In Story Recruitment's study of 194 funded Australian startups, 71% (135 of 191) made their first finance hire below CFO: a head of finance or finance director, a financial controller, a finance manager or an accountant. 29% (56) hired a CFO first.
The three seats, and what each one owns
The cleanest way to separate them is by time horizon. The controller is accountable for what already happened being right. The head of finance is accountable for the plan. The CFO is accountable for whether the plan can be funded, and for the relationship with the people funding it. The way I put the first split on Celia's Corner:
“The biggest difference between those two style roles is financial controller is more around as in the name, financial controls and compliance and reporting, where a head of finance is probably going to be a little bit more broadly across the forward-looking tasks. Like financial modeling or FP&A... Or the budgeting and forecasting component.”
None of the three removes the legal accountability from the board. ASIC is explicit that directors remain responsible for the financial report giving a true and fair view, and that a declaration from the CEO and CFO does not reduce it. That is why the controller's accuracy work is never merely administrative.
| Seat | Owns | Hired first by |
|---|---|---|
| CFO | Capital, investors, governance and the financial consequence of executive decisions | 56 of 191 (29%) |
| Head of Finance / Finance Director | The model, budget, forecast and board pack; runs the function | 44 of 191 (23%) |
| Financial Controller | Controls, compliance, the close and statutory reporting | 36 of 191 (19%) |
| Accountant / FP&A analyst | Accounts, month end and analysis under a senior owner | 29 of 191 (15%) |
| Finance Manager | Day-to-day finance operations and the close | 26 of 191 (14%) |
Which seat Australian startups actually hire first
Story Recruitment's study dated 966 finance hires at 194 funded Australian startups, using public professional profiles and funding announcements. Of the 191 companies with a dated finance hire, 56 (29%) made a CFO their first finance hire. The other 135 (71%) started below CFO: 44 with a head of finance or finance director, 36 with a financial controller, 29 with an accountant or FP&A analyst and 26 with a finance manager.
That matches what I see in briefs. The first finance hire is rarely a CFO. It is usually a financial controller or a head of finance, and they end up dealing with much the same problems a CFO would, at a smaller scale. The seat varies by sector, though, and deep tech is the outlier:
| First hire | Tech (n=82) | Fintech (n=40) | Deep tech (n=52) |
|---|---|---|---|
| CFO | 20 (24%) | 10 (25%) | 20 (38%) |
| Head of Finance / FD | 19 (23%) | 12 (30%) | 10 (19%) |
| Financial Controller | 18 (22%) | 6 (15%) | 10 (19%) |
| Accountant / FP&A | 15 (18%) | 6 (15%) | 6 (12%) |
| Finance Manager | 10 (12%) | 6 (15%) | 6 (12%) |
Deep tech hires a CFO first more often (20 of 52), which fits what I see: the capital conversation starts early, and large rounds, grants and R&D tax claims need an owner from the start. Fintech leans to a head of finance or finance director first (12 of 40). Software is the most likely to start with a controller or an accountant, which fits a business that can run lean on finance for longer.
The full title mix, where first hires came from and how the method works are in your first finance hire: which seat Australian startups fill first.
What happens after a below-CFO first hire
This is the part founders do not plan for. Of the 135 companies whose first finance hire was below CFO, 65 (48%) later added a CFO above that person, a median 26 months after the first hire. The other 70 have not, at least so far, and some are too recent to have got there. Where a company made a second finance hire, it was a CFO in 43 of 156 cases.
My read of why: a lot of first hires at head of finance or VP Finance level are excellent at the job they were hired for and are not the person to take the CFO seat when the business needs one, so a CFO ends up being hired above them.[1] The hire that tends to cost a founder most is not the first one but the one that has to follow it, when the first was specced for today's complexity rather than the business in 12 to 24 months. None of this says a CFO-first company does better. The data shows the sequence, not the outcome.
Two limits sit on every figure here. The companies were found through their finance people, so they are startups that did build an internal finance function. And a fractional or outsourced CFO supplied by a firm does not show in public employment records, so a startup whose first internal hire was a controller may well have had a fractional CFO above them the whole time.
Which seat fits which stage
The stage call depends on the business model more than on revenue. In my experience a first internal finance hire around a big seed or Series A is usually a head of finance or a controller, and the first CFO comes later. How much later is set by what the business does, as I said on the same podcast:
“If it's a Deep Tech business, then it might be series A. Or if it's a Fintech that's got a big strong component on lending or payments, then it might be series A again. But if it's a SaaS business that's one jurisdiction, one location, one product, then it probably doesn't need a proper CFO until series B.”
The line I draw for founders: you can run a very good Series A business with a head of finance, and you usually cannot run a very good Series B business without a CFO, because by then there are institutional investors, audit-grade numbers and a capital strategy that needs an experienced owner. The job is knowing which side of that line you are on. For the first CFO briefs I run, the business is usually past 50 heads and $10 million ARR.
Where the titles blur, and why it matters
In Australian startups the labels are close to unreliable. A head of finance is often handed a CFO title to make a board deck look complete or to win a candidate, and the business then pays for a title rather than a remit. Read the accountability, not the label.
Finance director is the least standardised of the lot. In a startup it usually means a head of finance. In a mid-market business it is often a CFO in everything but the executive seat, and in a large corporate it can be a divisional role reporting to a group CFO. If you are hiring for that title specifically, I set out what a finance director does and costs separately.
One more signal, and it is about the founder rather than the candidate. If you expect a financial controller to do all the bookkeeping themselves with no support underneath, the brief is really for a bookkeeper, and the controllers worth hiring will read it that way. A controller needs a bookkeeper or an outsourced provider under them to do the controller job.
For how these seats stack as the team grows, and what the second hire usually is, see how to structure a finance team as you scale.
What each seat costs
Pay follows the seat and the stage, and the CFO number moves the most between late Series A and pre-IPO. Rather than repeat the bands here, I keep them in one place: CFO and finance leadership salaries in Australia has the controller, head of finance and CFO ranges by funding stage. Price the seat after you have picked it, not before.
How long the first hire stays
Of the 191 first finance hires in the study, 59 are still in the role. The 125 who have left stayed a median 25 months. That figure describes leavers only, not everyone hired, and I have not split it by seat here. It lines up with how I think about the role: the business steps up a level roughly every 18 months, and the first hire either steps up with it or makes way for the seat above.
If you are the controller wanting the CFO seat
The gap is rarely technical. It is exposure: a capital raise, board time and having led a team. Technical skill gets candidates in the door for senior finance roles, but stakeholder skill keeps them in the role, because that is what builds trust with a founder and a board.
One structural thing worth planning around: a first CFO role often is not with the same business. Normally you have to go elsewhere to get it, which fits the study: about half of the below-CFO first hires later had a CFO hired above them. If you are waiting for the title where you are, be honest with yourself about whether the seat is going to open for you.
Common questions
What is the difference between a CFO and a financial controller?
A financial controller owns controls, compliance and reporting: the close, statutory accounts, audit and the numbers being right. A CFO owns capital, investors, governance and the financial consequence of where the business is going, and answers to the board for the numbers. In Story Recruitment's study of 194 funded Australian startups, 36 of 191 hired a financial controller first and 56 hired a CFO first.
What is the difference between a head of finance and a CFO?
A head of finance owns the forward-looking work (financial modelling, FP&A, budgeting and forecasting) and runs the function day to day. A CFO owns capital strategy, the investor relationship and governance. Tom Hunter's line for founders is that you can run a very good Series A business with a head of finance, but you usually cannot run a very good Series B business without a CFO.
Should a startup's first finance hire be a CFO?
Usually not. In Story Recruitment's study, 135 of 191 funded Australian startups (71%) made their first finance hire below CFO, and 56 (29%) hired a CFO first. Deep tech was the exception, with 20 of 52 (38%) hiring a CFO first.
If I hire a financial controller or head of finance first, will I need a CFO later?
Often. Of the 135 companies in the study whose first finance hire was below CFO, 65 (48%) later added a CFO above that person, a median 26 months after the first hire. The rest have not so far. The companies were found through their finance people, and an outsourced fractional CFO does not appear in public records, so some had CFO-level help that the data cannot see.
What does a finance director do compared to a CFO?
In an Australian startup a finance director usually does the head of finance job: running the function and owning the plan. In a mid-market business the title is often a CFO without the executive seat, and in a large corporate it can be a divisional role reporting to a group CFO. Read the accountability rather than the label.
References
- This is the pattern I see most in the briefs I take: the first finance person is often a head of finance or VP Finance rather than a CFO, and most of them are not ready to step into the CFO seat when the business needs one, so the business ends up hiring a CFO above them.
These guides set out how we see it, drawn from the searches we run and the finance leaders we place. They are general information about the market, not financial, accounting or legal advice, and they are no substitute for advice on your own circumstances.