Preparing to Outsource Financial Support for Your Startup

Before hiring or outsourcing financial help, early-stage founders should define their values, vision, and goals. This guide lays the foundation for building a financial team aligned with you.

Luis Pieruzzini

and

Josh Broward

Mar 28, 2025

By Miguel A. Delgado CFP^®, Josh Broward, and Luis Pieruzzini

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The professionals you work with will influence everything from cash flow management, to taxes, to fundraising strategy, so getting this right from the start can really strengthen your business.

This series of articles, in collaboration with Miguel A. Delgado, a CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER™ Practitioner, is designed to help early-stage founders take a thoughtful approach to financial hiring. Before jumping into outsourcing or hiring, it’s essential to do some foundational work, ensuring that the people you collaborate with align with your startup’s values, vision, and goals.

Laying the Groundwork: Understanding Your Values, Vision, and Goals

Before you even begin conversations with potential financial advisors, you need to be crystal clear on your own values, long-term vision, and specific business goals. This clarity will serve as a guiding framework for choosing the right financial support team.

1. Define Your Core Values

Your company’s values dictate how you operate and what you prioritize. Are transparency, innovation, and collaboration non-negotiable for you? If so, your financial team should embody those same principles. A misalignment in values can lead to conflicts, inefficiencies, and setbacks.

2. Clarify Your Vision

Your vision is the long-term direction of your company. Are you aiming for rapid global expansion, sustainable organic growth, or an eventual acquisition? Each path requires a different financial strategy and, consequently, a different type of financial advisor. For instance, if scaling globally is part of your vision, collaborating with professionals experienced in international markets can be invaluable. A great financial team won’t just react to your business; they’ll proactively support your vision.

3. Set Clear Goals

Goals make your vision actionable. Whether it’s raising a specific funding round, achieving profitability, or preparing for an IPO or acquisition, your goals will determine the expertise you need. A financial team that has successfully guided other startups through similar milestones can help you stay on track and avoid common pitfalls.

Take Action:

Take the time to write down and articulate these elements clearly. This will help you reach internal clarity with your team or even within your own mind. Then, clear answers to these questions will help you streamline the selection and onboarding process by enabling you to communicate your needs and expectations effectively.

Values: What do you prioritize in life and business? Is it integrity, innovation, family, or long-term sustainability? When life brings you down, what is it that helps you get back up? Choose your top 3 to 5 values and focus on these.

Vision: Picture your future—what does success look like for you and your company? Are you surrounded by supportive advisors? What kind of input and collaboration would help you thrive?

Goals: Define both short- and long-term financial goals for your business. Keep in mind that these will evolve as your company grows. Your advisors should help you stay grounded in your vision while adapting to changing targets.

What comes next

By doing this pre-work, you’ll be in a much stronger position to evaluate potential partners and build a team that supports your long-term success. In the next part of this series, we’ll dive into how to find the right financial support team and choose your outsourced firms. Stay tuned!

The information contained herein is provided for educational purposes only and the information should not be construed as a provision of personalized investment advice or an offer to sale a particular product or service.