BOTTOM LINE UPFRONT
Sponsor expectations for portfolio company CFOs continue to rise. The most successful early-stage leaders build credibility through strong finance fundamentals, buy back time with AI, and shift their focus from running the finance function to helping shape the business.
Being the CFO of an early-stage, PE-backed company means balancing a lot of spinning plates while juggling several chainsaws as you walk a tightrope over an alligator pit. Additional pressure is mounting this year, though, with less capital to go around, an almost record-breaking number of deals and exits in 2025, and sponsors concerned their portco CFOs may not be hitting the mark.
But a recent report from private equity CFO consultancy Accordion offers insights into how these CFOs can balance demands, push growth, and deliver to sponsors all at once.
The report, co-authored by Accordion CFO Jon Apter and Charlesbank talent operating partner Elizabeth Noyes, combines their own insights with data from Accordion’s 2025 State of the PE Sponsor & CFO Relationship survey.
Combining their takeaways, Apter and Noyes wrote, “When you build the company you are becoming, buy back your time, operate above the close, scale through talent and treat numbers as a strategic asset, your influence expands.”
Spot the difference. Portfolio company CFOs can boost the impact of the scaling operation, starting with understanding the difference between early-stage PE CFOs versus more experienced, strategic finance leaders, Apter said.
“An early focused CFO needs to make sure that the business is running, and that there are core fundamentals that can happen. And that includes everything from making sure that bills can get paid, to making sure that employees can get paid. It takes that skill to develop first before that person can turn into a strategic CFO,” he added.
Flexible mindset. Apter and Noyes both said that good early-stage PE-backed CFOs are those who can adapt and change as quickly as the business will.
Accordion’s 2025 survey reported that tariff and recessionary volatilities prevented many portfolio CFOs from “[getting] better at the table stakes: close quickly, translate financial data effectively, and integrate transactions.”
CFOs who can think more about strategic initiatives like building teams are important, but they need to be prepared to do the basics, too, Apter said.
“I would say the buckets that we’re often looking at is curiosity, first and foremost, because often they’re coming into situations where the business is evolving, and being able to ask good questions, poke on the data, question assumptions helps with that,” Noyes told CFO Brew.
“I think one of the most underrated [qualities] is the ability to build a team that looks different than you. If we think about that AI element, I love CFOs who aren’t afraid to tap someone who thinks totally different, but brings a real tech perspective into how they could do this.”
AI and forecasting. Naturally, Apter and Noyes have thoughts on AI, specifically around the idea of buying back time. And while AI can automate systems to save CFOs and their teams time, pricing has recently changed how AI is used across enterprises.
Still, Apter said CFOs “know that they’re going to be losing the credibility to ask for additional investment dollars that are not focused around AI.”
Forecasting has become a favored use for AI among CFOs, but people should always double check that process, and the complexity of the business should still match the complexity of a company’s forecasting, Apter said.
“If you have a relatively simple business, there’s no reason you shouldn’t re-forecast on a monthly basis, if it’s literally updating a model,” Apter added. “If it’s a more complex, geographically diversified business with a lot of different product lines, maybe you’re going to do a re-forecast once a year, [or] maybe it’s twice a year.”