🎙️ From Startup Rebuild to Boutique CFO: Amy Spandau’s Path to Ablaze Financial
Amy Spandau, founder of Ablaze Financial, has spent 25 years solving problems most small business owners don’t even know they have. She rebuilt a company that was about to implode, got promoted to CFO mid-crisis at Tendril, endured the verbal culture of EchoStar, lost everything on a swindled ranch deal, and came out the other side with a clear mission: build back-of-house infrastructure for founders at the one-to-five million revenue mark before it’s too late to do it right.
✨ Key Insights You’ll Learn:
Promoted from controller to CFO mid-restructuring — how she learned on the job and led through it
December 6, 2012: the mass layoff that cost 135 jobs and created a company worth exiting
Why the CFO seat at EchoStar taught her what abuse of power looks like at the highest levels
Walking away from MediaKind when the board wouldn’t do the right thing
The ranch deal that drained her savings, retirement accounts, and nearly everything she had built
How a Craigslist sale became her first Ablaze client
Why fractional CFO paired with a bookkeeper is not enough — and what the gap actually costs founders
The back-of-house suite: accounting, finance, tax coordination, HR structure, insurance, and legal translation
Personal books for every client — because commingled finances are the default at this stage
The alligator closest to the boat: how Amy helps founders prioritize the right fights
🌟 Amy’s Key Mentors:
Chip (CEO at Tendril): Backed Amy’s CFO promotion when she had never done it before, threw out her first board deck, and taught her through every revision
Her CFO Mentor (Who Went to EchoStar): Spotted her readiness before she did and gave her the platform to prove it
Her Head of HR at Tendril: Co-architect of the five values — led with ‘do the right thing’ — that still guide Amy today
Her Partner During the Ranch Years: Steady support through the most devastating financial and personal loss of her career
Her College-Aged Team Members: The living proof that the next generation of accountants, given the right environment, can punch well above their weight
👉 Don’t miss this conversation about what it costs to do the right thing, why the smallest businesses deserve the most rigorous financial infrastructure, and how someone who lost everything built a firm that has grown to over a million in revenue without a single dollar of marketing.