Finance isn’t just for CFOs and founders. If your leadership team doesn’t understand the numbers, they can’t make informed decisions, align with company goals, or support growth effectively.
One of the biggest mistakes I see in startups is financial knowledge being siloed—sitting only with the CFO or founder. However, I believe that every leadership team member should understand the numbers for the business, not just their own department’s KPIs.
If your head of product, marketing, sales, or operations doesn’t understand financials, it becomes harder to scale, make strategic decisions, and secure investment.
Here is why financial literacy across your leadership team is important—and how it directly impacts your startup’s success.
1. Financial Understanding = Better Decision-Making
When leadership teams understand the numbers, decision-making becomes strategic—not reactive.
Take budgeting, for example.
Your leadership team sets strategic goals, then a CFO or finance lead builds a budget to check if those goals are financially viable.
But what happens when the numbers don’t work?
A CFO might say:
- “This plan will run out of cash before break-even.”
- “Your operational goals aren’t financially feasible.”
If your leadership team doesn’t understand why, they can’t adjust strategy effectively.
When leadership teams get finance, they can plan growth that’s actually sustainable and anticipate cash needs before problems arise.
2. These Two Metrics: Profitability & Cash Flow
Every leadership team member should understand two key financial areas:
- Profit & Loss (P&L) – What’s driving profit and costs?
- Cash Flow – Where’s the cash coming in and going out?
And even more importantly—timing matters.
For Example:
If revenue takes 90 days to come in, but expenses are paid upfront, your business has a working capital problem.
Many startups fail because they don’t see cash flow issues coming.
If your leadership team understands cash flow cycles, they can adjust payment terms, improve working capital and avoid unnecessary funding gaps.
3. Leadership Teams Need to Own Financial Metrics—Not Just Departmental KPIs
Most leadership teams focus on their own KPIs—marketing tracks CAC and conversion, product tracks retention, sales tracks pipeline… but few connect these numbers to the overall business financials.
Your leadership team should understand CAC, LTV, Churn rate and margins (Gross and Contribution in particular).
When every leader understands the numbers, they can communicate better, make better decisions and align growth plans with financials.
4. Leadership Decisions Have Financial Consequences
Every decision in a startup has a financial impact. The problem? Many leaders don’t realise it. Here are some examples:
- A marketing campaign might drive sales—but if CAC is too high, profitability plummets.
- A product team might push for new features—but if R&D costs are too high, ROI suffers.
- The commercial team may push for a new product – but if the Cost of Sales must be paid upfront and the revenue comes 120 days later your cashflow is going to struggle.
If your leadership team understands financial impact, they align decisions with profitability.
5. Investors Expect Financially Competent Leadership—Not Just a Strong Founder & CFO
Fundraising? Your leadership team needs to speak the language of investors.
Investors don’t just assess the founder and CFO—they want to see a leadership team that understands:
- Key financial drivers of the business
- How growth plans align with financial feasibility
If your leadership team doesn’t understand financials, investors might see them as a weak link. Encourage your team to view my tutorial video: Startup Leaders how to understand the management accounts | What do they mean? What should I look at [same link as above]
6. Build a Financially Resilient Culture from Day One
The best startups don’t just rely on a strong CFO—they build a leadership team that thinks financially. How?
- Regular finance training for leadership teams
- Ensuring department heads own financial impact
- Making financial literacy part of leadership development
At Fast Growth Consulting, we train leadership teams to understand financials—so they can scale without financial blind spots.