Fractional Executive Search

Build Like a Funded Company. Without the Burn Rate.

You need senior operators who have scaled companies before. People who can install structure without slowing you down, bring networks that open doors across Manila's investor and conglomerate ecosystem, and signal to your investors that this company is being run with discipline.

A founder and a senior executive reviewing work together in a bright workspace in Manila
The situation

The Startup Leadership Gap

Most Manila startups underinvest in operational and commercial leadership until it becomes a crisis. The pattern is predictable:

01

Pre-Seed: Founders Wear Every Hat

Finance, ops, product, sales - it's all the same person. Every peso of runway counts, and there's no room for strategic thinking when you're doing everything yourself.

02

Seed: The Gaps Start to Show

Product-market fit is emerging, the team is growing. Financial reporting lags behind what local VCs like Kickstart Ventures and Foxmont expect. The sales process isn't repeatable. Marketing is ad hoc.

03

Post-Seed: Investor Pressure Is Real

You need reporting structures, operational discipline, and a commercial engine - but you're still 18 months from the revenue that justifies full-time CXO salaries in a market where the senior-talent layer is thin and fiercely contested.

04

Pre-Series A: The Danger Zone

The data room needs to be investor-grade for the local capital base and any conglomerate corporate-venture arm taking a strategic stake. Your leadership team needs to be credible. And you don't have time to wait for a hire.

Fractional Manila is built for every one of these moments. Speed that matches your pace, networks that open doors across the BGC and Makati ecosystem, and investor credibility from day one.

Is it the right fit?

Who this is for, and who it is not

Best for

  • Founders wearing every hat with no senior cover where it matters most
  • Pre-seed to pre-Series A companies that need structure before they can fund it
  • Teams that need investor-grade finance, reporting or operations at speed
  • Startups scaling headcount faster than their processes can hold
  • Founders who want to protect the cap table while adding senior leadership

Not for

  • An idea with no product or traction to build structure around yet
  • A role a capable full-time hire is already ready to own
  • Founders looking to outsource a function rather than lead it
  • A single deliverable an agency or contractor could hand back
A quiet modern workspace at dusk, city towers beyond the windows

Funded-company discipline, without the funded-company burn.

Why Fractional Manila

What You Actually Get

More than individual expertise - a system designed for Manila startups scaling in a fast-maturing capital market.

1 monthNotice, either way
350+Curated and vetted executives
2–3 weeksBrief to deployment
30–60%Less than a full-time hire, on our engagements

Speed That Matches Your Pace

Contact and process started within days. Your matched operator is embedded within two weeks. No three-month recruitment cycle, no probation risk, no waiting for a notice period to expire.

Local Networks, Activated

A Fractional CFO brings investor relationships across Kickstart Ventures, Foxmont and conglomerate venture arms built over 15-20 years. A Fractional CMO brings agency relationships and market intelligence across the domestic consumer market. You get their entire professional network, activated on your behalf.

Investor Credibility in a Maturing Market

Philippine startups raised a record ~$1.12bn in 2024, roughly 19% of all Southeast Asian funding, and the country has minted unicorns including Voyager Innovations. A fractional CFO preparing your financial model and board pack signals to investors that your company is being run with institutional discipline. That signal matters.

The Collective Advantage

Your CFO checks in with our CTOs on infrastructure cost questions. Your CMO stress-tests positioning with our COOs. You're not hiring one operator - you're accessing a room full of them.

Stack As You Scale

Layer in expertise as your company evolves - add a COO when the team hits 15, bring in a CMO when you're ready to scale acquisition into the consumer market. No restructuring required.

How it works

From first call to embedded operator

We move at startup speed.

01

Tell us your stage

Where are you in the journey? What are the gaps? What does the next 90 days need to deliver?

02

We match the right operator

From our vetted collective, we introduce the fractional executive matched to your stage, sector, and culture.

03

Embedded within days

Your fractional embeds with your team, begins the scoped work, and operates with real accountability.

04

Scale the stack

As you grow, add further specialists from the collective. We coordinate them so they work as a coherent team.

Stage to role

Which leader for your stage

The gap that slows a startup changes as it grows. Here is where most founders feel it first, and who owns it.

Stage
The most common gap
Fractional role
StagePre-seed
The most common gapFinancial model, operating rhythm
Fractional roleFractional CFO
StageSeed
The most common gapCommercial structure, reporting
Fractional roleFractional CFO
StagePost-seed
The most common gapTeam, process, investor readiness
Fractional roleFractional COO
StagePre-Series A
The most common gapData room, governance, scale story
Fractional roleFractional CFO
Our Fractional Services

Which Fractional Does Your Startup Need?

The answer depends on your stage and where the biggest gap is right now.

Proven leadership

Operators from the region's defining startups, and beyond

Stripe
Revolut
Airbnb
Spotify
Klarna
Figma
Canva
Datadog
Common questions

The questions buyers ask first

Yes. In fact, pre-revenue is often the best time to get financial and operational structure right - before bad habits are baked into how the business runs. A Fractional CFO at pre-seed stage is significantly cheaper than fixing three years of financial disorganisation before a Series A.

Our fractional operators are familiar with the expectations of the local ecosystem, from Kickstart Ventures and Foxmont to conglomerate corporate-venture arms. They understand what local investors look for in due diligence and can engage directly with your investors when needed.

Yes. Registered startups can access the Innovative Startup Act (RA 11337) and BOI Strategic Investment Priority Plan Tier III, which covers R&D, startups and IT-BPM with 4 to 7 year tax holidays plus subsidies and grants-in-aid. Our operators help you actually capture these rather than leave them on the table.

Yes. Many of our startup clients run a CFO and COO simultaneously, or phase in a CMO as they approach product-market fit. Fractional Manila coordinates the multi-fractional engagement so the leaders work as a coherent team.

In our experience, the opposite is true. Sophisticated investors in Manila often see a well-deployed fractional team as a sign of capital efficiency and operational maturity. What they care about is that the function is being run competently - not whether the person doing it is full-time.

Related

Other moments we cover

Get started

Build the leadership your stage needs.

Tell us where you are and what the next round has to prove. We will match a proven operator to your stage and add to the stack as you grow, backed by our vetted collective.

Build my fractional leadership stack