For founders between $1M and $20M

Your revenue is growing. Your cash isn't.

A fractional CFO service that finds the cash hiding in the business you already have, fixes the one constraint capping it, and gets you ready before you push harder.

See how the engagement works ›

Scaling is a numbers game. Push harder on a business you cannot see clearly and you do not get growth, you get the same chaos at a bigger size. Fix the machine first. Then scale it.

Financial Reality · what most $3M companies scoreGraded
Real margins by service line43F
Cash conversion cycle58D
The #1 constraint?
Three numbers you can't see right now. Illustrative scores, not a real client.

The business is working. The bank account disagrees.

You're past $1M. Revenue went up last quarter and your bank account didn't follow. You hired two people who were supposed to create capacity, and somehow you have less of it. You keep saying yes to work that feels profitable, and at the end of the month there's nothing left.

You've looked at the P&L. You've talked to your accountant. You've even pasted your financials into ChatGPT and gotten a confident, articulate answer. Three months later, the cash gap is wider and you're less sure than when you started.

You're not crazy. You're just looking at the wrong numbers, and nobody around you knows which ones are the right ones.

AI can read your P&L. It can't tell you what it doesn't know.

You've probably tried it. Pasted the financials into a chat window, asked what's wrong, got a clean answer with bullet points. It felt like progress. Here's the wall you hit:

AI answers the question you asked. The number that kills companies between $3M and $10M is in the question you didn't ask. A blind spot is, by definition, the thing you don't know to prompt for. Your cash conversion cycle can widen for six straight months while you're asking about gross margin, because nobody told you the cycle exists.

AI is equally confident when it's wrong. And you have no way to check its work, because checking requires being a CFO. Which is the whole problem.

Count the real cost. You didn't get a CFO. You became your company's most expensive analyst, and none of the analysis changed a single decision.

Here's the part that might surprise you: we're not anti-AI. We run more AI on your numbers than you ever will. The difference is a CFO who has run a P&L decides which of its answers matter, and what move you make Monday morning. You're not paying for the AI. You're paying for the judgment that filters it.

The Financial System For Scaling Founders

Don't scale chaos. Build the financial machine first.

ScalingCFO.io combines the financial operations, operating system and CFO judgment you need to grow without losing cash, profit or control.

Foundation

Financial Ops

Reliable numbers, produced on time. If this layer is weak, every forecast and scaling decision built on it is weak.

BookkeepingControllership7-day monthly closeFP&A productionFinance automation
Operating system

ScalingCFO.io Financial Operating System

Turns accounting data into forward-looking visibility, targets and a repeatable management cadence.

Cash visibilityProfitability13-week cashForecastingCEO DashboardUnit economics#1 constraint
Judgment

CFO Judgment & Growth Decisions

A real CFO decides what the numbers mean, what deserves capital and what move the company should make next.

HiringPricingCapital allocationFinancingExpansion90-day priorities

Financial Ops is not the destination. It is the foundation that makes strategic CFO work possible. If your books already close cleanly, we use them. If they do not, we can own the production layer too.

How that turns into scalability

Each layer answers a different question: Can we trust the numbers? What is capping growth? What will the next level require? Can the business absorb it?

1

Establish Financial Truth

Books close. Accounts reconcile. Margins and cash are measured correctly. The CEO has a credible baseline.

TRUST THE NUMBERS
2

Find What's Capping Growth

Name and size the one constraint limiting cash, profit or capacity instead of attacking five symptoms at once.

FIND THE CONSTRAINT
3

Model the Next Level

Know what the next stage of growth requires in people, margin, working capital and cash before you commit.

KNOW WHAT GROWTH COSTS
4

Install the Operating Cadence

Run the 13-week cash forecast, CEO Dashboard, rolling forecast and KPI ownership needed to see issues early.

RUN BY THE NUMBERS
5

Scale With Control

Hire, price, invest, finance and expand with visibility into what the business can absorb and what creates return.

GROW WITHOUT BREAKING IT
Every dayThe platform watches the numbers

Cash, margins, runway and exceptions stay visible instead of waiting for month end.

Every weekA CFO turns signals into decisions

What changed, what it means and the one move that matters now.

Every quarterThe next constraint becomes the plan

Reset the 90-day priorities against what actually happened, then execute.

The result: a business that can grow without breaking the financial machine.

More cash. Stronger economics. More capacity. Better decisions. Higher enterprise value.

PROFIT → CASH → CAPACITY → SCALE → VALUE
Cruz Gamboa

Built by a CFO who has actually run the numbers at scale

Cruz Gamboa spent 25+ years in GE Finance, ultimately serving as CFO of GE Power for Latin America and closing capital markets transactions up to $800 million. Then he left to do the harder thing: apply that discipline inside growing companies, where there's no finance department to hand things to.

ScalingCFO is the system he built running his own advisory practice, now delivered by Cruz and his senior team, with AI doing the heavy reading. He's not a coach. He's a CFO who tells you what to do and stays until it's done.

The cash is the means, not the point. The system doesn't stop when it finds the money. It builds a company where the numbers, the team, and your life point the same direction.

Economics, The University of Texas at Austin·MBA, Finance·Scaling Up trained and certified
Cruz Gamboa on LinkedIn

Know exactly where profit, cash and capacity are trapped.

Most financial advisors promise "clarity" and "insights." We quantify the opportunity, determine what actually matters, and connect the work to your ability to scale.

Where the opportunity hides

Illustrative annualized profit opportunity · $4M services company
Waterfall chart. Reported profit of $312,000 plus five identified profit opportunities totalling $200,000, reaching $512,000 of potential profit after action.
  1. Reported profit$312K
  2. Pricing leakage+$84K
  3. Margin mix+$46K
  4. Labor leakage+$31K
  5. Scope creep+$22K
  6. Overhead leakage+$17K
  7. Potential profit$512K
What the books reportedFound, sized, prioritizedPotential after action

Every opportunity is classified by what it unlocks

The point is not random cost cutting. We separate the opportunities that improve economics, release cash, create capacity, and make the next stage of growth safer.

Profit

Improve the economics

  • Pricing and discount leakage
  • Service-line margins
  • Customer profitability
  • Cost-to-serve and overhead
Cash

Release trapped working capital

  • Collections and payment terms
  • Cash conversion cycle
  • Inventory and WIP
  • 13-week cash visibility
Capacity

Remove the constraint

  • Labor utilization
  • Process bottlenecks
  • Delivery capacity
  • Fixed-cost leverage
Scale

Fund the next level safely

  • Growth economics
  • Hiring capacity
  • Capital requirements
  • Financing readiness
We don't just cut costs. We create capacity to scale.

Every opportunity is quantified, prioritized and connected to the constraint limiting the business, so the company can absorb the next $1M, $3M or $5M of growth without breaking cash, margin or control.

PROFIT → CASH → CAPACITY → SCALE

What founders say afterwards

Their words, not ours.

“In one conversation, Cruz named what my other advisors missed: a structural cash problem dressed up as a marketing problem.”
Jana Gavin
Co-Founder
IVitamin
“Cruz helped me shift from running the business in reaction mode to leading it with intention. He challenged my thinking, helped me separate noise from truth, and gave me a clear path to scale without losing myself or my values. I’m showing up as a better CEO and our team feels the difference.”
Dan Letterio
Founder
Sonik FM
“He gives you the exact numbers to watch as a CEO, and he sees how to use the finances to scale the whole business.”
Shannon Grainger
CEO and Co-Founder
Big Impact HQ
“Instrumental in scaling our real estate investment business to multiple eight figures by enhancing our forecasting, business intelligence, and core values.”
Bobby Suarez
CEO
Sell to Bobby
“Cruz’s financial clarity and steady presence have given me the confidence to lead as a true visionary and legacy builder, while empowering my sons and employees to grow into the exponential future we’re creating.”
Jenny Scoby
Founder
“The best time I’ve spent on my business in years.”
Craig Perra
Founder
The Mindful Habit System

Asked by every founder, answered straight

Why wouldn't I just use ChatGPT or Claude for this?
You should, for questions you already know to ask. We exist for the ones you don't, and for someone accountable when the answer matters. Our clients use AI constantly. So do we. The difference is a CFO decides which answers to act on.
How is this different from my bookkeeper or accountant?
They record what happened and keep you compliant. Essential, and we work alongside them. We do the other job: deciding what happens next. We don't do your bookkeeping.
What if my books are a mess?
Then you're normal for this stage. Books get graded before conclusions get drawn from them, and if they need work you get a punch list and a straight quote from a vetted partner, priced before it starts.
Get a quick read

Not sure what your numbers are really telling you?

Bring your financials to a 60-minute Financial Scaling Session. We’ll give you a quick read on the health of your books, identify what’s driving cash and profitability, and pinpoint the financial issue that deserves your attention first.

Walk away knowing what looks right, what needs attention, and your highest-priority next move.

60 minutes$497one time
Schedule your Financial Scaling Session ›

Excludes clean-up.

Not sure it's a fit? Check before you commit.

See who you would actually be working with, or message us directly. No form, no sequence, no salesperson.

The difference isn't harder work.

It's seeing what your numbers aren't showing you, and having someone who knows what to do about it. Build a company that creates wealth you keep, and a life you actually get to live.

The Financial System For Scaling Founders
A product of Ascend Growth Ventures (Zonda Strategic Consulting LLC)
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