First business hire at a YC company. Now I do that, fractionally.
I'm Erica McAfee, founder of ELM Strategy. I partner with Seed to Series B founders who've been running finance and ops themselves and are ready to hand both off. Most founders don't need more advice about finance and ops. They need someone to actually run them.
Twenty times revenue growth, from the inside.
I was the first business hire at a YC-backed startup. As Director of Operations and Finance, I partnered with the CEO and led the company from a couple hundred thousand in revenue to over $10M ARR. There was no finance function when I arrived and no ops function either. I built both.
Along the way I built a client success division from scratch and led a seven-person team managing more than $5M in projects. Retention went up 22 points. Average revenue per account went up 33%. Bad debt over five years was zero. Fixed costs stayed within 5% of plan every quarter, which is the number you want boring.
I went independent in 2023 to do that same work for other founders. The companies I work with are usually building AI products while their own finance and ops still run on manual spreadsheet work. That gap is what I close. I use AI throughout my own workflows and I build it into what I hand off, so the system keeps running after I'm gone.
What I believe about running the numbers
Every founder should know their burn rate and their projected burn for the next 12 to 24 months, and they should be able to pull it up with current data at any time. A monthly budget vs. actuals isn't an accounting exercise. It's how you catch problems while they're still cheap to fix.
A 30% jump in software spend might be a billing mistake, or it might be a signal the product team needs to fix something. You only see it if you're looking every month.
I plan with caution and budget conservatively. Unexpected expenses and revenue downturns happen. Being prepared for them isn't pessimism, it's how you stay in the game. And the whole company should understand the budget, not just the finance person. Ownership of the numbers comes from understanding them.
The short version, for the skimmers.
What the CEO said.
Erica was our first business hire and oversaw 20× growth, from a couple hundred K to $10M+ ARR.
A talented, easy-to-get-along-with generalist who knows how to run the bizops stuff while founders focus on growth and product. She created our Client Success division and deftly shaped the internal finance and business operations. Highly recommend.
James Slezak · CEO, Swayable
Beyond the spreadsheet.
San Francisco based, with my dog Archie. Bay Area trails in summer, mountains in winter. I write occasionally about what AI-native finance and ops actually looks like from the seat, over in Field Notes.