The Best Funding (and Learning) Model I've Found
Consultant funded bootstrapping and how the Fractional CxO model has worked well for my startup and learning journey
The best thing that happened this year is I stumbled upon a funding model for my startup ideas that fits the way I want to live and learn: consulting.
When I was in business school, I never pictured myself as a consultant. I skipped the BCG and McKinsey sessions. I did not like the idea of living in airports or writing slides about other people’s work. I wanted to build.
It took me years to realize that consulting could look completely different. Done my way, it has become both the financial engine for my ventures and one of the best learning systems I have ever built.
It started when I began hiring fractional CFOs for my own startups. They were talented and thoughtful, but I noticed a consistent gap. I did not just want someone to tell me the financial impact of a decision. I wanted someone to help decide whether to make that decision in the first place.
That distinction between analyzing the consequence and shaping the choice was everything. Most fractional CFOs come from finance. They know the numbers cold, but they have rarely run their own startups. They have not lived through the ambiguity of hiring when cash is thin or the tension between momentum and focus.
That is when I realized there was room for something else. A broader role. A true thought partner who could get in the trenches with a founder and help make the calls that define a business.
I started calling it Fractional CxO.
It combines the practical finance work of a CFO with the operational perspective of a COO and the judgment of a founder who has been through it before. Some days I am reviewing a financial model or running a monthly close. Other days I am cleaning up bookkeeping, tightening payroll, or preparing a board pack. Sometimes I am papering job offers, renewing insurance, or reviewing commercial agreements. The work changes constantly, but the goal is the same: help founders stay focused on finding product market fit by keeping everything else moving smoothly.
A recent unlock has been hiring an assistant. It started as a small experiment to see if I could delegate the repeatable admin work, but it has become a real multiplier. Now I can hand off follow ups, file organization, onboarding tasks, and the background logistics that used to eat hours from my weekends. It has turned this model from sustainable to scalable.
The more I have done this, the more I see how much it accelerates my own learning. Every company teaches something new. I get to sit inside multiple different businesses at once, watch their decision rhythms, see what systems hold up under stress, and test my frameworks across them all. It is like running multiple startups without the same emotional volatility. The learning compounds faster than anything I have done before.
Over time I have also learned where to draw the boundaries.
Do not do sales work. Finding product market fit is the founder’s job. My job is to clear space so they can focus on that.
Do not do product work. Product is immersive. It will take over your calendar if you let it. I stay close but never inside.
Focus on what is important but not urgent. These are the high leverage projects that create calm. Things like cleaning up insurance, improving the AP process, getting a proper R&D tax credit filed, or setting up clear quarterly goals. The unglamorous work that makes everything else run better.
Many of the founders I work with are building in a post VC world. They cannot afford full time executives, but they still need experience in the room. This model fits that world perfectly. It gives them the ability to borrow judgment without adding headcount. For me, it provides a front row seat to how modern startups are adapting to this new era of discipline and focus.
My week now has a rhythm. I meet with founders one on one, join leadership calls when helpful, and stay available by text when something big comes up. I do the deeper project work early in weekend mornings. That is my quiet time to build models or put systems in order. It funds my own startups and it also makes me sharper for the next conversation.
One client told me recently that he would cut his own salary before cutting mine. That comment stuck. It was a sign that this model fills a real gap for founders, the one between strategic advice and operational execution.
Consulting started as a way to pay the bills. It has turned into an engine for mastery. I am learning faster than I ever have, surrounded by people solving real problems, in real time.
It is not just a business model. It is a learning model.
#HappyLearning