The CFO in Every Founder's Pocket: How Candice Tait Is Closing the Finance Gap for Female Founders

For nearly two decades, Candice Tait was the CFO in the room - and usually the only woman in it. Working with private equity and venture capital-backed tech companies in London, she helped startups raise over $2 billion, navigated the Lyft IPO, and built the kind of financial fluency that most founders never get access to. Then she started mentoring at 500 Global, and something shifted.

The female founders she worked with were capable, driven, and building genuinely impressive businesses. But they kept asking the same questions - how do I build a model, how do I read a P&L, how do I walk into an investor meeting and hold my own? And almost every question started the same way: "I know this is probably a silly question, but..." Male founders, she noticed, rarely asked at all. They bluffed. The women wanted to actually understand.

That observation became the foundation for Founded To Be Counted, a finance coaching and advisory practice built specifically for female founders. Candice delivers CFO-level thinking through workshops, fractional CFO work, and AI CFO Candice - an AI tool trained on 140+ pages of her real frameworks and client sessions, available by voice or text, 24/7, for $28 a month. Her mission is simple and specific: help one million women feel in control of their business finances. In this interview, she shares what she saw, what she built, and what's coming next.

This is part of our ongoing 20 Founders On a Mission series. New editions publish regularly. To be featured or nominate a founder, write to us at hi@foundedbywomen.org

What inspired you to start?

For nearly two decades, I was a CFO for private equity and venture capital-backed tech companies in London, and most of the time I was the only woman in the boardroom.

When I started mentoring at 500 Global 6 years ago, I noticed something interesting. The conversations I had with female founders felt much more real and honest than those I had with male founders. I kept getting asked the same questions over and over — how do I build a model, how do I read a P&L, how do I prepare for an investor meeting? And so often the question would start with, “I know this is probably a silly question, but…”

That was the first time I realised how many founders were quietly asking for help. Male founders almost never did this. Even when they didn’t know the answer, they’d usually just bluff their way through it.

What really struck me was that these were incredibly capable women building amazing businesses, but many had simply never been brought into the rooms where this finance language is learned.

So I decided to go all in on supporting female founders in the area where I think they need it most - building confidence and capability around the financial side of their business.  

What problem are you solving?

A large proportion of female founders say financial literacy is their biggest barrier to raising investment. Investors are fluent in numbers. If you're asking someone for money, you have to speak their language and most female founders have never been in the rooms where that language is learned. Sadly this is an access gap that needs to change.
Founded To Be Counted closes this gap. I deliver CFO-level thinking through workshops, fractional CFO work, and AI CFO Candice (aicfocandice.com) an AI trained on twenty years of my expertise that puts a CFO in every founder's pocket, 24/7. I've helped startups raise over $2B and I'm on a mission to help 1,000,000 women feel in control of their business finances. I truly believe that when women have equal access to capital, we all win. 

What's next for you?

Two things. AI CFO Candice is almost about to relaunch. I rebuilt it from the ground up on 140+ pages of my real frameworks and client sessions, so it responds the way I would in a session, not the way a generic AI would. Founders can talk to her by voice or text, upload their financials for my insights, and get advice that remembers their business and sharpens over time.

Next is the Finance-Ready Framework, a seven-week version of the one-on-one work I've done with over 20 founders. It takes a female founder from financial fog to fully in control of her numbers, ready to lead her business and fund her growth with confidence.

This is part of our ongoing 20 Founders On a Mission series. New editions publish regularly. To be featured or nominate a founder, write to us at hi@foundedbywomen.org