EVENTS

For seed-to-Series A founders, some of the most critical hiring decisions are who should lead finance, who should own the technology roadmap, and when the business can afford to bring in that expertise.

Fractional hiring is changing that equation, giving lean teams access to CFO and CTO-level expertise without the full-time cost or commitment.

We’re bringing together a founder, a fractional executive, and the co-founder of a fractional hiring platform for a candid look at what actually works, when a business is ready for senior expertise, how these engagements are structured in practice, and honest lessons from where it’s gone wrong. Whether you’re weighing up your first senior hire or already working with fractional talent, you’ll leave with a clearer framework for deciding when to build in-house and when to borrow expertise instead.

The session will focus on:

• What actually triggers the move from “founder does it all” to bringing in fractional CFO/CTO expertise
• How fractional engagements really work in practice – scope, cadence, reporting lines, and where the trust gets built
• The transition point: when and how companies move from fractional to full-time leadership
• Honest lessons from where fractional hiring has gone wrong, and how to avoid the same mistakes

Agenda

• 12:00 – 12:05 Welcome and session introduction
• 12:05 – 12:50 Fractional Hiring: Lessons from both sides of the table
• 12:50 – 13:00 Q&A and closing remarks

Meet the speakers

Caroline Phillips, Co-Founder, Enki 

Caroline Phillips is co-founder of enki÷, the platform connecting scaling businesses with Fractional CFOs ~ giving resource-constrained start-ups and scale-ups access to senior finance leadership without a full-time hire.

 

 

 

 

Jan Binon, Founder, Ariadnic

Jan is the founder of Ariadnic, a fractional and interim CFO practice working with medtech and biotech companies from seed to Series B across the EU and UK. He held the finance seat through MRM Health’s €55M Series B and Novosanis’s integration into NASDAQ-listed OraSure, and is currently CFO at Belgian biotech Inbiose.

 

 

 

Toby Venning, Founder and CEO, Cross Digital and Elate 

Toby Venning is founder and CEO of Cross Digital and Elate. He hired a fractional CFO before securing his third Innovate UK grant, bringing his total awards to £508,081 across projects worth £664,388. These led to Elate, an AI-enabled SaaS platform for UK home care. He shares a founder’s perspective on fractional hiring.

 

 

 

Serena Giaminardi, Head of Programmes and Investment, SETsquared Partnership 

Serena leads the strategic design and delivery of a £2.5m+ portfolio of innovation programmes that take start-up and spin-out founders from first idea through to investment. She works across academic, investment and innovation ecosystems to pilot and scale initiatives that create real impact, and her team supports 200+ innovators a year across health, climate, AI, defence, creative industries and beyond. Previously, Serena scouted for ADA Ventures, worked as an innovation consultant, and joined an Italian start-up as a founding team member.

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