My story
Starting a company at 55 was never part of the plan.
I spent 30 years in executive finance, 25 of them as a CFO, almost all of it in the professional services and the agency world. Nearly two decades of that was one agency, which grew from $9 million to more than $90 million through boom cycles, two recessions and everything in between.
Along the way I noticed a pattern. The firms that struggled weren't short on talent or effort. They were short on visibility. Founders were making six-figure hiring and pricing decisions without ever seeing the math behind them, and revenue was hiding profitability problems for years before those problems caught up with them.
FinStrat CFO is what happened when I stopped being the CFO for one company and became one for many. No straight line, no master plan, just chapters that made zero sense at the time and perfect sense in hindsight.
Background
- Certified Public Accountant (CPA)
- 30 years in executive finance, 25 as a CFO
- Nearly two decades helping one communications and digital advertising agency scale from $9 million to more than $90 million
- Executive leadership roles with a corporate holding company and private equity backed groups
- MBA, Baruch College
- BA, Binghamton University
How I work
Less gatekeeper, more growth partner.
For decades the CFO was the person in the room who said no. The hall monitor of the executive team. That version of the role is obsolete. My job isn't to stop you from taking risks. It's to help you take the right ones, with the math to back the decision up.
Alongside the finance career, I ran a second business in baseball scouting and analytics with Baseball Prospectus. Moneyball wasn't about spending less. It was about spending smarter, using the numbers other people were ignoring. Same principle here. Spending smarter beats spending more.
All of it in plain language, not jargon, so you can use it to make better decisions without a finance degree.
Outside the spreadsheet
Sometimes the manatee approach wins.
I live in Sarasota, Florida, which means manatees show up in my LinkedIn posts almost as often as margin does. They're slow, unbothered, and somehow still get exactly where they're going. I think about that more than I probably should when a founder is in a growth spurt that feels chaotic. You don't have to move fast and break things to build something that lasts.
Most of my clients come from referrals: founders, lawyers and accountants who've seen the work firsthand. And yes, the manatee thing is real. I adopted one through the Save the Manatee Club. His name is Merlin, and he's in no hurry either.
Joe has a rare ability to translate complex financial realities into clear, practical guidance for agency leaders.
I’ve had the privilege of working alongside Joe for more than a decade, and he has been an exceptional partner and trusted advisor throughout that time. His experience helping scale marketing and communications businesses gives him an instinctive understanding of the pressures founders face as they grow. More than anyone, Joe helped me understand the nuances of finance in marketing and agency economics. He blends sharp financial discipline and real operational insight, but with a human touch, making him invaluable counsel for any founder looking to grow with confidence.
Growing, but not sure why profit isn't following?
I'd like to hear about it. Tell me where the business is and where you want it to go.
Fractional CFO for professional service firms.