Fractional CFO for Consumer Brands
Finance help when the math no longer fits in your head. Margin by channel, cash by month, board narrative, capital path.
- Channel-level P&L and contribution margin
- 13-week cash flow forecast
- Board and investor reporting
- Capital strategy and scenario modeling
- SaaS and cost structure audit
The numbers get blurrier right when the stakes go up
At $5M–$75M, revenue can be real and the read can still be weak. Paid is noisier. Wholesale changes the margin stack. Inventory eats cash before the P&L shows the problem. The board wants a cleaner story than the one sitting in QuickBooks.
Your P&L is too blended
DTC, Amazon, wholesale, retail, promos, returns, freight, payment fees, and fulfillment all sit in one view. The headline gross margin looks fine. The actual contribution margin by channel tells the truth.
Cash moves before profit shows it
Inventory buys, payment terms, chargebacks, sales tax, and vendor deposits can make a profitable month feel tight. You need a 13-week cash read and a 12-month view tied to actual operating decisions.
Your board update takes too much theater
You have better uses for the week before a board meeting than stitching together numbers, explaining variance by memory, and hoping no one asks the obvious question.
The next decision is too expensive to guess
New channel. More inventory. Hire that VP. Take the debt. You need scenario models that show what has to be true, what breaks first, and how much room you have if the plan is off.
What I own as a fractional CFO
Operator-side finance support for the decisions that move cash, margin, and optionality. I get under the numbers, build the operating artifacts, and sit with you when the call has to be made.
Monthly financial reviews
We review what happened, why it happened, and what it means for the next month. Net revenue, discounting, returns, COGS, fulfillment, freight, merchant fees, marketing, contribution margin, fixed costs, EBITDA, and cash. The output is a short decision memo that says what changed, why it changed, and what we do next.
Scenario planning
What happens if you cut an underperforming channel? What if wholesale doubles and cash gets tighter? How much runway do you have if revenue misses plan by 20%? You get models that answer the question before the decision shows up in real life.
Capital strategy guidance
If you are raising, taking debt, exploring a sale, or staying self-funded, the math has to support the path. I help map the options, clean up the story, and pressure-test what an investor, lender, or buyer will ask first.
Board and investor prep
Board materials, variance narrative, KPI pack, question prep, and the uncomfortable issues that need to be named before the meeting. A clean update buys trust. A fuzzy one creates work later.
The business already has an answer. The problem is that the answer is usually split across Shopify, QuickBooks, Excel, your agency dashboard, your warehouse, and your head. My job is to pull those pieces into one read you can act on.
What the engagement includes
Scoped around the business, with a simple operating rhythm underneath it.
- Weekly or bi-weekly working sessions with Chris
- Async pressure-testing when a decision cannot wait for the next call
- Monthly P&L, cash, and KPI review with a written decision memo
- 13-week cash forecast and 12-month scenario plan
- Channel and product contribution-margin analysis
- Board, lender, investor, and buyer prep
- Financial model cleanup, maintenance, and updates
- Ad hoc analysis for hires, inventory buys, discounts, and channel shifts
Three-month minimum. Most engagements sit at 16–30 hours per month, depending on company size and complexity. If the first issue is visibility, start with a Financial Health Assessment and then decide whether ongoing CFO support makes sense.
Why I can help with this
I learned the finance side as a founder, then went deep on the transaction side.
I spent 10 years building and exiting Koio, a DTC footwear brand, from apartment-floor operations to wholesale with Nordstrom and Neiman Marcus. We raised $20M, then had to rebuild the business when the old DTC math stopped working.
That turnaround forced the work this page is about: cutting $3M in annual costs, narrowing the product line, renegotiating vendors, managing cash tightly, and getting the business profitable in under 18 months. The spreadsheet mattered because the decisions behind it mattered more.
Before Koio, I worked in M&A at J.P. Morgan and earned my MBA at Wharton. During the Koio exit, I spent 2.5 years in the market and had 200+ buyer conversations. That combination matters because a finance function has to serve the operating plan today and the outside read tomorrow.
Who this is for
Good fit
- Founder-led consumer brand doing $5M–$75M in revenue
- Margin, cash, channel mix, or inventory decisions have outgrown the current reporting
- Bookkeeper or controller handles the close, with no senior finance partner owning the read
- Board, lender, investor, or buyer conversations are getting closer
- Finance work needs to tie directly to decisions, meetings, and operating rhythm
Wrong fit
- Day-to-day bookkeeping, tax, audit, or accounting cleanup is the main need
- Revenue is below $5M and a lighter diagnostic would be more useful
- Senior finance leadership already owns margin, cash, planning, and capital work
- You want reports produced while the real decisions stay untouched