Built for Winners
Where Is Your EBITDA Leaking Today?
Stop finding out weeks after the money is gone. Connect your portfolio to a real-time early-warning system that catches falling margins, fast cash burn, and missed targets as they happen. Fix them before they turn into real losses.
From the team behind 240+ portfolio companies and 100+ M&A transactions.
“If you want to sleep better at night, use Dear CFO.” — Patrick Wallain, Founder / CEO, ABLEMKR
Company Overview
Cash on hand
$1.28M
+4.2% vs. last month
Job margin
34.1%
−3.9 pts vs. plan
Revenue, actual vs plan
Actual Plan ForecastQ3 $1.53M +0.6%Q4 forecast
$1.72M
vs. plan
+4.9%
Range
±$81K
Hartwell fit-out is over budget.
Labour +$18K · Materials +$7K · 3 of 14 jobs over
Why did margin slip in August?
Gross margin was 61.4%, 0.8 pts under plan. Two cost lines explain almost all of it:
Over plan, August
- Direct labour+$18K
- Materials+$7K
Labour ran over on overtime in the second half of the month.
Law firms. Labs. Manufacturers. Travel. The team behind companies across 40+ industries.
Stop asking for the numbers. Nobody has to send them.
Accounting, sales, billing, spreadsheets. If your companies use it, Dear CFO can read it, so you’re never waiting on a file.
Live statements
P&L and balance sheet, current
Your metrics
Defined once, kept current
Answers
Ask in plain English
- Read-only login
- No new process
- Answers in Slack
The surprise didn’t happen yesterday. You just found out yesterday.
3 months lost
A problem doesn’t arrive as a crisis. It cooks in the data, out of sight, until it becomes one.
Month 1
A margin slips
Month 2
A target misses
Month 3
Cash burns faster
Board meeting
It’s a crisis
Dear CFO flags it in Month 1, while it’s still small.
Today
- Someone rebuilds the board pack by hand each month
- Each company counts revenue and margin its own way
- You hear about a slipping margin at the board meeting
- You email each CFO and wait for a spreadsheet
With Dear CFO
- Every company’s numbers, live in one view
- Every company measured the same way
- A slipping margin is flagged the month it starts
- You ask a question in plain English and get the answer
Delay Cost You
Multiplied EV Destruction
A $50k monthly slip caught 60 days late torches $1M at exit under a 10x multiple.
Stealth Covenant Erosion
Shrinks quietly until the bank calls—stripping leverage and forcing an emergency equity cure.
Operating Partner Tax
Top talent wastes 20+ hours a month playing forensic accountant instead of driving value.
Connected in minutes, not months.
Connect
Day one
Read-only login, a few minutes each.
Measure
On the call
Your view and definitions, set with you.
Run
Your next review
Variances raised as the data shows them.
ConnectionsRead-only
- Harborview FreightQuickBooks OnlineConnected
Foxglove CreamerySalesforceConnected
Portfolio definitionsEvery company
- Gross marginRevenue less cost of sales
- Cash runwayCash on hand ÷ monthly burn
- RevenueRecognised, excluding pass-through
Raised automaticallyMonth 1
Foxglove Creamery
Accounts attached: direct labour, materials
No IT team needed, read-only access to every system, and no new process for anyone to learn.
Built by the CFO team behind 240+ portfolio companies.
The track record, and what founders say about Dear CFO.
240+
Portfolio companies
100+
M&A transactions
$200M+
Raised, last 12 months
5+
IPOs
Phoenix Strategy Group, operating since 1998. Led by partners David Metzler, John Zdanowski and Ethan Lu.
Plan, don’t react.
the lender call, on our terms
“Dear CFO flagged our cash runway slipping weeks before we’d have seen it in the monthly close. That was the difference between planning the conversation with our lender and reacting to it.”
Norman RodriguezFounder / CEO, ElevateHireBoard pack built from live numbers
“Our board pack used to take days of exports and pasting every month. With Dear CFO it’s built from live numbers, and we see a variance the day it hits the data instead of at the next board meeting.”
David DarmstandlerCo-CEO, DataPathEvery entity on one set of definitions
“We used to reconcile every company’s numbers by hand before each review. Dear CFO puts them on one set of definitions, so the numbers we discuss are the numbers, and we can ask a question across the whole business in plain English.”
Lauren NagelCEO, SpokenLayerYour portfolio’s data stays yours.
- Read-only access
- Encrypted
- Held in the US
- Access control
How your data is held
Your portfolio’s data stays yours.
- Read-only access. Dear CFO reads your data and never changes anything in your systems.
- Encrypted. In transit and at rest, on Google Cloud.
- Held in the US. Stored in Google Cloud in the United States.
- Access control. Each company is its own dataset, with access set per company and per page.
Control of the portfolio, without hiring for it.
Priced by portfolio size.
A portfolio finance hire is a full-time salary for one person who still has to chase every company for its numbers. Dear CFO covers every company, and never waits on an email.
Starter starts with a free 90-day EBITDA risk audit. We connect one portfolio company and run Dear CFO on its live data, so you see where reporting lags and margins slip on your own numbers before you pay anything. We run a limited number of audits at a time, because each one is set up with us by hand. Platform is quoted on the call.
Nothing to lose but the spreadsheets.
If it does not earn its place in your portfolio review, stop. Your data is untouched either way.
Why can’t we just use ChatGPT?
A general chat tool cannot see your portfolio companies’ data, so every answer starts with someone exporting and pasting numbers in, and nothing keeps two companies on the same definitions. Dear CFO connects to each company’s systems read-only, keeps every company on one set of definitions, and shows every step of how an answer was worked out.
How long does setup take?
Each company connects its systems with a read-only login, which takes a few minutes and needs no IT. Reports build straight from its data once a company is connected, and we set up your portfolio view with you on the call. There is no new process for the finance lead to learn.
Is our portfolio data secure?
Dear CFO only reads from the systems it connects to and never writes back to them. Data is held in Google Cloud in the United States, encrypted in transit and at rest, and each company’s data is kept in its own dataset with access controlled per company. You own what you connect and can disconnect or delete it at any time.
How is it priced?
Per company, per month. Starter begins with a free 90-day audit on one portfolio company, then $500; Fund is $1,000; Platform is quoted on the call. There is no annual contract: you can cancel at any time.
See your portfolio in one view before your next board meeting.
A walkthrough set up around your portfolio companies and the systems they already run.
Cancel anytime No IT required Read-only access
