Fractional CFO & Exit Advisory · Serving North American Growth Companies
Led by Wendy van Donkelaar, Rolled Sleeves embeds senior fractional CFO leadership inside North American founder-led and mid-market companies — carrying them from commercialization through exit readiness to a premium transaction. Operators first. Advisors always.
Transaction Record
What We Do
Every engagement is led personally — no handoffs, no junior substitutes. We take the seat, run the function, and build the company a buyer wants to acquire.
Embedded, senior financial leadership for North American growth companies — fully accountable. Financial operations, forecasting, capital planning, board and investor reporting, and the strategic judgment of a CFO who has led companies through acquisitions.
Fractional CFO services →A structured 12–36 month program that closes the gap between the company you run and the company a buyer will pay a premium for — clean financials, defensible forecasts, diligence-ready data rooms, and a narrative that commands competitive tension.
The exit readiness program →For companies crossing from R&D into revenue: pricing and go-to-market economics, unit-level financial models, capital sequencing, and investor communication through the transition to scale.
Commercialization strategy →PE financing, venture debt, and non-dilutive capital — informed by $500M+ raised firsthand.
Capital strategy →When the process goes live: banker selection and management, negotiation strategy, diligence leadership, and steady counsel through signing — from leadership that has closed from both sides of the table.
The Rolled Sleeves Path
Most owners begin exit preparation eighteen months too late. We build exit readiness into the organization from day one — so when the moment arrives, the company is the one buyers compete for.
Phase I
Convert product into predictable revenue — pricing, GTM economics, and the infrastructure to scale.
Phase II
Audit-grade financials, KPI discipline, and governance that stands up to institutional scrutiny.
Phase III
Close valuation gaps, sharpen the strategic narrative, and cultivate the right buyer landscape early.
Phase IV
Run a disciplined, competitive process to a premium close — with senior leadership at every step.
Leadership
Founder & Managing Director · Fractional CFO & Senior M&A Advisor
Wendy has spent thirty years in the CFO/COO seat and across the deal table. At MAKE Technologies, she led the company's acquisition by Dell. At Immersive Media she executed a CA$100M cross-border exit to Hong Kong-listed Digital Domain Holdings. She has raised more than $500M in private equity and venture debt, and has been directly involved in M&A transactions exceeding $1.5 billion.
Today she serves North American growth companies as an embedded fractional CFO — currently working with CRWN.ai, a transmission grid infrastructure company now commercializing its technology, and a cancer diagnostics company. Founders work with Wendy directly, from first conversation to final signature.
B.B.A. Finance, Simon Fraser University · Chartered Accountant designation
in Connect with Wendy on LinkedInInsights · Published on LinkedIn
Wendy publishes weekly on LinkedIn — practical, unvarnished perspective on exit readiness, commercialization, and the CFO decisions that move valuation. Follow along, or start with these.
The single biggest valuation lever isn't the banker you hire — it's the diligence file you built two years earlier.
Notes from the inside of a Fortune 50 acquisition — and what buyers actually look for first.
What changes in the model — and in the boardroom — when R&D becomes revenue.
How We Work
Rolled Sleeves is built around a deliberate limit: Wendy works with five to six companies at any one time. It is the opposite of a leveraged consulting model — no bench of juniors, no handoffs, no divided attention. Just senior leadership, embedded where it matters.
Inside your company — in the numbers, in the board meetings, accountable for outcomes rather than recommendations.
The person you meet in the first conversation is the person doing the work — from the first forecast to the final signature.
Engagements are designed to span the journey — commercialization, exit readiness, and the transaction itself — because the companies that exit best are built that way for years.
Start the Conversation
A confidential first conversation with Wendy, partner to principal. No process, no pitch — just an honest read on where your company stands and what would move its value.
When one of the five to six seats opens, it goes to the company where the work will matter most.