About
Sergei Mochtchenkov, CFA
Twenty years in finance, spent largely on the side of the table where the model has to survive someone else's scrutiny — as a CFO, and before that in transaction work.
- clients served
- 300+clients served
- transactions supported
- US$1B+transactions supported
- years in finance
- 20+years in finance
- models built
- 500+models built
Background
I hold the CFA charter and have spent more than twenty years in finance across venture, real estate, manufacturing and media. That has included CFO roles at an AI platform business, at a construction and development group, and at a hardware company — three environments that fail in completely different ways, which turns out to be the most useful training available for this work.
At the AI platform the binding constraint was unit economics under a cost structure that moved with usage. At the development group it was the gap between the construction draw and the refinance. At the hardware company it was inventory: a profitable plan that ran out of cash two months before the receipts landed. None of those problems is visible in a model that treats cost as a percentage of revenue.
Across 300+ client engagements and more than US$1B in debt and equity transactions supported, the pattern is consistent. Models rarely fail because the author was not clever enough. They fail because the structure could not carry the question that was eventually asked of it.
Audit-first
Most engagements begin with a review rather than a build, even when a build is what was requested. Reading an existing model tells you what the business actually believes about itself, where the thinking is sharp and where it is a placeholder nobody revisited. It also frequently reveals that a rebuild is unnecessary — which is a cheaper conversation to have at the start than at the end.
Where a rebuild is genuinely needed, you get told so plainly, with the reason and the cost difference, and the audit fee is credited against it.
What I do not do
No equity, no contingency fees, no success-based pricing on valuations. Independence is the product: an analysis prepared by someone with upside in the number is worth less to the people you need to convince. I also do not provide fairness opinions, audit or assurance services. When that is what you need, you will be pointed at it rather than sold something adjacent.
Methodology
Model standards, applied every time
These are not preferences. They are the conventions that make a model auditable by someone who did not build it.
Colour-coded inputs
Blue inputs, black formulas, green cross-sheet links. Anyone opening the workbook can tell in a second what is safe to change.
No hardcodes inside formulas
Every constant lives in a labelled input cell. A number buried in a formula is a trap for whoever updates the model next.
A checks tab that fails loudly
Balance tie-out, cash continuity, sign conventions and range sums, tested continuously and surfaced at the top of the workbook.
A version log
What changed, when and why. It is the difference between a model and a folder of dated copies nobody can reconcile.
CFA® and Chartered Financial Analyst® are trademarks owned by CFA Institute.
Two ways to start
Book the call, or start with the checklist.
If you know what you need, book the scoping call. If you are still deciding, take the checklist investors effectively run your model against and see where it stands.
Book a 30-minute scoping call
Thirty minutes on what exists, what it needs to do, and who has to be convinced. A fixed-scope proposal follows within 48 hours.