Scale the team you already have.
The thing AI can't replace at a startup is your builders — and their time is the scarcest capital you have. Level is the operating layer that keeps them on the product: founder-led practice (Stanford MBA, YC alum, raised $8M from Tier 1 VCs), running treasury, R&D credits, QSBS, board decks, and the gross-profit-per-engineer-hour math most founders never see.
By startup vertical
AI Startups →
Custom-AI workflows, agent builders, foundation-model wrappers, vertical AI. R&D credits often worth 6-14% of dev spend.
Software & SaaS →
Pre-revenue to Series B. Investor metrics (ARR, NRR, magic number), QSBS structuring, treasury, board decks.
Healthcare & Digital Health →
Digital health, telemed, biotech, healthtech. Multi-state regulatory, CMS compliance, runway forecasting through clinical milestones.
Why founders work with Level
Most fractional CFO firms are reformed bookkeepers running monthly variance reports. We're not that.
Founder-led, not partner-delegated
Sam runs every engagement directly. Stanford MBA, YC alum (W22), StartX, raised $8M from Tier 1 VCs as a founder. Resident alien himself, so the O1/green-card founder tax mess is firsthand.
Buyer-side perspective
Stephen Chou, our M&A and capital-markets partner, came up at Translink Capital ($1B AUM VC), Cisco Corp Dev, and Credit Suisse banking ($8B+ in M&A executed). Most recently CFO at FitXR, a venture-backed VR company. He's been in the IC seat your investors are sitting in.
Tax strategy on staff
Kenneth May, EA, 45+ years tax planning. R&D credit work, QSBS structuring, S-corp election timing for founder W-2 vs. distribution math. Federally licensed to represent founders in front of the IRS. Most fractional CFOs don't have tax depth on the team.
What we actually do
Hands-on with the stuff that moves the needle. Not advisory PowerPoints.
Treasury optimization
Where to park cash for yield (Ramp, Rho, Mercury Treasury, Brex). Most early-stage founders leave 4-5% on the table by sitting in zero-interest checking. We restructure cash management once and the yield pays for the engagement.
R&D tax credits
Section 41 credit for custom AI workflows, software development, and integrations. For sub-$5M-revenue companies the credit can offset payroll tax (Form 8974) — meaning you don't need profit to monetize it. Most CPAs miss this entirely.
QSBS structuring
Section 1202 qualified small business stock — when properly structured at C-corp formation, the first $10M (or 10x basis) of founder gain is federally tax-free at exit. The rules are precise and the mistakes are expensive. We get this right at formation, not at exit.
Board decks and investor reporting
Monthly investor updates, board decks, KPI tracking that maps to the metrics your stage actually cares about. ARR, magic number, payback period, Rule of 40 for software. Burn multiple, runway, gross margin trend for everyone.
Cloud and AI credits
Most founders don't know that GCP, AWS, and Azure each have founder-credit programs worth $5K-$300K depending on stage and connection. Same for Anthropic (Claude), OpenAI, and AWS Bedrock GenAI credits. We unlock these at signup, not after you've already spent.
S-corp election timing
When to elect S-corp, when to convert from LLC, when to delay. Wrong timing on either end of the founder-pay spectrum costs $20K-$80K in unnecessary tax. We model the W-2/distribution split against your stage and growth trajectory.
Founder-specific tax complexity
O1 visa founders, resident-alien founders, 83(b) elections on early stock, AMT impact of ISO exercises, dual-state residency for remote founders. The CPAs who haven't lived it miss things. The ones who have, don't.
Bookkeeping that scales
Clean books start at $99/month with our Simple Audit on-ramp. Our team handles AR, AP, payroll, and monthly close in QuickBooks, Xero, or Sage. CPA on staff handles tax and compliance. Sam handles strategy. Three roles, one engagement.
Pricing by stage
Bookkeeping starts at $99/month. Advisory scales with stage.
Stage
Pre-seed / Seed (under $3M raised)
Bookkeeping
$99 - $299 / month
Advisory
$1.5K - $3K / month
What's included
Light touch. Monthly close, basic investor reporting, treasury setup, R&D credit review.
Stage
Series A / B (under $20M revenue)
Bookkeeping
$399 - $999 / month
Advisory
$3K - $6K / month
What's included
Full board deck cadence, investor reporting, treasury management, tax planning, runway modeling.
Stage
Pre-exit / growth stage
Bookkeeping
Custom
Advisory
Custom
What's included
QSBS structuring, exit-readiness diligence, M&A modeling, tax-optimized exit planning.
From clients
What founders say after working with us.
“Pre-seed AI startup, raised $2.4M, and I was guessing at runway because our books were in shoeboxes. Sam took us from zero accounting to investor-ready in 6 weeks. Built a runway model, R&D credit capture (~$78K), and a clean monthly close. We extended runway by 4 months without changing burn — just by knowing where the money was actually going.”
“Series A SaaS, ~$3M ARR, and our board was asking for unit economics we couldn't produce. Sam built proper CAC/LTV by channel, gross margin by customer cohort, and a clear path to default-alive. Next board meeting was completely different — we got the green light to push faster on a channel we'd been underfunding.”
“Seed-stage AI company, $1.4M ARR, infra costs were eating us alive — 38% of revenue going to GPUs and cloud. Sam negotiated us off on-demand to committed-use pricing, restructured our cost-of-revenue allocation, and got infra to 22% of revenue in one quarter. That's the difference between needing to raise in 6 months and not raising for 18.”
Simple pricing
Three tiers, one ladder.
From $99/mo
Simple Audit
Clean data plus a monthly read on margin per hour and trapped cash. Same flat rate for catch-up.
From $1,500/mo
Scale
The full operating layer — AI agents, weekly actions, and benchmarks to grow margin per hour.
Custom
Platform / Multi-Office
Multi-branch benchmarking and scorecards for PE-backed and multi-location groups.
Make more money with the crew you already have
Drop your info and we’ll show where your team’s time is turning into margin, where it is getting wasted, and where cash is trapped in open jobs. Free audit included.
No commitment. Real numbers, not generic advice.