Wouter Born

Born Capital

Specialized CFOTech Investor | Backing the Future of Finance with AI & Automation

At Born Capital, we invest in the next generation of CFOTech companies, helping finance teams move beyond spreadsheets to AI-driven automation, real-time insights, and strategic decision-making.

🔹 17 Portfolio Companies – We back founders solving critical pain points in FP&A, financial close, CFO analytics, and AI-powered automation. From AI-driven AP automation to autonomous forecasting, our investments are reshaping how finance teams operate.

🔹 More Than Just Capital – As a former entrepreneur with a successful exit, I know firsthand the challenges of scaling a CFOTech company. At Born Capital, we offer strategic guidance, deep industry expertise, and connections to top finance leaders to help our startups grow and win.

We believe the CFO office is being redefined, and the best companies in this space will be the ones that leverage AI, data, and automation to drive smarter, faster financial decisions.

Looking to build the next big CFOTech company? Let’s connect.

General Partner

finstory.ai

AI-native platform that turns financial data into board-ready stories.

We help CFOs move from reporting to storytelling—automating variance analysis, narrative generation, and board decks in minutes.
Built for speed and clarity, powered by LLMs and real-world finance logic.

400+ on the waitlist.

Founder

The CFO Office

Every Thursday and Sunday I break down AI’s impact on finance, FP&A, and automation. As a speaker at high-profile CFO events, I help finance teams cut through the hype and take practical steps to leverage AI today.

Author

Aimplan

Aimplan is extending Power BI with planning, forecasting, and enhanced reporting to help organizations exceed their goals

Board Member

Dost

Dost is specializing in AI-driven automation of financial processes, particularly accounts payable. Their platform automates tasks such as invoice processing, data extraction, and reconciliation, reducing administrative costs by up to 80% and eliminating human errors.

Board Observer

FCCGroup

FCC Group is an international QuickBooks solution provider, offering comprehensive accounting and inventory management systems tailored for businesses operating across Europe, Latin America, and the Middle East. Their services include automated VAT, GST, electronic invoicing, and Intrastat reporting, all integrated within QuickBooks to ensure compliance with diverse regional regulations.

Hurree - The Segmentation Company 

Making Market Segmentation Better With One Platform

Investor & Advisor

insightsoftware

After the successful merger of CXO Software with insightsoftware, I took the challenge to head insightsoftware's M&A department, reporting directly to the CEO and working closely with private equity partner TA Associates.

Setting up a team for M&A frontend activities, such as deal sourcing, pipeline management, preparing executive briefings, valuating opportunities, due diligence, and deal closing.
Building internal M&A muscles, coaching the integration team, strengthening the weak spots in the organization.

We successfully acquired Jet Global. My roles were executive sponsor and integration owner, becoming the new CEO of 140 employees of Jet Global, while also managing the integration team of 40 insightsoftware leaders.

Senior Vice President Strategy & M&A

CXO Software

As CEO Americas, I grew CXO USA footprint and doubled our Recurring Revenues by setting up local sales and marketing, developping partnerships and maxamizing our existing customer relationships.

ACHIEVEMENTS:
▪︎Built a cross functional team from scratch, covering disciplines like sales, marketing, services & support
▪︎Successfully managed the merger of CXO Software with insightsoftware

CEO Americas

As co-founding partner I have driven the product vision behind CXO and led the R&D efforts. In this role I was constantly looking for innovation and closely involved in sales & marketing and retention & development of key-accounts.

ACHIEVEMENTS:
- Creation of the #1 CFO reporting solution, used by C-level executives of >150 Fortune 1000 companies
- CXO Cloud rollout
- Release of CXO Catalog, the first online marketplace for C-level dashboards

Co-founder & CTO/CPO

Partake Consulting

Sold Enterprise Performance Management (EPM) solutions (e.g. Hyperion, Arcplan, SAP BPC) to the CFO office of large multinationals, such as Rabobank, Heineken, Akzo Nobel, and Ahold. Trusted advisor for C-level executives of many global enterprises. In my role as sales manager, in 2007 achieved a 125% target achievement

Sales Manager

EPM/CPM (e.g. Hyperion, Tagetik, SAP BPC) specialist. Roles included project manager, senior implementation consultant, pre-sales consultant and client manager.

EPM Consultant

GP at Born Capital | CFOTech Investor, Advisor & Entrepreneur. Follow me for posts about finance transformation, FP&A, startups and entrepreneurship.

I’ve spent the last 25 years at the intersection of finance and technology, helping CFOs move beyond spreadsheets to AI-driven, strategic leadership. 

My career has taken me from consulting for Fortune 500 finance teams to building, scaling, and investing in CFOTech companies that transform the way finance operates.

I co-founded CXO Software, a CFO-focused performance reporting platform that served clients like Johnson Controls, Honeywell, Experian, and Facebook. After an 11-year journey, CXO Software was successfully acquired by insightsoftware, a global CFOTech leader backed by TA Associates.

At insightsoftware, I led M&A strategy, guiding acquisitions and helping the world’s top CFO software firms scale. Now, as General Partner at Born Capital, I invest in the next generation of CFOTech startups, backing founders who are reshaping FP&A, financial close, and CFO automation.

I write CFOOffice.io, a fast-growing newsletter read by thousands of CFOs and finance leaders, where I break down AI’s impact on finance, FP&A, and automation. 

As a speaker at high-profile CFO events, I help finance teams cut through the hype and take practical steps to leverage AI today.

Beyond finance, I’m a competitive open-water swimmer, endurance athlete, and adventure-seeker. 

Let’s connect to discuss AI, finance, and where the CFO role is headed next.

Founding & Managing Partner

Specialized investor in CFOTech.
As an entrepreneur with a successful exit, I am passionate about helping founders to succeed. I have been in their shoes, and want to help them to thrive.

Only 8% of CFOs who become CEOs survive. Not every CFO can become a CEO. Here's why:

1. Operational mastery misses the big threat
 
Many CFOs go deep into internal processes but miss external disruption. The next competitor rarely shows up on a balance sheet; it comes from a new business model, market, or ecosystem shift.

2. Cost control doesn't build markets

Cutting spend keeps margins healthy, but growth relies on the opposite instinct. CEOs must know when to bet aggressively, even if the ROI is unclear. You can't scale by optimizing spreadsheets.

3. Complex explanations aren't inspiring 

CFOs love logic and models. CEOs lead with clarity and conviction. You can't win the board, the market, or the company by talking in variance analysis. 

4. CFOs want certainty. CEOs act through ambiguity.

CFOs are trained to wait for perfect data before making a call. But CEOs rarely get that luxury. Markets move fast. Delaying action to validate every assumption can cost the company its edge.

TAKEAWAY

CFOs get fired when the company stops growing.

Boards want the certainty of margin (your strength) over the ambiguity of growth (your weakness).

Your entire mission is to prove you can be the master of both.

You must take risky, controlled bets.

The 8% who succeed are the ones who solve this paradox.

P.S. I tried Microsoft Copilot in Excel to build a 24 month forecasting model in 5 minutes instead of 5 hours: https://lnkd.in/dBNKKcnW

GP at Born Capital | cfooffice.io | CFOTech investor, advisor & founder of finstory.ai

4 things CFOs must never apologize for:
(evidence-based) 

1. Saying no to bad spending

In 2000, Enron's CFO, Andrew Fastow, created off-the-books entities to hide debt and inflate earnings. This led to $74 billion in shareholder losses and 20,000 lost jobs. A CFO must block wasteful spending and protect company value, even when unpopular.

Create a one-page rejection template that shows exact numbers, risks, and impact on cash flow. Share it with every spending request.

2. Asking hard questions

In 2002, WorldCom's CFO, Scott Sullivan, failed to challenge suspicious accounting practices. The company inflated earnings by billions through fraudulent entries, leading to the largest bankruptcy in U.S. history. Shareholders lost billions, and Sullivan went to prison. Never stay quiet when numbers look wrong.

Question every unusual entry. Create a monthly audit checklist that flags spending patterns, accounting changes, and revenue spikes.

3. Choosing cash flow over growth

WeWork burned billions chasing rapid expansion. Multiple CFOs left as the company prioritized scale over sustainability. By 2019, their IPO failed, and they lost $40 billion in value. Protect your cash reserves above all else.

Set a minimum 6-month cash runway rule. No exceptions, no matter how promising the growth looks.

4. Demanding full transparency

Theranos raised $700 million while hiding their true financials. They operated without a CFO for years. Result: Their $9 billion valuation disappeared, and the founder faced criminal charges. Push for complete financial visibility in every department.

Run weekly financial health checks with department heads. Make them show real numbers, not promises.

TAKEAWAY

The gap between good and great CFOs is not skill. 

It's courage.

The courage to say no.
The courage to ask why.
The courage to demand more.
The courage to test out new AI tools. 

Never apologize for being great.

Sean S.

No accountant. No controller. No FP&A analyst.

You log in at 9AM. The report’s already done.

No software vendor.

Just you and your AI agent you didn’t even name.

It read the ERP. Pulled the numbers. Built the board slides. It found the anomaly in deferred revenue. Drafted a note for the CEO. Even highlighted the follow-up questions.

And it did it all while you were asleep.

Welcome to the new reality.

AI isn’t getting smarter. It’s getting agentic.

That means it doesn’t wait for prompts. It takes initiative. It doesn’t need context. It learns from your systems. It doesn’t just assist you. It replaces workflows.

This is the shift no one’s ready for.

So what does this mean for CFOs?

You don’t need to panic… yet. 

But you do need to prepare.

Because your finance systems, your team structure, and your workflows are all built for a world that might not exist in 10 years.

And it won’t be a gradual shift. It can feel instant.

TAKEAWAY

The CFOs who take this seriously today will have leverage when the paradigm shifts. The ones who wait will be watching their dashboards go dark while agents build the future without them.

Disclaimer: No accountants (or FP&A analysts) were harmed in the making of this post.

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