Which fractional CFO firms work with venture-backed startups?
Fractional CFOs for Venture-Backed Startups: What The Shortlist Report Finds
3 firms lead, appearing in 51.3–53.1% of 382 AI responses. The sample cannot separate them, so we do not pretend it can.
Three firms lead
Pilot, Kruze Consulting and Burkland Associates come up most often here. They are close enough together that the order between them is not worth reading anything into.
Pilot203 of 382
Offers technology-enabled bookkeeping, accounting, and CFO services to startups and small to midsize companies.
Kruze Consulting201 of 382
Provides startup accounting, CFO services, tax preparation, R&D tax credits, and fundraising support for seed through Series C+ ventures.
Burkland Associates196 of 382
Fractional CFO, FP&A, and fundraising support for venture-backed startups, particularly SaaS and tech companies.
Based on 382 ChatGPT responses to this question, collected August 8, 2026–October 29, 2026. Firms are counted once per response. How we measure.
The ranking
| Firm | Responses | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Tier 1 3 firms, 51.3–53.1% | |||
| Pilotpilot.comOffers technology-enabled bookkeeping, accounting, and CFO services to startups and small to midsize companies. | 203 of 382 | 53.1% | |
| Kruze Consultingkruzeconsulting.comProvides startup accounting, CFO services, tax preparation, R&D tax credits, and fundraising support for seed through Series C+ ventures. | 201 of 382 | 52.6% | |
| Burkland Associatesburkland.businessFractional CFO, FP&A, and fundraising support for venture-backed startups, particularly SaaS and tech companies. | 196 of 382 | 51.3% | |
| Tier 2 stands alone | |||
| Graphite Financialgraphitefinancial.comProvides combined CFO strategy and outsourced accounting for venture-backed SaaS and tech startups. | 145 of 382 | 38.0% | |
| Tier 3 3 firms, 15.2–18.8% | |||
| CFO Advisorscfoadvisors.comProvides CFO advisory, fundraising support, investor reporting, and financial modeling for seed-to-series C venture-backed tech startups. | 72 of 382 | 18.8% | |
| Finativefinative.coProvides integrated outsourced accounting, FP&A, and fractional CFO services to startups and growth companies. | 58 of 382 | 15.2% | |
| G-Squared PartnersProvides financial planning, forecasting, valuation support, M&A readiness, and capital-raising guidance to growth-stage companies and startups. | 58 of 382 | 15.2% | |
| Tier 4 3 firms, 13.1–14.9% | |||
| airCFOaircfo.comFractional CFO and accounting services for pre-seed through Series A venture-backed startups. | 57 of 382 | 14.9% | |
| Milestonemilestone.incAccounting, revenue recognition and CFO strategy for growth-stage SaaS companies. | 57 of 382 | 14.9% | |
| StartupCFOstartup-cfo.servicesProvides integrated bookkeeping, CPA, and fractional CFO services with fundraising models and runway planning for early-stage startups. | 50 of 382 | 13.1% | |
Key findings
- Pilot, Kruze Consulting and Burkland Associates lead this sample, each named in 51.3–53.1% of 382 ChatGPT responses to the question “Which fractional CFO firms work with venture-backed startups?”, collected August 8, 2026–October 29, 2026.
- The gaps between Pilot, Kruze Consulting and Burkland Associates are inside the margin of error at 382 responses, so The Shortlist Report groups them in one tier rather than ranking them against each other.
- 10 firms cleared the reporting threshold on “Which fractional CFO firms work with venture-backed startups?” in ChatGPT as of October 29, 2026; the full table with response counts is below.
- Pilot appears in 3 of the 15 fractional CFO and outsourced accounting firms reports published by The Shortlist Report, the widest coverage of any firm named on this page.
- No firm paid to appear in this ranking; placement cannot be bought, and the counts come from ChatGPT responses rather than from submissions.
Why the tiers fall where they do
Tier 1 holds Pilot, Kruze Consulting and Burkland Associates, named in 196 to 203 of the 382 ChatGPT responses. They are grouped rather than ranked because the gaps between them are inside the margin of error at this sample size — one extra mention would reorder them, so an order would be reporting noise as a finding.
Tier 2 holds Graphite Financial, named in 145 to 145 of 382 responses (38.0–38.0%). The sample does separate this firm from the tier above: the difference from the leading group is larger than the margin of error, which is what puts it in a tier of its own.
Tier 3 holds CFO Advisors, Finative and G-Squared Partners, named in 58 to 72 of 382 responses (15.2–18.8%). The sample does separate these firms from the tier above: the difference from the leading group is larger than the margin of error, which is what puts them in a tier of their own.
Tier 4 holds airCFO, Milestone and StartupCFO, named in 50 to 57 of 382 responses (13.1–14.9%). The sample does separate these firms from the tier above: the difference from the leading group is larger than the margin of error, which is what puts them in a tier of their own.
The test is McNemar’s at 95%, applied against the same 382 responses for every firm. The full reasoning, and what happened when we ranked one-to-N instead.
What the sample shows
3 firms lead this question: Pilot, Kruze Consulting and Burkland Associates. They appear in 51.3–53.1% of the 382 responses. The gaps between them are inside the margin of error at this sample size, so they are listed together rather than ranked against each other.
177 firms were named at least once across the sample. 10 of them cleared the threshold of 2 responses and appear above; the rest were named once and are inside the noise.
How to read this
Firms are grouped into tiers, not ranked one to fifteen. A tier holds every firm whose 95% confidence interval overlaps the leader's, which is a long way of saying the sample cannot tell them apart. Order within a tier is arbitrary — read the counts, not the position.
Share is the percentage of responses that named the firm — not a quality score. A firm scoring low here may be excellent and simply under-written about online, which is a finding about its visibility rather than its work.
The same question was asked repeatedly because AI assistants do not answer identically twice. A single response would tell you almost nothing.
What this measurement does not tell you
- It is not a quality ranking. Share reflects how much has been written about a firm online, which is what an AI assistant reads. A capable firm nobody writes about scores low here.
- It is a reading from a date range, not a permanent standing. This sample was collected August 8, 2026–October 29, 2026; models change and so do their answers.
- It covers ChatGPT only. Other assistants answer differently, and we do not extrapolate across engines we have not measured.
- Order within a tier is arbitrary. Read the counts, not the position. Why we use tiers.
Cite this report
The Shortlist Report. (2026). Fractional CFOs for Venture-Backed Startups: What The Shortlist Report Finds. The Shortlist Report. https://www.shortlistreport.com/article/fractional-cfo-for-startups
Underlying counts: CSV · JSON. Every answer they were counted from: plain text · JSON. All reusable under CC BY 4.0 with attribution.