Island Waters Accounting

Fractional CFO for founders

Senior CFO judgment, without the full time CFO.

Island Waters is a fractional CFO for founders in technology, healthcare and biotech, pharma, and pharmacy. We are the steady hand on your numbers when the decisions get expensive and the runway gets real.

See If We Are a Fit (15 minutes)What a fractional CFO costs

The honest comparison

A full time CFO or VP Finance runs roughly

$250K to $450K or more

all in, before you know it is the right hire.

Island Waters gives you that caliber of judgment for a fraction of it, because the work is amplified by a senior operator's systems, not a big team.

See the five tiers →
23+
Years in finance leadership
2
Private equity exits
1
Pharma IPO
4
Industries served

The pattern

You are brilliant at the thing your company does.

The numbers are a different language, and lately they have been keeping you up. The board wants a forecast you do not have. The runway math changes every time you look. A diligence team is about to ask questions you are not sure your books can answer. That is the exact moment a CFO earns their keep, and the exact moment most founders cannot yet justify hiring one full time.

Who we serve

Four worlds we go deep in

We anchor in four regulated, capital intensive industries, and we are open to a strong fit outside them.

Technology (AI and SaaS)

ARR you can trust, a model your team runs on, a clean story for the raise.

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Healthcare and Biotech

Runway and milestone burn the board believes, books audit ready before you need them.

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Pharma

A close that survives diligence, accruals and workpapers built for real scrutiny.

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Pharmacy

Margin you trust by location and payer, PBM reconciliation that stops eating your week.

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Stage one

Get it trustworthy

Clean books and a reliable monthly close you can finally trust.

Stage two

Make it strategic

Add the forecast, the 13 week cash view, and board ready reporting as you grow.

Stage three

Carry it through

A full stack CFO in the room for the raise, the lender, and the exit.

Why founders trust us

Senior judgment, not junior hours

A two decade CFO on your account, not a team of analysts learning on it.

Regulated vertical depth

We speak your financial language: reimbursement, milestones, licensing, the public company close.

The full lifecycle

From the first clean close through the raise, the lender, and the sale.

23 yrs
in finance leadership since 2003
2
private equity exits, built from the inside
1
pharmaceutical IPO and public company close
4
regulated industries we go deep in

The record behind the firm. Meet Shawn →

Our promise

Calm in the storm. Plain talk. You decide.

A steady hand when the numbers turn scary, so you decide from clarity, not fear. Senior judgment said plainly, then the decision handed back, because it is your business and your call.

Shawn Elliott, Founder and Principal of Island Waters Accounting

Who you work with

Shawn Elliott, Founder and Fractional CFO

More than two decades in financial leadership across public accounting, two private equity exits, and a pharmaceutical IPO. Senior CFO judgment delivered directly — not through layers.

  • 23 years in finance
  • 2 PE exits
  • Pharma IPO
  • Not a CPA, by design

Full story and background →

The first step

Let us take a look together.

A short, no pressure conversation to see if we are a fit. If we are not, we will tell you, and point you to who is.

See If We Are a Fit (15 minutes)