34% (16 of 47) of deep tech second hires started within six months after a funding round, about twice what the timing alone would give.
The second hire comes a median 17 months after the first, and 27 when the first was a CFO
- First to second
47 companies17 months - Second to third
33 companies13 months - Third to fourth
27 companies8 months - Fourth to fifth
19 companies7 months
View as a table
| Between hires | Median months | Companies |
|---|---|---|
| First to second | 17 | 47 |
| Second to third | 13 | 33 |
| Third to fourth | 8 | 27 |
| Fourth to fifth | 7 | 19 |
35% (18 of 51) of deep tech startups had a second finance hire within a year of the first, and 54% (27 of 50) within two, counting only companies whose first hire is at least that old. So a year in, most were still on one person; two years in, just over half were not. Once the second hire lands, the function fills in faster: 13 months to the third, 8 to the fourth.
The first seat moves the clock. A CFO first carried finance alone for a median 27 months (n=19); a first hire below CFO got company after 16 (n=28). The 17-month median sits close to what I said in a short video on finance leaders: in a growing company, “every 18 months the business is going to step to a new level.” Only 10% (5 of 52) of deep tech startups have stopped at one finance hire, and 9% (4 of 44) of those whose first hire started three or more years ago.
The second hire tends to follow a round: 34% started in the six months after one
Deep tech money arrives in lumps. As I wrote about the first quarter’s funding, the largest Australian rounds went to space and defence, hardware and robotics, life sciences, and climate and energy. The second finance hire tends to arrive with them. Of the 47 deep tech startups that made a second hire, 34% (16) made it within six months after a round announced after the first hire. If the same gaps had fallen at random against each company’s rounds, we would expect about 8 (17%). Five of the 12 deep tech second hires that were a CFO landed in that window, where about 2 would be expected.
The pull is not unique to deep tech. It shows in software (27%, 17 of 64), fintech (30%, 10 of 33) and across all startups (28%, 43 of 156). In deep tech there is no such excess in the six months before a round: 6, against about 7 expected. So plan the second hire against the next round, and start the search before it closes. What the timing shows is the money and the new work arriving together.8
The first seat sets the direction: after a CFO the next hire goes below, after a controller it goes above
| First finance hire | Below | Same level | Above |
|---|---|---|---|
| CFO first | 84%16 of 19 | 16%3 of 19 | 0%top seat |
| Head of finance first | 50%5 of 10 | 20%2 of 10 | 30%3 of 10, all CFOs |
| Financial controller first | 1of 8 | 0of 8 | 7of 8, 6 CFOs |
| Finance manager first | 1of 4 | 0of 4 | 3of 4, 2 CFOs |
| Accountant or analyst first | 0of 6 | 2of 6 | 4of 6, 1 CFO |
| All deep tech startups | 49%23 of 47 | 15%7 of 47 | 36%17 of 47, 12 CFOs |
A CFO first builds underneath: 84% (16 of 19) of the deep tech startups that started with a CFO hired below, most often an accountant or analyst. That makes your first hire a manager, sometimes for the first time. As I wrote after Paul Stevenage’s episode of The CFO Track, most finance leaders eventually work out that the team behind the numbers is what moves them, and most learn it later than they should. Brief the hire below as the first person your CFO will lead.
Anything below CFO usually gets someone above: 61% (17 of 28), and 71% (12) of those were a CFO. The controller row is where deep tech parts from everyone else. 7 of the 8 deep tech startups that started with a financial controller hired above, 6 of them a CFO, against 3 of 10 in software. A controller runs the controls, the month end and the R&D claim well; the capital raise, the investors and the board are the layer a deep tech company usually buys next. Heads of finance sit in between: 50% (5 of 10) hired below, 30% (3) above.
Above or below your first hire?
Four yes-or-no questions about your finance function as it is today. One yes is enough.
- You still own the capital raise, the grant milestones or the board pack?
- A round just closed, or one due in the next six months?
- Your first hire is a controller, finance manager or accountant?
- You hired for the business you had then, and it has grown past that brief?
0 of 4 answered. Your answer appears here after the last one.
Not sure which way your next seat goes? Send me who is in the seat, what they own today and when the next round is due, and I will tell you.
Get a read on my finance hireIf you are being told to promote, or that AI means nobody below
“Promote your first hire into the CFO seat.” Sometimes that is right.5 Ask what it costs them. When I talked to Tim Bensley on The CFO Track about his own promotion to CFO, I put it that it is a good thing, “but at the same time, there’s certain challenges when you are promoted from within a business,” and asked whether the biggest was “the management of peers.” If you promote, the second hire goes below, and it is the first person they manage.
“AI means you will not need anyone underneath.” On AccountDads episode 14 I passed on what a finance lead at a mining tech company told me: he does not think he will ever hire a financial accountant again. He may be right for his business. In deep tech the accountant or analyst is still the most common second hire, 38% (18 of 47), because grant acquittals, R&D claims and inventory still need someone who owns the detail. Hire that person for the checking and the explaining, and let the tools do the matching.
When a CFO goes over the first hire, the first hire is usually still there: 62%
Of the 32 deep tech startups whose first finance hire was below CFO, 66% (21) later hired a CFO. The first hire was still in the seat when the CFO started in 62% (13 of 21). In 33% (7) they had already gone, one of them in the month the CFO arrived, and 1 cannot be placed. Across all startups the first hire was still there in 54% of cases (35 of 65), so in deep tech the CFO more often lands on a team that is already working.
When the CFO was the second hire itself, 12 times, the first hire was still there in 75% (9), and 6 of those 9 were still there a year later (one CFO started too recently to tell). So tell the person in the seat before the search starts, and brief the CFO on how the two of them will split the work.
Brief for the person more than the sub-sector. As I wrote about the classic deep tech CFO search, what the seat needs is urgency, adaptability and someone willing to roll up their sleeves and get into the detail, more than a CV in space tech, robotics or AgTech. A same-level second hire is usually a replacement: in 5 of the 7, the first person had gone by the month the second started.
If the next search is a CFO over a sitting finance lead, I set out how to run a CFO search in Australia.
How Green Gravity, Conflux and HEO made their second finance hire: a CFO above, and two hires below after a round
Green Gravity
A head of finance first, an interim CFO above a year later, and the head of finance stayed
- Business
- Gravity energy storage in disused mine shafts, founded 2021
- First finance hire
- Head of finance, Mar 2022
- Against the first roundVs first round
- 2 months before the seed
- Next finance hire
- Interim CFO, Mar 2023, above
- Now
- Head of finance in role (Sep 2026)
Green Gravity hired a head of finance in March 2022, two months before its first round, an A$1.4 million seed. A year later it brought in an interim CFO above them, ten months after the round.
The interim CFO left in October 2023, seven months in. The head of finance stayed, and was still leading finance when the company closed a A$9 million Series A in October 2024. It is the deep tech pattern at its most common: a CFO arriving over a first hire who is still in the seat.
A CFO above does not have to mean the first hire goes. Say what the CFO is there for, and for how long, before they start.
Conflux Technology
A finance director first, and a financial accountant underneath five months after the Series B
- Business
- Additively manufactured heat exchangers, founded 2015
- First finance hire
- Finance director, 2024 (year only)
- Against the first roundVs first round
- About three years after the first round we could confirm
- Next finance hire
- Financial accountant, Mar 2025, below
- Now
- Both in role (Sep 2026)
Conflux built heat exchangers for years before it had anyone in finance on the public record. The first hire was a finance director in 2024, the year of its $11 million Series B.
The second came five months after that round: a financial accountant underneath, in March 2025. Both are still there. It is the round pattern and the head-of-finance pattern at once: 50% (5 of 10) of the deep tech startups that started with a head of finance hired below.
A senior first hire and a fresh round is when the seat underneath opens. Have the brief ready before the money lands.
HEO
A CFO first, then four years before the next hire, which came three months after the Series A
- Business
- Imaging satellites and space objects from orbit, founded 2016
- Rounds
- Seed, 2021 (AirTree-led); Series A, Aug 2023 ($12M)
- First finance hire
- CFO, Oct 2018
- Against the first roundVs first round
- Two to three years before the seed
- Next finance hire
- Finance manager, Nov 2023, below
- Now
- A CFO since Apr 2026 (Sep 2026)
HEO started with a CFO in October 2018, who left a year later. For the next four years there is no internal finance hire on the public record.3
The second hire came three months after a $12 million Series A led by AirTree in August 2023: a finance manager, below where the company had started. The finance manager left in March 2025, and a CFO joined in April 2026.
A long gap after a CFO start is normal in deep tech. What ended this one was the Series A, not the calendar.
Against the other sectors, deep tech’s second hire is a CFO most often
| Second finance hire | Deep tech | All startups | Software | Fintech |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Second hire a CFO above the first | 26%12 of 47 | 19%30 of 156 | 17%11 of 64 | 15%5 of 33 |
| Controller first, second hire above | 7of 8 | 13of 24 | 3of 10 | 2of 5 |
| Second hire within six months after a round | 34%16 of 47 | 28%43 of 156 | 27%17 of 64 | 30%10 of 33 |
| First hire still there when a later CFO started | 62%13 of 21 | 54%35 of 65 | 46%11 of 24 | 60%9 of 15 |
The clock barely moves between sectors: a median 17 months to the second hire in deep tech, 16 across all startups and 15 in software and fintech. The direction is what differs. Deep tech puts a CFO in as the second hire most often, and its controllers get someone above almost every time. The same question for the other sectors: all startups, software and fintech. The rest of the deep tech series:
- Before or after the first raise: deep tech
- How long after a raise deep tech hires finance
- What deep tech hires first in finance
- Every finance hiring benchmark, by subject and sector
Common questions
Should a deep tech startup's second finance hire be more senior or more junior than the first?
It depends on the first seat. Of the 47 funded Australian deep tech startups we tracked that made a second finance hire, 84% (16 of 19) of those that started with a CFO hired below and none above. Of the 28 that started below CFO, 61% (17) hired above, 12 of them a CFO; 7 of the 8 that started with a financial controller hired above. Overall, 49% (23) hired below, 15% (7) at the same level and 36% (17) above.
How long after the first finance hire do deep tech startups make the second?
A median 17 months (n=47), with the middle half between 10 and 35 months. After a CFO start the median was 27 months (n=19); after a below-CFO start, 16 (n=28). 35% (18 of 51) of deep tech startups made the second hire within a year of the first and 54% (27 of 50) within two, counting only companies whose first hire is that old.
Does the second finance hire follow a funding round?
More often than timing alone would give. 34% (16 of 47) of deep tech second hires started within six months after a round announced after the first hire, against about 8 (17%) if the same gaps had fallen at random. The pull shows in every sector we tracked: 27% (17 of 64) in software, 30% (10 of 33) in fintech, 28% (43 of 156) across all startups. The study cannot say the round causes the hire.
What happens to the first finance hire when a deep tech startup hires a CFO above them?
Usually they are still there. Of the 32 deep tech startups whose first finance hire was below CFO, 66% (21) later hired a CFO. The first hire was still in the seat when the CFO started in 62% (13 of 21), had gone in 33% (7) (one of them in the CFO's first month), and 1 cannot be placed. Across all startups the first hire was still there in 54% of cases (35 of 65).
Notes
- It does not show that hiring finance earlier or later causes a better outcome. It records the order things happened in. The only outcome test so far was run on the first 102 companies in the study, before it grew to 194. There, the share that raised again within 24 months of the first finance hire ran 55% when the hire came before any round (27 of 49), 47% at Series A (7 of 15) and 33% at Series B or later (2 of 6), and none of those differences could be told apart from chance (Fisher exact test, p=0.77 and p=0.41). Outcomes have not been collected for the full 194, and companies that hire early and companies that raise again are often the same well-organised companies, so no timing figure in this series is an argument for a timing.
- It is a survivor set. Every company announced a round and has at least one finance employee we could find, so the study describes companies that did build an internal finance function. In the 93 of the first 102 companies with a usable status there was not one insolvency, administration or wind-up. It cannot say what share of Australian startups have no finance lead at all.
- Outsourced and fractional finance is invisible. A virtual or fractional CFO supplied by a firm does not list the startup as an employer, so it never appears in public employment records. 16 of the 191 first hires we tracked (8%) were visibly fractional, part-time or interim, and that is a floor. Every “had no finance hire” figure means no internal hire we could find, among the companies we tracked.
- There is no headcount at the time of the hire. Only today’s headcount is public, so nothing here says “they hired a CFO at 40 staff”. The companies run from roughly 2 to 500 staff today.
- Titles are counted once. Each person is recorded at the earliest finance title they held at the company, so a controller promoted to CFO in the same business reads as a controller. Every “later added a CFO” figure is a floor.
- Rounds are dated by announcement. An announcement usually trails the close by weeks, rounds that were never announced are invisible, and grants and research funding are not in the round series. Round amounts are the least reliable field and no figure in this series rests on one. For 12 companies with names too common to search cleanly, past-staff coverage is a floor.
- It is not the market report. Story’s earlier market report on the first finance hire measured something different, the share of recently funded companies with a finance leader at each stage, so its figures and these do not compare directly.
- Deep tech is 53 companies, tagged by us. It means a scientific or engineering advance the company builds itself. Where a group is under 10 companies we print counts. A first hire promoted into a bigger title inside the same company is recorded at their first title, so internal promotions do not show here. Two of the 16 second hires that followed a round are dated to the year only, and the timing does not show that the round causes the hire.
The full method, including how rounds were double-checked and how same-named companies overseas were excluded, is in the study’s methodology section.
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.