I help consumer-brand founders find what’s blocking profitable growth and work alongside them to put the right changes in place.
As a creative founder, what I value most about working with Chris is having a true business partner, someone who connects cash, inventory, and planning into one clear picture and pressure tests my thinking before I make a call. That kind of partnership is rare, and it's made me a stronger operator.
Chris has become a trusted strategic partner to me at Grown Alchemist. He has helped us clarify our priorities, reshape our organization and strengthen the leadership of our digital business. He gets into the detail, challenges my thinking and works alongside the team to turn decisions into action. I trust his judgment and would recommend him to founders and owners who need an experienced operator to help them build a stronger, more profitable business.
Chris helped me look past top-line growth and understand what was actually driving profit in the business. He pressure-tested the numbers, pushed me to focus on the decisions that mattered, and ONDO is now in a stronger, more profitable place.
A focused project with me to review your numbers and how the business runs, identify what’s holding back profitable growth, and build a 90-day plan.
I work with you each month on decisions about growth, cash, and your team.
I join your leadership team and take responsibility for the operating priorities we agree on, working directly with the people responsible for delivery.
Tell me what’s happening in the business and I’ll help you choose the right starting point.
I started at J.P. Morgan covering consumer companies. Then I left to build one.
Our idea for Koio was to build the first DTC luxury brand, starting with the perfect white sneaker, made in Italy. We were two German guys with no experience making shoes, so we bought a one-way ticket to Italy, knocked on dozens of factory doors, got rejected by most, and talked our way into a family-owned factory that made shoes for Chanel. Back in Brooklyn, our apartment doubled as warehouse, showroom, and office. Shoe boxes everywhere. We shipped the orders ourselves.
Then things took off. We raised $20 million, got an office in Soho, and opened stores across the U.S. Nordstrom and Neiman Marcus picked us up. GQ and Vogue wrote about us. We did a collab with Game of Thrones, saw our sneakers on Bella Hadid and Seth Rogen, and sold hundreds of thousands of pairs.
In 2023, the model we had built Koio on since 2015 stopped working: online marketing got more expensive and consumer spending pulled back. We made the best call of the whole ten years and put profitability ahead of growth. We went back to our customers to understand why they bought Koios, refocused the brand on that answer, and simplified the company around it. Eighteen months later, Koio was profitable and growing, and that gave us options.
We decided to sell. More than 200 conversations with strategics, PE firms, and family offices later, we found a partner who saw what we had built and wanted to take it further.
I've done the full cycle as a founder: built it, scaled it, turned it profitable, sold it. Whichever stage you're at, I've been there. Now I put that experience to work for founders: getting into the numbers, seeing what's holding back profitable growth, adjusting the strategy, and executing alongside you.
Patterns from 10+ years inside a consumer brand and the founder calls I have now. These are the positions behind the work.
When the business works, you choose your path. When it doesn't, the path chooses you. Profitability is the cheapest form of optionality you can buy.
The product line that needs cutting. The hire that doesn't perform. The investor conversation that keeps getting postponed. Those compound, in the wrong direction, every week you don't make them.
Every product, channel, or project takes cash and attention. Over time, those commitments can spread a team too thin. I help founders decide what to stop, simplify, or postpone so the few priorities that matter get the resources they need.
Bring the decision you’re working through. We’ll look at the options, challenge the assumptions and leave with a clear next step.
Not sure whether to restructure, raise, sell, pivot, or keep going? Answer 12 questions and get the path I'd pressure-test first, plus the question I'd want to work through with you.
Find your next move →A simple way to pressure-test contribution margin, payback, and whether growth is actually helping.
Open the calculator →Short notes from operator conversations: pricing, capital, AI, exits, hiring, and the decisions founders tend to delay.
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Send a few lines on the brand, where the business sits, and what decision is on your mind. I read every one personally. If there's a fit, I'll come back with a direction and a time to talk. If there isn't, I'll say that too.