CFO Webinar Series | Equipping Your Finance Department for Growth

Revenue outgrows the finance department long before owners expect it. Chad Anselmo — 10-time CFO and managing partner at Lionshield Holdings — walks through the people, platform, and process investments that keep profit pace with growth from under $25M through $100M+.

Chad Anselmo

Managing Partner, Lionshield Holdings

Ten-time CFO who owns and operates five commercial subcontracting businesses. Spearheaded Corvia's nine-figure exit as CFO/CEO and served as CFO of Paysafe's Payment Division during its $4.6B acquisition. Has led teams of up to 350 employees.

For subcontractors at every stage, the finance function is often the last thing to professionalize. Owners add capacity reactively — when something breaks — not proactively based on where the business is headed. Chad's 3P Framework (People, Platform, Process) gives finance leaders a repeatable way to forecast what to add and when, without margin dilution or organizational debt.

Here are the actionable strategies from this session — and the resources you can implement right away.

Strategy 1: The 3P Framework

Invest across all three for profitable growth. Cut corners on any one and you create debt — organizational, technical, or efficiency — that forces you to throttle growth or accept margin dilution.

1. People: Organizational debt shows up as burnout, understaffing, or babysitting the wrong hires instead of leading.
2. Platform: Technical debt means fighting your own systems instead of using them to compete.
3. Process: Efficiency debt is every decision running through one person — a single point of failure.
4. Buy what you need when you need it: Overstaffing finance creates cash flow pain and burdens the rest of the organization — the "silk robe" lesson.

Strategy 2: Under $25M — Build the Foundation

At this stage, the owner still carries everything. Finance is fragmented — often family or friends covering payroll and a little AP/AR. The tip of the spear is cash flow and profitability.

1. Hire a payroll specialist first: If people are not paid correctly and on time, trust erodes across the organization.
2. Match with a payroll platform: Hours, bonuses, and job costing must reconcile before you add complexity.
3. Review the weekly bank statement: You cannot operate blind — negative cash with no visibility is the fastest path to crisis.
4. Prepare for $25M: Start scouting a controller, job-profit-before-finish reporting, and integrated payroll + time tracking.

Strategy 3: $25M–$50M — Visibility, ERP, and Your First CFO

The owner loses intuitive visibility. Finance is overwhelmed and hiring. The tip of the spear shifts to winning the right projects — not just chasing revenue.

1. Controller hire: Find an executor in the sweet spot — not peaked at $15M, not forcing a $3B enterprise stack on a growing sub. Trust is non-negotiable.
2. ERP with eyes open: QuickBooks may still work. Implementations take twice the time and cost quoted. Confirm team capacity before you sign.
3. Monthly AR/AP and job profit midstream: Know which projects are winners before they close.
4. CFO + monthly close + banking partner: Your first C-suite hire thinks strategically. Set up credit capacity before Friday-afternoon cash crunches.

Strategy 4: $50M+ — Data, Patience, and Leadership

At $50M you're on a rocket ship — resist gripping every decision yourself. At $100M+ the work shifts from what happened to why it happened.

1. Hire people to grip for you: Centralizing every decision throttles growth — Chad watched a COO require fifty weekly approvals at scale.
2. Five forward-looking metrics: Introduce data early. Review monthly. Data removes emotion from decisions.
3. Reporting package + data warehouse: Build analytics capacity (a BI lead or director of finance) and a platform for trend analysis.
4. People leadership: Trust but verify; hire slow, fire fast; nobody is perfect — build a culture that finance can sustain.

Worksheet: 3P Finance Roadmap

The full stage-by-stage checklist Chad referenced on the webinar — map People, Platform, and Process from under $25M through $100M+ and note what to build before your next ceiling.

Looking for the slides from the webinar?

Get a copy of the presentation slides and the 3P Finance Roadmap worksheet.