A SaaS company had closed its seed round and was facing a problem most founders underestimate: the financial infrastructure that got them to seed is nowhere near what a Series A investor expects. Metrics were inconsistently tracked, revenue recognition hadn't been formalized, and the cap table story wasn't yet tied to a coherent financial narrative.

We started by getting the fundamentals right. Proper SaaS metrics — ARR, MRR, CAC, LTV, churn — were implemented with consistent definitions and clean reporting. Cohort analysis gave the team and future investors a real picture of how customers were acquired, how they behaved over time, and where retention was strong or soft. These aren't vanity metrics — they're the numbers a Series A investor will pressure-test hardest.

A financial model connecting product development milestones to revenue growth gave the team a tool they could use internally to make resource decisions and externally to tell the fundraising story. A cash runway analysis across multiple growth and funding scenarios answered the question every founder needs to answer: how long do we have, and what does the path forward look like under each outcome?

Revenue recognition policies were properly formalized and implemented — a step that is often skipped at this stage and creates real problems during due diligence. Compensation structures were designed to align the team with growth objectives without blowing up the burn rate.

By the time Series A materials were ready, the financial story was clean, the metrics were defensible, and the board reporting package was something an institutional investor could actually work with.

The engagement ran at 15–20 hours per month on retainer, with an option for an equity component in lieu of a portion of cash fees — a structure that works when both sides believe in where the business is going.