Founding program for small businesses · fifteen spots
A CFO for your business. Free for six months.
We are building a virtual CFO for small businesses, restaurants first, and we are looking for fifteen owners to build it with us.
Under three minutes. We reply in one business day.
THE OFFER
Fifteen small businesses. Six months free. A founding rate for life.
Your bookkeeper records what happened. Your accountant files it. Nobody answers the question you actually lose sleep over, which is what to do next month. We are building the seat that answers it: a virtual CFO for owner-run businesses doing $500K to $10M, restaurants first, then live entertainment venues, nonprofits, small professional services firms, the trades, small manufacturers, and small wellness and personal services boutiques. The AI does the hours and the judgment stays human.
Before it goes public on January 1, we want it tested in real businesses against real numbers. Fifteen owners get the whole thing free through the beta, six more months free at launch, and a founding rate that holds for as long as they stay. In return we ask for honest testing and permission to tell the story.
THE EXCHANGE
Stated plainly, both directions.
What you get
More than $4,600 of year-one value
We build your financial foundation from whatever data you have, however messy, plus a 90-day action plan. Yours to keep either way.
Your subscription runs free through the first half of 2027 and bills nothing until July.
Whatever plan you land on, you hold a quarter off it for as long as you stay with us.
Named on the site and in the launch materials, if you want to be.
What we ask
Roughly two hours a month of your time
October and November. Use it the way you would use a CFO, and tell us when it is wrong.
December, on a short form and one conversation.
In your words, reviewed by you before anything is published.
Other owners you think would benefit. No obligation on their side.
How the beta runs
Four milestones, from signature to launch.
Late September
Sign on
A short founding agreement, a read-only look at your books, and your Financial Clarity Report built and delivered within two to three days.
October 1, sixty days
Testing begins
Monthly reports, your dashboard, and a CFO on call. Twenty minutes a week with Lindsay, your single point of contact.
December
Structured feedback
What worked, what read wrong, what you would never look at again. This is the part we cannot buy.
January 1
Public launch
Mare goes live, your six free months start, and your founding rate is set.
What you will be testing
Three things, in your language.
01
Your monthly report
Where you made money, where you lost it, and the three items to review with your CFO this month. Compared to last month, to plan, and to businesses like yours.
02
Your cash position
A four-to-eight-week look ahead: whether you can cover payroll and the bills, and which week is tight. On a dashboard you can read between customers, jobs, or shifts.
03
A CFO who answers you personally
Should I add another employee, can I afford the expansion, why was August thin. Ask a decision question and a Mare CFO answers you personally within 12 business hours, on your own numbers.
Who it is for
Owner-run small businesses, New Hampshire and New York first.
Owner-run businesses doing $500K to $10M a year, with one to five locations. Restaurants first, then live entertainment venues, nonprofits, small professional services firms, the trades, small manufacturers, and small wellness and personal services boutiques. Owner-operated, or an owner with a general manager who runs the day to day. Your books can be a mess. That is closer to the point than the exception.
New England is the field, and Massachusetts and Connecticut follow. Capped at fifteen so two people can support it properly. We would rather run a small beta well than a large one badly.
A good fit looks like
- +You already know your numbers matter and you are tired of guessing.
- +You can export a CSV or an Excel file from your point of sale or your accounting system.
- +You will say the uncomfortable thing when something we built is useless.
- +You can hold twenty minutes a week through October and November.
Who is behind it
Tina has sat in both chairs.
She has been the CFO reading the numbers and the CEO living with the decision. That is the whole reason this exists. A report that only tells you what happened is a bill you already paid. What an owner needs is someone who says what to do about it, in words that survive a busy week.
Our method is one sentence long: the AI does the hours, the judgment stays human. The platform surfaces the analysis, a Mare CFO delivers the decision, and every report is reviewed by a human CFO before it reaches you.
Read our storyThe application
Apply for a founding spot.
Nine questions, under three minutes. We read every one and reply within one business day, whether the answer is yes or not yet.
Spots: fifteen total · applications reviewed in the order received
Questions before you apply? Talk to Lindsay first.
Your data stays with us. Never sold, never shared.
Questions
The eight we always get.
What does free actually include?+
Everything. Your Financial Clarity Report, normally $447, plus your monthly reports and dashboard through the beta and a CFO on call from October 1. Then six more months completely free from launch on January 1. No card, no invoice, no fine print.
What happens after the six months?+
You pick a monthly plan and pay your founding rate, which is 25% below the published price and holds for as long as you stay. Plans run from $199 a month. We will walk you through them well before anything bills, around July 2027. If you would rather stop, you stop.
What do you need from my books?+
Whatever you have: QuickBooks, spreadsheets, a folder of PDFs. Read-only access where it exists, a CSV or Excel export from your point of sale or your accounting system, and any statements you can lay hands on. Your books do not have to be clean first. Building your financial foundation from whatever you have is the first thing the report does.
Is my data safe?+
Your accounting access is always read-only. Your numbers are never sold, never shared, and never used to describe your business to anyone outside the engagement. Nothing is published without your written approval, including the case study.
How much of my time does this take?+
A 45-minute onboarding call in week one, then a 20-minute check-in each week through the sixty days, a mid-beta review at day 30, and one feedback conversation in December. Call it two hours a month, and part of that is time you already spend wondering about the same questions.
What if I hate it?+
Then tell us why, and leave any time. There is no term and no penalty. Your Financial Clarity Report is yours to keep regardless, and it is genuinely useful on its own.
Which industries is this for?+
A CFO who knows your industry beats one who knows industries in general.
Each of these businesses runs on its own arithmetic. Prime cost decides a restaurant. Utilization and project margin decide an architecture firm. Backlog and job margin decide a contractor or a shop. Absorption rate decides a dealership. A nonprofit theater lives on restricted funds and grant timing; a commercial one two blocks away lives on ticket yield and settlement timing. Read either with the other's numbers and you learn nothing useful.
So we built a module for each before opening the doors to it: restaurants first, then nonprofit and commercial live entertainment, professional services, wellness studios, powersports and dealerships, construction, the trades, boutique concierge services, and small manufacturing.
Nonprofit human services is the one still in build. Apply anyway. You will start on core financials and pick up the industry read when the module lands.
Fifteen spots, because we would rather learn each industry properly with a few owners than claim all of them at once.
Why only fifteen?+
Two people run this beta, and a weekly check-in with fifteen owners is the honest limit of what we can do well. Sixteen would mean one of you gets less than we promised.
Fifteen spots. Then the door closes.
Apply now and we reply within one business day.