No first finance hire is the default. Before the first round the CFO was the most common first seat (39%, 39 of 100); after a seed round only 11% (3 of 27) of first hires were a CFO.
No seat took more than 29% of first hires, and each led somewhere different
Most founders write this brief on guesswork. As I wrote about the hardest hire, unless you are building a financial product you often cannot tell what good looks like, so the job description ends up as a guess. The table is the record instead: what each seat owns, how often it came first, how long it lasted, and how often a CFO was hired after it.
| First finance hire | First hireshare of 191 | Still in the seathired 3+ years ago | Leavers stayedmedian | CFO hired latera different person | Wait for that CFOmedian |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| CFOCapital, investors, the board | 29%56 of 191 | 29%15 of 52 | 24 mo38 who left | 50%28 of 56 | 36 mo28 companies |
| Head of finance or finance directorThe model, budget and forecast | 23%44 of 191 | 39%12 of 31 | 24 mo23 who left | 39%17 of 44 | 32 mo17 companies |
| Financial controllerControls, compliance, reporting | 19%36 of 191 | 14%4 of 28 | 29 mo24 who left | 42%15 of 36 | 18 mo15 companies |
| Accountant or FP&A analystExecutes; the founder still leads finance | 15%29 of 191 | 15%4 of 26 | 26 mo23 who left | 62%18 of 29 | 30 mo18 companies |
| Finance managerMonth end, reporting, the advisers | 14%26 of 191 | 14%3 of 21 | 22 mo17 who left | 58%15 of 26 | 22 mo15 companies |
| Any seat below CFOThe four seats above, together | 71%135 of 191 | 22%23 of 106 | 25 mo87 who left | 48%65 of 135 | 26 mo65 companies |
The wait for a CFO was a median 18 months after a financial controller and 32 after a head of finance. A controller owns controls and reporting, so when the business needs the forward view, the CFO question arrives early. A head of finance already owns the model and the forecast, which carries the company further before anyone asks it. The junior seats were topped most often (62% of accountant-first startups, 18 of 29, and 58% of finance-manager-first startups, 15 of 26, later hired a CFO), which means an accountant first is usually a first step with a second search built in. The senior seats lasted: 29% (15 of 52) of first CFOs and 39% (12 of 31) of first heads of finance hired three or more years ago are still in the seat, against 14% (4 of 28) of controllers.
Weighing two seats? Send me what finance covers today and where the business will be in 18 months, and I will tell you which one to brief.
Get a read on my first finance hireTo work out your own seat in five questions, use the self-check in your first finance hire, the long read.
A CFO first did not settle the question: 50% (28 of 56) later hired another CFO
Of the 56 startups whose first finance hire was a CFO, 50% (28) went on to hire a second CFO, a median 36 months after the first. A CFO hired before the first round is often hired for that raise, and the company that exists three years later can need someone else. So whichever seat you hire, test for more than capability today. As I wrote about the most expensive finance hire, what you are looking for is the capacity to see the next version of the role before that conversation is forced on you.
If you are being told to hire differently
“Hire the CFO now, so you only hire once.” Half the startups that did that hired a second CFO, and 29% (15 of 52) of first CFOs from three or more years ago are still there. Hire a CFO first when the CFO work is already on the table: a raise, a board, investors to report to.
“An accountant will do for now.” It can, if you know what you are buying. In my breakdown of first-hire salary bands, the lower band gets you someone who executes well while the founder still leads the finance function. 62% (18 of 29) of accountant-first startups later added a CFO, and only 15% (4 of 26) of those first accountants were still in the seat after three years.
“Our first hire will grow into the CFO seat.” Sometimes, and it is rarer than founders hope. Most senior finance candidates I meet at this stage fit one of three buckets: reporting and FP&A specialists who do well once processes exist, controllers deep in the accounting but light on strategy and capital, and CFOs who have done the build and want to stay strategic. A controller who grows into the capital work is the exception to plan for.5
Before any round the CFO led; after a seed, 11% of first hires were a CFO
Split by the last announced round before the first hire started, the seat changes. 39% (39 of 100) of the companies that hired before any round started with a CFO. After a seed round a head of finance (8) or a finance manager (7) came first most often. After a Series A the three senior seats split the 38 almost evenly: head of finance 11, controller 10, CFO 9.
CFO first. Grey bars are the four seats below CFO.
View as a table
| First finance hire | Before any announced round (100) | After a seed round (27) | After a Series A (38) | After a Series B or later (14) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| CFO | 39 (39%) | 3 (11%) | 9 (24%) | 2 (14%) |
| Head of finance | 19 (19%) | 8 (30%) | 11 (29%) | 3 (21%) |
| Financial controller | 15 (15%) | 5 (19%) | 10 (26%) | 3 (21%) |
| Finance manager | 10 (10%) | 7 (26%) | 7 (18%) | 1 (7%) |
| Accountant or FP&A | 17 (17%) | 4 (15%) | 1 (3%) | 5 (36%) |
After a Series B or later, 36% (5 of 14) of first internal hires were an accountant, which suggests someone outside the company, such as an outsourced or fractional CFO, was already doing the senior work.3
If you are weighing fractional cover against a first permanent hire, I set out when a fractional CFO is the right call in Australia.
66% (37 of 56) of first CFOs came from a role without the CFO title
Of the 56 startups whose first finance hire was a CFO, 34% (19) hired someone whose previous role was also a CFO. For the other 66% (37) the role immediately before carried a different title, so they were stepping into the title as they arrived. That matches what I hear on The CFO Track. As I put it to one guest on episode 9, “often the first CFO role isn’t necessarily with the same business, normally have to go elsewhere to get it.” A first-time CFO can be the right hire. Brief for the part of the job they have not done yet, usually the raise or the board.
How Neara and Epiminder built from two different first seats
Two Australian companies, two first seats: a virtual CFO and a financial controller. Sequences are read from public profile titles and announced rounds.
Neara
A fractional CFO first, then a controller and a full-time CFO
- Business
- Digital twin software for utility networks (founded 2016)
- Rounds
- Series A Apr 2021 (US$7.25M); Series B Sep 2023; Series C Oct 2024 (A$45M); Series D Feb 2026 (A$90M)
- First finance hire
- Virtual CFO (fractional), Jan 2021
- Against the first roundVs first round
- 3 months before the Series A
- Next finance hire
- Financial controller Jun 2024; CFO May 2025
- Now
- CFO in role; six finance hires in all (Sep 2026)
Neara’s first finance title on the public record is a virtual CFO who started in January 2021, three months before the Series A, and held that part-time seat for four and a half years, through the Series B and C. In our data that counts as a CFO first, and Neara is one of the 28 that later hired another CFO.
The first in-house finance person was a financial controller in June 2024, nine months after the Series B. A full-time CFO followed in May 2025, seven months after the Series C, and the virtual CFO left the next month. The team then filled in underneath: an FP&A business partner, a second controller and an interim accountant.
A fractional start can carry a software business through several rounds. Plan the handover: Neara’s full-time CFO started while the virtual CFO was still there.
Epiminder
A controller first, then a CFO above them 18 months later
- Business
- Implantable epilepsy monitoring device (founded 2017)
- Rounds
- Series A Oct 2020 (A$18M); further round Mar 2022 (A$16M)
- First finance hire
- Financial controller, Apr 2024
- Against the first roundVs first round
- 42 months after the Series A
- Next finance hire
- CFO, Oct 2025; financial accountant, Nov 2025
- Now
- Controller and CFO both in role (Sep 2026)
Epiminder is building an implanted device that monitors epilepsy around the clock. It raised its Series A in October 2020 and another round in March 2022 with no internal finance hire.
Its first finance hire was a financial controller in April 2024. A CFO joined above them in October 2025, 18 months later, exactly the controller median in the table, and the controller stayed. A financial accountant followed a month after the CFO.
If you start with a controller, expect the CFO question in about 18 months, and tell the controller at offer stage where the senior seat will sit.
By industry
- What tech startups hire first in finance
- What fintechs hire first in finance
- What deep tech startups hire first in finance
The other all-startups benchmarks: before or after the first raise, how long after a raise and the second finance hire, all in the finance hiring benchmarks.
Common questions
Which first finance hire leads to a CFO soonest?
A financial controller. Of 191 funded Australian startups in Story Recruitment's study, 42% (15 of 36) of those whose first finance hire was a controller later hired a CFO, a median 18 months after the controller started. After a finance manager it was a median 22 months (58%, 15 of 26), after an accountant or FP&A analyst 30 (62%, 18 of 29) and after a head of finance 32 (39%, 17 of 44).
When do startups hire a CFO as their first finance hire?
Mostly before they raise. 70% (39 of 56) of the startups we tracked whose first finance hire was a CFO made that hire before any announced round. After a seed round, only 11% (3 of 27) of first finance hires were a CFO; after a Series A it was 24% (9 of 38).
If our first finance hire is a CFO, will we need another CFO later?
Half the time. 28 of the 56 startups we tracked that started with a CFO later hired another CFO, a median 36 months after the first. Of the first CFOs hired three or more years ago, 29% (15 of 52) are still in the seat.
Had most first CFOs held the CFO title before?
No. Of the 56 startups whose first finance hire was a CFO, 34% (19) hired someone whose previous role was also a CFO. For the other 66% (37), the role immediately before carried a different title.
Should the first finance hire be fractional?
Some are, and more than public records show. 8% (16 of 191) of first finance hires were visibly fractional, part-time or interim. A fractional or virtual CFO supplied by a firm does not list the startup as an employer, so the real share is higher.
Where these numbers come from
194 Australian venture-backed companies whose funding round was found by two independent searches of public announcements; 191 have a dated finance hire. Every finance role at each company comes from public professional profiles, 966 hires in all, each person recorded once at their earliest finance title and grouped into five seats. The stage split uses the last announced round before the first hire started. “Previous role was a CFO” reads only the role immediately before. People are not named; case companies are described by title and month only. Data read 24 September 2026.
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.
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.