A startup's EVP for a first finance hire or first CFO has to answer five things: what the business is and why it matters, who the founder is, the real stage and runway, what the hire will build, and a package whose upside is within reach. Finance people are trained to test claims, so every part needs proof, and the founder has to be the one telling it.
What an employee value proposition is, for a finance hire
Most EVP frameworks list the same pillars: compensation, benefits, career development, work environment and culture. They are a useful checklist. What changes from hire to hire is the weight a candidate puts on each one, and finance leaders weigh them differently from most of your team.
Back in February 2025, before I started Story, I wrote about the reasons finance professionals gave me most often for considering a move: salary, development and opportunity, flexibility, and the team and leadership they would work with. The best people, I said then, do not just want a job, they want to keep moving forward.
Risk and reward: base, bonus and equity in the same offer
The package part of an EVP is the trade a candidate makes between cash today and value later. In a startup that usually means a base under what a large company would pay, super on top, sometimes a bonus, and equity through an employee share scheme.
On a call in June 2026 I explained to a candidate why nearly every role at Series C or earlier comes with equity: the companies prefer to load the package with equity rather than cash, and the person taking it on needs a prize at the end, because there is a lot of mess to fix and the pace is relentless.
What makes equity persuasive is how close the payoff looks. On a CFO search in May 2026 the base was on the light side for a seasoned CFO, but the upside was one an experienced person could back themselves to deliver within 18 to 24 months. Most of the time, as I said on that call, the equity or LTI is “a metaphorical thing off in the distance”. When it is genuinely close, I sell it hard, and you should too. I set out the bands and the way to present the grant in my guide to the first CFO offer package.
How to set up an ESOP for an Australian startup.
Impact and scope: say what they will build
The scope part of an EVP describes the work itself: what the person will own, decide and build. For a finance hire it is the part most job ads get wrong, because they list compliance tasks and leave out the commercial work that made the candidate want the job.
As I said on The CFO Track in July 2026, that commercial work is why people come into finance in the first place: “They don't want to get in to be reconciling balance sheets and like doing trial balance. They want to get in, add value, and get into the commercial.” (The CFO Track, July 2026) So write down the raise they will help run, the board pack they will own, the model they will build and the decisions they will sit next to the founder on.
On every search I write that down in an executive brief: the background of the business, the type of person who does well there, what success looks like, the expectations and an outline of the leadership. A candidate who reads it comes into the interviews across everything the role expects of them. If you are still deciding which seat comes first, my guide to when to hire a CFO covers the signals.
Startup or corporate: answering the stability question
A finance candidate in a large company, a bank or a Big 4 firm is weighing your offer against stability, a known brand and a clear ladder. Your EVP has to answer that directly, with what a startup offers that a corporate cannot.
| What the corporate seat offers | The startup answer | |
|---|---|---|
| Security | A known brand and a long track record | Clear runway, named investors and an honest view of what comes next |
| Pay | A higher base and a predictable bonus | A fair base plus equity with an upside the hire can reach |
| Scope | One part of a large function, with set processes | The whole function, built their way |
| Exposure | Board and investors several layers away | A seat next to the founder, the board and the next raise |
| Pace | Committees, approvals and annual cycles | Decisions made quickly, with the hire in the room |
As I said on Brewed Abroad in June 2026, “if you don't have the huge amount of runs on the board that ASX100 business does, you need that story and you need to draw people in.” (Brewed Abroad, June 2026)
Stability is also less certain than it looks from inside a big company. On a call in June 2026 I told a candidate I had seen some really poorly run big businesses, where the sheer scale of the headcount leaves people exposed to restructures. There are pros and cons to every size of business; what matters is how it is run.
Purpose counts too. In the first half of 2026 I was recruiting for a mission-led fintech, and the buy-in from candidates during shortlisting was so strong it stood out, because the work was about more than making money: it was about helping the broader community. If your business solves a real problem for real people, put that near the top of the story.
What a finance leader weighs when moving from corporate to a startup.
Proof: runway, investors and an honest picture
A finance candidate will test your EVP the way they would test a forecast. Expect to share the last round and who led it, current runway, the next milestone the money has to buy and the state of the books they are inheriting.
Be clear about the hard parts too. My aim with the executive brief, as I described it on a call in April 2026, is not quite warts and all, but really clear about what is expected, so no one starts the job thinking they did not expect it to be like this.
The same goes for buy-in. On a call in May 2026 I told a candidate weighing first finance hire roles that the job is also a relationship, and that buying into the founders' vision is the point of taking it. On a call in February 2026 I said that at senior level you want someone bought into the vision and looking for growth, not coming in for a high salary.
How to tell the story, and who should tell it
An EVP only works when it reaches the right person and sounds true when they hear it. That means the founder telling it, in their own words, at every stage of the process: the ad, the first call, the final interview and the offer.
Start by listening. In April 2024, at my previous firm, I wrote that “Selling is listening, first and foremost.” Ask the candidate what they want from their next role before you pitch, then lead with the parts of your story that answer it.
Then get it in front of people who are not looking. As I wrote in October 2026, the right person for a first finance hire is usually happy where they are and will “only move for the right founder and the right story.” One way I do it is a story post at the start of each search, which names the business and celebrates it publicly: its awards, the capital it has raised, the journey and the people. The ad is another; I cover how to write one in my guide to the finance job ad. The story has to carry right through to the offer, which is where closing a finance hire picks it up.
The two seats I fill are a startup's first finance hire, usually between late seed and Series A, and its first CFO, somewhere from Series A to Series C, for venture-backed tech, fintech and deep tech companies in Australia.
How a search is run: retained versus contingent search.
Common questions
What is an employee value proposition?
An employee value proposition (EVP) is the set of reasons a person would choose to work for an employer over the alternatives. It usually covers pay and equity, benefits, career development, the work environment, the people and the purpose of the business. A good EVP is specific, true and consistent across the job ad, interviews and offer.
What should a startup's EVP include for a finance hire?
For a first finance hire or first CFO, a startup's EVP should answer five things: what the business does and why it matters, who the founder is, the real stage and runway, what the hire will build in their first 12 months, and the package, including equity with an upside the candidate can realistically reach.
How can a startup attract a CFO without matching corporate salaries?
Compete on the parts of the EVP a salary cannot buy: the commercial scope of the role, the founder's vision and how close the equity upside is. Then prove it with the real runway, the investors behind the business and an honest picture of the books, because experienced finance leaders test claims before they accept them.
Should equity be part of an employee value proposition?
In an Australian venture-backed startup, equity is usually central to the EVP for senior finance hires, because the base is often below what a large company would pay. It persuades when the candidate can see a realistic path to the upside, rather than a promise that sits years away.
What is the difference between an EVP and an employer brand?
The EVP is the offer itself: what someone gets in return for joining. The employer brand is how the market perceives you as a place to work, built from what you say and what current and former staff say. A clear EVP that holds up in practice is what builds a credible employer brand over time.
These guides set out how we see it, drawn from the searches we run and the finance leaders we work with. They are general information about the market, not financial, accounting or legal advice, and they are no substitute for advice on your own circumstances.