Bridging the Seed to Series A Gap: A CFO’s Guide for Founders

For many startup founders, getting from Seed to Series A has never been more uncertain. The old playbook — raising a Seed round, hitting key milestones, and securing a Series A within 18-24 months — is no longer reliable. Today, startups are waiting longer between funding rounds, and fewer of them are making it to Series A at all.

If you raised a Seed round in 2022, the odds of closing a Series A within two years are just 17%, a steep drop from historical averages. In previous years, nearly half of all Seed-stage startups successfully raised a Series A. Today, that number is shrinking.

The reasons are clear: VCs are more selective, prioritizing capital-efficient, scalable models. Seed rounds have gotten larger, meaning investors expect more meaningful progress before the next raise. And bridge capital — often used as a stopgap when Series A fundraising stalls — is expensive, leading to unfavorable dilution for founders.

With traditional fundraising timelines shifting, a strong financial strategy is now just as important as the ability to raise capital itself. If you’re expecting to fundraise every 18-24 months, you’re planning for failure. The reality is that your funding will need to stretch longer than you originally anticipated. You need to operate as if your current round is your last.

The New Reality: Raising Capital Takes Longer

The median time between Seed and Series A has now extended to 2.5 years or more. Founders who built their strategy around raising new funding every 18-24 months are finding themselves caught in a gap where the capital runs out before the next round comes together.

Many companies attempt to bridge this gap with additional funding — but bridge capital is expensive and often comes with terms that put long-term growth at risk. While some startups secure bridge rounds through SAFEs or convertible notes, these deals often involve significant dilution and leave founders with less control over their company’s future. Read more here about non-dilutive funding tips.

If you stick with the rounds route, the best approach is to assume that your next round will take longer than expected and build your financial plan accordingly. You need to extend your runway, optimize your burn rate, and prove your business can scale efficiently before entering a Series A process.

How to Extend Runway Without Stalling Growth

Many founders still operate under the mindset of "growth at all costs," but that approach is no longer viable. Investors today are looking for capital-efficient companies that can scale without excessive burn.

That means focusing on financial fundamentals that demonstrate sustainable growth. Startups that can’t show clear financial discipline — no matter how exciting their product or market opportunity — are unlikely to make it to Series A.

The key is to balance spending discipline with strategic growth. That doesn’t mean cutting everything to the bone and stalling progress. It means ensuring that every dollar you spend contributes to building a company that investors will want to fund.

We’ve talked about this before (see link earlier in this article for non-dilutive funding tips), but it bears repeating: Start by ensuring that your LTV to CAC ratio is healthy — investors typically want to see at least 3:1 or better, meaning the long-term value of a customer should far exceed what it costs to acquire them. If that number is too low, it’s a sign that your company is spending too much to grow without enough return.

Your burn multiple is another critical metric. This number tells investors how efficiently you're converting capital into revenue. A burn multiple above 2.0x signals that you're burning too much for the revenue you’re generating. The lower your burn multiple, the better positioned you are for future funding.

In addition to these efficiency metrics, gross margin and net dollar retention (NDR) are now under heightened scrutiny. High-margin businesses that retain and expand revenue from existing customers stand a far greater chance of securing Series A funding than those relying solely on new customer acquisition.

Building a Financial Strategy That Attracts Investors

Raising a Series A is no longer just about showing revenue growth. Investors want to see that you’ve built a capital-efficient business that can scale. That means demonstrating:

• A clear path to profitability — You don’t need to be profitable yet, but investors need to see a realistic trajectory.
• Tight control over spending — A bloated cost structure is a red flag. Investors want to see that you can grow responsibly.
• Predictable revenue streams — Companies with high churn or unreliable revenue models struggle to secure funding.

Founders who assume they’ll "figure it out when the time comes" often find themselves in a tough position. The best approach is to always operate as if you're preparing for your next raise. That means maintaining clean, investor-ready financials, tracking key metrics, and optimizing your business model long before you actually need capital.

Why a CFO is Essential to Making It Past Seed

A bookkeeper or accountant can tell you how much money you have left. A CFO (or fractional CFO; our specialty!) can tell you how to make that money last and grow.

When the fundraising environment gets tough, financial strategy becomes the difference between surviving and scaling. A CFO helps founders navigate this uncertainty by:

• Optimizing runway while maintaining growth momentum — You need to stretch your capital without stalling key initiatives.
• Building a financial roadmap that aligns with investor expectations — Series A investors are looking for specific milestones. A CFO ensures you hit them.
• Preparing financials that stand up to investor scrutiny — Your numbers need to tell a compelling, fundable story.

Many founders only start thinking about hiring a CFO when they begin the Series A process — or much later. But by then, it’s often too late. The smartest founders bring in financial expertise early, not just to manage cash flow, but to shape the strategy that ensures they make it to the next stage.

The Startups That Survive Will Be the Ones That Plan Ahead

The path from Seed to Series A is longer than ever, but that doesn’t mean success is out of reach. Startups that embrace financial discipline, focus on capital efficiency, and plan for the long haul will be in the strongest position to raise their next round.

Fundraising is unpredictable. Your financial strategy shouldn’t be. If you’re not already optimizing for growth efficiency, now is the time. The startups that master this will be the ones who don’t just survive — but thrive.