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Operator-grade finance perspectives

Actionable finance strategy, frameworks, and perspectives for leaders navigating growth — written from inside the engagement, not the marketing funnel.

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Sector Deep Dives

The Home Services Finance Playbook: Margin, Cash, and Clean Books for Owner-Operated Trades

A $20M home services company usually has four different businesses hiding inside one P&L. Here is how owner-operators in HVAC, plumbing, and the trades get real margin visibility, real cash control, and diligence-ready books without carrying a full-time CFO.

Brian Kostka, CFAJuly 23, 2026

Why this matters

Written from inside the engagement — frameworks, diligence questions, and operator points of view you can use in your next leadership conversation.

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Sector Deep Dives

The Specialty Contractor's Finance Playbook: Where the Margin Actually Goes

A profitable specialty contractor can still run out of cash, and the bid is rarely the problem. A fractional CFO's field guide to WIP discipline, retainage drag, and bonding capacity for owners running $15M to $30M.

Brian Kostka, CFA·July 23, 2026

Sector Deep Dives

The Healthcare and Wellness Services CFO Playbook: What Your Numbers Are Not Telling You

Multi-location medical, dental, PT, and wellness practices scale faster than their financial visibility does. Here is where the money actually hides, and what a fractional CFO fixes first.

Brian Kostka, CFA·July 23, 2026

Sponsor Finance

The Independent Sponsor 100-Day CFO Mandate

A finance-control mandate for the first 100 days after a lower-middle-market acquisition: Day-1 reconciliation, cash forecast, covenant tracker, sponsor reporting, working-capital baseline, and board cadence.

Brian Kostka, CFA·May 24, 2026

Sponsor Finance

Covenant Management for the $20M EBITDA LMM Portfolio Company

A sponsor-grade covenant management framework for a $20M EBITDA lower-middle-market platform, including headroom math, definition risk, warning cadence, and sourced private-credit benchmarks.

Brian Kostka, CFA·May 24, 2026

AI & Automation

AI-Augmented Finance Operations: Discipline, Not Buzzword

Every fractional CFO firm now claims to use AI. Here is what AI-augmented finance actually looks like in practice - and the guardrails Brian, who founded an AI-backed venture, applies in every Catalyst engagement.

Brian Kostka, CFA·April 22, 2026

Engagement

The Two-Week Onramp: Why a Fractional CFO Engagement Should Produce Output Before Day Fifteen

Most fractional CFOs spend 60+ days in discovery. That is consulting, not finance leadership. Here is the discipline behind Catalyst's two-week onramp - and why the time-to-output gap is the strongest signal of operator-grade work.

Brian Kostka, CFA·April 15, 2026

Strategic Finance

Why Growth-Stage Companies Need a CFO/COO Double Seat - Not Two Separate Hires

The split between CFO and COO is a Fortune 500 artifact. In growth-stage companies, the executive who can hold both seats is more valuable than two separate hires. Here is when, and why.

Brian Kostka, CFA·April 8, 2026

Strategic Finance

The 2024 Fractional CFO Wave: How to Tell a Real CFO from a Six-Month Rebrand

The fractional CFO market exploded after 2023. Most new entrants are recently-laid-off controllers. Here is the diligence framework I use - and you should too - to separate operator-grade fractionals from the rebrand wave.

Brian Kostka, CFA·April 1, 2026

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