Marc Orchard's LinkedIn Profile Maps a Brisbane Startup Finance Career

By Marc Orchard

Marc Orchard's LinkedIn profile sketches out a career built around one consistent focus: the financial side of high-growth technology companies. Based in Brisbane, Marc is CEO and co-founder of…

Marc Orchard's LinkedIn profile sketches out a career built around one consistent focus: the financial side of high-growth technology companies. Based in Brisbane, Marc is CEO and co-founder of Planet Startup, a virtual CFO services company he started with Rhys Cupples, and his profile places that work within a longer run of roles across the Australian startup ecosystem.

That history includes founding the BDO for Startups division and serving as Director of Startups at BDO Australia, working as Brisbane City Manager at Fishburners, and holding the role of Talent Program Director at fintech company Swyftx. Marc graduated from the University of Queensland in 2009 with a Bachelor of Business Management, and after university started a financial planning firm that he later sold in 2015. In 2022 he returned to UQ as an Entrepreneur in Residence at UQ Ventures.

Marc's profile also records his most recent community role as Chapter Lead for Brisbane Finance in Tech, a position he has held since August 2025. It sits alongside his work as a Lead Finance Facilitator for LaunchVic's 30x30 program, reflecting a pattern of combining operating work with ecosystem contribution in both Queensland and Victoria.

The thinking behind Planet Startup is something Marc has set out directly. He argues that most founders get very little proactive financial or commercial advice, that large accounting firms tend to focus mainly on end-of-year taxes, and that a fractional or virtual CFO fills this gap. He points to the scale of that gap, stating that less than 20 per cent of high-growth, pre-Series A companies in Australia have a full or part-time CFO.

Marc describes a track record built over roughly five years working with more than 500 high-growth tech companies, with involvement in several exits above $100 million and clients who have collectively raised more than $100 million in investment. Taken together, the profile presents a Brisbane founder whose finance and advisory background now underpins a company focused squarely on giving early-stage technology founders the commercial support he believes they are missing.