Adam Tzagournis, CPA

• Founder of a new AI stealth startup

• I'm a CPA (Certified Public Accountant) and a full-stack software developer

• I built AI financial projections software

• I've worked with companies for over 10 years to help them raise money (and not run out of it)

• I write about business finance, cash runway, modeling, metrics, FP&A, equity ownership, programming, and more.

Founder & CEO

Business finance simplified. FlowCog Canvas is a free tool to help you understand your company's past and future financial health.

Numbers-Driven Business Strategist & CFO Creating "Aha" Moments for Growing Teams

TESTIMONIALS:
"Lauren has been so amazing to work with. She takes a wonderful approach to consulting where I feel like I have a true partner in the business."
David Sitt, CEO @Ship Essential

"Lauren is superb at what she does. She has the ability to teach and show founders of any type what they need in a way that is easily understood. I would highly recommend Lauren to any startup needing to get a better handle of the company they are building."
Andrew Hendela, Co-Founder @ Karambit.AI

"Lauren’s consulting has acted as a backbone towards creating a sustainable company. The biggest result has been a clear plan towards earning new business—knowing how much outreach needs to be made in order to close deals."
JT. Green, Founder & Executive Producer @moltenheart

MY CREDENTIALS:
13+ years working in startup leadership, 3X startup founder, 2 years with Deloitte strategy, an MBA from NYU, and I’m the resident startup Finance expert at the New York Berkeley Center for Entrepreneurship

MY WHY:
I watched my family's 184-year-old small business go bankrupt. 
It remains my most valuable business lesson to date. 
I've been on a mission to save other amazing companies from the same fate ever since.

Lauren Pearl

How can CFOs foster creativity?

This was such a cool insight from our interview with Diya Sagar, CFO of AWA Studios.

She explained what she does as the finance leader to ensure everyone on the creative team has what they need to create their next hit. The answer wasn’t what I expected, and it will transform how I think about working with creative teams in the future.

Thanks to the whole team; Alex Louisy, Joe Sweeney, and Podstream Studios for another great episode of The Growth-Minded CFO Podcast.

Catch the whole episode on youtube or on your favorite podcast app!


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👋 Hi, I’m Lauren. A 3x Founder-turned-CFO nerd who writes about building better companies.
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Lauren Elizabeth Pearl

CFO & Strategic Advisor to Startups & Small Businesses | Cohost of “The Growth-Minded CFO Podcast”, powered by Upflow | Author of “The Daily CFO” newsletter - subscribe below!👇

Financial forecasting isn’t actually hard.

But it intimidates a lot of founders.

- How can I know what my revenue will be when I don't know how much customers will buy?
- How can I predict my costs when I'm not sure who I'll need to hire next quarter?
- Do I need to estimate EVERY cost I'll pay? That's far too much tedious work!

Forecasting CAN be a pain in the butt.

But it doesn’t need to be! It's actually very simple:

To forecast is as simple as asking, 
>>“What is reasonable?”<<

And how do you decide what’s reasonable?

- Last year's data
- An average from this year's data so far
- An extrapolation from sales, market trends, or scenario planning
- What some trusted expert told you will happen
- A gut feeling or guess
- Your tea leaves

Here’s the truth:

No one knows the future.

You just take whatever data you have

And say, “Given this, what is reasonable?”

That’s it. That’s literally it.

—-----
👋 I'm Lauren. I’m a 3x Founder-turned-CFO who writes about building better companies.
🔔 Want more startup CFO tips & resources like this? Hit FOLLOW.
📬 Tired of LI and prefer a newsletter? SUBSCRIBE (link in profile).

It’s time to separate your personal spending preferences from your business spending habits.

Because these are two entirely different domains.

You may be frugal or a spendthrift in your personal life,
But depending on your business model, those personal spending habits often conflict with what the business requires.

Generally speaking, frugality and extreme expense scrutiny make sense for low-margin businesses, 
(aka. low profit-to-revenue ratio businesses),
with little room for innovation:

If you’re working with 5% EBITDA margins, one slip on marketing spend could turn you into an accidental non-profit :(

But in high-margin businesses where innovation or premium quality is essential, being frugal is a terrible strategy:
- It distracts from more high-ROI (Return on Investment) activities
- It prevents you from seizing investment opportunities
- It makes you vulnerable to the innovations of your competition


If your personal financial preference conflicts with your business model, you might need a wake-up call:

Take a look at your business model, your profit margins, and decide: 
- Are you a business that needs to count pennies or do you need not to get distracted by them?
- What routines or cues can you use to remind yourself of your business’s financial priorities?
- What reports can you rely on to trigger better decision behavior?
- Who can you trust to give you feedback on money decisions for your business to counteract your incompatible instincts?
​
Because your company's spending habits should not be personal

But your system for making good money decisions should be.

—-----
👋 I'm Lauren. I’m a 3x Founder-turned-CFO who writes about building better companies.
🔔 Want more startup CFO tips & resources like this? Hit FOLLOW.
📬 Tired of LI and prefer a newsletter? SUBSCRIBE (link in profile).

The First-Time Founder Dilemma:

If you’re a first time founder,

You’re essentially betting your livelihood

On getting something right

The very first time you try it

That 90% of people

Get wrong.

​

Want to improve your odds?

Hire a CFO who's already been in that 10%.



—-----
👋 I'm Lauren. I’m a 3x Founder-turned-CFO who writes about building better companies.
🔔 Want more startup CFO tips & resources like this? Hit FOLLOW.
📬 Tired of LI and prefer a newsletter? SUBSCRIBE (link in profile).

Founders: What’s the secret to having perfect financial reports that immediately answer every question you’ll ever have about your business?

The secret: You can't.

In fact, if perfection is your goal, that’s a sign you may need to learn more about Finance & Accounting.



Early in my career, I worked with a CEO who hated Finance because no report was ever perfect.

- Forecasts never exactly matched Actuals
- Some transactions always ended up uncategorized
- No one could give us an objective answer on Profit per Product
- The books were never accurate in real-time

And all of this was evidence that the Finance team wasn’t doing their job.

But here’s the thing: They were.
They simply weren’t communicating to the CEO clearly,
Or the CEO wasn’t listening.

Because every single “mistake” listed above isn’t actually a mistake; 
It’s how Finance & Accounting are supposed to work:

# “Forecasts never exactly matched Actuals”
Because forecasts are educated guesses based on the best info you have but will seldomly perfectly predict the future.

# “Some transactions always ended up uncategorized”
Because even the best accounting software can’t always anticipate the categorization of new transactions. It’s actually less annoying for systems to NOT categorize transactions rather than guess incorrectly and hide mistakes in your chart of accounts.

# “No one could give us an objective answer on Profit per Product”
Profit attribution depends on subjective decisions around where costs of shared stuff (like your rent or your R&D department) should be allocated. There is no objective answer.

# “The books were never accurate in real-time”
Your financial statements aren't real-time reports. Most companies take at least a few days to close their books. You can produce forecasts and estimates long before that. But your accounting software is a high-assurance system of record that requires time to collect historical data, cross-check, and maintain.


Is your finance department driving you crazy with bad reports?

Because sure - Finance IS often annoying and there’s lots we can do to make it better.

But as a CEO,

Maybe it’s also time to double-check,

That the problem 
Isn’t you.

—-----
👋 I'm Lauren. I’m a 3x Founder-turned-CFO who writes about building better companies.
🔔 Want more startup CFO tips & resources like this? Hit FOLLOW.
📬 Tired of LI and prefer a newsletter? SUBSCRIBE (link in profile).

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The Battle

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Lauren Pearl

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Engagements

Likes

Performance Score.css-goub6s{font-size:var(--chakra-fontSizes-md);font-weight:500;color:var(--chakra-colors-gray-600);display:block;margin-top:var(--chakra-space-1);}Lauren Pearl's LinkedIn Performance

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