Where Seahorse adds value
Seahorse was created in response to the challenges companies were having in finding—and funding—great analytics talent. Here are three use cases for our services.
1. Foundational Support for Entrepreneurs in the Early Stages of Growth
Entrepreneurs often start out with a great accountant who is keeping the books, running payroll, and staying on top of taxes. But as the business starts to scale, financial complexity grows, and you need clarity on where you're headed.
That’s where Seahorse comes in. Starting at just half a day a week, we help you:
Build an accurate, dynamic forecast
Understand what’s driving growth and profitability
Track key metrics and make confident decisions
We fill the gap between hiring an accountant and hiring your first CFO — giving you the insights you need, and the time to make a great hire.
2. A Dedicated FP&A Resource for Fractional CFOs
Fractional CFO are often brought in during times of rapid growth or change. This is a pivotal role — guiding CEOs through strategic decisions, managing investor relationships, and keeping the financial engine running smoothly.
But day-to-day finance work piles up fast. Between closing the books, fundraising, and team expansion, there’s often little time left for forecasting or financial analysis. And no time to train up a new analyst.
That’s where Seahorse comes in.
We’re here to support fractional CFOs by taking on the planning and analysis workload, and freeing you up to focus on the high-value strategic work your clients hired you to do. Seahorse helps you stay ahead of the curve — delivering insight, clarity, and bandwidth exactly when and where it’s needed.
3. Senior FP&A Support for Full-Time CFOs
A full-time CFO in a growth-stage business is likely wearing a dozen hats — guiding strategy, managing cash, supporting the CEO, handling investor relations, overseeing operations, and more.
You could build out an FP&A function — but junior hires take time to ramp up, and senior hires come at a premium. In the meantime, the analytical workload is real: budgets, forecasts, board decks, KPI reporting, scenario planning. The list keeps growing.
That’s where Seahorse comes in.
We offer experienced, on-demand FP&A support that integrates seamlessly with your finance function. For less than the cost of a junior hire, we provide senior-level insight, fast execution, and trusted partnership — without the overhead of another full-time employee.
Case Study – Circles
Circles was a thriving startup generating $55 million in revenue—but still operating at a loss. As the company prepared for acquisition, leadership set an ambitious goal: scale to $70 million in revenue while achieving a 10% net margin.
To meet that target, we overhauled the company’s management and reporting infrastructure, building a comprehensive Management Operating System that brought new visibility and control to the key drivers of contact center performance.
Over the next two years:
Repeat usage increased by 15%
Customer satisfaction (NPS) rose by 22%
Volume and incentive-based revenue grew significantly
At the same time, productivity improved by 16%, and reductions in indirect costs helped push net margin to 14%—$10 million in profit.
Circles was acquired by Sodexo for $140 million, becoming the cornerstone of its new human services division.
“Duncan is quite possibly the most talented quantitative thinker I have ever worked with . . . To put it in a nutshell, he helps leaders make good decisions. Even better, Duncan is a joy to work with. He has a quick wit, and his integrity runs deep— and in an era when it is too easy to ignore a disturbing trend in favor of a more pleasing graph, Duncan will help you and your team keep a steady focus on the real levers that drive the success of the business.”
Case Study — Gibson&Dehn
Gibson & Dehn, a fast-growing consumer goods company, was scaling rapidly—but the pace of growth was pulling the company’s CFO into day-to-day operations, leaving a critical gap in forward-looking financial strategy.
Forecasting had become essential. Deal sizes were increasing, working capital needs were rising, and the CEO was personally funding the expansion—without clear visibility into whether cashflow would stabilize or demands would continue to grow. He brought in Seahorse to provide clarity, restore confidence, and regain a sense of control.
We started small—just a few hours a week—to implement a rolling forecast. That simple discipline became the foundation for better budgeting, a new management dashboard, profitability insights, and more confident strategic planning.
Over the next three years, the company scaled more than tenfold and was acquired by Colorworks in 2022. The analytics infrastructure we built helped leadership make faster, more informed decisions all the way through the sale process.
"I have never come across another financial consultant with such strategic business insight. Recommendations always had a specific purpose and were focused on delivering measurable business results.”
Case Study – Kinto
Sometimes, creating commercial value means stepping away from spreadsheets and focusing on human outcomes.
Kinto had developed a deeply engaging social service model to support families affected by dementia. To unlock commercial adoption, the company needed to prove clinical efficacy through a rigorous randomized controlled trial.
We partnered with researchers from Cleveland State University and the Alzheimer’s Association to design a comprehensive measurement and evaluation plan for submission to the National Institutes of Health, which awarded a $2.8 million SBIR grant to fund the study.
Thanks to Kinto’s strong engagement model, the study was able to collect detailed data across multiple touchpoints—both before and after intervention. The results were compelling:
9% reduction in the incidence of Behavioral and Psychological Symptoms of Dementia (BPSD)
13% reduction in distress associated with those symptoms
Significant benefits for family caregivers, including:
6% reduction in anxiety
11% reduction in emotional strain
The success of the study led to Kinto’s first commercial implementation, and shortly after this the company was acquired by Rippl in 2024.
“Duncan brings a special combination of deep expertise across disciplines as well as curiosity and humility. His sharp strategic thinking is matched by his dedication to building mission-driven ventures that create real impact.”