | Zero — first-time fractional, never sat in the exec seat | 12+ years running Catalyst plus CFO/finance leadership at venture-backed, PE-sponsored, and privately funded companies across multiple industries |
| Capital Raised & Deployed | Has only modeled or advised — never closed a round | >$25M secured for SMB clients; institutional Series A and strategic capital across multiple ventures |
| Wall Street Pedigree | No institutional or capital markets experience | Partner at a boutique institutional equity asset manager; helped grow firm AUM from $3B to $15B; sell-side equity research at global bank franchises |
| CFO + COO Scope | Lacks senior finance experience, little or no operational experience | Both functions; packaged as Part-Time CFO, Part-Time COO, Interim CFO, and Interim COO |
| Crisis Leadership | Has not led through a market collapse, bank failure, or cyber attack | Macro (since 1999): recessions, the GFC, COVID-era disruption, inflation/rate cycles, banking-system stress. Company-specific: cyber attacks, liquidity strain, and national payments-infrastructure outages |
| Time-to-Value | Weeks of "discovery" before producing anything useful | Two-week onramp; first operating model in days; close cycle reduced from 15 to <3 days at clients |
| One-Sided Commitment | Tries to lock into 6–12 month engagements | All CCA contracts are month-to-month — if we don't produce ROI, we don't get paid. |
Use this table as a checklist for any fractional you evaluate — including us.
What a real part-time CFO actually delivers
Investor-grade financials in weeks, not quarters
We bring the reporting discipline that boards, investors, and lenders actually trust - clean books, defensible numbers, and a forecast you can stand behind.
Capital strategy from someone who has raised it
Fundraising and investor readiness is a discipline, not a deck exercise. Brian has personally raised capital across equity, debt, and structured deals - the work is grounded in operator experience.
Cash flow visibility that ends the surprises
Thirteen-week rolling forecasts, working capital optimization, and the operating cadence that turns cash from a quarterly fire drill into a strategic lever.
A leadership-team peer, not a downstream advisor
We embed at the leadership table - in board meetings, on capital decisions, in pricing conversations - not on the periphery handing in deliverables.
Two-week onramp
First operating model in days, first reporting cycle within weeks. We are not a six-month discovery firm.
Four executive engagement modes
Catalyst packages all four executive seats - so the engagement model fits the actual gap, not the only product the firm sells.
The full finance services menu
Every Catalyst engagement is shaped from these capability blocks. Mix-and-match against what the business actually needs.
Frequently asked questions
Ready to talk to a CFO who has actually done it?
Schedule a complimentary call. We will tell you honestly which engagement mode fits, including when the answer is 'not yet.'