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-timeabout 25 minutesone 90-day rerun

See a sample report

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

Sample report

See the report before you buy it.

This is page one of a report for a fictional DTC brand. It comes from the same versioned logic as the paid product, and you can open every section below.

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What you get

A decision brief for your 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, the numbers behind it, and what would change the read.

02

Four lenses

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

03

A 90-day brief

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

04

A 90-day rerun

One included rerun, available from day 75, uses the same method, so the comparison shows what changed in the business.

Who it's for

Made for founders with real numbers and a decision in front of them.

A good fit

  • 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

  • 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 to prepare for those conversations.

How it works

One sitting, one operating brief.

It takes about 25 minutes, and your draft saves as you go.

  1. Step 1

    Set the business context

    Choose the sales model, the reporting period, the constraint you suspect, and the decision the report needs to inform.

  2. Step 2

    Enter the operating evidence

    Work through financial, demand, execution, and cash questions. Follow-up questions open only for the constraint the evidence points to.

  3. Step 3

    Use the brief

    Review the constraint, assign owners to the actions, print the report, and come back for the included 90-day comparison.

What you need

Bring the numbers you already use to run the business.

Directional data is fine. Mark anything you don't know as Unknown, and the report will show it as an open question.

  • Trailing-12-month P&L

    Revenue, product cost, fulfillment, payment fees, marketing, payroll, and other operating expenses.

  • Cash and inventory

    Current cash, recent cash movement, debt, undrawn credit, and open purchase orders, plus inventory at landed cost or book value. Do not use retail value.

  • Channel or customer dashboard

    Sales mix, acquisition or account concentration, repeat or reorder evidence, and the relevant channel costs.

  • What you need to decide

    Have the decision in mind, plus your own view of what is holding the business back. The report tests that view against the evidence.

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 →
Chris Wichert, founder of Commerce Catalyst.

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 and leaves a lens Unresolved when the required proof is missing or the evidence conflicts.

The overall Financial Health Score needs a consistent annual P&L, plus marketing spend, new customers, and a repeat-purchase rate from your own website. When you know which new customers came from paid marketing, acquisition is measured on paid cost; when you do not, it is measured on blended cost and the score is marked directional. Mixed-channel brands are scored when their own website is at least 10% of revenue, with gross margin judged against their channel mix. Marketplace-only and wholesale-only 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, and the report is built to focus an operating discussion.

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.

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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 matters most, 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.

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-timeabout 25 minutesone 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.