About

A systems architect who happens to work in finance.

The spreadsheet is the output. The system that produces it, and the decisions it makes possible, are the work.

Vera Phipps at her desk

Eighteen years, four chairs.

The family office. A decade inside a multi-family office doing asset structuring, M&A, and hands-on operating oversight of the businesses we acquired. The takeaway for a founder: institutional standards are not a size, they are a habit, and they can be applied to a ten-person company.

The practice. Fractional CFO since 2018 to early- and growth-stage companies through capital raises and financial architecture. Where I learned that the finance function is built once, and that most companies build it twice because the first time it was a spreadsheet.

The founder side. Co-founder and CFO of venture-backed startups, including a fintech and an AI energy platform. I have run a live raise from the inside: the model, the data room, the questions at 11pm. That is the chair I sit in when I build yours.

The operating seat. Sitting CFO of a multi-entity nonprofit operation: grants, lending, a new entity structure, and a board that gets numbers it trusts every month.

The bench

I do not work alone, and you should not have to build a finance team from scratch.

I bring specialists I have worked with across several companies: bookkeeping, controller-level close, tax, payroll, and the tools that connect them. Contracted per client, coordinated inside the retainer. One person accountable for the whole function, and a team you never have to manage.

Where and how

Los Angeles. Clients in the US and Europe.

Two continents, one set of books. I have operated across American, European, and Ukrainian business contexts. Multi-entity and cross-border structures are where I am most useful, not a problem to work around.

Fractional by design, not by ceiling. Most engagements are retainers. For the right company, a full-time CFO seat is a conversation I am open to.

Creative in structure. Structured in creativity. The line has been on my site for years because it is still true. Finance is a design problem before it is an accounting problem.

I write. Long-form essays on running a company by the numbers, for 1,800 founders and operators on LinkedIn.

Tell me where the company is.

Thirty minutes. I will tell you what a finance function should look like for you, whether or not we work together.

Book an intro call LinkedIn