The pattern that is yours
What we see most in this world
Two different models
The fundraising model and the operating model have drifted apart, and the operating one barely exists.
Grant accounting colliding with the close
A chart of accounts that was never built for grants and milestones, and grant reporting stepping on the general ledger.
Books that are not board or audit ready
Reporting a lead investor expects that the company cannot yet produce, ahead of a raise or an audit.
Cash per program is murky
Spend by program and milestone is hard to see, so runway decisions are made on feel.
How we help
From murky to buttoned up
We rebuild the chart of accounts for a milestone and grant funded company, get the books accrual clean and audit ready, and give you a runway and burn picture by program that a board will believe.
The numbers that matter here
Where this usually lands
A post raise biotech managing a board and a runway clock usually fits Scale. A team that mainly needs diligence resilient, accrual grade books fits Embark.
Signals you are ready
Trigger events
- A round just closed
- A grant awarded or a milestone approaching
- A board or lead investor asking for reporting
- Audit readiness needed before a raise
- Entering a new clinical or regulatory phase
Why Shawn
Shawn built and ran a profitable healthcare and biotech finance vertical, and is comfortable where grant reporting, clinical complexity, and accounting meet.
Questions founders ask
Quick answers
- Why is life sciences accounting different from a typical startup?
- Milestone linked spend, grant timing, clinical and regulatory phases, and the need to show cash per program make it unlike generic startup accounting. The difference between a specialist and a generalist here is real money and real time.
- How do you handle grant accounting and milestone funding?
- We structure the chart of accounts so grant reporting and the general ledger live cleanly side by side instead of colliding, and so spend ties to the right milestone and program. We build it for the way the money actually flows.
- How do you track burn and runway by program?
- We rebuild the chart of accounts and the model so you can see cash and burn by program and milestone, not just one company wide number. That is what lets you make a runway decision on facts instead of feel, and what a board expects to see.
- How do you get biotech books audit ready before a raise?
- We get the books onto an accrual basis with audit ready rollforward schedules on every balance sheet account, well before an auditor or a lead investor asks. Done early, diligence becomes a confirmation rather than a fire drill.
- Can you get us ready for diligence?
- Yes. Investor grade reporting, a credible model, clean program level spend, and a diligence ready data room are exactly the work we do, and the time to build them is before a diligence team starts pulling threads.
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The first step
See where you fit.
A short conversation about where you are and what you need. If we are a fit, we will tell you how we would help.
See If We Are a Fit (15 minutes)