Travis Woods

Hi! I'm Travis, a financial professional and entrepreneur from Mississippi.

My career began at a traditional investment advisory firm, where I assisted an advisor with plans to eventually take over his business. However, nine months in, the company's chairman, Allen Stanford, was indicted for a $7B fraud. Just after my 23rd birthday, I was escorted out of my first job with a PB&J sandwich and my resume.

I returned to school for an MBA and reconnected with my now-wife, making it a win. Upon graduating, I rejoined the advisor and continued on our original path. I also earned my CFP® and CFA credentials.

While working with the advisor, I launched Collaborative Advice to serve individuals my age with a flat-fee structure. This made me question buying a business whose revenue model relied entirely on investment management fees from clients 30 years older than me, especially with PE buyers driving up prices. While studying for the CFA, I heard Brent Beshore discuss buying small businesses, sparking my interest further.

I hired a broker to search for small businesses, but the COVID pandemic delayed any purchases. Instead, a conversation with Josh Pigford led to co-founding Maybe, which deepened my interest in CFO work.

In 2023, due to a lack of product-market fit, we decided to pivot from the Maybe product. I then focused on Collaborative Advice and founded LiftCFO to assist businesses. Recognizing the gap in the market for comprehensive financial guidance tailored to growing companies, I founded LiftCFO to provide operational and financial insights to founder-led businesses. These engagements often blend strategic finance, systems thinking, and operational improvement.

In April 2025, I partnered with Kurtis Hanni to build a more scalable and specialized CFO offering through Bison CFO. Bison CFO focuses on delivering fractional CFO services to growing companies that need dedicated, ongoing financial leadership—everything from forecasting and board reporting to capital planning and performance tracking.

Today, I remain involved in a few select LiftCFO client relationships, primarily for hybrid engagements that intersect finance and operations. I no longer take on new individual clients through Collaborative Advice. Maybe continues to explore product-market fit as an open-source project, and my primary focus is helping growing companies make smarter, faster financial decisions through Bison CFO.