Of 191 funded Australian startups we tracked, 135 (71%) made their first finance hire below CFO. No single seat took more than 29%: CFO 56, head of finance 44, financial controller 36, accountant 29, finance manager 26.
Start here: the first hire is usually not a CFO
When I saw that 71% of these companies started below CFO, my first thought was that it is exactly what I see. A founder rarely gets a CFO in first; it is usually a financial controller, or someone at head of finance or VP of finance level. And as I wrote on LinkedIn, unless founders are building a financial product they often cannot assess what good looks like, and end up writing the job description on guesswork. And the seat matters more than the title suggests: your first finance person is not a bookkeeper, they build the reporting, compliance and systems the business grows on. The useful question is not which title is “right”. It is what each choice tends to lead to, and that is what the table below measures.
| First finance hire | Startups | Still in the role after 3+ years | Median months, those who left | A CFO was hired later | Median months to that CFO |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| CFO | 56 | 15 of 52 | 24 (n=38) | 28 of 56 hired another CFO | - |
| Head of finance or finance director | 44 | 12 of 31 | 24 (n=23) | 17 of 44 (39%) | 32 |
| Financial controller | 36 | 4 of 28 | 29 (n=24) | 15 of 36 (42%) | 18 |
| Accountant or FP&A analyst | 29 | 4 of 26 | 26 (n=23) | 18 of 29 (62%) | 30 |
| Finance manager | 26 | 3 of 21 | 22 (n=17) | 15 of 26 (58%) | 22 |
| Below CFO, all seats | 135 | 23 of 106 | 25 (n=87) | 65 of 135 (48%) | 26 |
Four things in that table are worth a founder’s attention.
- The senior seats are the ones that stay. Among first hires made three or more years ago, 15 of 52 CFOs and 12 of 31 heads of finance are still in the seat, against 4 of 28 financial controllers and 3 of 21 finance managers.
- A CFO first does not end the CFO question. Half of the startups that started with a CFO (28 of 56) have since hired another one.
- A controller first reaches a CFO fastest. When a CFO followed a financial controller, it came a median 18 months later. After a head of finance it took 32. A head of finance can carry the company further before the CFO question comes up.
- The junior seats are most often topped. Where the first hire was an accountant or a finance manager, a CFO was later hired in about 6 of every 10 companies.
None of those are verdicts on the people or the choices. A seat that turns over quickly may have done exactly the job it was hired for. What the table gives you is the likely next decision, and roughly when you will face it.
What startups hire first depends on when they hire
The same five seats, split by where the company was in its funding sequence when the first finance hire started.
| First finance hire | Before any round (100) | After a seed (27) | After a Series A (38) | After a Series B or later (14) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| CFO | 39 | 3 | 9 | 2 |
| Head of finance or finance director | 19 | 8 | 11 | 3 |
| Financial controller | 15 | 5 | 10 | 3 |
| Finance manager | 10 | 7 | 7 | 1 |
| Accountant or FP&A analyst | 17 | 4 | 1 | 5 |
A first CFO is overwhelmingly a before-the-round hire. 39 of the 56 CFO-first companies made that hire before any announced round. Part of that is companies whose product puts a senior finance person close to the business from the start. Part of it is a company getting the house in order before going to market. Either way, after a seed round the picture flips: only 3 of 27 first hires were a CFO, and the seed-funded company most often hired a head of finance or a finance manager.
After a Series A, the first hire is senior but rarely the top seat. Heads of finance (11), controllers (10) and CFOs (9) split the 38 first hires made after a Series A almost evenly. That is where I would expect the brief to be most contested, and where a head of finance dressed up with a CFO title is most common. What to test for is the one thing I told founders to look for: not just capability today, but the capacity to see what the next version of the role looks like before that conversation is forced on you.
After a Series B, the first hire is often junior. Of the 14 companies whose first internal finance hire came only after a Series B or later, 5 hired an accountant first. That suggests the senior work may already have been covered by someone the data cannot see, such as an outsourced or fractional provider.
Most first CFOs are first-time CFOs
Of the 56 startups whose first finance hire was a CFO, 19 hired someone whose previous role was also a CFO. For the other 37 the role immediately before carried a different title. So roughly two in three first CFOs in this study were stepping into the title as they arrived, or returning to it after a different role. The iion case below is one of them.
That is not a warning against first-time CFOs. Plenty of them are excellent, and a founder cannot always afford the person who has done it three times. It is a reason to test for the part of the job the person has not done yet. As I said on Celia’s Corner, the first finance hire or first CFO who has scaled a business before and wants to go back in and do it again is much rarer than people realise, which is why I would rather a founder chose the right seat than the biggest title.
The sixth option the title count cannot see
16 of 191 first hires (8%) were visibly fractional, part-time or interim in public records. That is a floor. A fractional or virtual CFO supplied by a firm never lists the startup as an employer, so the real “fractional first” share is higher. The Neara case below is what a long fractional start looks like.
In the post-AI market that option is stretching further, not disappearing. A financially capable founder can now do more of what used to be vCFO work, and the first internal hire is still a person. As I said on Behind The Story:
“There’s always going to be a human in the loop, particularly at the top. So the CFO or the first finance person is going to be that human in the loop.”
What changes is how much sits underneath them.
If you are weighing fractional cover against a first permanent hire, I set out when a fractional CFO is the right call in Australia.
Three first seats, and what followed
Three recent Australian companies, each of which chose a different first seat. Two are companies I have talked about publicly; all three sequences are read from public profile titles and announced rounds. People are not named, and none of these outcomes is evidence that one order works better than another.
Neara
Digital twin software for utility infrastructure, founded 2016
- Rounds
- Series A Apr 2021; Series B Sep 2023; Series C Oct 2024; Series D Feb 2026
- First finance hire
- Virtual CFO (fractional), January 2021
- Against the first round
- 3 months before the Series A
- Next finance hires
- Financial controller Jun 2024; CFO May 2025; FP&A, controller and accountant roles since
- Status now
- Raised a Series D in February 2026
Neara builds digital twins of utility infrastructure. Its first finance title on the public record is a virtual CFO who started in January 2021, three months before the Series A, and stayed in that part-time seat for four and a half years, through the Series B and the Series C.
The first in-house finance person was a financial controller in June 2024, 41 months after the virtual CFO and 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. Only then did the team fill in underneath: an FP&A business partner, a second controller and an interim accountant. When I wrote about the quarter’s new Australian unicorns in May 2026, Neara was one of the three, and none of the three was a SaaS business.
Fractional first is a real sixth option, and for a software business with a strong virtual CFO it can carry you through several rounds. Plan the handover: Neara’s first full-time CFO started while the virtual CFO was still there.
iion
In-game advertising platform, founded 2019
- Rounds
- Seed Jun 2024
- First finance hire
- CFO, October 2022
- Against the first round
- 20 months before the seed
- Next finance hire
- Finance manager, January 2023
- Status now
- Both finance hires still in role
iion runs advertising inside video games and operates remotely across the globe. Its first finance hire was a CFO, in October 2022, 20 months before its seed round was announced. A finance manager joined three months later, and both are still in their seats almost four years on.
What makes the case worth reading is the CFO seat itself. iion’s CFO talked through that path on The CFO Track, and it is the clearest example I know of the pattern in the table above: most first CFOs are taking the title for the first time, and a small, remote, fast-moving business can be exactly where that works.
A CFO title before the first round is often a first-time CFO. That can work very well; brief for the judgement the stage needs, not for years in the title.
Carma
Online used car retailer, founded 2021
- Rounds
- Seed Dec 2021; Series A May 2022; further raise Mar 2025
- First finance hire
- Financial controller, July 2021
- Against the first round
- 5 months before the seed
- Next finance hires
- Senior finance manager (consulting) Nov 2021; finance manager Jan 2022; senior financial accountants 2023 and 2025
- Status now
- Listed on the ASX in November 2025
Carma sells used cars online, which means carrying stock and a lot of money moving through the business from the first sale. Its first finance hire was a financial controller in July 2021, five months before it came out of stealth with its seed round. A senior finance manager joined on a consulting basis four months later, and a permanent finance manager a month after the seed.
That is a controls-first function, built before the company had said anything in public, and it grew underneath rather than on top: senior financial accountants followed in 2023 and 2025. Carma listed on the ASX in November 2025. Read that as where the company got to, not as proof that the order caused it. Carma’s name is too common to search cleanly, so its past-staff coverage is a floor.
When the business carries stock and transactions from day one, controls first is a legitimate first seat. Just know that a CFO question will follow, and it usually comes sooner after a controller than after a head of finance.
How I would choose the first seat
Brief for the business 12 to 24 months out. The mistake I see most is not hiring too senior. It is pricing the role against today’s complexity and hiring again a year later, which I broke down salary band by salary band on LinkedIn. Look at the table above: the seats that turned over fastest are the ones most likely to be topped by a CFO.
Hire a CFO first only if there is a CFO job. Capital, investors and the relationships that move the company forward are the CFO’s work. If those are not on the table in the next year, a head of finance will usually serve you better, and the data says they stay about as long.
Judge the hire at day 90, not day 10. Founders often expect something visible in the first weeks. What they actually get, as I wrote about the first 90 days, is orientation first, then reports that arrive without chasing by day 60, and by day 90 fewer finance questions landing on the founder and better decisions. The best first hires buy back founder attention.
Where to go next
The title mix, the gaps to the second and third hires, and where first hires came from are in the full study, your first finance hire: which seat, and what comes next, which is the source for this benchmark. If the question after this one is what to hire second, the second finance hire benchmark picks up where this page stops.
All startups, the other three questions: Before or after the first raise, How long after a raise, The second finance hire. All of them sit in the finance hiring benchmarks series.
By industry
Tech: before or after the first raise, how long after a raise, what to hire first, the second finance hire.
Fintech: before or after the first raise, how long after a raise, what to hire first, the second finance hire.
Deep tech: before or after the first raise, how long after a raise, what to hire first, the second finance hire.
Common questions
What should a startup's first finance hire be?
There is no default. Of 191 funded Australian startups in Story Recruitment's study, the first finance hire was a CFO in 56, a head of finance or finance director in 44, a financial controller in 36, an accountant or FP&A analyst in 29 and a finance manager in 26. 135 (71%) started below CFO. The right seat depends on what the business needs over the next two years, not on a rule.
When do startups hire a CFO as their first finance hire?
Mostly before they raise. 39 of the 56 startups we tracked whose first finance hire was a CFO made that hire before their first announced round. After a seed round, only 3 of 27 first finance hires were a CFO.
If my first finance hire is below CFO, how long until I need a CFO?
Of the 135 startups we tracked whose first finance hire was below CFO, 65 (48%) later hired a CFO, a median 26 months after that first hire. It varied by the first seat: a median 18 months after a financial controller (15 of 36), 22 after a finance manager (15 of 26) and 32 after a head of finance (17 of 44).
How many first-time CFOs do startups hire?
Most first CFOs are stepping into the title. Of the 56 startups we tracked whose first finance hire was a CFO, 19 hired someone whose previous role was also a CFO. For the other 37, the public record shows a different title in the role immediately before.
Should the first finance hire be fractional?
Some are, and more than the data can see. 16 of 191 first finance hires (8%) were visibly fractional, part-time or interim in public records. A fractional CFO supplied by a firm does not list the startup as an employer, so the real share is higher.
What this data cannot tell you
- 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.
How these figures were built
The companies. 194 Australian venture-backed companies whose funding round was found independently by two searches of public funding announcements. 191 have at least one dated finance hire.
The hires. Every finance role at each company, current and past, from public professional profiles, dated from the earliest finance role each person held there. 966 finance hires, 907 dated to the month. Titles are grouped into five seats: CFO; head of finance or finance director; financial controller; finance manager; accountant or FP&A analyst. People are not named on any page in this series; case companies are described by title and month only.
On this page. The stage split uses the last announced round before the first finance hire started. “A CFO was hired later” counts a different person with a CFO title joining after the first hire; each person is recorded once, at their earliest finance title, so a first hire promoted into the CFO seat is not counted and those figures are a floor. “Previous role was a CFO” reads only the role immediately before, from the public profile.
The full method, sources and dating rules are set out in the study methodology. Data read 24 September 2026.
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.