Toptal Management Consulting Blog

An interim CFO has, on average, six to eight months to complete the job set forth by the company, meaning the first 30 days will be critical to accomplishing the goals for the position and setting a good long-term strategy for the company.

In the current market environment of low yields and interest rates, music royalties are an increasingly attractive asset class. Their low correlation with macroeconomic performance and high income potential have resulted in more investors wanting to invest in music royalties.

The state of global private equity in 2020 is complex, mainly due to economic activity drastically contracting since the second quarter. Many businesses are on the brink of collapse. In these extraordinary times, what are the main challenges that private equity funds face?

The music recording industry presents a great example of how businesses must continually transform and adapt to change. After piracy and unbundling drove 15 years of revenue decline, the global industry has returned to growth, primarily due to streaming.

Raising money as a new private equity fund manager can be a daunting task. Breaking down the tasks into a checklist is an effective way of building a compelling and consistent investment strategy.

Freelance finance consultants are delivering high-quality results for clients at a lower cost than traditional consulting firms. How do they manage to do it? One of Toptal’s most in-demand finance freelancers, Michael Ng, explains how freelancers are able to outdo their more established competitors when it comes to communication, expertise, and ROI.

Bankruptcy often presents an opportunity to purchase quality distressed assets at bargain prices. However, it also brings major challenges in terms of assessing the value of businesses with difficult realities, dwindling liquidity, limited resources, and uncertain prospects.

Many organizations that think they’re data-driven are still in first gear. How do you go from simply collecting a lot of data to setting up a business analytics function that actually tells you how to tweak your model to improve profitability?

The paradigm of what a car is and how we use it is changing. Energy innovations, artificial intelligence advances, societal tastes, and environmental concerns are all affecting how we will get around in the future.

For investors fed up with private equity management fees on uncommitted capital, the independent sponsor model might be the answer. Pierre-Alexandre Heurtebize demystifies the growing model, analyzing the pros and cons from the perspective of investors as well as investee companies.

How can PE funds effectively deploy $1.5 trillion in dry powder? One solution: outsource certain types of work to high-quality freelance private equity consultants. Consultants can enhance a PE team’s firepower both internally and externally.

Robo-advisor investing uses algorithms (instead of humans) for portfolio selection and rebalancing. Its affordable ways have opened up wealth management options to the masses, but its means of quantifying risk need more sophistication and tailoring to individual circumstances.

Amy Divaraniya, CEO and co-founder of OOVA, created a product she knew the market needed. Yet, while she was pitching investors trying to close her seed round, she found that the financial projections needed a fresh pair of eyes.

Business idea development for new venture concepts is a mixture of art and science. There are playbooks to follow that ensure ideas are validated objectively to ensure financial and opportunity cost risks are minimized.

Building an app-based business can be a daunting project: Within such a competitive space, how can you make your app stand out, attract and retain the right audience, and then monetize it?

Financial due diligence is the process of making sure the price of an asset is in line with its operating performance “under the hood.” Assessing the quality of earnings is one of its key tests: How sustainable is the business’ reported financial performance?