Walsh & Partners
Since 2017 · San Francisco · New York · London
We don't sell hours. We offer three deliberately scoped engagements — a fractional CFO seat, a 90-day sprint, and diligence & post-close work — each staffed by a senior partner and priced around the outcome. The right one depends on where your company is this quarter.
Choosing the right model
The three engagements overlap roughly 30% in deliverables — board memos, financial models, fundraising decks — but differ sharply in what we hold ourselves accountable for. Use the moments below to self-select in under a minute.
You're closing books late, the board asks questions you can't answer on the fly, and hiring a $400K VP of Finance feels premature. You need a senior operator embedded part-time — someone who owns the close, rebuilds the model, and preps you for the next round.
→ Fractional CFO. 12-month average tenure, 2–4 days a week.
A raise in 90 days. A board that's lost confidence. A pricing model that's quietly destroying margin. A carve-out that has to land before quarter-end. You need scoped work, a fixed price, and a clear handoff date — not an open retainer.
→ 90-Day Sprint. Outcome-priced, single deliverable.
Commercial diligence, quality of earnings support, day-1 finance integration, earnout modeling. You need a partner who has sat in operating seats and can challenge a target's numbers without theatrics.
→ Diligence & Post-Close. 4–12 week engagement.
01 · The flagship model
A senior finance partner — typically 8–15 years of operating experience, formerly Big Four or a series-defining CFO seat — embedded into your company for 2–4 days a week. You get the rigor of a $400K hire, the candor of someone who has seen your stage before, and the flexibility to scale up or wind down without a severance conversation.
01.1
01.2
01.3
01.4
Monthly retainers between $14K and $32K depending on scope, complexity, and the seniority of the partner assigned. No junior bait-and-switch — the partner you meet on the diagnostic is the partner on your calendar every week. Median client ARR growth across fractional engagements: 3.4x within 18 months.
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02 · Scoped, outcome-priced
Built for the moments where the problem is specific and the deadline is real. A sprint has one outcome, one partner, one fixed price, and a clean handoff date. We won't extend it. We will tell you when it's done.
02.1
The 90-day window before a target fundraise close. We rebuild the model against investor diligence, write the narrative, pressure-test the metrics, and staff you through first partner meetings. Median deliverable: an 11-business-day time-to-model for the board-grade package.
02.2
When the board has lost confidence in the numbers, or in the cadence of reporting. We rebuild the board pack from the model up, reset the close, and hand you a story the chair can defend without you in the room.
02.3
Pricing has drifted, discount leakage is invisible, or the unit economics finally stopped working. We model price elasticity, set new floors, and rebuild the deal-desk review so the change sticks after we leave.
02.4
Spinning a unit out or selling one off within a quarter. We build standalone financials, separation cost models, and TSA scoping — and we sit in the data room with diligence teams so you don't have to.
A sample 12-week sprint
03 · For buyers, sellers, and boards
This is the work we do for private-equity operating partners, corporate development teams, acquired founders, and the boards underwriting a deal. We sit on the buyer side, the seller side, and the 100-day-plan side. We do not run audit-grade attest work.
03.1
We test the revenue story before you wire the wire. Growth decomposition, cohort retention, channel mix, pricing power, churn forensics, and reference checks with the people who actually bought and left. Output is a memo the IC can argue with, not a brochure the target handed you.
03.2
We sit beside your QoE provider. We bring the operating context — what the add-backs actually mean, where the recurring revenue is fragile, which cost lines won't survive the next quarter. We protect the number without owning the audit opinion.
03.3
We build earnout structures that both sides can defend twelve months later, and we run day-1 finance integration so the acquired company's close lands cleanly inside the buyer's stack. We stay through month 3 if the integration needs it.
At a glance
Indicative fee bands, current as of Q1 2026. Final scope and pricing depend on the diagnostic call.
| Dimension | Fractional CFO | 90-Day Sprint | Diligence & Post-Close |
|---|---|---|---|
| Typical duration | 9–18 months, rolling | 10–14 weeks, fixed | 4–12 weeks, fixed |
| Who staffs it | One senior partner, 2–4 days/week | One senior partner + analyst | Two senior partners as needed |
| Core deliverable | Operating finance function: close, model, board pack, dataroom, hire plan | One outcome, priced: raise deck, board reset, pricing reset, or carve-out package | Commercial / QoE memo, earnout model, or day-1 finance integration plan |
| Indicative fee | $14K–$32K / month | $95K–$240K fixed | $60K–$180K fixed |
| Best fit | Series A–C operators between CFO hires | Founders with a specific 90-day moment | PE operating partners, boards, acquired founders |
Not sure which engagement fits? Most of our partners' first conversation is a 30-minute diagnostic — no slides, no pitch.
Book a Diagnostic Call Or benchmark with the Capital Readiness Scorecard →