Fundmore.ai Case Study

Weathering the Storm: Overcoming Existential Challenges

What followed was years of volatility. They survived 2023 by the skin of their teeth. They endured significant financial strain and uncertainty for the team. Fighting to stay afloat, the company has operated with a lean headcount of approximately 30 people for much of its recent history, with leadership roles often filled by fractional executives working limited engagements.

Despite these challenges, Fundmore has managed to secure and successfully deliver on major client implementations that were critical to the company's survival. This resilience speaks to the underlying strength of their value proposition and the determination of their core team to persist through uncertainty and resource constraints.

Today? Fundmore is 50 people strong and profitable. They’re growing again. But it took a hard reset—and a fresh leadership model to help them achieve profitability, and position themselves for substantial EBITDA growth. The company has evolved its leadership structure by bringing on more full-time senior executives and has emerged from survival mode to focus on strategic growth.

Chris notes that "the company looks very different as of June versus where we are today. I mean, even today we're profitable now, but by June it's a step function larger in terms of EBITDA. And so it gives us a lot more flexibility to think about how we grow this company in the future."

This transformation sets the stage for Fundmore's next chapter of expansion and innovation in the financial technology sector, allowing them to shift from reactive crisis management to proactive strategic planning. 

The dramatic turnaround represents not just financial stabilization but a fundamental shift in organizational confidence and capability.

The Skeptic's Turning Point: Finding Value in Unexpected Places

When Invest Ottawa offered Fundmore a free Unicorn Labs session, Chris took the meeting—but with zero expectations.

"I was super skeptical…[...] I said, I'm doing this 'cause it's free and I have zero [expectations]...I've been in a lot of these types of sessions...and I always found the facilitators to be, frankly, not worth the money we spent on them."

Chris walked into the initial session doubtful. But he left ready to double down, saying: "It made sense to invest the cash… let's expand this over three days. Let's not make it a one-day, and let's get as much out of this as we can."

This transition from skepticism to enthusiastic buy-in demonstrates the tangible impact Unicorn Labs had on the Fundmore team from their very first interaction. 

For a CEO who had watched many consultants fail to deliver real results, seeing actual value right away marked a major turning point.  Chris' willingness to commit resources during a financially precarious period further underscores how compelling the initial engagement proved to be.

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The Leadership Puzzle: The Symptoms of What Was Not Working

Fundmore's leadership structure wasn't just light—it was unstable. Most leaders were part-time or fractional. Amidst a combination of transition, managing various leadership styles, and a lack of clarity on some roles, the Fundmore leadership team exhibited some key symptoms that Unicorn Labs was well positioned to address:

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Fractional Leadership Team & No Full-Time Accountability

One of the primary challenges facing Fundmore was the nature of their leadership team, which Chris repeatedly described as "fractional":

"If I was saying one word, it was fractional..and to be fair today, it's still fractional. But it's evolving because of the addition of people."

The company was operating with several part-time executives who each brought valuable experience but weren't fully integrated into day-to-day operations. They had experience in the room. But no rhythm. There was direction, but alignment was lacking. 

These skilled leaders had great ideas but weren't around enough, which left projects stuck and full-time team members frustrated because they couldn't get the help and direction they needed to move forward.

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Lack of Alignment and Direction Had A Real Impact

The team was pulling in different directions and nobody was clear about who should do what:

"No alignment across the board. And so we brought everyone into this session because it was the first time to actually do that."

For over a year, the company was just trying to stay alive, which meant they couldn't focus on scaling: 

"...It was super stressful for a year because [the leadership team] didn't know where everything was going...it can't always be about ‘are we going to survive or not?’...that was the focus of the business for basically a year, which hurts growth."

Survival Mode Instead of Scaling Focus

This perpetual crisis mentality created a leadership team focused predominantly on short-term survival rather than long-term vision. Strategic initiatives were constantly being deprioritized in favor of immediate revenue opportunities, creating a reactive culture where planning beyond the next month or quarter seemed like a luxury the company couldn't afford. Team members began to experience burnout from the constant pivoting and reprioritization without a clear sense of whether their efforts were moving the company forward in any sustainable way.

Unicorn Labs didn't just offer a workshop—it gave the team a reset. What came next reshaped the direction of the company.

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The Offsite That Cracked It All Open

That first offsite wasn’t just a workshop. It was a mirror. For the first time, every leader—fractional, full-time, skeptical, hopeful—sat in one room. 

What followed was a series of revealing moments, the most powerful being a role-based reflection activity.

Each leader was asked to describe their responsibilities and where they saw themselves within the company. 

Chris's reflection on that moment:

"I think the exercise we ran on understanding what people are doing...it was a role-based exercise... And how they saw themselves in the company and where they saw themselves going in the company was super eye-opening... it was that exercise that really cemented some of the changes that took place after that session."

"It really showed the lack of alignment… some people had no idea what the strategy or plan was."

That moment crystallized the team's challenges. By the end of the session, the following changes were made:
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• The Chief of Staff was assigned from a different role. 
• Priorities were restructured
• Roles and responsibilities were clarified 

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"...[that] probably gave the company the ability to survive another year."

This moment of collective realization represented a turning point for the organization. Seeing the misalignments laid bare created an urgency that had been missing—suddenly, the cost of continuing with unclear roles and responsibilities was made tangible. Team members recognized how their fragmented understanding of responsibilities was creating unnecessary friction and duplication of efforts, while other critical areas were falling through the cracks entirely.

Advice to CEOs Looking for Measurable Change

Evolving from a reticent participant to a supporter of executive coaching, CEO Chris Grimes summed up the value gained from his Unicorn Labs experience:

"I think Unicorn Labs has been able to help guide our company in a direction to continue to move it forward – when there was so much adversity and distractions and probably negativity around the business that probably should have forced us to fail. But I think having them at the table has given us help to shine the light in the right direction."

And if resetting your company's growth trajectory is a near-term goal, Chris has this advice to other CEO’s of growing companies when it comes to considering Unicorn Labs:

"I would wholeheartedly recommend that they do this...some things you just can't share with other people. And so it often falls on your shoulders to deal with things...So having someone else that you can also rely on and share with and get their feedback—even if it's just a sounding board to say 'Yeah, that makes sense'—is super valuable."