Get to Know The Team
Michael Pearson, Senior Financial Advisory Manager
At airCFO, we celebrate our people. We want to share their experiences and a little of their personal side with the world! We started “Our Teammate Spotlight” to do just that. We hope you enjoy!
How long have you been with airCFO?
Just over 1 year! However, I actually learned about airCFO 2 years ago, and was super impressed with their mission and team and had to wait for the right time to join!
Tell me about your background – where did you come from, what type of industry?
I’ve been all over the place! Investment management, heavy-duty trucking, hospitality startups, and beyond! If there is a thread connecting my experience and what I’ve worked on, it’s always been strategy/operations with a heavy financial focus! Being able to translate actions into financial impact (and financials into strategic decision-making) is such an important skill, one I’ve honed for a while.
Why was airCFO the right place for you?
Absolutely the team and client focus. 
I’ve worked in companies with poor cultures and seeing internal stuff impact external operations becomes really soul-crushing. At airCFO, I found a team of highly competent, highly motivated finance professionals that care about helping their clients grow and maximize their potential, which aligned closely with what I wanted to do after coming out of a variety of startups. I earned my MBA from Babson, focused on entrepreneurship, and love to work with diverse groups of founders and leaders. When I explain my job to some of my mentors, many of whom are CFOs or former CFOs, they routinely express jealousy that working at an opportunity like airCFO wasn’t around when they were my age!
What is your favorite thing about working at airCFO / What type of work do you find most interesting?
I love the diversity and fast-paced nature of the role. I could have back-to-back meetings with a client raising a $40m+ series B and a client who just raised their seed fund and need to discuss benefit plans and onboarding for their first 4 employees. In very few places will you get the opportunity to work on as many diverse and exciting projects, all at the same time.
What do you enjoy doing in your free time?
Cooking/baking! During quarantine, I re-doubled my baking experience (shout-out to my sourdough starter yeastieboyz) and went through over 120lbs of flour during the first 5 months. I love getting to craft meals for my family (wife Anna and two boys Elliot and Sam) and enjoy some downtime whenever available! 
If you could offer our clients one piece of “free” advice, what would it be?
Don’t undervalue financial advice. We see so many startups come through who pay large fees to engineers or marketers, but often try and “reduce costs” with their accounting and financial projections. You get what you pay for, and a company leader who can keep their pulse on the financial health of their company will almost always outperform any competitor who ignores it. I’ve seen it, I’ve worked in it and the difference is night and day.