The business has grown into decisions the books were never built to answer. Perhaps there was a quarter that moved faster than the reporting could explain, a finance leader who left, or a bank or investor asking questions that could determine the company’s future. The numbers are getting handled, but judgment on what they mean is a different story.
At Arrowroot Business Advisors, a senior advisor takes the finance seat and stays in it. The same person who sits in front of the board is the one who shows up when an acquisition or a sale lands on the desk. Everything runs through one, consistent relationship, so the operator doesn't need to hand the business to a new firm when the stakes are highest.
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The engagement starts with a short, direct conversation about what the business is facing. The operator describes the situation and the senior advisor asks the handful of questions that matter. By the end, the operator has a clear idea of what working together would look like.
Next, the senior advisor learns the business well enough to give advice that is specific to it. The numbers, the team, the customers, the contracts, and the banking relationships get reviewed for what they say about the operating reality. The operator gets an honest picture of where the finance function stands.
The plan is written with the operator's best interests in mind. For a CFO engagement, that means the finance function, the reporting cadence, and the decisions the next two quarters will turn on. The operator reads the plan and knows exactly what changes and when.
This is the seat being filled. The senior advisor is in the numbers, on the calls, and in front of the board, with coordination across the pre-existing team. The operator runs the business while the finance work gets handled alongside them.
This relationship is built to carry past the current quarter. The same senior advisor stays through the next year, the next raise, and the next transaction, so the operator calls one person when each decision lands. Outsourced CFO assures the advice never starts over from a cold read of the business.
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The senior finance leader on the engagement is the one in the numbers, on the calls, and in front of the board. There is no analyst doing the work behind a partner who made the introduction and moved on. The operator hires a senior advisor and gets that senior advisor in the seat.
The same person is there when the business reaches its next inflection point. Whether it's a capital raise, an acquisition, a sale, or an LOI on the desk, the advisor is running all of it. That's where Outsourced CFO meets M&A Advisory and Exit Planning. This multi-faceted team is possible because the principals carry a concentrated client load and do the work themselves, with depth across both operating and transaction finance.
Rob works with founders, executives, and families navigating concentrated wealth, business exits, and generational planning. He founded Arrowroot in 2013 and leads the firm from Southern California.
David leads the firm's corporate advisory and outsourced CFO practice for privately held businesses, working with founders and management teams on financial planning, cash flow and liquidity management, strategy, and transaction support. He is a CFA charterholder with nearly two decades of corporate finance, investment, and advisory experience across the United States, London, and Stockholm.
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Sits beside the operating finance work rather than off on its own track. The senior advisor running the business through the deal is the one who has been in the numbers alongside the operator all along. That advisor already knows the business well enough to know what is worth holding the line on at the term sheet.
Sits in the space between the numbers and the key decisions that will direct the future of the business. Because the same advisor oversees the finance function and the deals, their advice accounts for where the business is heading as much as where it stands today.
Sits at the far end of the operating relationship, where the years of finance work either pay off or come up short. It’s founded in the strategy, execution, reporting, margins, and clean financials a buyer will underwrite. The same advisor who built the finance function is the one who readies it for the day a buyer looks closely.
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Tell us what the business is facing — a growth decision, a transaction on the horizon, or a finance function that needs a senior hand.
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