As I close the books on 2025 and begin conversations with portfolio companies for the year ahead, I’m struck by how the role of strategic finance has evolved. This isn’t a typical year-in-review piece. Instead, I want to share patterns I’m observing from working closely with 10-15 growth-stage companies.

What Changed in 2025

The past year reinforced something fundamental: the distance between strategy and execution has collapsed. Boards can no longer have quarterly check-ins where everything looks polished while operational reality unfolds separately. The companies navigating current markets successfully share specific traits.

In private markets, valuations found their floor. The companies that survived didn’t just cut costs—they rebuilt operating models around sustainable unit economics. I watched businesses make difficult choices: declining growth capital with unfavorable terms, walking away from deals that looked attractive three years ago, and learning to grow without cheap capital.

Public markets in India told a nuanced story. While headline indices suggested optimism, sectoral and individual performance varied dramatically. Technology stocks bifurcated between AI beneficiaries and others. Domestic consumption themes gained investor attention, yet valuations reached levels demanding scrutiny.

The Fractional CFO Model Matures

I’ve been doing fractional CFO work before it had that label. For years, startups viewed interim financial leadership as a compromise—what you did when you couldn’t afford a full-time CFO. That perception shifted in 2025.

Sophisticated founders now recognize that a fractional CFO who has navigated multiple scaling journeys brings more value than a full-time hire learning on the job. This isn’t about cost savings. It’s about accessing strategic thinking without long-term commitment before achieving product-market fit.

The fractional CFO model works best when companies need strategic architecture without operational overhead. You’re pre-Series B, building financial infrastructure that can scale. You need someone who has done this ten times, not someone figuring it out alongside you.

Transaction expertise matters too. Fundraising, M&A, and complex partnership structures are episodic needs requiring deep expertise. Hiring full-time for periodic requirements makes little sense. Board-level financial perspective becomes crucial when presenting to investors and building confidence with stakeholders.

Macro Forces Shaping Decisions

My work requires constant attention to broader economic forces. Here’s what I’m tracking as we enter 2026.

Interest rate trajectories remain uncertain. Despite optimistic predictions, central banks globally are navigating inflation and unemployment. For growth companies, capital costs remain elevated. Planning assumptions need scenario modeling—not just best-case, but realistic assessments of what happens if rates stay higher.

India’s domestic market shows resilience. The consumption story remains intact, though valuations in certain sectors have detached from fundamentals. Companies targeting Indian consumers have real opportunity but need financial discipline and agile strategic planning.

Technology disruption accelerates unevenly. AI isn’t transforming every sector at the same pace. Some industries face immediate disruption while others have longer runways. Financial leaders need to help management teams make intelligent bets without over-rotating toward technology.

Global supply chains continue reorganizing. This creates opportunities for Indian manufacturing and services but introduces complexity. Companies expanding into new geographies need financial infrastructure supporting multi-country operations.

Portfolio Company Lessons

Working deeply with a concentrated portfolio allows pattern recognition across different stages and sectors. Early-stage companies face a consistent challenge: building financial discipline before it’s required. Companies implementing robust forecasting and understanding cohort economics have fundamentally better conversations with Series A investors.

Growth-stage companies struggle transitioning from growth at any cost to efficient growth. Management teams intellectually understand the shift but struggle operationalizing it. The companies succeeding make hard trade-offs: exiting geographies that don’t work, sunsetting product lines with poor economics, and building organizations that scale without proportional headcount increases.

Women entrepreneurs demonstrate a consistent pattern. I’ve worked with 50+ women founders over several years. Women-led businesses often show stronger financial fundamentals earlier—lower burn, better customer retention, more thoughtful capital deployment. Yet they face systematic disadvantages in capital access. My role often involves translating strong operational performance into narratives resonating with predominantly male investor communities.

What 2026 Demands

Based on current conversations with boards and management teams, here’s what companies need as they plan for the year ahead.

• Build for multiple scenarios, not single forecasts. The macro environment remains too uncertain for deterministic planning. Best practice involves scenario modeling with clear trigger points. What happens if revenue growth disappoints by 20%? How quickly can you adjust burn? What’s the plan if fundraising takes twice as long as expected?
• Treat cash visibility as competitive advantage. Real-time understanding of cash position isn’t optional—it’s foundational. Companies with 13-week rolling cash forecasts operate with confidence. Those relying on month-end reports make decisions in fog.
• Prepare for institutional governance early. If you plan raising institutional capital in the next 18-24 months, start building toward those standards now. Board materials, financial reporting, and compliance frameworks take time to implement properly. Companies scrambling to build governance during fundraising invariably struggle.
• Invest in financial systems strategically. I’m frequently asked about ERPs, financial planning tools, and automation platforms. My answer depends on stage and scale. Over-investing in technology before having stable processes creates expense without value. Under-investing when you’ve reached scale creates operational drag.
• Understand your key financial drivers deeply. Every business has 3-5 metrics that truly matter. For SaaS companies, it might be CAC payback period, net dollar retention, and rule of 40. For marketplaces, GMV growth, take rate, and repeat transaction rate. Too many companies track dozens of metrics without deeply understanding the few driving outcomes.

AI in Finance Operations

AI will transform finance functions, but not overnight and not uniformly. The hype cycle has created unrealistic expectations. Here’s my current thinking based on implementation experience.

• Automation of routine tasks is real and valuable. Account reconciliation, expense categorization, and basic variance analysis genuinely improve through AI. Companies should pursue these efficiencies. The ROI is measurable and implementation risk is low.
• Advanced forecasting shows promise but requires caution. AI-powered forecasting tools can process more variables than traditional models. However, they’re only as good as their training data. In environments of structural change, historical patterns may not predict future outcomes. Human judgment remains essential.
• Strategic decision-making remains human territory. No AI tool can tell you whether to enter a new market, which features to prioritize, or when to raise capital. These decisions require understanding context and assessing people—capabilities remaining distinctly human.

My advice to the boards and CXOs: pursue AI implementation pragmatically. Start with clear use cases, measure actual impact, and remain skeptical of vendors promising transformation.

Coaching Financial Leaders

An increasing part of my work involves coaching—helping founders develop financial intuition and supporting CEOs through their board presentations. This coaching differs from traditional advisory. It’s about helping leaders ask better questions and developing pattern recognition.

The founders & CEOs benefiting most from coaching share certain traits. They’re humble enough to acknowledge what they don’t know. They’re coachable—able to receive feedback without defensiveness. They understand that building a valuable company requires developing skills beyond their core expertise.

For CFOs, coaching often focuses on strategic positioning. Many finance leaders have excellent technical skills but struggle translating financial insights into strategic recommendations. Learning to speak business language rather than accounting language makes the difference between being a reporter and becoming a strategic partner.

Looking Forward

As I look toward 2026, I’m optimistic about companies choosing discipline over hype and building for sustainability over headlines. The businesses that will define this decade aren’t those with the largest funding rounds. They’re the ones building durable competitive advantages and creating value that compounds over time.

If you’re a founder, CEO, or board member working on that kind of company, I’m always open to conversation. Sometimes the most valuable discussions challenge our assumptions about what’s possible.

Here’s to building companies worth building.

Deepti Beri
Board Advisor | Fractional CFO | Strategic Finance Coach
BizWise Advisors

Deepti Beri provides board-level financial advisory and fractional CFO Services to growth-stage companies. Her focus areas include transaction advisory, strategic finance architecture, and supporting women entrepreneurs. Learn more about fractional CFO services or schedule a consultation.