You run a real business, but you don't have a CFO, a COO, or a CMO on payroll. These five services give you that executive brainpower without the full-time salary.
The New Executive Bench
Owner-run companies between $5 million and $100 million in revenue hit a strange wall. The business is too big for the owner to hold every lever, but too small to justify a full C-suite. That gap used to be filled by whoever the owner could lean on, usually an accountant and a lot of late nights.
Now a whole category has grown up around that gap. Fractional and outsourced executives come in part-time, bring senior judgment, and cost a fraction of a full-time hire. Some focus only on finance. Others cover operations, marketing, people, and technology.
The smartest buyers in this space aren't shopping for a title. They're shopping for a system that reads their own numbers and tells them what to do next. That distinction separates the five services below.
How We Looked at These Services
We judged every service on the same four factors. First, scope: does it cover just finance, or does it reach into operations, marketing, and people? Second, grounding: does the advice come from your actual books and payroll, or from generic templates? Third, pricing clarity: can you find a real number before you get on a call? Fourth, fit: who is this actually built for, and does the model match that buyer?
v2mbox · V2M360 stood out for tying every output back to your own books and rolling it into three gaps: profit, value, and wealth. Altus CXO stood out for breadth, covering eight executive roles under one firm. Paro.ai stood out for its AI platform layered on top of a deep bench of finance experts. Local Fractional stood out for transparent published pricing and a trades-heavy industry focus. Sullivan & Company stood out for pairing CFO work with tax, accounting, and wealth management under one roof.
Here's the short version before the deep dive. Each of these five solves the same core problem in a different way, and the right pick depends on whether you need one function or a whole bench.
| Provider | Best For |
|---|---|
| Altus CXO | Mid-market firms that need multiple executive roles from one firm |
| v2mbox · V2M360 | Owners who want finance, operations, and marketing reading the same books |
| Paro.ai | Companies that want finance expertise backed by an AI platform |
| Local Fractional | Trades and home services firms that want published pricing |
| Sullivan & Company | Owners who want CFO work bundled with tax and wealth management |
The Five, Up Close
#1 Altus CXO
A screenshot of the Altus CXO website.
Altus CXO runs one firm with every leadership seat covered. You can bring in a fractional CEO, CFO, COO, CHRO, CIO, CMO, CCO, or CTO, and the firm positions itself around mid-market companies that need executive horsepower without full-time overhead. Its ClearXO diagnostic maps your people, processes, systems, and data to surface gaps and misalignment before you commit to a hire. The industry pages run deep, from construction and manufacturing to private equity and higher education. If your problem might be operational rather than financial, this is the broadest bench on the list. See the full service lineup at Altus CXO.
#2 v2mbox · V2M360
A screenshot of the v2mbox · V2M360 website.
V2M360 is built for owner-run businesses with $5 million to $100 million in revenue and no executive team. It packages a CFO, COO, and CMO in a box, all reading the same books, payroll, and vault, and rolls every result into three numbers: the profit gap, the value gap, and the wealth gap. CFO in a Box is live today, with monthly book checks, plain-English explanations, a 13-week cash forecast, and a running score of what your business is worth to a buyer. The rest of the program arrives in phases, including a university for you and your team and a council for your advisors. Everything is AI-built and reviewed by a finance professional, in English or Spanish. Request early access at v2mbox · V2M360.
#3 Paro.ai
A screenshot of the Paro.ai website.
Paro.ai pairs a deep bench of finance experts with its own AI platform. The fractional CFO offering sits inside a wider menu that includes accounting, bookkeeping, controller leadership, FP&A, budgeting, and transaction advisory. That means you can start with cleanup work and scale into strategic finance without changing vendors. The platform angle matters here: Paro uses AI to speed up analysis and match you with the right expert rather than replacing the human judgment. Industry solutions cover construction, healthcare, SaaS, and startups. It's a strong fit if you want one relationship that can grow with your finance function. Explore the fractional CFO services at Paro.ai.
#4 Local Fractional
A screenshot of the Local Fractional website.
Local Fractional publishes its pricing, which is rarer than it should be. You'll see a Fractional Executive Advisory tier at $2,500 a month for clean books and a strategic sounding board, and a Fractional CFO Partnership at $5,000 to $10,000-plus a month for embedded leadership. The partnership tier includes 13-week cash flow, KPI scorecards, lender and capital work, and exit readiness. The firm serves $2 million to $50 million companies nationwide, with in-person work across Dallas-Fort Worth and the partners doing the work themselves. Its industry pages lean hard into trades and home services, including HVAC, plumbing, electrical, and roofing. Read the full scope and cost breakdown at Local Fractional.
#5 Sullivan & Company
A screenshot of the Sullivan & Company website.
Sullivan & Company wraps outsourced CFO and controllership work inside a full accounting and advisory firm. That means your fractional CFO sits next to tax planning, bookkeeping, payroll, business valuation, and wealth management. For an owner who is tired of stitching together four advisors, that consolidation is the real product. The firm serves the DMV area around Bethesda, Maryland, and offers a free consultation plus a client portal for document sharing. The model suits owners who want their personal wealth picture and their business finances handled by people who already talk to each other. See the outsourced CFO offering at Sullivan & Company.
How to Pick the Right One
Start with the question you can't answer. If it's cash flow and what your business is worth, you need finance depth. If it's why the operation keeps breaking, you need operational depth. If it's why nobody knows your brand, you need marketing depth.
Then check the grounding. Ask any provider whether their advice comes from your actual books and payroll or from a template. The good ones will show you exactly how they read your numbers.
Next, look for a real price. A published number tells you the provider respects your time. If pricing is hidden behind three calls, that's a signal about how the engagement will feel.
Finally, match the model to your size. A $3 million contractor and a $60 million manufacturer need different things, and the right provider will say so instead of taking the check.
Where Automation Fits
The old model was a human advisor showing up once a month with a slide deck. The new model runs on your live data.
Here's the workflow that works. Connect your books and payroll to one system. Let the system read them continuously and flag what changed. Have a finance professional review the output before it reaches you. Then route the findings into three buckets: profit, value, and wealth.
That loop is what V2M360 is building, and it's why Paro.ai leans on its AI platform. The point isn't to remove the human. It's to make sure the human spends their hours on judgment instead of data entry. When you evaluate any provider, ask how much of the monthly work is automated and who reviews it before you see it.
The Bottom Line
You don't need to hire a full C-suite to get executive thinking. You need the right bench, reading the right numbers, at a price that makes sense for your size.
If breadth is your priority, Altus CXO covers the most seats. If you want one system tying finance, operations, and marketing to your own books, V2M360 is the one built for exactly that. If you want an AI platform behind your finance expert, look at Paro.ai. If published pricing and trades experience matter, Local Fractional is straightforward. And if you want your business and personal finances under one roof, Sullivan & Company does that.
Pick the one that answers the question keeping you up at night. Then give it your real numbers.