About Me:
Lauren Pearl is a Business Strategist and CFO Advisor who helps startup teams build data-driven businesses that thrive.
As a 3x founder with over 13 years of startup leadership experience, Lauren now serves as CFO, advisor, and instructor for over 300 growing companies with L.P.C. Prior to becoming a CFO, she was a Deloitte Management Consultant, tech executive, Chief of Staff, Director of Strategy, Head of Operations, NYU Stern MBA, and a former Software Engineer who grew up alongside a 200-year-old family shoe business. Her rich background gives her a unique perspective on Finance’s role in growing companies.
Lauren collaborates with leading organizations to deliver finance education for startup founders. She is the resident Startup Finance Expert at NYU’s Berkley Center, where she teaches a semesterly course on Financial Modeling. Her partners have included notable brands like HSBC Innovation, Upflow, The FP&A Guy, Fresh FP&A, Glean AI, eWebinar, and Court Street Consulting, and a growing list of others who share her passion for founder financial literacy.
Beyond her work with founders, Lauren is a thought leader on the evolving role of the CFO. She co-hosts The Growth-Minded CFO podcast, sponsored by Upflow, and was featured as the Fractional CFO expert in Zanda Recruiting’s 2024 State of US CFO Compensation Report.
Lauren is also the Co-Founder of Pearl & Elmore, a research-driven advisory practice she launched with Dr. Josh Elmore, professor of organizational psychology at Columbia University. Together, they help teams transform through evidence-based strategies.
Her mission: To empower passionate growing companies with the tools they need to build businesses that will revolutionize our world.
I learned finance the hardest way:
By failing a business without it.
I started my career as a software engineer and musician, but I was also the last of 4 siblings.
My family and our company were relying on me,
So, I left it all to take over my family’s 200-year-old shoe business.
No one in my family had studied finance, why should I?
I would say I was “more of an ideas person”
That finance was for the accountant to worry about
That I just needed someone else to translate my strategy into numbers.
Still, I was mystified about why we had profit but no cash
...Why cash but no profit
...Why increasing gross margin but no earnings
...And why bankers were saying they were closing our credit line.
But here’s the worst part:
Despite knowing how to run our business as we always had
Despite knowing how to sell, hire, manage, and build,
I had no idea how to make those numbers on the page
Do what my CFO said we needed them to do.
The truth is, I was lost.
I went to business school to find the way
But my family business went bankrupt before graduation.
Running a business without understanding the finances
Is operating with illiteracy in the core language of your business.
You can fake it much of the time
But it will always hold you back.
Finance makes you a better CEO.
Finance predicts your future.
Finance makes you nimble.
Finance helps you win.
Finance can save you.
I’ve been saving companies with it ever since.
