About Launch Stack
Launch Stack is a finance-and-data practice for growth-stage SaaS and tech founders (eCommerce too) — Series A and B companies where the spreadsheets are cracking and the first VP Finance is still a year away. The practice sits at an uncommon intersection: running finance as an operator, building the data layer underneath it, and extending both into AI. A fractional CFO without data skills leaves you assembling pipelines yourself; a data engineer without finance judgment builds dashboards that miss what the board needs to hear. Launch Stack covers the whole stack, and builds it AI-native from the first month.
Engagements start with close and modeling — the financial foundation: monthly cadence, unit-economics baseline, burn and runway tracking. From there, the data layer: pipelines that connect source systems to the metrics that actually drive decisions. Then the AI integration: automating the close, building automated reporting layers, and wiring scenario models into systems so the output updates when the inputs change. At each stage the goal is a leaner team that does more, not a dependency on outside help to run what should be internal.
How engagements work
- 01 Discovery
A 30-minute call to assess fit — company stage, what finance looks like today, where the gaps are. No pitch; a diagnostic.
- 02 Kick-off
First two weeks: access to systems, data, and the existing model. Map the close process, identify the highest-leverage gaps, agree on the 90-day operating plan.
- 03 Ongoing cadence
Monthly close, variance analysis, and board-ready output. Parallel build of the data layer and AI integrations. Weekly async touchpoint; more as needed around fundraising or board cycles.
- 04 Off-ramp
Engagements end with a documented handoff: models, systems, and runbooks the internal team owns. The goal is a finance function that does not need us to operate it.
Founder
Jensen Carlsen