James Gozney

A full-time CFO is brilliant, but most UK SMEs don’t need 40+ hours of senior financial leadership. What most actually need: - Better forecasting - Cashflow clarity - Real-time decision support - Better reporting - Someone who can turn numbers into strategy A fractional CFO gives you all of this, in the right amount, without the full-time commitment.

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Building a Financial Wellbeing Platform for Businesses: The Journey of Rest Easier As a founder of Rest Easier, I’ve experienced firsthand the challenges of growing a new venture. Everyone I speak to loves the concept, the potential to transform financial wellbeing in organisations, but getting those conversations off the ground remains tough. Financial wellbeing is the missing piece. For years, organisations have invested heavily in health insurances and mental wellbeing initiatives, yet financial health often remains overlooked. Why is that? And why aren’t more businesses making financial wellness a priority across the board? The truth is, financial wellbeing isn’t just about individual resilience; it’s about organisational sustainability, legacy protection, and closing the wealth gap. Protecting legacies and building generational wealth shouldn’t be a privilege reserved for the few who can afford estate planning. It should be a standard part of employee benefits, a cornerstone of organisational culture. The organisations that are leading the way are recognising this, integrating financial wellbeing into their core strategy, fostering a culture of financial literacy and support. But for far too many, this remains an afterthought. If we truly want to create equitable workplaces and a healthier economy, we must prioritise financial wellness as much as physical and mental health. It’s time for businesses to see the bigger picture, because the future of work depends on it. Are you ready to make financial wellbeing a strategic priority? For less than a cup of coffee a week, Rest Easier can propel your financial wellbeing offering. #FinancialWellbeing #WorkplaceWellness #EmployeeEngagement #FinancialLiteracy #MentalHealth #Wellbeing #BusinessGrowth #Leadership #FutureOfWork #RestEasier #EquityInTheWorkplace #InclusiveWorkplace #DiversityAndInclusion #EDI #Equality #WorkplaceEquality #InclusiveLeadership #ClosingTheGap #FairPay #AccessibleBenefits

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20VC General Partner Paul Bonnet filled us in on how his day-to-day changes as a VC when the firm is media-led: "What founders what is to have the current knowledge from top operators and have more customers. They don't really care to speak to us hours on end. This enables us to get assistance with all of the things that those guys are looking for." "So it changes the daily job in a very positive way, in that we can actually bring that knowledge to those founders. Also for me, it was a massive learning to actually use media in my daily life. For the founders it also makes a difference." "When Harry Stebbings posted the video for Peec AI, it got over 3,000 likes on that post. And when you're a company - you want to have that exposure."

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Is that unicorn back for real ? July was a very active month, with seven deals announced. We’re almost at the year’s peak, only April did better. With four fundraises on its own soil, the UK had its best month of the year and takes back the lead in InsurTech activity. But it’s on the investment side that the month really stands out: €200M raised in total. Though Wefox raised €151M alone. Still, two other rounds topped €10M, and a Polish player, Trasti, raised over €20M. This is the biggest funding in that ecosystem, which is becoming increasingly active. You might recall that Guidewire acquired Quantee, a Polish startup for actuaries, earlier this year. No deals this month were tied to AI — a first in 2025 — but startup business models were highly diverse, with a mix of B2C and B2B2C for those selling insurance, and B2B for those building tech for insurers. Finally, two of the biggest rounds include a clear objective: profitability, the dominant theme in the startup ecosystem for the past 24 months. #insurance #insurtech #startup

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𝐏𝐫𝐢𝐯𝐚𝐭𝐞 𝐄𝐪𝐮𝐢𝐭𝐲, 𝐎𝐮𝐭𝐬𝐨𝐮𝐫𝐜𝐢𝐧𝐠 & 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐑𝐞𝐚𝐥 𝐂𝐨𝐦𝐩𝐥𝐢𝐚𝐧𝐜𝐞 𝐂𝐡𝐚𝐥𝐥𝐞𝐧𝐠𝐞 Last week I had a wide-ranging and refreshingly honest conversation with Ian Harris – PE COO, former partner at SL Capital Partners LLP and now a NED of Foresight Enterprise VCT plc. – about one of the biggest operational challenges facing private equity today: 𝐑𝐢𝐬𝐤 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐜𝐨𝐦𝐩𝐥𝐢𝐚𝐧𝐜𝐞 𝐢𝐧 𝐚𝐧 𝐨𝐮𝐭𝐬𝐨𝐮𝐫𝐜𝐞𝐝 𝐰𝐨𝐫𝐥𝐝. A few themes really stood out 👇 🔹 𝐎𝐮𝐭𝐬𝐨𝐮𝐫𝐜𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐝𝐨𝐞𝐬𝐧’𝐭 𝐫𝐞𝐦𝐨𝐯𝐞 𝐚𝐜𝐜𝐨𝐮𝐧𝐭𝐚𝐛𝐢𝐥𝐢𝐭𝐲 Many PE firms outsource large parts of their back office to Third Party Administrators (TPAs). But regulators don’t outsource responsibility. Firms are still expected to prove effective oversight – clearly, consistently, and at speed. 🔹 𝐓𝐨𝐨 𝐦𝐮𝐜𝐡 𝐜𝐨𝐦𝐩𝐥𝐢𝐚𝐧𝐜𝐞 𝐢𝐬 𝐬𝐭𝐢𝐥𝐥 “𝐛𝐨𝐱-𝐭𝐢𝐜𝐤𝐢𝐧𝐠” Manual checklists, email chains, spreadsheets and junior-led processes often create more friction than insight. The irony? Firms spend so much time processing compliance that there’s little space left for actually thinking about risk. 🔹 𝐓𝐏𝐀𝐬 𝐚𝐫𝐞 𝐮𝐧𝐝𝐞𝐫 𝐩𝐫𝐞𝐬𝐬𝐮𝐫𝐞 𝐭𝐨𝐨 Administrators are servicing dozens (sometimes hundreds) of regulated clients across multiple jurisdictions – and fielding constant regulator and client requests for evidence. That creates huge operational drag for everyone involved. 🔹 𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐥 𝐫𝐢𝐬𝐤 𝐢𝐬 𝐩𝐨𝐨𝐫 𝐩𝐫𝐨𝐜𝐞𝐬𝐬, 𝐧𝐨𝐭 𝐛𝐚𝐝 𝐚𝐜𝐭𝐨𝐫𝐬 As Ian put it: enforcement action today is often about not being able to evidence a robust process, rather than wrongdoing itself. Transparency, traceability and audit-readiness matter more than ever. So where does this leave the industry? This is exactly the problem we’ve been tackling head-on at Ruleguard. By automating regulatory mapping, oversight workflows and evidence capture – including data flowing to and from TPAs - firms can: • Reduce manual effort and duplicated requests • Gain real-time visibility into outsourced activity • Create a clear audit trail regulators actually care about • Free teams up to focus on judgement, not paperwork In short: simpler compliance, lower risk, better outcomes – for PE firms and their administrators. Conversations like this reinforce why modern, intelligent compliance infrastructure isn’t a “nice to have” anymore. It’s foundational. Thanks again to Ian for the insight – and looking forward to continuing the discussion with operators across PE, asset management and financial services more broadly. #PrivateEquity #RiskAndCompliance #Outsourcing #TPA #RegTech #FinTech #AI #Governance #Ruleguard

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Scaling a Business Means Scaling the People First Hexa Finance has just promoted two early hires, Adrian Monger and Alex Moulder, to Associate Directors. That is not just a nice internal story. It is a growth strategy. When founders are still the bottleneck for strategy, sales, and operations, scaling stalls. Elevating trusted people creates space for founders to focus on the next chapter, not the next task. Second point, promoting from within protects momentum. Early employees carry institutional knowledge that you cannot buy quickly, especially in finance where process and risk discipline matter. Strengthening the operational framework now is how you avoid chaos later. The takeaway: if you are serious about growth, build leadership depth before you feel the pain. How are you developing your next layer of leaders? #Leadership #Scaling #Finance #TalentDevelopment #Operations

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🎤 After seven years championing early-stage founders, Christopher Goodfellow 🚀 is bringing The Pitch UK to SeedLegals in an exciting move for investors and founders alike. We spoke with him at the SeedLegals Startup Awards, just after the acquisition was announced, to hear more: 👉 How The Pitch has helped hundreds of startups go from stage to seed round 👉 How the programme built a thriving network of founders and investors 👉 What plugging into SeedLegals means for The Pitch community Thanks, Chris – we’ll take it from here. 🚀 ⬇️ Watch the video to hear Chris’s reflections on his time leading The Pitch, and what the next chapter holds. #founderstory #seedfunding #thepitch #seedlegals #startups #startupcommunity

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“The Session That Shocked Founders” At last week’s Valuation Workshop, we ran a session that genuinely shook the room. We staged a live VC pitch role-play… Then gave founders a front-row seat to hear what VC's/GP's actually say after the pitch - the real, unfiltered conversation founders never hear. It was raw. Honest. And eye-opening. Here’s what founders realized in just 20 minutes: • VCs judge mandate fit before they judge product • It’s often about the founder, not the startup (esp. early stage) • Weak pricing logic kills credibility instantly • “We’ll figure it out later” = automatic no • Having a confirmed lead investor changes the room • AI is definitely a hype right now - BUT AI alone is not a moat • “We’re raising to grow” without numbers is a red flag • Traction ≠ momentum ≠ scalability • Even $10M ARR doesn’t guarantee acquisition And the realities most founders never hear: • Process theatre is real - weeks of calls and data room requests even when the answer is already “no” • VCs share notes - founder reputations circulate quietly across the ecosystem. One bad interaction can 10x hurt you. 20 minutes > 20 hours on YouTube. We run workshops like this every month - ultra-tactical, operator-led, designed for founders and VCs who want real, unfiltered insight into growth and capital. If you want to join the next one in December, DM us! 👉 Follow Zenvio 👉 Don’t miss the next workshop #valuations #investing #vc #workshops #zenvio #growth #revenue

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Insightful panel discussion with members of Cambridge Angels and Angel Academe - increasing female investment , moderated by Sarah Turner. Many Cambridge Angel members are exited entrepreneurs themselves and their focus is investing in deep tech. As both Angel networks collaborate and sometimes invest in the same startups, it was interesting to hear from everyone: ✅ It’s brilliant to have an angel on the team who is a sector expert when looking at a new business. ☀️ Valuation is always a hot topic - varying thoughts on how important, or not, that is at such an early stage. 🧩 How other investors operate carries such significance when you are doing a deal and shouldn’t be underestimated. Thanks to the panelists Simon Thorpe, Jo Pisani, Pam Garside and Gillian M. #angelinvesting #investinwomen #startups Chrysoula Zervoudakis Charlotte S. Yee Mun T. Simon Goldsmith MA FCA Rowena Ironside Helen Kelisky Tas Boga Jodie O'Keeffe Amy Weatherup John Souter Helen Jones Robert Mollen

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Member News ⬇️ To shed light on the realities of recruitment in fast-growing startups, Powdr sat down with Justin Carpenter, a specialist in building senior teams for early-stage ventures. https://buff.ly/VcXjX0A

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Pleased to be featured in Pathfounders on the growing Seed to Series A funding gap in the UK. Only ~4–5% of seed-backed startups now reach Series A (down from ~12% in 2020) - as capital becomes more selective and expectations continue to shift. One area worth exploring further is the role of seed extension rounds, giving founders the runway to reach meaningful milestones before raising their next round. Read the full article here: https://bit.ly/4mQBiB7

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SMEs, the need for working capital is not a hurdle. It's a growth opportunity. That’s why we’re proud to launch on Intuit QuickBooks’ Capital Marketplace, making embedded financing directly available to QuickBooks customers across the UK. Businesses can now access personalised working capital offers directly within the platform, to invest in any business purpose, powered by YouLend. Embedded finance means faster decisions, fewer hurdles, and funding that is present in the platforms SMEs actually operate on. Leigh Thomas, 𝐕𝐢𝐜𝐞 𝐏𝐫𝐞𝐬𝐢𝐝𝐞𝐧𝐭 𝐄𝐌𝐄𝐀 at Intuit, comments: “With personalised YouLend offers now available and supported by pre-qualification alerts, our customers are supported to get the financing they need, when they need it.” 👉 To read the full press release, click here: https://bit.ly/4a5eyHD

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I’ve lost count of the times a founder asks, “So… you really close every office you buy?” Yes. And here’s why 👇 🌧 A wet commute on the M50 or M25 isn’t inspiring innovation. 💷 £1 spent on rent is £1 not spent on better product. ♻️ Remote teams slash Scope 3 emissions without a consultant in sight. We’ve put the full logic – and the data – into a new Ishikawa Technologies blog. If you’re a seller (or advising one) and want to keep your people exactly where they thrive, give it a look. Happy to swap notes over a virtual coffee. DM me anytime. #FutureOfWork #RemoteFirst

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Excited to connect with executives, operators, and fellow founders at SCALE London this week. This year’s programme is bringing capital, people strategy, and operating execution into the same conversation. WORK-SELF leadership will be joining the wider SCALE conversation alongside industry partners like the Angel Investment Network, Innovate UK Business Connect, London Chamber of Commerce and Industry, and the Enterprise Investment Scheme Association (EISA). There are some incredible speakers in the programme who we're keen to hear from including Ayesha Ofori of Propelle, Sam Smith of The SuperScalers, and Irene Graham OBE of the ScaleUp Institute. Looking forward to connecting with other founders and sharing what we're building at WORK-SELF. Send me a message if you'll be there and let's set something up. #ScaleExpo #FutureOfWork #WorkforceTransformation #CareerIntelligence #TalentStrategy #AIAndWork #WORKSELF

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The Enterprise Britain “Time to Act” report gets to the heart of the challenge facing UK growth. If we want stronger growth, higher productivity, and better jobs, we need to back the founders building the future.   That means stable, competitive tax policy, better access to scale-up finance, and protecting proven interventions like Venture Capital Trusts (VCTs) that channel investment into ambitious UK businesses.   Growth doesn’t happen by accident, it takes clear strategy and this report provides a roadmap on how we can achieve that.   A great report.

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🌍 International Women’s Day 2026 | Podcast Feature To mark International Women’s Day 2026, Maven Capital Partners has launched Season 2 of their podcast: Scaling for Success, a special mini-series dedicated to supporting and championing women-led businesses across the UK. 🎙️ 🗣️ Episode 1 features Silka Patel, Founder and Chair of Scotland Women in Technology. In the episode, Silka discusses the mission behind Scotland Women in Technology, inspiring and supporting women and girls across the tech sector, strengthening representation, and helping create a more inclusive innovation economy. At Scotland Women in Technology, we believe that when women are supported to lead, build and innovate, the entire ecosystem becomes stronger. Silka’s leadership continues to drive that vision forward across Scotland and beyond. 💡 🎧 Episode 1 is out now and available on all major streaming platforms. Access it here 👇 https://lnkd.in/eTsStFiK 🎙️ Also featured in the series: ✅ Elizabeth Pirrie , CEO of AccelerateHER and Board Member at Investing Women Angels ✅ Nicola Thomson-Berwick , Chief Operating Officer of Investing Women Angels ✅ Carolyn Currie MBE MCBI , Chief Executive of Women's Enterprise Scotland ✅ Sophie Milliken MBE , Founder and CEO at Moja 🔗 Find out more about the series: https://lnkd.in/em74VH-N #InternationalWomensDay #IWD2026 #WomenInTech #WomenInBusiness #Entrepreneurship #ScotlandTech Lea Savage Margaret Totten (MCIM) Ketty Lawrence Ola Clark Lianne McGrory Yvonne Miller

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Humbled to see SPORTL featured alongside some incredible UK companies this week. When we started building SPORTL, we didn't imagine being mentioned in the same breath as raises of this scale. But it's a reminder that every company on this list started somewhere - and we're just getting going. £250,000 raised. London's first pay-as-you-go fitness marketplace. No subscriptions. No credits. Just Scroll. Tap. Book. Sweat.

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Most early-stage founders have too much financial data and not nearly enough financial clarity — and the difference matters enormously when a funding conversation turns serious. The problem isn't the numbers. It's the question those numbers were built to answer. FP&A for early-stage businesses isn't about producing reports — it's about answering the decisions that are actually in front of you this month. Three things matter more than most founders realise. Runway stated precisely — not "twelve months of cash" but twelve months accounting for committed outflows, the hire in April, the retainer ending in June, and the six to nine months a UK fundraising process typically takes. Gross margin tracked consistently, because growing revenue on thin or negative margins makes the economics problem larger, not smaller. And burn decomposed into fixed, variable, and discretionary — because that third category is where the options actually live. Three metrics tracked and understood deeply will tell you more about the health of an early-stage business than thirty tracked loosely. Full article in the comments. #FounderAdvisory #MandA

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Strong perspective from Aaron. This ties in closely with what we’re hearing in the market. SaaS businesses are being challenged much earlier on cash, forecasting discipline, GTM structure and leadership depth, not just growth. That is showing up very clearly in leadership hiring. By the way I love the term 'heroic selling'! We see these attributes in the selection process for many senior revenue hires and unless these characters are assessed accurately, they blaze a very short trail in the new appointment! #SaaS #ExecutiveSearch #FractionalLeadership #PrivateEquity #boardline

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