Why Cloud Capital Made Finance a First Hire
When most startups raise their seed round, theyāre thinking about sales, engineers, and product. Finance usually comes later, once the first signs of scale emerge. But Cloud Capital did something different. Before theyād even hit 10 employees, they hired Emma Knight as their Head of Finance and Operations.
It was early. Some might say too early.
But there was a strategy behind the decision, and a very intentional approach to how they wanted to build their business.
Cloud Capital is a seed-stage startup that works with CFOs and finance leaders to bring clarity, control, and confidence to one of the fastest-growing and least-understood cost lines in their business ā the cloud. Their tool connects to AWS to forecast usage, recommend commitments, and mitigate the financial risks of overcommitment. By combining finance-grade forecasting with commitment risk management, Cloud Capital enables companies to optimise their cloud spend without losing the flexibility they need to grow.
While that problem might sound technical, itās one Emma had felt firsthand.
"I spent three years trying to forecast cloud costs at my last company," she says. "It was slow, painful, and full of uncertainty. We speak different languages, finance and engineering, and it takes a long time to build that understanding."
Emma wasnāt looking for an early-stage role when she came across Cloud Capital. Sheād just exited Tessian, a cybersecurity scale-up, where sheād been the first dedicated finance hire post-Series B. Over five years, she built the team from the ground up, helping the company raise Series C, secure venture debt, and eventually exit to Proofpoint.
"Thereās something really rewarding about building a team from scratch," she says. "At Tessian, they started with outsourced accounting and ended with a mature function split between accounting, FP&A, and strategic finance. It became a real partner to the business."
The case for hiring finance early
So why did Cloud Capital bring her in so early?
Partly because the founding team had been through this before. All three founders had exited previous startups. They knew the cost of neglecting finance too long. And they were determined not to make the same mistake.
"Theyād all been bitten before," Emma explains. "So they made a conscious decision to bring finance in from the start. Not just to tick a box, but to lay proper foundations."
But there was another reason.
"We sell to finance teams," she says. "I wouldāve been the buyer. So bringing me in helped shape the product, the messaging, and the internal processes around that persona."
That customer insight loop - having finance expertise embedded in the company from day one - has helped Cloud Capital design a product that actually works for the people who own the P&L. Itās why the platform is built to give finance and engineering a shared view of the forecast, the commitments in place, and the savings achieved.
Emma also had operational experience beyond finance, people, legal, risk, compliance. That made her a perfect fit for a lean, experienced team looking to move quickly without creating long-term mess.
"Weāre a small team, but weāve all got 10 to 20 years of experience. The goal is to do things once, and do them right."
A complex setup from day one
Unlike many early-stage companies, Cloud Capital didnāt start with a simple structure. Instead, they opted for a US TopCo with a UK permanent establishment, plus two wholly owned subsidiaries, one in the UK and one in the US.
"Itās an unusual setup," Emma admits. "But it allowed us to qualify for SEIS and EIS investment in the UK, while setting us up to grow in the US. It reflects how experienced the founders are, theyāre building with scale in mind."
From a finance perspective, though, that made things a little more complicated.
"We have three sets of payroll across two countries. Sales tax, VAT, different compliance timelines... For a small company, weāre quite sophisticated. Thatās why the role needed to be in-house, not outsourced."
It also meant Emma had to hit the ground running. There were three separate Xero accounts, limited processes, and no consolidation or intercompany workflows.
How it all started
Emma approached the job the same way she had at Tessian: focus on fundamentals.
"The first thing I tackled was entity allocation, making sure costs were going to the right place. We needed to know what each entity was spending and why. From there, we could build reporting, forecasting, and controls."
Her top two priorities?
- Fix intercompany and consolidation
- Rebuild the financial model
In next weekās article, we dive into how she tackled those tasks, which tools made the biggest impact, and how sheās balancing structure with speed in a high-growth startup.
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