Commerce CatalystOperator Diagnostic

DTC Operator Diagnostic

Read the business underneath your brand.

Find the constraint holding the business back and leave with a focused 90-day operating brief.

$197 one-time20–30 minutesone 90-day rerun

See a sample report

Secure Stripe checkout. Your answers and reports stay behind verified access. Recovery is available by email.

Already have access?
Use an access code

An access code starts email verification. It does not open the diagnostic by itself.

Recover paid access

Enter the email used at checkout. For privacy, the confirmation is the same whether or not a matching purchase exists.

Built and exited Koio10 years inside a consumer brand$20M raisedM&A at J.P. MorganMBA, Wharton

Who built this

Built by an operator, from an operator's questions.

I'm Chris Wichert. I spent ten years building Koio, a DTC footwear brand: raised $20M, rebuilt the business to profitability after the post-2020 correction, and sold it. Before that I worked in M&A at J.P. Morgan. This diagnostic asks the questions I work through when a founder shows me their numbers.

More about how I work →

The deliverable

A decision brief built for the next operating move.

The score is one input. The useful part is the operating read: what the evidence means, what is constraining the business, and what your team should do next.

01

The primary constraint

The one constraint the evidence points to, with what triggered the read and what would change it.

02

The four-lens read

Economic Engine, Demand & Distribution, Execution & Ownership, and Cash & Resilience. Each is marked Strong, Usable, Exposed, or Unresolved.

03

The 90-day brief

One or two focused actions, each with an owner, a weekly metric, and 30-, 60-, and 90-day checkpoints.

04

The rerun

One included rerun after day 75, showing what changed under the same scoring method instead of quietly moving the goalposts.

Fictional example

See the shape of the paid report.

This preview is generated from the same versioned report logic used in the paid product. The company and numbers are fictional.

View the full sample report

Loading the fictional report…

What you need

Bring the numbers you already use to run the business.

Directional data is acceptable. The report will preserve uncertainty instead of turning a missing answer into a false conclusion.

  • Trailing-12-month P&LRevenue, product cost, fulfillment, payment fees, marketing, payroll, and other operating expenses.
  • Cash and inventory viewCurrent cash, recent cash movement, inventory at landed cost or book value, open purchase orders, and any available credit. Do not use retail value.
  • Channel or customer dashboardSales mix, acquisition or account concentration, repeat or reorder evidence, and relevant channel costs.
  • The current planThe decision you need to make, the constraint you suspect, and what a useful next 90 days would accomplish.

How it works

One focused sitting. One usable operating brief.

  1. 1

    Set the business context

    Choose the sales model, reporting period, current objective, and decision this report needs to inform.

  2. 2

    Enter the operating evidence

    Work through financial, demand, execution, and cash questions. Adaptive follow-ups appear only when they can change the read.

  3. 3

    Use the brief

    Review the constraint, assign the actions, print the report, and return for the included 90-day comparison.

A good fit

You have real operating data and a decision to make.

  • You are past roughly $1M in revenue with a real P&L. The read is calibrated for operating businesses and is most useful from $5M up.
  • You run a DTC, marketplace, wholesale/B2B, or mixed consumer brand.
  • You want an outside operating read without starting a consulting engagement.
  • You are willing to separate what the data supports from what still needs to be resolved.

Not the right fit

You need diligence, forecasting, or a person in the room.

  • The diagnostic does not provide an audit, valuation, quality-of-earnings review, or substitute for legal, tax, or investment advice.
  • It does not build a detailed forecast or verify the accuracy of self-reported inputs.
  • If the decision depends on negotiation or team alignment, use the brief as preparation, not as the whole process.

Method and limits

Commercial logic, with the evidence shown.

The diagnostic uses category-aware benchmarks, contribution economics, demand quality, ownership, and cash visibility. It labels calculated and self-reported evidence, lowers confidence when evidence conflicts, and leaves a lens Unresolved when the required proof is missing.

The overall Financial Health Score needs a consistent trailing-period P&L from an owned DTC business. Marketplace, wholesale, and mixed brands get the four-lens brief and directional financial metrics without an overall score.

The report does not invent certainty.

Your answers determine the read. Missing or contradictory answers stay visible as unknowns. The output is designed to focus an operating discussion, not certify the business.

Data and access

Your report is private, recoverable, and exportable.

Identity
Stripe’s verified checkout email becomes the recovery identity for this purchase. Product access does not add you to a marketing list or create an automatic marketing opt-in.
Drafts
Product records keep an inactive draft for 90 days so you can resume.
Reports
Your inputs and saved report are retained for 24 months after the most recent report so the included comparison can work.
Consent
Processing consent is required before report generation. Stripe may send a purchase receipt. Commerce Catalyst sends only access-code verification, recovery, report-ready, and rerun reminder emails for this product.
Control
While authenticated, you can export your product data or delete the saved report content, drafts, owner names, recovery tokens, and sessions.

Privacy PolicyTermsRefund Policy

FAQ

Before you start.

I already have dashboards. What does this add?

Your dashboards report what happened. This reads what the numbers mean: which constraint is binding, the category benchmarks it was tested against, and the evidence that would change the read. Every trigger is shown, so you can check the logic yourself.

Does Commerce Catalyst review my report manually?

No. This purchase is a self-serve diagnostic generated from the answers you provide. It does not include a live review or consulting session.

When can I use the rerun?

The included rerun becomes available on day 75. It uses the same scoring method so the comparison reflects changes in the business, not a change in the diagnostic.

What is the refund policy?

If you paid but the report did not generate because of a technical problem on our end, email chris@commercecatalyst.ai within 7 days of purchase from the address tied to your payment. We will get it working or refund you in full. Once your report has generated, the purchase is final.

Will this work if my numbers are messy?

Yes, if you can provide a directional operating view. Mark unknowns honestly. The report lowers confidence or leaves a lens Unresolved when the evidence cannot support a conclusion.

How do I return on another device?

Use the recovery form under “Already have access?” and enter the email used at checkout. The emailed link expires after 15 minutes and can be used once.

DTC Operator Diagnostic

Make the next 90 days answer one clear operating question.

$197 one-time · 20–30 minutes · one 90-day rerun

Permanent deletion

Delete your saved diagnostic content?

This permanently deletes saved drafts, report content, owner names, recovery tokens, and active product sessions. Minimal entitlement and transaction records remain for access administration, accounting, and dispute records, as explained in the Privacy Policy. This cannot be undone.