If you’re leading finance in a startup or scale-up, here’s a simple strategy that boosts financial literacy, improves decision-making across teams, and increases your visibility as a strategic leader.

It’s not complicated. It’s not expensive. And you could start it next week.

It’s called Finance Lunch & Learn sessions.

These informal 30-minute sessions are a brilliant way to help your non-finance colleagues understand the financial side of the business. And if you’re a new CFO or Head of Finance trying to level up your influence, it’s one of the easiest ways to build cross-functional trust.

Why This Matters (Especially in Startups)

Imagine working in a business where every department, not just finance, understands the commercial impact of their actions. From junior hires to heads of department, your colleagues start seeing how cashflow, margin, and payment terms affect their day-to-day work. They start asking better questions. They start making better decisions.

That’s what financial literacy does.

And if you’re trying to build a high-performing finance function or step into a CFO role, helping the wider team “get” finance is one of the most strategic things you can do.

How Finance Lunch & Learns Work

Lunch & Learn sessions are short, informal training events. You grab a meeting room (or Zoom call), invite people to bring lunch, and walk them through a simple, practical finance topic. They work best with slides, real examples from your own business, and plenty of Q&A.

Don’t overthink the setup.

If your business has a People or L&D team, they may already run a company-wide Lunch & Learn calendar. If not, you can kick things off yourself. Announce it at the next all-hands, or share a few Slack messages and emails with a link to sign up.

In early-stage startups, you may want to start with department-specific sessions. For example, a session tailored for the sales team can focus on how their pipeline activity flows into revenue, invoicing, commission accruals, and cash collection. That way, the session feels relevant and they’re more likely to engage.

Suggested Topics for Your First Sessions

Start simple. Avoid balance sheets and accounting lectures. Use real-world examples (ideally from your own business, even if they’re a couple years old).

Here are a few sessions that work well:

• Understanding Financial Statements: Walk through your actual P&L and show how department activity flows into key line items like revenue, cost of sales, and overheads. You can skip balance sheet and cashflow unless it’s relevant.

• How Budgeting Works: Show how each department contributes to the company forecast and why the budgeting process matters. This works well during Q4 or planning cycles.

• KPIs that Matter to the Business: Explain metrics like CAC, Gross Margin, and EBITDA in simple terms. Show how these tie to strategic goals.

• Cash is Not the Same as Revenue: Always a good one for non-finance teams. Walk through payment terms, cashflow gaps, and why revenue doesn’t mean cash in the bank.

Always caveat what you share. Avoid highly sensitive or real-time data. Stick to numbers from 6–24 months ago or anonymised snapshots that still illustrate your point.

If you’re in a rough cashflow patch, don’t make the session all doom and gloom, show a balanced view. Or share a positive and negative story to show the highs and lows of startup life.

Don’t Just Teach

These sessions aren’t just about finance education. They’re about building relationships and becoming a more visible, strategic part of the business.

Involve your team. Even junior finance team members can co-host or answer questions. This gives them a chance to practice communicating with non-finance colleagues, a core skill if you want to build business partners, not just processors.

And yes, it helps your own visibility too. Being known beyond the finance department is critical if you want to be considered for the next leadership conversation.  It boosts your Business Partnering skills as well.  If you're interested in reading more about business partnering, take a look at our post here.

Real-World Example

One of the first sessions I ever ran was for the sales team. I kept it simple: just the P&L and the top-line KPIs.

I showed how their deals affected revenue recognition, invoicing, commissions, and cash collection. We talked about how accruals work, how discounts and refunds show up, and how timing matters when deals are signed vs. when they hit the accounts.

You could see the light bulbs going off.

People asked great questions. They got curious. And they walked away with a much clearer understanding of how finance and sales work together.

Making it Work

Here’s what I’ve found makes a difference:

• Department-specific sessions land better than generic ones.

• Tailor the content to the audience, sales, marketing, ops, etc.

• Don’t overwhelm better to keep it simple and useful than try to cover too much.

• Use your own numbers where you can (anonymised or older), rather than theoretical examples.

• Collect feedback and keep improving. Ask what people found helpful and what they’d like to learn next.

• Ask for leadership support so people prioritise attending.

If you’re a Head of Finance, FD, or CFO, this is a low-effort, high-impact way to build your influence and raise the finance team’s profile.

You don’t need a slide deck with 100 bullet points. You just need a clear topic, a few examples, and a room full of curious colleagues.

You’ll be surprised how many people say, “I finally get it now.”

Want to become a confident, strategic finance leader in a startup within the next 12 months? 

Here’s your plan:

1. Subscribe to my YouTube channel and newsletter for weekly practical tips and real talk about startup finance leadership.
2. Read my book Financial Leadership Fundamentals to get clear on what’s expected of you and how to show up as a leader.
3. Join the Financial Leadership Fundamentals course to fast-track your growth with structure, support, and strategy that works in the real world.