I'm Tobias Jaeger — a transatlantic CFO, deal architect, and Harvard-trained negotiator. I run the finance side of IP-heavy growth companies so founders can build.
Driven by an equal passion for people and numbers.
I bring 15+ years of financial expertise — building businesses, dealmaking, and scaling global ventures — and use it to be a CFO growth catalyst.
My edge isn't only the balance sheet. It's everything around it: an understanding of how to empower talented people and turn intellectual property into enterprise value. I've sat in the CEO, CFO, COO, and Chief-of-Staff seats across six industries, on three continents and in four languages — so I understand both the deal and the execution that follows.
Industries I've worked across
Native English and German; proficient French; advanced Dutch. Fluent in US GAAP, UK GAAP, German HGB, and IFRS — and in the people who sit behind every number.
Where the value lives in what you create — and capital, people, and intellectual property have to be managed as one.
Film, content, and rights-driven businesses — slate & project financing, licensing economics, and IP exploitation. $150m+ in deal volume across the value chain.
Science- and IP-rich scale-ups. Financial structuring, US market entry, and the discipline to turn breakthroughs into a fundable, scalable business.
Deep-tech and security ventures. Board- and founder-level operations, financing rounds, and governance for sensitive, high-stakes environments.
Building the finance function from scratch: the tech stack, the controls, the reporting, and the FP&A that makes Series A, B, and beyond possible.
Portfolio-company CFO work, fundraising, and on-demand negotiation & investigation support for complex situations across the capital stack.
US ⇄ EU ⇄ UK expansion. Multi-currency, multi-entity, multi-jurisdiction — authorized to work in all three and fluent in their accounting standards.
A track record built one negotiation, one round, and one closed deal at a time.
Covering the ground that matters most — from the boardroom to the model.
High-level insight that lets leadership focus on the long-term vision, be excellent stewards of capital, and drive business development.
From hiring the right team to establishing a high-performing finance tech stack, I make sustainable growth possible.
Cash-flow management, key financial controls, robust reporting, and forecasting you can actually run the business on.
Equity and debt, Series A/B and beyond, convertibles, slate & project finance — structured, negotiated, and closed.
Translating strategy into operations: optimizing workflows, implementing technology, and enabling structured expansion.
High-impact initiatives, market entry, partnerships — and, when needed, fraud and integrity investigations led with discretion.
For delicate negotiations and high-stakes relationships — precision, patience, and the read of the room that turns 5,000+ "no"s into the next "yes." Harvard-trained, with 10,000+ hours at the table.
For operational challenges that need decisive action — restructuring a cost base, fixing a broken process, or forcing clarity. I've mastered knowing exactly when to use which one.
Right-sized to your stage and your moment — scaling up or down as the business demands.
An experienced CFO a few days a month — strategic horsepower without a full-time hire.
Stepping in to lead finance through a gap, a transition, or a critical phase.
Ad-hoc negotiation, fundraising, or investigation support for complex situations.
For the right mission — all-in as the finance leader to build something lasting.
A foundation in international business, sharpened with continuous qualification from the world's most respected institutions.
At C-level across six industries, three continents, and eight currencies.
A snapshot of current and recent mandates — the work prospective clients ask about most:
Ongoing fractional CFO support for a media company — reporting, cash discipline, and commercial decision-making.
Building the financial model and leading the fundraise within a joint-venture structure.
Leading the project to secure a European banking licence, driving execution at speed and efficiency.
Strategic, financial & operational guidance for a European scale-up entering the US market.
Hands-on financial management and structuring of strategic partnerships for a PE-backed venture.
Negotiation, deal and investigation support for complex, high-stakes situations.
Lead executive for four founders and 21 staff. Planned and closed two financing rounds, cut convertible-loan closing time by 40%, and lifted audit outcomes 20% through stronger governance.
Coordinated finance & operations across a group of 16 companies; raised equity and debt for portfolio companies in maritime, automotive, and construction; ran a network of 50+ attorneys and banking contacts.
Guided growth and a strategic tech/media investment; re-negotiated payment processing for an 83% cut in transaction costs; built franchise partnerships across Europe, Africa, and India.
Built the financial & operational framework and closed an 8-figure USD investment funding a 4-year runway during COVID.
★Highlight: The platform behind two films that hit #1 on Netflix within a week of release.
Secured 7-figure VC investment and structured IP-leverage plans for the studio and 5 partner rights-holders, across three continents and four currencies.
★Highlight: $150m+ in total deal volume.
Originated eight sell-side exclusive mandates totaling $120m; raised a record amount for the sector from an African UHNWI family office; led deals across six countries.
Entrepreneurial, investment, and finance roles across film, funds, and online gaming — where the dealmaking and operating instincts were formed.
★Highlight: My first role out of university — where I learned to negotiate from former members of the Israeli Defense Forces.
These aren't financial-risk courses. At two of the world's established finance institutes, I make finance leaders board- and C-suite-fluent in the conversations that decide whether an organisation withstands a shock — operational risk, resilience, crisis and cyber — turning their command of the numbers into stronger, more resilient organisations.
Open-enrolment executive programmes on operational risk, organisational resilience, crisis management and cybersecurity — built for the senior leaders who own the downside.
Intensive, hands-on training for the global finance community — turning frontline risk and crisis experience into tools leaders can apply the next morning.
An industry benchmark for media & entertainment — a transparent reference point for every company in the business, public and private alike. Built from the world's listed entertainment names, it is weighted so that relevance, not size, decides influence: each name sits in one of four importance tiers, so the studios, labels, game-makers and streamers aren't drowned out by the mega-caps entertainment is only a small slice of. A ten-year, total-return series across 90 companies and 15 countries, published under AXIOM Venture Capital and computed hourly.
Why I built itWhat I wanted was a lens on the companies for whom this is the whole business: the studios, the labels, the game-makers, the streamers, the venues. That is the benchmark I kept wishing for as a CFO — and never quite found — so I built it.
I host and produce Media CFO — the only show about the money, deals, and dealmakers behind the global entertainment industry. Candid conversations with the people behind the deals, across finance, business affairs, strategy, and entrepreneurship — on the podcast and a YouTube channel that has ranked just behind Variety, The Hollywood Reporter, and Deadline on a views-per-video basis.
Full archive & guests at themediacfo.com
Tell me a little about your business and the best number to reach you. I'll arrange a callback to discuss how I can help you do more of your crucial work — and less finance.
Prefer to pick a time yourself? Book a CFO conversation · Connect on LinkedIn
