“When John [from FocusCFO] came on board, we were at $11 million, and now we’re at $20 million. He’s been an integral component of our business.”
– Brian Helwig, CEO, MSP360
The Situation
When Brian Helwig took the helm of MSP360 in 2019, his goal was to transform it from a lifestyle business into a market leader for IT infrastructure protection. Helwig had financial expertise, but knew he couldn't run a growth-stage company and serve as its CFO. After struggling to find the right outside resource, he connected with FocusCFO Area President Tom Bartos, who matched him with fractional CFO John Busshaus.
What We Did
Working as an embedded financial partner at MSP360, their FocusCFO CFO:
- Developed monthly cash forecasts and board-ready financial presentations
- Built multinational monthly financial consolidation with accurate currency translation — without an ERP
- Delivered balance sheet and cash flow statements that hadn't previously been available
- Standardized accounting across five sets of books spanning multiple currencies
- Created and maintained KPI dashboards for monthly executive review
The Result
With financial clarity in place, Helwig was freed to focus on sales, hiring, and strategy — and the results speak for themselves. Revenue grew from $11 million to $20 million during the engagement.
"No matter what happens in this business, whenever I need a CFO, I'll call John."
— Brian Helwig, CEO, MSP360
