1. Most Startups Have No Finance Team (At First)
The first surprising takeaway is that at the earliest stage (5-50 employees), finance is largely invisible or informal. The data reveals a stark reality: a staggering 83% of companies in this bucket have no full-time, in-house finance employees.
Instead of building a formal department, these companies rely on outsourced accounting or founder-led finance. At this stage, the primary goal is not to build a structured team but to ensure survival by making payroll and understanding cash runway.
"Finance at this stage is about scrappiness and survival. The goal is to stay lean, make payroll, and understand runway — not yet to optimize working capital or drive margin through analytics."
2. The 'Big Bang' Moment for Finance Is at 51 Employees
A dramatic shift occurs once a company surpasses the 50-employee threshold. The research reveals a "big bang" moment where the need for a dedicated, in-house finance function becomes critical.
The core data point illustrating this is the jump in the penetration of in-house finance teams, which skyrockets from just 17% in the 5-50 FTE bucket to 83% in the 51-250 FTE bucket.
This is the phase where finance strategy moves from "reactive to proactive" and from "survival to structure." The source report identifies this as often the most dynamic phase of a finance team’s life, where it shifts from "just keeping up" to becoming a true strategic partner in growth. It's here that specialized roles begin to appear, including Accounting Managers, Controllers, and the first FP&A Analysts.
3. Your Finance Team Gets Leaner as You Grow (Relatively)
One of the most counter-intuitive findings is that the finance team, as a percentage of total company headcount, does not grow linearly. In fact, it becomes relatively leaner as the organization matures.
The data reveals a clear pattern: "The ratio climbs steeply from Early Stage to Growth Stage, peaks between 51–250 employees, and then gradually declines as scale and specialization take hold."
This pattern reveals that mature finance functions achieve significant operational leverage. Better systems, established processes, and deeper role specialization allow a proportionally smaller team to support a much larger and more complex organization efficiently.
4. The FP&A Hire Can't Always Wait for the Controller
Conventional wisdom often dictates that foundational accounting and control roles, such as a Controller, must always be the first hires after a finance leader. The data challenges this assumption.
A surprising statistic from the report notes that "In 20%+ of cases, FP&A hires show up before a Controller."
This implies that for many high-growth companies, the need to manage cash visibility, model different growth scenarios, and deliver clear reporting to investors is a more immediate and pressing pain point than establishing formal compliance structures.
5. The 'Muscle' Outgrows the 'Brain' as You Scale
As companies mature, the accounting and strategic finance teams scale at different velocities. The research shows that accounting-focused roles increasingly outpace strategic finance roles in sheer headcount.
There are two primary reasons for this divergence:
Accounting handles a transactional and recurring load—invoices, payroll, compliance—that grows exponentially with the business, requiring more people to manage the volume.
Strategic Finance (FP&A) gains significant leverage from systems, models, and planning tools, allowing a smaller, more senior team to support a large organization.
The report uses a powerful metaphor to make this point memorable:
"This divergence shows that operational accounting is the muscle, while strategic finance is the brain — and both scale differently as a company matures."
Conclusion: There Is No Perfect Org Chart
The data makes it clear that finance team growth is not a fixed, linear path. It is a dynamic evolution that responds directly to a company's increasing operational complexity and strategic needs. There is no single "perfect" team structure, only the one that fits your company's current stage, funding, and goals. The key is not to chase a universal org chart, but to correctly diagnose your company's primary need at each stage—be it survival, structure, or strategic foresight—and hire to solve for that specific pain point.
As you build your team, these benchmarks provide a powerful guide. But they also raise a critical question for the future: As AI and automation continue to evolve, how might these scaling patterns change for the next generation of startups?
All data and insights are sourced from the Aleph report, "The evolution of finance orgs."