Hire a hands-on Financial Controller first. For the Australian VC-backed startups I recruit for at Story Recruitment, that is the default at 10 to 20 heads. FP&A is not a separate first seat. It sits with a Head of Finance, who comes first when the business is complex early: deep tech, lending or robotics. Price the role for 12 months out.
Controller or FP&A is really Controller or Head of Finance
A bookkeeper processes transactions: accounts payable, reconciliations and payroll. A Financial Controller sits above that and owns the numbers being right. A Head of Finance owns where the numbers are going, and that forward-looking work includes FP&A, budgeting and forecasting. So when a founder asks me "Controller or FP&A?", the real choice is Controller or Head of Finance. FP&A is part of the Head of Finance remit at this stage, not a separate first seat. If FP&A as a discipline is new to you, I cover what FP&A means in a startup separately.
| Financial Controller first | Head of Finance first | |
|---|---|---|
| Core remit | Financial controls, compliance and reporting. The numbers are right. | Broader: financial modelling, FP&A, budgeting and forecasting on top of the controls. |
| Fits when | Early scale, around 10 to 20 heads, with an outsourced bookkeeper for AP, reconciliations and payroll. | Complexity arrives early: deep tech, lending, space tech or robotics, often around a seed round of $10-15 million. |
| Risk if wrong | Priced for today and outgrown within a year, so you hire again. | Hired ahead of need where a fractional CFO would have covered the forward-looking work. |
My default: a hands-on Controller and an outsourced bookkeeper
For most early-scale startups, a hands-on Financial Controller plus an outsourced bookkeeper is the right first finance team. At this stage the finance team does not need to be big. It needs agility. That usually means a Finance Manager or a hands-on Financial Controller, supported by a bookkeeper or an outsourced accounting firm.
The classic hire is they'll have the Financial Controller that does a bit of everything at the higher end, and they'll have an outsourced bookkeeper for AP, reconciliations, and payroll. That's the most common model.
That is the model I see most among the companies I work with. Across the wider market the picture is different. In Story Recruitment's study of 194 funded Australian startups, 191 had a dated finance hire, and a Financial Controller was the first hire at 19% of them (36). A Head of Finance or Finance Director came first at 23% (44), and a CFO at 29% (56). Against that baseline I still default to the Controller first, because the work at that stage is hands-on and the team needs agility more than seniority. The full breakdown, and what those companies hired next, is in what 191 Australian startups hired first.
It is the structure I see work best between 10 and 50 people. Past that, and once revenue is established, it becomes time to bring finance properly in-house, with a Head of Finance or Controller leading a small team across AP and AR, payroll and management accounting.
I map that progression in how the startup finance team splits as you scale.
When the Head of Finance, and FP&A, should come first
A Head of Finance, who carries FP&A, should be the first finance hire when the business is complex from the start: deep tech, lending, space tech or robotics, often around a seed round of $10-15 million. In those businesses the first finance hire often comes in sooner. They are usually walking into messy accounting, so the first job is still setting up financial controls, but the business needs the forward-looking side from day one. I break that down further in what deep tech startups should hire first in finance.
The opposite holds for simple models. A single-product SaaS business might not need a first finance hire until Series B, and can rely on a fractional CFO for a long time, while a complex deep tech business like robotics needs a finance professional sooner. The headcount is the same, but the complexity is not.
Timing signals that say the first finance hire is due
Businesses looking for their first finance hire typically have roughly 10 to 20 headcount. The hire often lands around a big seed or Series A round: businesses that have raised $10-20 million, or smaller businesses that have raised $5-10 million, hiring a Financial Controller or Head of Finance, as I set out on a podcast. Three signals usually start a first-finance-hire search:
- Headcount: the business scales past 10 to 20 heads.
- Funding: it is three to six months after a seed round closes.
- Setup breaks: the existing bookkeeper and accountant setup stops keeping up.
Any one of these three signals is enough to start the conversation. For the full sequence, see when to make each finance hire, and for the stage-by-stage view, when Australian tech startups hire finance.
The next step up is a different decision: when a startup needs its first CFO.
Full-time hire or fractional CFO?
A fractional CFO buys senior, forward-looking judgement part time. A full-time Controller buys someone in the business every day making sure the numbers are right. A fractional CFO and a full-time Controller solve different problems, which is why a simple SaaS business can lean on a fractional CFO arrangement for a long time, while a business with messy accounting and real operational complexity cannot wait. If you are weighing the cost of the part-time route, I set out what a part-time CFO costs in Australia.
Price the role for the business you will be in 12 months
Price a first finance hire against the complexity the business will have in 12 months, not today. The most common error I see is under-hiring. Founders price the role against current complexity, and that often leads to re-hiring because the first person could not scale. If you are choosing between a Controller and a Head of Finance and the business is about to get harder, that is the argument for the broader hire.
Two more things narrow the field. Someone who has been a first finance hire, scaled a business and wants to do it again is much rarer than people realise.[1] One candidate I am working with now was the first finance hire for a high-growth tech business that scaled 20x over four years. Profiles like that are few. And there is a misconception in startup land that the first finance hire needs to have come from a startup, so corporate backgrounds are often the first thing founders rule out. The best first finance hires are not defined by the size of the business they came from. They are defined by how they think when there is no playbook in front of them.
Before you set a band, see Financial Controller salaries in Australia.
What the first 90 days should look like
Founders often expect something more visible in the first few weeks. In my experience the first 90 days of a new finance role are full of questions: a good hire notices the manual reconciliations, the disparate reports and the processes nobody has questioned. The focus should be building trust with you and the team rather than quick wins. Write that into the Head of Finance job description so expectations match from the start.
I put the full decision, when to hire, who to hire and what it costs in 2026, into The First Finance Hire Playbook for Australian founders. If you need to sell the hire to a board first, start with the business case for a finance hire.
Common questions
Should a startup's first finance hire be a Controller or an FP&A lead?
For most Australian startups at 10 to 20 heads, a hands-on Financial Controller with an outsourced bookkeeper underneath. FP&A at this stage sits inside the Head of Finance remit rather than as a standalone first seat, so the real choice is Controller or Head of Finance.
What is the difference between a Financial Controller and a Head of Finance?
A Financial Controller focuses on financial controls, compliance and reporting. A Head of Finance is broader and covers the forward-looking work too: financial modelling, FP&A, budgeting and forecasting.
When should an Australian startup make its first finance hire?
Typically at roughly 10 to 20 headcount, often around a big seed or Series A round. The common triggers are scaling past 10 to 20 heads, three to six months after a seed round closes, or the existing bookkeeper and accountant setup breaking.
Can a fractional CFO replace a first finance hire?
For a while, in a simple business. A single-product SaaS company might rely on a fractional CFO until Series B, while a complex deep tech business such as robotics needs an in-house finance professional much sooner.
References
- Tom Hunter, podcast guest appearance: first finance hires, Financial Controller vs Head of Finance, and how rare repeat first finance hires are.
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.