Financial leadership, by the hour
Your nephew was fine with QuickBooks. Then the due diligence list showed up.
You don't need a $150,000 CFO. You need five hours a week of one.
Statement of position
As at the morning the term sheet arrives
- Bookkeeping
- Whoever had time
- Financial statements
- (None an investor accepts)
- Grant income
- (Booked as revenue)
- Cap table
- A spreadsheet, somewhere
- Friends and family
- Fully subscribed
- Next round
- (Contingent on the above)
Figures in parentheses are negative.
Here's how it goes. You start the company. Somebody has to do the books, so somebody does, and it works well enough for a while.
Then a real investor asks for statements they can rely on. Or the bank wants covenant reporting. Or your accountant mentions that the grant money you've been treating as revenue isn't revenue. The books that were fine last year are now the thing standing between you and the money.
Meanwhile friends and family are tapped out. Everybody holding the next dollar is going to look at your numbers before they look at your product, and they'll make up their mind about you based on what they find.
That's the moment I'm built for.
What I do
- Statements
- Financial statements an investor or an auditor will accept. IFRS, ASPE or US GAAP, prepared properly, not reverse-engineered in a panic the week before closing.
- The raise
- Model, cap table, term sheet, and the memo that answers the hard questions before anybody has to ask them.
- Grants & credits
- SR&ED, IRAP and provincial programs in Canada. Section 41 R&D credits, state programs, SBIR and STTR in the US. Claimed fully, accounted for correctly, and structured so they work for your investors instead of confusing them.
- Reporting
- Board and investor reporting you don't have to apologize for, on a schedule you can actually keep.
- Cross-border
- A Canadian company with US investors, or a US company with Canadian operations. Somebody has to hold both sets of rules in their head at once.
- The ordinary work
- Month-end, cash, runway, and being the adult on the call when somebody asks a question you'd rather not answer alone.
Who you'd be hiring
Douglas Thiessen
A retired entrepreneur with nearly five decades of experience across Canada, the United States and Argentina, including public-company CEO and CFO roles and multiple completed real estate syndication transactions.
I've sat on both sides of the table. I know what your investor is looking for because I have been the one looking.
Fee schedule
| Pre-revenue or under $500,000, no subsidiaries | $2,500 |
| $500,000 to $2 million | $5,000 |
| Each additional subsidiary | $1,500 |
| Over $2 million in revenue | Quoted |
| First three months | $1,500 / mo |
| Thereafter | $2,500 / mo |
| Investor deck, offering memorandum and subscription formsPrepared for your counsel to review and settle | $2,500 |
| Financial model and forecast | $2,500 |
| Cap table build | $1,000 |
| R&D credit and grant claim support | $1,500 |
| Investor lead sourcingAdvertising cost extra where required | $750 / mo |
| Board or investor meeting beyond the retainer | $500 each |
| Capital raise advisory | Quoted |
Fixed fees assume your books are in QuickBooks or Xero and substantially complete. If they're worse than that, I'll tell you before I start, not after.
Prices in USD. Canadian clients quoted in CAD. Thirty days notice on the retainer, no minimum term. The step from the introductory rate to the standard rate sits in the engagement letter from day one, so month four is not a negotiation.
Tell me what's broken.
One email. No deck, no discovery call disguised as a favour, no sequence of automated follow-ups. You describe the mess. I tell you whether I can fix it and what it costs.