Cloud Infrastructure • checklist
FinOps Checklist for IPO Readiness
30/60/90 Day Cloud Cost Optimization Plan
8 min read • Updated 2026-01-07
Why IPO Readiness Requires FinOps
Public market investors scrutinize operational leverage - can your company grow revenue faster than costs? Infrastructure efficiency tells a story about management discipline.
The NielsenIQ IPO demonstrated this: $5M → $3.75M cloud spend (25% reduction) directly improved EBITDA margins and was cited in the S-1 filing. Infrastructure efficiency became a valuation multiplier.
30/60/90 Day FinOps Checklist
Days 1-30: Quick Wins & Visibility
- □Audit all cloud accounts and consolidate billingPriority: high • Effort: 2-3 days • Impact: Full cost visibility across all accounts
- □Identify and eliminate obvious waste (idle resources, zombie instances)Priority: high • Effort: 3-5 days • Impact: 5-10% immediate cost reduction
- □Implement cost allocation tags (by team, product, environment)Priority: high • Effort: 2-3 days • Impact: Cost accountability and forecasting
- □Set up cost alerts and budget notificationsPriority: medium • Effort: 1 day • Impact: Prevent cost overruns
- □Identify Reserved Instance opportunities (production workloads)Priority: medium • Effort: 3-5 days • Impact: 20-40% discount on committed resources
Success Metrics:
- ✓100% cost visibility across all accounts
- ✓5-10% cost reduction from waste elimination
- ✓Cost allocation tags on all resources
- ✓Budget alerts configured
Days 31-60: Consolidation & Optimization
- □Consolidate fragmented Kubernetes clusters (15 → 6 target)Priority: high • Effort: 2-3 weeks • Impact: 30-40% reduction in cluster overhead
- □Right-size over-provisioned resources (CPU, memory, storage)Priority: high • Effort: 1-2 weeks • Impact: 10-20% cost reduction
- □Purchase Reserved Instances for stable production workloadsPriority: high • Effort: 1 week • Impact: 20-40% discount on 1-3 year commitments
- □Eliminate duplicate infrastructure (multi-region optimization)Priority: medium • Effort: 1-2 weeks • Impact: 10-15% cost reduction
- □Implement cluster autoscaling and pod resource limitsPriority: medium • Effort: 1 week • Impact: Optimize resource utilization
Success Metrics:
- ✓15 clusters → 6 clusters (60% reduction)
- ✓20% cost reduction from right-sizing
- ✓Reserved Instances covering 60%+ of production spend
- ✓Autoscaling enabled on all clusters
Days 61-90: Operational Excellence & Forecasting
- □Establish FinOps practices (cost allocation, accountability)Priority: high • Effort: 1 week • Impact: Ongoing cost governance
- □Build cost forecasting model (capacity planning)Priority: high • Effort: 1-2 weeks • Impact: Accurate cost projections for S-1 filing
- □Implement cost anomaly detection (automated alerts)Priority: medium • Effort: 3-5 days • Impact: Prevent cost spikes
- □Create scalability testing and capacity planning processPriority: medium • Effort: 1 week • Impact: Prove infrastructure scales efficiently
- □Document infrastructure efficiency metrics for S-1Priority: high • Effort: 1 week • Impact: Investor-ready metrics
Success Metrics:
- ✓FinOps practices established with accountability
- ✓Cost forecasting accuracy: ±10% (vs ±40% baseline)
- ✓25% total cost reduction (YoY)
- ✓Infrastructure costs growing slower than revenue
Expected Results (NielsenIQ Pattern)
- •25% cloud cost reduction YoY ($5M → $3.75M)
- •15 clusters → 6 clusters (infrastructure consolidation)
- •Cost forecasting accuracy: ±10% (vs ±40% baseline)
- •Infrastructure costs growing slower than revenue
- •3% EBITDA margin improvement
- •Infrastructure efficiency cited in S-1 filing
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