The SaaS CFO | The #1 source for SaaS finance education. Video lessons, content, templates, and communities to accelerate your SaaS and career.

WHAT I DO:  I help SaaS companies via fractional SaaS CFO services, coaching, and courses in SaaS metrics and finance.  I help companies achieve financial improvement and transparency via a SaaS finance framework that links operations to finance.

WHO I HELP:  I help SaaS founders, finance/accounting, and investors.

WHY IT WORKS:  Translating the operational story into consumable numbers is the key to driving corporate performance and understanding the economics of SaaS businesses.

WHAT MAKES ME DIFFERENT: From debits and credits to financial forecasting to M&A, my experience has not just been silo’ed in the accounting or finance track, but both sides of the desk.  My operations background at several airlines has improved my ability to translate operational performance into improved financial understanding and foresight. My on-the-job experience as a SaaS CFO has allowed me to help thousands of SaaS founders and finance teams.

Ben Murray

A proven leader of people, product, and the P&L. I specialize in working across teams to build a cohesive strategy that rallies both people and profit.

Roy Keely

My first advice to a want-to-be founder: have no debt.

Do you have to be rich to start a company?
No. But your personal burn needs to be low.

No mortgage. If you rent, have 20–30 months of expenses saved. No country club. No car note unless the money's sitting somewhere else. Simple vacations. Private school for the kids? Sure—if you have it stocked up.

This goes against some other people's advice. They like their founders desperate—so if it doesn't work, they're destitute.

That's not motivation. That's a trap. Especially if you have a family.

I've found that carrying no debt is a major unlock when it comes to doing what's best for my team and the companies I work with. It helps if you don't have to chase a quick win or get fresh funding in order to keep a paycheck.

The whole reason to become a founder is to work for yourself. But if you're carrying debt and a high personal burn, you'll inevitably feel like you work for everyone but yourself.

Building software WITH & FOR professional service firms

25 software engineers working on our accounting related projects. All using AI to move faster. 

Over the last 120 days, AI-contributed code went from 20% to 40%. That's not a trend line - its a complete shift. 

And it works because the people driving it actually know what they're doing.
I can vibe-code something that works for me and my mom. These folks have superpowers—because they know how to test, read the output, improve it, and bring their own intelligence and craft to the loop. AI doesn't replace that. It multiplies it.

One thing we're deliberate about: teams stay at five or fewer. Too many chefs—human or AI—and you get crashes, not increased velocity.

Hello network - we are looking for someone to add to the ModernPM team. 

Looking for a Product Specialist — someone who's worked inside a CPA firm and knows what it's like to live in CCH Axcess Practice, Practice Engine, or Star day in and day out.

This role is all about people, not code. You'll lead firm onboardings, train users, help firms navigate the change management side of moving off legacy systems, and partner with sales to run demos that actually speak the language of practitioners.

If you've ever thought "there has to be a better way" while fighting with your practice management software — we're building it. And we want you to help firms experience it.

Remote. Startup pace. Real impact.
DM me or share with someone who fits.

There's a new kind of helpless. The AI Brownout

I'm working in Excel on a cash flow model. It's a piece of art.
AI built most of it—and it's AMAZING.

The model is now too intricate to safely touch on my own. And when the AI taps out mid-session—I'm stuck—just staring at a spreadsheet I own but can't really use until the lights come back on.

We talk a lot about what AI makes possible. Less about what happens when you've built something you no longer understand.

Welcome to the future.

Hey ChatGPT… we need to talk.
You're not doing it for me anymore. You don't… well… 'plug-in' (get it?) to how I'm doing life. Or work.

It's not you. It's me. We just want different things.

You're not bad. You just don't fit in my workflow.

Sure, I've had three bourbon sodas and it's late....But clarity hits different after the third one.

Maybe I'll see you around. Perhaps you get your life together...call me when you do.

Another person's debt is another person's asset.
One aim in life: never be someone else's asset.

When you're someone's asset, they own you. Your choices. Your optionality. You sign away the ability to decide.

Decide what? 
What you spend your time on. Your craft. Your priorities. Your freedom to start something new.

This is why college doesn't make sense for most people. You start your adult life in debt — immediately back to being six years old, someone else telling you what you can eat and drink.

Choosing a debt-free life feels hard because you're walking around in a sea of it. "Everyone is doing it" becomes the earworm everyone sings.

Debt is the opium of the masses.

Defense wins championships. 
We just saw it Sunday night at the Super Bowl.

In this new AI era, offense gets all the press. All the hype. But if you don't have a defense, you can't win.

Tons of accounting firms aren't thinking about it like this.
Worse—they're tasking the same people with both. You rarely see someone play both sides of the ball. There's a reason for that.

I think we're heading toward a world where the CIO is the defensive coordinator. Their job: keep the firm out of the news. Everything secure. Everything current. Adopting modern security standards and actually implementing them—not just checking boxes.

The offensive coordinator? That's the Chief Innovation Officer—or product officer—inside a professional services firm. Their job is to push forward. New tools, new models, new ways of delivering value.

These two should be peers. And there will be natural tension between them. That's not a bug—it's the design.

The managing partner is the head coach. They commit to the game plan. They decide the strategy. But offense and defense both need to be bought in—and both need to be good—for the firm to compete.

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Ben Murray

Roy Keely

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taplio

The Battle

Ben Murray

Roy Keely

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Posts

Engagements

Likes

Performance Score.css-goub6s{font-size:var(--chakra-fontSizes-md);font-weight:500;color:var(--chakra-colors-gray-600);display:block;margin-top:var(--chakra-space-1);}Roy Keely's LinkedIn Performance

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