Corporate finance advisory for SMEs and growing companies on treasury, pricing, financial architecture and the capital decisions that reach your board.
Built for software & SaaS companies, e-commerce businesses and SMEs across Europe and English-speaking markets
Strategic financial advisory is senior corporate finance help for the decisions that shape a company: where its cash sits, how it prices, how its costs and funding are structured, and what goes to the board. DeFiGure researches your numbers first, then advises, then gives you a ranked plan your leadership team can act on.
It is different from bookkeeping, which records what happened, and from a one-off model, which answers one question. Strategic advisory stays with the decision: we frame the options, model each one on your own figures, write down the trade-offs and recommend an order of action. Where outside evidence helps, we start from public signals, compare segments and competitors, show our sources and state the limits of what the data can tell you.
A typical example: a software company with twelve months of runway (the months of cash left at the current net burn) is weighing a price increase against a bridge round. We model both paths on its numbers, show what each does to cash, margin and dilution, and set out which to do first and what to watch afterwards. Terms like runway, burn and unit economics are explained in plain words in our corporate finance glossary.
If what you need is the finance function itself (month-end close, management reporting, KPI dashboards, tooling), that is our CFO Advisory & Finance Function service. Strategic Advisory is for the decisions those numbers feed.
Three standing areas of work, plus one specialized capability. Each ends in a written recommendation, not a slide of general advice.
Decide how much cash sits where. We split your cash into operating, reserve and strategic buckets, set limits on how much any one bank holds, choose the low-risk instruments idle cash may go into, and write a one-page treasury policy that names who can move money.
Structure costs and funding so growth adds margin instead of burn. We separate fixed from variable costs, test how margin moves as volume grows, and weigh the funding routes (customer revenue, debt, grants or equity) against what the plan needs and how much control you want to keep.
Bootstrapping vs venture capital, decided by your economics →
Prepare the decisions your board or shareholders have to make: how to deploy a new round, when to cut or extend burn, whether to enter a new market, when to get ready for a sale. You get the options side by side, the numbers behind each and a written recommendation.
Price is usually the fastest lever on margin, and often the least examined one. We compare your current prices with your costs, your customer segments and the public prices of comparable offers, then design the price architecture: tiers, packaging, price points and the rules for discounting.
When the answer is a price increase, we plan it with you: who moves first, how much notice customers get, which accounts keep the old rate and for how long, and how churn is measured against the revenue gained. Pricing is treated as part of the financial plan, not as a one-off campaign.
Further reading: how to raise prices without losing customers, the contribution margin math behind ecommerce unit economics and blended CAC, MER and ROAS for setting an ad budget.
When a decision is large enough that getting it wrong costs months of runway or a share of the company. Typical situations:
Public signals first, then your own figures to test them: segments and competitors compared, sources shown, limits stated. Findings come before recommendations.
Each option is modeled on your numbers, with its effect on cash, margin and control written down, so the trade-offs are visible before anyone commits.
Actions ranked by impact, each with a first step, plus a short summary a leader can present to a board or shareholders and defend with the evidence behind it.
More detail: how a DeFiGure engagement works, step by step, and when advisory is worth it compared with a template.
Decide by your economics, not by status. Bootstrapping fits a company that can reach profitability on customer revenue and where control matters to the founders. Venture capital fits winner-take-most markets that need to move faster than cash flow allows. Many founders bootstrap to product-market fit and raise later, which lets them negotiate from traction and sell less equity for the same money.
Give existing customers advance notice, tie the increase to value they can see, and phase it in. Hold your earliest or most loyal accounts at the old rate for a set period rather than forever, and let anyone who wants to leave do so without friction. Then measure actual churn against the revenue gained, rather than reacting to the few customers who complain loudest.
Gross margin subtracts only the cost of goods sold from revenue. Contribution margin also subtracts every variable cost of selling and delivering: shipping, fulfilment, payment fees, returns and acquisition spend. Gross margin tells you whether a product is worth making; contribution margin tells you whether it is worth selling through a given channel at a given acquisition cost. Pricing decisions should rest on the second.
Once it holds more cash than day-to-day operations need, yes. A one-page policy sets how much stays in the operating account, which low-risk instruments reserve cash may go into, how much any single bank can hold, and who is allowed to move money. Writing it takes an afternoon. It removes both bank concentration risk and the temptation to chase unsafe yield.
Retention curves flatten instead of falling towards zero, customers refer others without being asked, acquisition is repeatable and predictable, and each customer is profitable to serve. When those hold together, spending on growth compounds. When they do not, extra spend on hiring and marketing burns cash faster while fixing nothing, which is the pattern known as premature scaling.
Concentration and fragility. Heavy reliance on one sales channel, one supplier, one product or paid traffic you rent rather than own all cut the multiple, because they raise the buyer's risk. Thin or falling margins, a weak repeat-purchase rate and messy books do the same. Buyers pay for durable, transferable profit; anything that looks as if it leaves with the owner is discounted.
How much should a startup founder pay themselves in 2026? US salary benchmarks by stage, plus the German vGA trap for a GmbH Geschäftsführer.
Gross margin flatters; contribution margin tells the truth. The ecommerce unit economics math and CM benchmarks that separate scalable brands from doomed.
Ecommerce business valuation in 2026: buyers price small brands on SDE, larger ones on EBITDA. Real multiple ranges and the drivers that move your number.
Ecommerce cash flow forecasting done right: a rolling 13-week model that handles inventory timing and payout lags, and flags shortfalls months early.
Ecommerce seasonality planning for Q4: a week-by-week calendar for funding inventory before it pays out and surviving the peak ad-cost spike.
Platform-reported ROAS flatters. How MER, blended CAC and CM3 work together to make ad-spend calls you can trust — with a table and decision framework.
Tell us the decision and the numbers behind it. The first call takes 30 minutes and is free; if we are a fit, a scoped proposal follows within 48 hours.