Inspiring Conversations with Roberta Harrison of RHarrison Consulting

Today we’d like to introduce you to Roberta Harrison.

Hi Roberta, thanks for joining us today. We’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
I spent 17 years in state government, and I will always be a public servant at heart. In my last role as Chief Financial Officer for the Arizona Department of Economic Security, I think our team excelled at leveraging every penny of our funding in the most advantageous way. That mission to make every dollar count has always been a driving force for me.

When I left state service in 2024 to start my consulting company, I knew I wanted to help other agencies and non-profits do the same. The biggest hurdle was the time investment. To truly dig in and find hidden opportunities, I’d need a deep understanding of each organization’s finances and all the complex laws and regulations governing their fund sources. As a one-person firm, the time needed for that manual analysis was simply overwhelming.

With the advent of AI, a thought kept nagging at me: there must be a way to lean on AI to do some of that heavy lifting—to read, interpret, and systematize all of those regulations. I stumbled upon “vibe coding,” using AI to code without a traditional background, and decided to try my hand at designing a tool to automate this process. At the time, I told my husband, “I don’t think this is a thing, but I’m going to give it a try because I can’t get this idea out of my head.”

As I got further into the prototype, a new conviction set in, and I came back to him and said, “I might be crazy, but I think this is a thing.” That moment became the point of no return. That idea has now turned into FundLeverage, an AI-powered SaaS platform that helps government agencies and non-profits strategically leverage their funding.

I was able to announce the concept in July, have since engaged with trusted partners to test the platform, and will be fully launching later this year. It’s been an incredible journey.

Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
Not at all! It has been anything but a smooth road. In no way did I set out to create software when I left state government to start my consulting company. Funnily enough, when I first had the idea for FundLeverage, I thought that coming up with the technical concept and actually building the software would be the most difficult part of the entire journey.

Now that I’m deep into it, I realize that was the easy part. The real challenge has been the constant act of betting on myself while navigating what comes next: whether to raise capital or continue bootstrapping, when to bring on a team, and how to get the product to market. That part of the journey has been much harder to navigate.

As you know, we’re big fans of RHarrison Consulting . For our readers who might not be as familiar what can you tell them about the brand?
My business is a mix of traditional consulting and modern technology. While my firm provides a variety of financial consulting and fractional CFO services, the real magic is my AI-supported SaaS platform, FundLeverage. It is a truly niche product, built to help government agencies and non-profits leverage their existing dollars more effectively.

What sets FundLeverage apart is that it’s not a grants management platform, nor is it an accounting platform. Instead, it’s a strategic intelligence tool that supplements and supports finance teams. It gives them the ability to more quickly and more effectively analyze the regulations associated with the funding they already have and, from there, make a comprehensive plan for how to use it.

The platform is a game-changer for a year-end close-out. It helps agencies make a confident plan to ensure all federal grants are fully spent (i.e., no returned dollars) and to find the most effective way to solve funding surpluses or shortfalls. Ultimately, it’s about providing public sector professionals with the confidence and peace of mind that comes from knowing every penny of a grant is being used to its fullest potential.

What has been the most important lesson you’ve learned along your journey?
The most important lesson I’ve learned is to trust the wild ideas that won’t leave you alone. When I first had the thought to build FundLeverage, I genuinely believed it was overly ambitious and maybe not even a “real thing.” My brain told me to take a different, safer path, but my gut told me that this was a problem worth solving. The most important lesson was learning to trust that voice and to bet on myself, even when it felt crazy.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://rharrisonconsulting.com
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/roberta-harrison/

Image Credits
Rachel M Leva