The portfolio problem
Every investor has lived the sequence. A company closes a round. Six months later the model does not reconcile to the bank, the board pack arrives the night before the meeting, and the next raise is nine months away. The founder does not need a full time CFO yet and could not afford one. They need the top 1% of fractional CFOs, two days a week, starting this month.
Marketing and technology follow the same pattern a stage later. Growth stalls and there is nobody senior owning it. The product outruns the engineering team and the technical hire has failed twice. A fractional CMO or CTO who has done it before fixes it faster than a search for a full time one, and costs a fraction while it does.
How funds use the bench
- A partner or platform lead browses by seat, sector and stage and shortlists operators who have taken a company through the next eighteen months of the portfolio company's life.
- The founder sends the brief directly from the profile. The fund introduces, the company contracts, the operator reports to the CEO. Nobody in the middle.
- The same operators come back. A fractional CFO who has closed a Series A for one portfolio company is the obvious call for the next one, and the bench keeps them a click away.
- Where the fund would rather the search was run, Operator Search puts three verified operators against the brief for any seat.
What the portfolio company pays
The rate is published on the profile and the engagement is between the company and the operator, so a fund putting the same operator into three companies has three direct contracts at the published rate and the same person in all three boardrooms.
| Seat | Published day rate | Typical engagement |
|---|---|---|
| Fractional CFO | £800 to £1,500 | Two days a week through a raise, one day a week after |
| Fractional COO | £700 to £1,300 | Two to three days a week while the company is scaling delivery |
| Fractional CMO | £700 to £1,300 | Two days a week to build the function and the first senior hire |
| Fractional CTO | £800 to £1,400 | One to two days a week, often alongside a strong engineering lead |
Family offices, PE and the UAE
The same bench serves family offices running a handful of operating businesses, private equity firms with a value creation plan and no finance leadership to execute it, and the growing number of venture backed companies setting up in Dubai and Abu Dhabi. Operators are listed across the UK, the United States and the UAE, with the rate published in the currency of the market.
For a fund, the point is consistency. The partner who used to ask around now has a standing answer for every company in the portfolio, verified by a person, priced in the open, and available this month.
Why a bench beats the phone
The name from a partner's phone is one person, available or not, right for the stage or not, with a rate that has to be negotiated and a quality that is whatever it was last time. The bench is every verified operator in the market, filterable by exactly the stage and sector the company is in, with the rate on the page and the proof on the profile.
The fund keeps its network. It just stops being the bottleneck.
Common questions
Can a VC firm hire fractional executives for several portfolio companies at once?
Yes. Each portfolio company contracts directly with the operator at the published day rate, so a fund can put the same fractional CFO or COO into several companies, or a different one into each. The bench is open to the fund's team and the founders alike.
Which seat should a portfolio company fill first?
Finance, almost always, because the next raise depends on it and the board sees the gap every month. Operations follows when delivery is the constraint, marketing when growth is, and technology when the product is outrunning the team. The which-role-first guide walks through the decision.
Does a fractional executive work for the company or the fund?
The company. The operator reports to the CEO, is paid by the company, and owes the company the same duty a full time executive would. Funds introduce and often sit on the board that benefits, but the engagement is the company's.
More of them, on hiring, contracts and what a fractional engagement costs, on the fractional executive FAQ.