A Thinking Partner for the decisions that shape your company
Strategic finance support for Founders and CEOs at early and growth stage companies.
Turning the numbers into decisions
Most companies have some way of keeping the books, whether it's a bookkeeper, an outside accountant, or the Founder at night. What they often don't have is someone who can build the numbers into a working model, test the assumptions behind it, and help decide what to do next.
It helps answer questions like:
- How much runway do we have, and what changes it most?
- Which metrics matter at our stage, and are we calculating them consistently?
- Will our model hold up when an investor or board member pushes on it?
- Do our unit economics improve as we grow?
- Is this new market, product, or expansion worth pursuing, and what would it take?
- What should our board see each quarter?
If you have a bookkeeper, controller, or finance lead, I work alongside them and build on what they already produce. If you don't yet, I can help you decide what you need and when.
Three ways to work together. Each stands on its own or leads into the next.
Assess
Understand your numbers before your next big decision.
For Founders at an inflection point: a raise, a board meeting, a major decision, or simply a moment when the numbers have gotten ahead of you. You'll come away knowing where things stand, what to fix first, and how to answer the hard questions.
- A stress test of your financial model: which assumptions drive the results, and where it would break under questioning
- A review of your KPIs: whether they fit your stage, how they're defined, and how investors are likely to read them
- A review of the reporting you and your board rely on
- The questions an investor or board member is likely to ask, and what you'd need to answer them well
- Written findings and prioritized recommendations, walked through with you
Pricing: Fixed fee, credited in full toward a Build.
Build
A dynamic model, built around what's next for your company.
For Founders preparing for a raise or a board cycle, or weighing a major decision.
- A dynamic model connecting revenue drivers, unit economics, staffing, and cash, grounded in your actual results
- Sensitivity analysis showing which assumptions move the outcome most, and scenarios for the cases that matter to you
- Cash runway under each scenario, with the decision points it implies
- Board and investor reporting built from the model
- For a major decision such as a new market, an expansion, or a pivot: opportunity sizing, competitive landscape, and a side-by-side view of the options
- Built with you, so you understand the model and can defend it in any room
- 60 days of decision support after delivery, tied to real moments: your first monthly update, a board meeting, or an investor conversation
Pricing: Project fee based on scope, paid in stages as the work is delivered.
Partner
Ongoing strategic finance support, and a thinking partner for the decisions ahead.
For companies that want senior finance judgment on a regular basis, without a full-time CFO. Many Founders look for this kind of support as a fractional CFO. I think of it as a strategic finance partner: someone who knows your business and your numbers, and helps you think through what comes next.
- Regular working sessions with you and your leadership team
- Forecasting, model updates, and scenario analysis as the business changes
- Board and investor materials
- Fundraising preparation and support
- A sounding board between meetings
Pricing: Flat monthly fee, based on company stage and scope of support.
Working against a deadline?
A raise, a board meeting, a term sheet, or a decision that can't wait often sets the schedule. I can scope focused work around a specific date.
Flexible payment terms available, including milestone billing.
“A map of our future that is still meaningful, over five years later.”
“As founder and CEO of Therapy Lab, a mental health services platform based in L.A., one of my best early decisions was to engage Emily Christy as fractional CFO/strategy consultant. She came highly recommended by two fellow founders and impressed from the start. She created financial models that took complex information (healthcare services is not simple!) and provided a map of our future that is still meaningful, over five years later. I consider Emily a trusted advisor and look forward to hiring her again in the future.”
“Emily was instrumental in building Everytable's financial infrastructure from the ground up. She has an exceptional ability to pull data from disparate systems, synthesize it into meaningful metrics, and present it in a way that informed real business decisions. As our needs evolved, she quickly adapted the frameworks and reporting to match where we were headed, not just where we'd been. I'd work with Emily again without hesitation.”
Emily Christy
I've spent more than twenty years reading companies' numbers from the outside and helping build them from the inside. As an equity research analyst at Stifel and RBC Capital Markets, and later on the buy side at H.M. Payson and Harpswell Capital, I evaluated companies the way investors do: building models, testing assumptions, and asking what the numbers left out. In corporate strategy at IDEXX, I worked on growth decisions from within a company.
Since 2015, I've been a strategic finance partner to Founder-led companies, including Everytable, and Therapy Lab. The work has ranged from building models and preparing for raises and board meetings to thinking through a new market or a change in direction. My clients have ranged from consumer food to digital health, and I've analyzed companies across healthcare, energy, and other sectors as an investor. The core questions about runway, unit economics, and growth are much the same whatever the business.
Earlier in my career, I was general manager of the Vero Beach Dodgers, which taught me what running a business looks like day to day. I also serve as Board Treasurer and Finance Committee Chair at a Maine nonprofit, which keeps me close to what a board needs to see.
I hold a B.A. from Princeton and FINRA Series 86 and 87 licenses.
Start with a conversation
Tell me a little about your company and what's coming up, whether it's a raise, a board meeting, a decision you're weighing, or numbers you'd like a clearer handle on.
Not ready to talk yet? Take the Founder Finance Check to see where you stand.
Emily Christy Advisory
Contact
emily@emilychristyadvisory.com