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 recomputed every 15 minutes through US market hours, and every 30 minutes around the clock outside them.
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
