Strategy & Operations Advisory

Finance for consequential transitions.

We help owners, organizations, and individuals contemplate, cultivate, and exercise options in a changing world — combining deep finance experience with modern tooling built for how decisions actually get made today.

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Built for complexity.
Designed for clarity.

Phase Change Finance is a strategy and operations advisory practice serving growth-stage companies, closely held businesses, nonprofits, and individuals navigating decisions where the financial stakes are real and the path isn't obvious.

The name is deliberate. A phase change — in chemistry and in business — is a state transition driven by accumulated pressure. The structure changes; the underlying material does not. We help clients understand which pressures are real, which transitions are coming, and how to move through them with precision rather than reaction.

We operate as an embedded partner, not a vendor — working inside the decision process, not downstream from it. That means building models alongside your team, sitting in board meetings, and holding the financial logic across the full arc of a transaction or transformation.

Credentials
CPA (California) · MBA, UC Berkeley Haas · MS Chemistry
Background
15+ years spanning FP&A, strategic finance, transactions, and controllership across hardware-enabled SaaS, cleantech, healthtech, and manufacturing
Fundraising track record
$70M+ across Series C, convertible notes, and SBIR grants
Domain depth
Hard tech · Physical products · Energy · Life sciences · B2B SaaS
Location
Oakland, CA · Available nationally

Five disciplines.
One integrated practice.

Each engagement draws on the full stack — from board-level narrative to model infrastructure — because financial decisions rarely respect disciplinary boundaries.

01
Strategic Finance

Board and investor-ready financial narrative. Scenario analysis and long-range planning. Capital structure advisory. Decisions where the model and the story have to align.

02
FP&A & Forecasting

Rolling forecasts, operating models, and management reporting built to actually be used. Driver-based models, variance frameworks, and the cadence infrastructure around them.

03
Transactions & Fundraising

Financial diligence, data room preparation, investor model support, and deal-process navigation for equity raises, debt financings, and M&A. Founder-side and buy-side.

04
Tax Advisory

Entity structuring, compliance strategy, and planning for closely held businesses and individuals. CPA-licensed. Particular depth in pass-through entities, startup equity, and transition planning.

05
Accounting Infrastructure

Assessment, redesign, and implementation of the financial stack — from chart of accounts and close processes through AI-native tooling. Built for the team that has to live with it.

Embedded. Direct. Built to last.

i.
Inside the decision

We work upstream of the output — in the room where assumptions get stress-tested, not downstream writing up what happened.

ii.
Modern tooling, real judgment

AI-native workflows compress timelines and expand scenario coverage. Domain expertise determines which outputs to trust.

iii.
No offshore hand-off

The person you engage with is the person doing the work. Continuity across a deal or a year-end matters.

iv.
Direct communication

You get the actual view — not the managed version. If the numbers say something uncomfortable, that's the conversation we have.

"Financial discipline and mission urgency are not in tension — they are mutually reinforcing." — Phase Change Finance

Every engagement
starts with a conversation.

Whether you're a founder approaching a capital raise, a business owner navigating a transition, an individual with a complex tax situation, or a team that's outgrown its financial infrastructure — reach out and describe what you're working through.

Engagements range from a single focused deliverable to a fractional CFO relationship spanning 12+ months. Structure follows the problem.

Location
Oakland, CA · Remote available