How to Stretch, Spend, and Scale Like a CFO (Before You Have One)

September 30, 2025

By The Artemis Fund
The Artemis Fund believes technology can create prosperity for all. With offices in New York, Texas, Massachusetts, and Nevada, Artemis leads seed rounds for companies creating resilient families, individuals, and businesses across the US.
When you’re building toward venture scale, your greatest advantage (after a breakthrough product or massive market) is disciplined financial operations. At Artemis, we’ve seen again and again that the founders who raise a strong Series A aren’t always the ones with the best pitch decks, but they are the ones who operate like they’ve already closed the round.
At the 2025 Artemis Hunters Summit, fractional CFO Alisha Loos ran a session that was so packed with tactical wisdom (and humor) that we decided to turn it into a playbook. Additionally, we’re thrilled to share that Alisha is joining Artemis as our Finance Operating Partner, bringing her no-nonsense, spreadsheet-loving, zero-burn-the-money-on-beer approach to our portfolio full-time.
Here’s your guide to startup finance that actually scales, and the most common pitfalls to avoid.

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Pitfall #1: Burning Capital Where There Isn’t Scale
You finally closed your round. Cash hits the bank. You breathe. You spend. And suddenly, you’re chasing down a bridge round because you haven’t hit the metrics to raise the next one.
The biggest early-stage pitfall? Spraying capital across everything that’s broken instead of focusing where it counts.
Ruthlessly Prioritize Your Capital Spending
Alisha’s rule of thumb: aim to direct about 75% of your operating spend toward two priorities.
Aggressively gaining traction: this usually means scaling customer acquisition and revenue.
Building for scale: As your business grows, the first cracks usually appear in product, process, or customer support. Make sure your product roadmap includes the essentials to handle growth.
Everything else? Nice to have, not must-have.
Try This Exercise:
Work backwards from your next raise. Define the traction, revenue, and growth milestones you’ll need in place to raise with confidence.
Chart the path over the next 12–24 months to get there.
Then look further: what gets you to a $100M+ outcome?
Ask yourself: Is your current motion enough to scale? If not, that’s your focus. Maybe you need more sales muscle. Maybe product-led growth isn’t cutting it. Maybe it’s time to unlock enterprise channels or rethink your ICP.
💡 Budget Creep Warning: It’s healthy to experiment, like with exploring new monetization or adjusting product fit. But don’t carve 4–5 months off your runway chasing ideas that won’t return for 18+ months. Be honest with yourself: is this an experiment, or a distraction?
Pitfall #2: Hiring Too Early, or in the Wrong Places
This issue usually shows up in OpEx (operating expense) hiring. The three main categories of OpEx are General & Administrative (G&A), Product & Engineering (R&D), and Sales & Marketing (S&M).
General & Admin (G&A)
This is where overspending kills you.
Use caution with “pull-forward hires”: the ones you justify as “we’ll need them post-Series A, so let’s grab them now.”
Instead, consider fractional, project-based, or advisory hires with equity or retainers.
2. Product & Engineering (R&D)
Don’t default to hiring senior engineers. Talk to technical advisors before hiring. You might need a PM, not a principal dev.
Be thoughtful about onshore/offshore balance. Not all teams need full domestic FTEs, but avoid flat hierarchies with no engineering lead.
3. Sales & Marketing
Common mistake: Under-investing in direct sales.
CAC is less important than velocity. Don’t show up to your Series A with a beautiful CAC but weak acquisition momentum.
Also: Don’t spend on marketing until you’ve nailed your sales motion. If you don’t know what converts customers, marketing won’t fix that.
Hiring Litmus Test
Ask these three questions:
Can I clearly define what this hire will accomplish in 30/60/365 days?
Does this role directly drive revenue or product scale?
Is there enough consistent work to justify full-time? Or am I creating a “Frankenstein” role where one hire juggles a grab bag full of unrelated priorities?
Unicorns who can wear five hats are rare. If you’re cobbling together a role from admin, marketing, success, and ops… stop. Alisha (and multiple Artemis founders) share a love for rockstar virtual assistants (VAs) and ops support from services like Athena and Awesome CX:
Typically $2,500–$3,000/month for full-time VAs.
Talent often outperforms domestic hires in hustle, quality, and flexibility.
Can handle everything from scheduling to lead gen to QA to pricing ops and more.
To ensure success on all sides:
Start with clear expectations and a training period.
Look for services that do intensive vetting and pairing.
💡 Don’t sleep on fractional execs. You may not need a full-time Head of Finance or Ops pre-Series A. You need someone who can keep the machine running, help you reforecast monthly, and tell you if you’re about to drive off a cliff.
Pitfall #3: Misjudging Your Cash Runway
Founders often miscalculate runway because they:
Use their “investor-facing” model (best-case scenario, TAM-driven).
Ignore liabilities and AP/AR timing.
Wait too long to cut burn.
How to Do It Right
Build 2–3 models.
Investor model:
Answers “what could happen if we hit our stride and scale big?”
Best case or “stretch” scenario that highlights upside.
This is your fundraising tool to attract capital and align with the vision.
Board model:
Answers “what do we expect realistically will happen, and how do we manage it?”
This model is grounded, conservative, and operational. Forecasts revenue, expenses, and cash runway with a focus on accuracy, not upside.
Often this is called “base case,” sometimes also modeled with a downside scenario. Designed to help directors advise on strategy, capital needs, and hiring.
Use actuals to re-forecast quarterly, at minimum
“Don’t assume your investors will write a bridge check just because you’re out of cash and short on growth milestones — that’s like a college kid asking his parents for more beer money and assuming they’ll send it.” -Alisha Loos
Adjust Earlier Than You Think:
Don’t wait until the last minute to adjust: start to cut burn 9–12 months before your runway ends.
If you miss your revenue forecast, adjust your cost structure accordingly now, not at the 6-month mark.
Understand Fixed vs. Variable Costs:
Fixed costs will expand as you scale — don’t assume today’s team will run a $10M business.
Variable costs may be too high early on (manual onboarding, shipping, etc).
Know your contribution margin, or risk scaling a money-losing model.
Signs Your CFO Isn’t Strategic Enough
There’s a difference between accounting/financial reporting and strategic finance.
A good CFO:
Builds your model and teaches you how to read it.
Fundamentally understands your business drivers and challenges you and your team to improve them.
Helps you re-forecast based on performance.
Flags timing issues in cash flows (e.g. AR lags, customer onboarding expenses).
Doesn’t just report what happened — makes recommendations that influence your decisions and future outcomes.
If they’re only updating your books, they’re an accountant. A CFO is someone who can partner on strategy. Building toward venture scale doesn’t mean spending like a Series B company. It means operating like one, with discipline, clarity, and intention.
Artemis portfolio companies know this from day one. With Alisha officially on board as our Finance Operating Partner, we’re doubling down on the kind of strategic, no-fluff guidance that helps founders make smarter, faster decisions when it counts most. Because when you operate like you’ve already raised the next round, you usually do.
We believe once in a generation companies will be built by unexpected founders. If that sounds like you, pitch us here!

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