In this episode, James Kennedy sits down with Donny Mashiach, founder of Warrior GP, to unpack how he’s importing an investment-banking “deal team” model into the fractional CFO world. Donny shares how he consistently closes prospects with a pre-work, presentation-led pitch, how he aligns incentives so everyone wins, and a concrete case study where he unlocked $750k of cash by fixing inventory turns at an eCommerce retailer. They also touch on walking away from “wrong” venture terms, seasonality planning, and why founders should expect their exit to feel personal – and stressful.
About Donny Mashiach
Donny began as an entrepreneur (yes, hot-dogs at Wrigley Field), then trained in finance through internships in private equity and hedge funds before moving into investment banking (M&A / capital markets). Those years built a pattern-recognition engine across dozens of businesses – knowledge he now channels through Warrior GP, a fractional CFO platform that pairs US-based CFOs with an offshore analyst bench to deliver strategic finance, FP&A, capital-raise and exit prep for growing companies.
What You’ll Learn
- The Deal-Team CFO Model: Why splitting strategy & relationships (CFO/MD) from analysis & build (analyst pod) lets fractional CFOs scale quality and speed.
- How to Win the Pitch: The “do the work first” approach – secure financials under NDA, analyze, and present tailored findings so prospects see value before they sign.
- Inventory → Cash, Fast: How SKU-level aging (Shopify → Excel automation) reveals dead stock, drives Black Friday liquidation, and freed $750k of trapped cash.
- Funding Discipline: When to skip a venture round with weak valuation, build with toll-gates, and sell later at a better multiple with less dilution.
- Aligned Incentives: Structuring retainers and upside so teams behave like owners, not time-card keepers – and clients feel progress, not hours.
Episode Highlights
- “Entrepreneurs are modern-day warriors. Our job is to join their team and help them push through.”
- “Prospects believe what they see—not what you promise. Show them their numbers, their trends, their upside.”
- “We spotted inventory turns falling from ~5–6 to ~1. Once they saw the SKU-aging, the mandate was obvious—and $750k hit the bottom line.”
- “Saying no to a low-ball VC round gave the runway to grow into a strategic exit – higher revenue multiple, zero dilution.”
- “Fractional CFOs get stuck doing everything. Split roles like a bank: MD/CFO leads; analysts execute. Throughout (and results) go up.”
More About Warrior GP
At Warrior GP, Donny’s team delivers:
- Strategic Finance & FP&A: Forecasting, KPI design, pricing/margin work, board & lender reporting.
- Capital & Exits: Investor decks, diligence readiness, and M&A support grounded in banking-grade materials.
- Ops Finance Wins: Order-to-cash hygiene, cash-flow modeling, and automations (e.g., Shopify → SKU aging) that convert working capital into cash.
- Partner Model for CFOs: US-based CFOs can plug into Warrior’s analyst bench and sales process to run a true deal-team practice.
Who should reach out: Founder-led companies ~$2M–$40M revenue (eCommerce/retail, services, SaaS, and other growth SMBs) planning a raise, eyeing an exit, or needing a CFO who brings both banker rigor and operator practicality.
