What exactly do I need start learning to be a Chief Financial Officer (CFO)?

That job probably isn’t a good fit for you.

If you are serious about this, you should become a CPA, and then spend a decade working your way through various positions in large corporations.

Being a CFO is a great longterm goal... it obviously will take plenty of time to get to the level of expertise and experience required to qualify as a truly functional / valuable executive.

With that said, the baseline is a very good grasp of accounting fundamentals- including compliance and regulatory requirements. But even more importantly, CFO is an executive role... that is to say it is more strategic than anything. It's the job of the CFO to manage all cashflows (and drive business decisions based on cashflows) and work with, if not lead, other c-level team members in business / market strategy and forecast corresponding projections (reliably and accurately). This is not an accounting position... it's an executive position, and one of the most central ones at that - i.e. it requires an in-depth grasp of all facets of business and the specific market you operate in.

Just my $0.02. Good luck!

Finance is an area I know I'm weak in and want to get better at.

I like to take it as layers of an onion - start with the basics, the 3 big sheets you need to be able to read - income statement, balance sheet & cash flow statement.

From there dive in to whatever specific areas you want to get better at first - for me it was deferred revenue and other SaaS specific financials that are important. For you it might be other areas. read public company 10k's, look through companies forward forecasts, free cash flow and related to understand where and how they spend - match up the work they accomplish with their cashflow.

Peeling back each layer is more specific and generally more complex. Focus on the areas of finance that are obviously most useful for you - it's just as broad and complex of a specialty as engineering is - asking a tax accountant to help you with pricing an equity debt round is like asking a civil engineer to help you build a rocket.

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You will need to be a cpa. To sit the exam you will need and undergrad in accounting and an masters in public accounting. Five years of school minimum and even then no guarantee to pass the exam. Only about ten percent of people with accounting degrees ever get their cpa. Think of it like being an attorney for money - you have to go to law school and pass the bar. Being an accountant exposes you to a crazy degree of liability especially in an executive position so you really need the background and education. Go back to school and start from scratch if this is your goal.

CFO sounds sexy, but how do you feel about working for years as an accountant? A regular fucking accountant. Because that's what it takes to learn the skills necessary to become a CFO.