How to reinvent your finance leadership in a tech startup

In a world of AI-driven disruption, is your finance team ready to lead transformation? As a CFO, I've seen the pitfalls and the wins. Six months ago, I asked my finance team a simple question: "If AI could do 40% of what you do today, what would you want to do instead?" The silence was deafening. Not because they didn't have ideas. Because they were terrified, I was asking who we could replace. That moment taught me everything about why finance transformations fail. The problem isn't the technology. It's the narrative. Most CFOs roll out AI tools with a cost-saving pitch. "We can do more with less." "Improve efficiency." "Reduce headcount." And we wonder why adoption is slow. Here's what I learned: People don't resist change. They resist being made obsolete. So I changed the conversation entirely. We reframed AI as career acceleration, not a career threat. I gave the team a challenge: identify the work you hate, the repetitive, soul-crushing tasks that keep you from doing meaningful analysis. The list was long: → Manual journal entries → Variance analysis for 50+ cost centres → Reformatting reports for different stakeholders → Chasing approvals for routine transactions → Reconciling data across multiple systems Then I said, "What if AI handled all of this, and you spent your time on strategy, insights, and decision support?" That's when everything shifted. The wins came faster than expected. We started small. One use case at a time. In 5 years, there will be two types of finance professionals: those who work with AI to drive strategic decisions and those who do not. And those still doing tasks AI replaced 3 years ago. As CFOs, we get to choose which team we're building. The companies that win won't be the ones with the best AI tools. They'll be the ones with finance teams confident enough to use them. So ask yourself: Is your finance team learning to lead with AI or learning to fear it? What's your biggest challenge in preparing your finance team for an AI-driven future?

🚨 Burnout in finance, the silent side effect of scaling! Speaking with finance leaders in the PE & VC-backed world lately, a clear pattern keeps surfacing. When funding lands, most of the investment flows straight to front-end functions, sales, marketing, ops, with finance left to “catch up later.” The result? Lean teams holding together complex reporting, investor demands, system migrations, audits, and board prep, all while trying to future-proof the business. Systems get budget. Tech gets upgrades. But people, the finance teams actually running the numbers, too often don’t. The truth is: no system can fix burnout. Investment in finance can’t just be about automation and dashboards. It’s about capacity, capability, and culture, the humans behind the spreadsheets. Jack@core3.co.uk Core3 | B Corp™

Finance pros, don’t buy this fairy tale trending now on LinkedIn. So apparently… everyone’s a CFO now 🤷♂️ “AI will handle the repetitive stuff, and everyone will just do STRATEGY.” Cool story. I’m sorry… isn’t that role already called the CFO? So what now? Every accountant, analyst, bookkeeper, and intern suddenly gets promoted? With 20 days of experience in finance? Sure, and I’m Batman. Here’s the ugly truth 👇 1️⃣ Jobs will be lost. Everyone will get fired like it's 2008 all over again. Once enough tasks vanish, entire roles collapse. You don’t need 10 people “directing” AI, you need one. 2️⃣ There's a corporate ladder that will be respected. “From doer to decision-maker” sounds nice until you remember hierarchy. There aren’t infinite seats at the strategy table. 3️⃣ AI won’t just do the “what.” It’s already doing parts of the “why.” It runs the analysis, explains the story, and convinces you it’s right, even when it’s not. Blind trust is another risk. 4️⃣ “Human skills” aren’t enough. Empathy and storytelling sound cute until you realize finance still runs on data. The future belongs to people who blend technical + human judgment. 5️⃣ “Learn AI” isn’t a strategy. Learn what, exactly? Prompting? Data governance? Ethics? Telling finance pros to “learn AI” is the new “learn Excel.” Motivational noise without a roadmap. -- So no, this isn’t the “biggest opportunity finance gets.” It’s a redistribution of value... (toward the "few" who master both strategy and systems.) What do you think? 👉 Is this shift an opportunity, or just a polite way of saying “mass downsizing with better branding”? 👉 What should governments or firms actually do to protect finance professionals from being left behind? Drop your honest take, not the PR version. I want to hear how you really see this playing out. -- I went deeper on the future of finance jobs/roles in today's newsletter, check it out in the 1st comment.

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Looking Ahead to 2026: Finance Priorities Amid Three Major Shifts Success in the coming year will require more than cost control it demands a strategic, integrated approach across Growth, Technology, and Talent. Three forces are reshaping the finance agenda: 1. 🌐 Volatility as the New Normal: From Forecasting to Agility Economic uncertainty isn’t a passing storm it’s the climate we operate in. Geopolitical tensions, interest rate swings, and trade policy shifts call for a rethink of traditional planning. Scenario Planning at Speed: Move beyond annual budgets and quarterly forecasts to continuous, dynamic modeling. The question isn’t what will happen it’s how fast can we pivot when X, Y, or Z occurs? Cash Flow as Lifeline: Real-time liquidity visibility and working capital optimization are critical to navigating supply chain risks and sustaining operations. The CFO as “Chief Reality Officer”: Translate imperfect market signals into actionable strategies for the Board and C-suite. 2. 🧠 The AI Imperative: Building the Future Finance Function AI has moved from experimentation to expectation. It’s now a strategic lever for efficiency and insight. Automation for Impact: Free teams from repetitive tasks invoice reconciliation, close processes, basic reporting—so they can focus on strategic analysis. Data Governance First: AI is only as strong as its data. Partner with IT to enforce quality, consistency, and ethical standards. Proving ROI: Every tech dollar from ERP upgrades to AI tools must show measurable business value through clear metrics and integrated strategies. 3. 🧑💻 Talent Transformation: Closing the Skills Gap The finance talent shortage is real and the skillset for tomorrow looks very different. The New Finance Profile: Beyond technical accounting, we need data storytellers, analytical thinkers, and cross-functional collaborators. Upskilling as Retention: Invest in AI fluency and advanced analytics to future-proof teams and reduce burnout. Finance as Strategic Partner: Embed commercial insight across sales, operations, and HR. The CFO’s influence will be judged by enterprise-wide impact. Question: What’s the single most critical investment your organization is making to manage volatility and drive sustainable growth? #CFO #FinanceStrategy #DigitalTransformation #AIinFinance #FutureOfWork #ManagementReports

How Finance Helps Drive Innovation in a Tech Company Many people still think finance is about control, not creativity. But I’ve realized that finance is one of the most innovative parts of a tech company. Every new product idea, every strategic decision, every market experiment needs a strong financial backbone — someone who can turn creative ideas into sustainable results. In tech, things move fast. That means finance professionals must do more than reporting — we need to forecast, adapt, and translate data into decisions. 🤔Through my experience, I’ve learned three key lessons about innovation and finance: 1️⃣ Innovation fails without structure — numbers give ideas a direction. 2️⃣ Reporting is storytelling — the way you explain numbers can shape decisions. 3️⃣ Finance is not a blocker — it’s a partner in smart growth. I truly believe that the future of finance is collaborative — where analysts, tech teams, and founders work together to build something scalable and meaningful. #Finance #FinancialReporting #Innovation #TechFinance #BusinessGrowth #Strategy #DataDriven

I had a great chat recently with a seasoned CFO who’s now steering finance in an early-stage AI/Tech business here in Manchester. We talked about what really matters for ambitious, fast-growing companies. My key takeaways: ➡️ Cash and cashflow are everything. Always know your burn rate and how long you’ve got. This company nearly ran out of cash four or five times in the past three years. ➡️ Make your numbers tell a story. Investors want to see a growth journey, not just reports. Turning data into a compelling pitch is key for fundraising and product launches. ➡️ Scalability is where the value lies. EBITDA is important, but investors look for rapid revenue growth with genuine product-market fit. ➡️ Get the right systems in place from day one. Keep things lean, automate where you can, and build in strong controls early. Only hire for roles you absolutely need and look to automate the rest. ➡️ Finance covers all sorts. Involvement in ops, fundraising, strategy and more. Being adaptable and ready to roll up your sleeves is vital If you’re a finance professional in Manchester or the North West and fancy moving into the scale-up world, drop me a message in confidence.

The Capability Paradox Why Adding People Won’t Scale Your Finance Function Your finance team doubled in size. So why hasn’t your strategic impact? 🤔 Because growth isn’t about headcount, it’s about capability. Smart CFOs are realizing that: 📊 More people ≠ more output. Coordination drag kills efficiency. 🚀 Capability compounds. One great analyst who automates and communicates clearly is worth ten average ones. 💡 AI amplifies skill, not noise. In capable hands, it’s a force multiplier - not a shortcut. Tomorrow’s winning finance teams won’t be the biggest. They’ll be the smartest - built on automation, judgment, and learning velocity. 👉 Read the full article: https://lnkd.in/dStrkcxW #FinanceTransformation #CFO #FP&A #FinancialStrategy #FutureOfFinance #FinanceLeadership #Nexteam

I am terrible at accounting, and not gonna lie, it usually involves locking myself into the office to scan a bunch of faded receipts with a lot of swearing at tax time. But I'm not the only one. A big shout out to Scale Finance which has secured £3 million to launch Nume, an AI CFO positioned to address the financial leadership gap faced by 50 million SMEs globally. CEO and co-founder Alexander Wulff is "building the product I always wished I’d had as a founder." “Every time I met other founders at events, the same topic came up — managing finances was a recurring pain point. For many, the CEO or founder is effectively the CFO, even though that’s not their area of expertise." Nume is built on four years of Scaleup Finance’s CFO-as-a-Service experience, including 40 CFOs working with more than 500 high-growth startups across Europe. The team has condensed thousands of hours of learning and knowledge into a tool for every SME to use. It connects directly to banking and accounting systems to deliver CFO-level insights in minutes - from liquidity forecasts to board-ready reports, and proactively surfaces risks and opportunities in real time. Over the past year, Nume has been tested in private beta with a select group of companies, refining its capabilities in real-world conditions. Already, more than 2,500 companies from 80 countries have signed up for the launch. (link in comments)

Seema Amble wrote an article in 2020 with Angela Strange titled "The CFO in Crisis Mode" with a clear thesis: finance teams spend too much time at the bottom of the pyramid doing transactional work, and not enough time on strategic decision-making at the top. 5 years later, we had Seema and Ivan Makarov, two partners at Andreessen Horowitz, investors and advisors to Sequence, open Collect with a fireside chat about what's changed and what’s next in the CFO stack. Since then, it’s clear that Finance teams are finally getting the tools needed to automate manual workflows like invoice generation, revenue recognition and expense management. These same processes that used to consume entire quarters are now happening in the background - freeing CFOs to own finance strategy and build the right tech stack. Ivan made a point that stuck with me: "The CFO is becoming the architect of the tech stack." CFOs are still managing budgets, but their approach to resource allocation has shifted to deciding whether to throw an application or more hires at a particular workflow. In the past 12 months, Seema and Ivan have seen the shift in finance teams adopting new technology. Finance teams that were once watching AI from the sidelines are now actively experimenting with AI-native solutions and agents - and the early movers are already seeing the impact. Full video on our YouTube - link in comments 👇