From Series A to Scale-Up: Placing the Chief Financial Officer to Professionalise Finance at a French Cybersecurity Company

The Challenge

The company is a French-headquartered cybersecurity software business, building endpoint detection and response technology for corporate and government clients. It raised a €25 million Series A in 2023 from a syndicate of European VC investors, on the back of revenue that had grown 250% the prior year and an ARR run rate that had already crossed €10 million. By 2026, headcount had grown into the 150-200 range.

That kind of growth outpaces founder-led finance quickly. A company scaling past its early-stage headcount and revenue needs someone in the CFO seat who can build proper reporting discipline around SaaS metrics like ARR and churn, not just keep the books. Finding a finance leader who had already done that inside a comparable software business, and was willing to join a company still building that infrastructure rather than join one where it already existed, narrowed the field considerably.

They turned to The Big Search.

Overview of the Executive Search

VC-backed European cybersecurity SaaS company, France | One executive hire | April 2026 → June 2026 | VC Value Creation: Finance Function Maturation Phase

In April 2026, The Big Search partnered with the company to find a Chief Financial Officer to build out its finance function as it scaled. The search opened and closed within a single engagement window, with no other parallel mandates running alongside it. We closed the search in 46 days. Client NPS: not recorded.

Executive Search Across French and European B2B SaaS Finance Leadership

The hunting strategy targeted operating CFOs and near-CFOs inside VC-backed B2B SaaS and cybersecurity businesses across France and wider Europe, with a bias toward people who had experience building financial infrastructure from an earlier stage rather than managing an already-mature function.

Profile criteria included:

• Operating CFO or a clear step-up candidate (VP Finance, Group Controller) inside a B2B SaaS or software business
• Experience building financial reporting and controls from a growth-stage starting point
• Fluency in core SaaS metrics: ARR, NRR, churn, CAC, revenue recognition
• Comfort operating hands-on in a company still building its finance infrastructure
• Based in or willing to work from France
• Cultural fit for a fast-scaling, engineering-led organisation

Target company archetypes included VC-backed B2B software and cybersecurity businesses at Series A to Series B stage.

We undertook an exhaustive mapping exercise across France and Europe, identifying 89 candidates.

Days to first shortlist delivery: 2 days from kick-off

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⏱ Days to first shortlist delivery: 2 days from kick-off

The funnel on this search was front-loaded and back-weighted at once. 47 of the 89 candidates were ruled out early against the scorecard, and another 24 sat in a second-tier longlist that was never activated once a strong front-runner emerged. Only 8 candidates reached a recruiter interview, and just 3 made it in front of the client. That shape reflects a search built around a fast-moving lead candidate: The Big Search introduced its eventual hire within two days of the search opening, while a smaller comparison slate of credible operating CFOs and step-up candidates was assessed in parallel to pressure-test the decision.

The Placed Candidate: A Finance Leader Who Grew Into the CFO Seat From the Inside

They were, at the time of the search, serving as Group CFO of another French B2B software company, a seat they had grown into after several years running that company's finance function from an earlier stage. Before that, they spent close to a decade in financial audit and advisory work across Europe and Latin America, including a long stretch with a Big Four firm. That combination, technical audit rigor paired with hands-on experience building a finance function inside a scaling software business, matched what the brief called for directly.

Why they fit:

🏗️ Built the finance function themselves: rose from a finance leadership role to Group CFO inside the same B2B software business, so the reporting discipline the client needed was already muscle memory, not theory

📊 Fluent in SaaS economics: operated day to day against ARR, churn and revenue recognition inside a comparable growth-stage software company

🌍 International audit pedigree: years of financial audit and advisory work across two continents gave them a technical foundation the operating role could lean on immediately

⚡ Fast alignment: introduced to the client within two days of the search opening, and moved through the process without a competing lead candidate ever displacing them

Companies scaling past their early-stage headcount and revenue tend to postpone the CFO hire until the gap in financial infrastructure is already causing pain. That gap is where searches like this one matter.

The Big Search closed this mandate in 46 days, delivering a Chief Financial Officer with direct experience building the kind of finance function the client needed next. The market for finance leaders who combine live SaaS operating experience with real hands-on infrastructure-building is thin, and most credible names in it are already anchored in place at companies further along than this one.

If your finance function hasn't caught up with your growth, let's talk.