Michael Mandis

Co-CEO at Oxygen Advisors

Mike leads the team at Oxygen Advisors, acting as CFOs and finance teams for many of New Zealand's most promising startups. Over the past four years, he has been involved in raising over $150 million in capital (with Oxygen supporting over $0.5 billion overall) and has supported companies scaling from pre-revenue to $20 million+ ARR across New Zealand, the USA, Canada, Australia, and the UK.

Sunrise Sessions

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Community Meetups
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Financial Foundations: What Your Future CFO Wishes You’d Set Up

In the early days, founders are the driving force behind everything in a startup - including the finance function. But what happens when your startup scales and it’s time to bring in a CFO? In this interactive meetup, two seasoned startup CFOs will share stories on what they wish their founders and CEOs had in place before they joined the team. This session is all about engagement. Expect a lively, hands-on discussion where the audience will have the chance to ask questions, share experiences, and brainstorm solutions alongside the CFOs. Together, we’ll tackle practical questions like: How do you create a finance function without formal training? What systems and processes should you set up now to avoid chaos later? And how can you lay the right financial groundwork so your CFO can hit the ground running post-Series A? This isn’t just theory - it’s a collaborative exchange designed to leave you with real-world, tactical steps to build a resilient financial foundation from day one. Proudly supported by our pals at Airwallex.