Legible Capital
We help founders turn hard-won validation, whether a grant award, an angel round, or a first institutional check, into the financial infrastructure and narrative that institutional capital requires. Not a pitch deck factory. Not a distant consultant. A senior finance professional who works as both outside advisor and embedded finance leadership, making the substance you've built readable to the capital that can scale it.
PwC + PE
Background
13+
Years Advisory
15+
Companies Advised
6+
Sectors Served
Grant-Stage → Series A
Stages Covered
What We Do
Institutional investors speak a specific language. We make sure your company speaks it too: first to get in the room, then to stay there.
Getting Legible
You've won non-dilutive funding or closed an early round. That's real validation. But the infrastructure the next investor expects to see is a different build entirely: the model that holds up under scrutiny, the narrative that makes the investment case, the data room that answers questions before they're asked. We build it directly alongside your team, embedded in the business rather than advising from a distance, so your grant milestones become an institutional investment thesis.
Staying Legible
Once you're legible, we help you stay that way, without the full-time CFO hire you don't yet need and can't yet justify. Embedded with your team as fractional finance leadership, we keep the model current, the institutional narrative sharp, and the board-level materials at the standard your new investors now expect. As the company scales, we stay in the room for the decisions that move it: the next raise, the next hire, the next strategic turn.
These aren't two products. They're one engagement at two stages of your company's life. Most clients start with capital readiness and stay for ongoing strategic finance. That's by design.
The On-Ramp
Most engagements begin the same way: a defined, fixed-scope sprint that takes the funding you've just won and builds the foundation the next investor will require. That means a three-statement model tied to your milestones, a cap table set up correctly before the SAFEs accumulate, grant budgeting and reporting that survives audit, and the narrative that turns validation into an investment thesis. Structured as a project or a monthly retainer, scoped to what you actually need now, not an open-ended engagement you can't budget against.
Who This Is For
We're sector-agnostic because the problem we solve isn't sector-specific. We work from the grant stage through Series A with founders raising sophisticated capital, whether your last milestone was a grant award, a $250k friends-and-family round, an angel syndicate, a family office, or an institutional fund. The bar rises with each, but the underlying problem is the same: real substance that capital can't yet read.
Non-dilutive funding validated the company, but it also started a clock. The next capital is equity, underwritten by a different standard entirely. The work of turning grant milestones into an investment-ready company starts now, not the month before you raise.
"We have the funding and a real business. We don't have the financial story the next investor needs."
You've built breakthrough technology or a differentiated product. The science is sound, the IP is real, and early customers validate the thesis. But translating deep technical value into a financial narrative that institutional investors can underwrite is a different skill entirely.
"Investors love the tech, but when we get to the numbers, we lose them."
Customers pay. The model is sound. The unit economics hold up. But you don't fit neatly into a category, and the advice you've gotten doesn't map to what your business actually is. You need someone who can see the real shape of it and frame it in language capital recognizes.
"Every investor says it's interesting, but nobody writes a check."
You're experienced. You operate in a space where the capital structures are complex: real assets, alternative investments, multi-entity deals. You don't need hand-holding. You need institutional-caliber financial models, materials, and analysis from a strategic partner who can operate at your level.
"I need someone who can build the model and think about the structure, not just the pitch."
Results
A sampling of recent engagements, several beginning at the grant stage and continuing into institutional rounds.
Advanced Materials / Manufacturing
Built financial infrastructure for Series A and Series B readiness.
Designed three-statement financial model used for board reporting, capital allocation, and investor presentations. Led investment due diligence preparation, structured convertible instruments, managed SBIR grant submissions end-to-end. Ongoing engagement spanning 5+ years.
Life Sciences / Healthcare
Identified fundamental strategic misalignment through five years of financial data analysis.
Authored comprehensive strategic plan analyzing practice-level portfolio concentration, membership engagement decay, and unit economics across 50+ operating locations. Recommended strategic reframe that reshaped the company's growth thesis. Served as interim CEO during founder transition.
Sustainable Luxury / Consumer
Built and managed dynamic cap table across seven investment instruments.
Guided multiple convertible note series and SAFE rounds for a sustainable luxury brand. Led pro-rata investment analysis, priced round conversion modeling, and post-money cap structure validation. Ongoing strategic advisory to founder and CEO.
Deep Tech / National Security
Designed the bridge financing that prepared the company for its institutional raise.
Structured the SAFE instruments for the bridge round, the financing that carries a company from where it is today to the round it's raising toward. Built the investor data room, decks, and teasers, and designed the term sheet and phased tranche framework the round would convert into. Evaluated capital structure, IP valuation, and the competitive landscape for the executive team.
Team
I started my career at PricewaterhouseCoopers, then moved into private equity, the institutional side of capital. I've seen how investors evaluate companies, what makes them lean in, and what makes them pass. That perspective shapes everything we do at Legible Capital.
While at Glenfarne Group's PE platform, I was put in front of a New Market Tax Credit acquisition opportunity and asked to lead the diligence: the analysis, the structural review, the recommendation to senior management. I was three years out of school. That experience taught me what actually moves a deal across an institutional decision table, and what makes one die in the materials.
For more than thirteen years, I've worked directly alongside founders and executive teams across clean technology, life sciences, deep tech, real estate, consumer brands, healthcare, and alternative assets. I build the financial models, prepare the data rooms, develop the investor narratives, and pressure-test the materials. When a client walks into a capital conversation, they're prepared at an institutional level.
The sectors vary. The problem doesn't: growth-stage companies with real substance need someone who can make that substance legible to the capital that can scale it. That's what Legible Capital exists to do.
How It Works
01
A direct, 30-to-45-minute conversation to understand your business, where you are in the capital readiness lifecycle, and what gaps exist. No pitch, no pressure. We're determining fit on both sides.
02
We review what you have (the model, the deck, the data room, the cap table, the story) and identify what needs to be built, rebuilt, or refined. This produces a clear scope with defined deliverables and timeline.
03
Financial model construction, investor materials, narrative refinement, data room preparation. We embed directly with your team: daily communication, real-time collaboration, not a quarterly check-in.
04
Your team is equipped to enter capital conversations with confidence. We prepare due diligence responses, review term sheets, and ensure your materials survive institutional scrutiny. You run the process.
We work as part of your team, not as a distant outside vendor. Expect direct access, fast turnaround, and someone who understands your business at the level your investors will demand. Many engagements extend into ongoing strategic finance: fractional CFO, board preparation, investor relations. The readiness work becomes the relationship.