Dermot Campbell — Fractional COO and CFO for founder-led businesses

The finance function, run by an experienced operator.

Technology has changed what one person can do. The day-to-day of a finance function, the bookkeeping, the reconciliations, the compliance, is now largely automated, which for the first time makes it commercial for a genuinely senior operator to own the basics as well as the strategy.

That is what I offer, from self-employed practitioners to growing companies: the foundation done properly and the judgement laid over the top, by the same person.

The finance function, three ways.

One discipline underneath all of it: the basics done right, with the judgement of an experienced operator laid over the top. Technology now handles the mechanical work, so that judgement goes where it actually matters, and it becomes viable for a senior person to own the foundation as well as the strategy. Whichever of these you need, getting a company investment ready is the thread that runs through it.

As CFO

Senior finance leadership

Ownership of the finance function at a level a growing business needs but cannot yet justify full-time. Foundation first, then the judgement that turns clean numbers into decisions, and a company ready when it comes time to raise.

Interpreting the numbers so they tell the right story: getting the accounting treatment right, so margins and unit economics reflect how the business actually works and stand up to scrutiny
Getting a company investment ready: a clean, defensible model, the equity story and the metrics an investor will interrogate
Fundraising, dilutive and non-dilutive: working out which kind of money the business actually needs, then getting you ready and running the process. On the equity side, a defensible model, the investor materials, and deep relationships across the fund landscape, knowing who backs what and how to approach them. On the non-dilutive side, grants, R&D tax credits and debt that extend runway without giving away ownership
Budgets, forecasting, rolling cashflow, management accounts, board and investor reporting, and the financial controls beneath them

As COO

Operations and delivery

Senior operating capacity that picks up real project and delivery work: turning strategy into priorities, coordinating work that has no clear owner, and building the rhythm that keeps delivery moving. Not facilitation from the sidelines.

Cross-functional priorities across product, sales and operations
Hiring strategy across the business: who to bring in and when, running the process well, and the employer infrastructure beneath it. The right hire, well chosen, is worth more than almost any other decision
Leadership rhythm, decision rights and accountability
Board operations: preparing meetings and packs, and the reporting cadence that turns board time into decisions rather than theatre
Customer discovery, product focus and go-to-market clarity
Where it helps, AI and workflow automation to remove manual drag

The foundation

The essentials, run properly

The foundational finance function: bookkeeping, compliance and the corporate record, set up right and kept right. This used to be no place for a senior person, it was not commercial to have expensive judgement doing clerical work. Modern tooling has changed that. The mechanical work is largely automated, so what you get is the basics done properly by someone who understands what the numbers mean and how they need to be structured, which is exactly what makes them stand up later, at a raise or a sale.

Bookkeeping and month-end set up to reflect how the business actually works, with the reporting cadence a board and investors can rely on
MTD, VAT and self-assessment made efficient and painless, a by-product of records that are already right rather than a year-end scramble
SEIS and EIS advance assurance, EMI option schemes, R&D tax relief and grant funding: handled directly where straightforward, routed to trusted specialists where complex
Cap table maintained and modelled, kept clean, current and scenario-ready for a raise
Company secretarial: statutory filings, registers, board and shareholder resolutions, board minutes, and the corporate record kept properly

Governance runs through all three. At heart it is simply how decisions get made and followed through: who decides what, how the information they need reaches them, and who is accountable for the result. Done well, it is the quiet machinery that lets a company be led well. Done badly, it creates disconnect, between the board and the business, between decisions and delivery, between what the numbers say and what is actually happening. Where a company wants that judgement from outside the executive, I also take independent chair, non-executive and board-adviser roles.

Signs it is time to bring someone in.

The companies I work with are typically past their first friends-and-family or SEIS money and generating revenue, with clear signs of growth. They may be starting to think about a bridge, a seed or A round, or something later. Size is not the test; internal resources are. Very small companies raising for the first time often start with a light engagement, perhaps a day a month to keep the financial model current and produce the management accounts. Some of the signals that it is time:

We need finance run properly, but a full-time CFO is more than the stage justifies.

We are raising, and the numbers and the model will not survive an investor's scrutiny.

The board and investors need cashflow, forecasting and reporting they can actually rely on.

We have outgrown informal founder-led ways of working and need clearer ownership and rhythm.

We know what needs to happen, but nobody has the bandwidth or objectivity to run delivery.

Sales conversations are not landing, and we need sharper customer pain and route to market.

The business is becoming more complex, which is what success looks like. It is simply the point at which finance, execution and decision-making need experienced support to keep moving.

Grounded in the realities of building and running organisations.

I have founded and led three ventures, owning the finance function in each with no separate CFO, and raised over £3m across them from angels and VCs. Kuber Ventures, an investment platform that gave advisers access to EIS and SEIS venture funds, which I took from an Excel model to a full online platform and built the team around it. The heart of it was the relationships with the venture fund managers, the same EIS and SEIS world I work in today. Board Originator, a governance SaaS business built around board workflows, investor reporting and management systems. Augentic, working on how AI agents could carry routine governance work while leaving judgement with people.

Before that, seven years in senior roles at UBS Wealth Management, latterly as a director leading a team serving professional intermediaries, with responsibility for around £500m of client assets, substantial collateralised lending exposure, and a restructuring that halved headcount while improving returns.

Alongside, I have been treasurer and a trustee of a public-interest organisation, taking it through charitable conversion and a finance-function rebuild that started with reconstructing the accounts from raw records. And I advise a smaller listed company on governance reform, board effectiveness and reporting cadence.

Earlier still, I flew commercially. It taught me more about structured decision-making under pressure than anything since.

Most of this work has been in founder-led and growth-stage businesses, because that is where the need is greatest. The discipline does not change with size: the same structure, decision rights and financial rigour that keep a small team running well are what keep a larger one running well too, which is what the UBS desk and the listed-company advisory work drew on at a materially bigger scale.

Start with a conversation.

The first step is a short, no-obligation conversation about where the business is under pressure.

We work out whether there is a clear value case and, if there is, define a focused first piece of work. If there is not, I will tell you. The easiest way to start is to book a time directly, or reach me by email or phone.