Consumer brand CFO services
A fractional CFO for founder-led consumer brands.
Saorsa embeds in your brand on retainer and covers the strategy side of the numbers — the cash cycle from PO to payout, the margin by channel, the inventory buy, the lender — and works through them with you every week.
Tell us what you sell and where it's squeezing you. Duncan replies within one business day.
Prefer to talk? Call or text Duncan: (510) 626-0509.
What gets built in the first 90 days
Four problems every founder-led consumer brand knows by heart
You pay the factory first and get paid last, and four things break in between.
Cash leaves with the PO and comes back with the payout
You place the PO and the factory deposit goes out first. Freight on the container follows, then receiving fees at the fulfillment warehouse, then the wait for sell-through. Only then does the Amazon payout or the retailer's payment arrive, on their schedule, not yours. Cash is out at every stage before a dollar returns. So the big wholesale order is the one you cannot fund: it needs a new factory deposit before the last buy has paid you back.
Blended margin hides the losing channel
DTC margin is what is left after ad spend, returns, and warehouse fees. Wholesale margin is what is left after terms, the chargeback, and freight. Amazon margin is what is left after its fees. Blended, the three look fine. Split them and one channel loses money on every unit, and the other two carry it. So the next ad dollar goes where the blended number points, not where the margin is.
The inventory buy is the biggest bet you make each year
The MOQ sets the floor, the size curve splits it, and the lead time fixes when it lands. You place the buy against last year's season. Overbuy and the cash sits in a warehouse until a markdown moves it. Underbuy and you stock out in peak, with a reorder that cannot land in time. Either way, the buy is already paid for.
Financing built for someone else's business
The MCA offer, the PO-financing quote, and the inventory line each arrive with a price. That price is the lender's read of your brand, not of your cash cycle. Nobody has modeled what the payment does to the next buy. So you take the money, and the payment shrinks the next reorder. Or you draw on the line of credit and hope the Amazon payout lands before the payment is due.
Fit check
Who this is for. Who it isn't.
This work fits a brand that pays a factory before it sells the inventory. If that is not you, the lists below say so.
For
- Consumer product brands with outsourced or contract production
- DTC, wholesale, and Amazon brands that carry inventory
- Apparel, outdoor, powersports, home, beauty, personal care
- Founder-led, roughly $2–20MM in revenue
Not for
- Resellers and dropshippers with no product of their own
- Agencies and services firms
- Software companies
- Brands with in-house production
If you make the product yourself, the manufacturing page is the better fit.
How the work runs
An embedded partner on retainer, not a report vendor
By day 90 you have a working model, a margin view by SKU and channel, an inventory buy plan you can defend to a lender, and a weekly session with us. Saorsa is an embedded partner on retainer, not a report vendor.
A long-term financial model you actually use
The model is scenario-based and follows your cash the way it moves: the factory deposit out on each PO, freight on the container next, the Amazon payout and the wholesale order payment back in. Before you sign the next buy, open a new channel, or move a price, it shows what that does to cash, month by month.
A SKU- and channel-level margin view
Your bookkeeper keeps the books. We read them and cost every SKU from what is already there. Ad spend and returns land on the channel that caused them. The chargeback lands on the wholesale order behind it, and warehouse fees land on the units that used them. Then the losing channel has a name, and you decide whether to reprice it, change its terms, or cut the spend.
A financing package when one is needed
When an inventory line, PO financing, or a term loan is on the table, we build the package the lender underwrites against. That means the model, the downside case, and the inventory story: how the buy and the reorder sell through, and what a markdown or a late container does to the plan. We are not a lender or a broker, and the lender makes the decision. We sit in the meeting with you.
A weekly working cadence with you
Each week we sit down with you on whichever call is next: the size of the buy, the terms a retailer wants, the hire, the price. Bring the open PO or the reorder you are second-guessing, and we work it through the model together. We do the analysis between sessions, so the session goes to the decision.
Skin in the game
Duncan is a minority partner in a motorsports brand that buys inventory, reorders, and borrows.
Crosslinked Components is a motorsports brand that sells dirt bike protection direct and through dealers. Same POs, same reorders, same lender. Duncan is a minority partner, and his contribution is finance: a scenario-based forecasting model, a working capital model, margin strategy, and supplier contract terms that share risk and reward on-time delivery. The partner buyout closed with a seller's note, no outside capital, and no fire sale. Under the partnership, revenue grew 3.7x and profit 7.8x over two years.
The science-led skincare brand sells direct-to-consumer and through professional channels. Saorsa rebuilt its reporting for true margin by product and by channel, built a three-statement model with rolling cash forecasts, cut commission-only reps with no revenue decline, and improved inventory forecasting so stockouts stopped capping growth. The brand grew 50%+ year over year.
See the Crosslinked results3.7x
Revenue growth in two years
7.8x
Profit growth in two years
Seller's note
Partner buyout closed without outside capital
Relevant reading
Read first, write later.
If you are not ready to talk, these pieces from our Insights letter are a plain place to start.
Start here
Name the squeeze and get a straight read from Duncan.
Duncan reads every submission himself and replies within one business day. You get a plain answer on the squeeze you named, and if we are not the right fit, he says so and points you to the page that is.
- A reply from Duncan himself, not a queue, within one business day.
- A plain take on the squeeze you named: the cash between the PO and the payout, the margin by channel, the next buy, or the lender.
- If we are not the right fit, you hear that too, and we point you to the page that is.
Prefer to talk? Call or text Duncan: (510) 626-0509.
Start a conversation
FAQ
Questions brand founders ask before the first call
Short answers on cost, cash, financing, and fit, before you write to us.
What does this cost compared to a full-time CFO?
Hiring a full-time CFO for a consumer brand means a mid-six-figure salary plus benefits. At $2–20MM in revenue, a brand does not have forty hours a week of CFO work. It has a short list of calls that move cash: the size of the next PO, the factory deposit, the channel that gets the ad budget, and the terms on the line of credit. We cover that list on a monthly retainer, priced at a fraction of that salary and sized to the model, the margin view, the lender work, and the weekly session.
We already have a bookkeeper and a CPA. Isn't this redundant?
Keep both. Your bookkeeper codes the factory deposit, the Amazon payout, and the chargeback. Your CPA files the return and keeps you compliant. We are not accountants, and we do not touch the books or the taxes. What neither of them does is model the reorder you are deciding on, or build the package a lender underwrites against. We work alongside them, starting from the books they keep.
Shopify says our margins are fine. Why is there never any cash?
Shopify can be right about the margin and still leave you short of cash. Margin is per unit. Cash is per PO. Between the two sit the factory deposit, which goes out before the unit exists, the freight on the container, the ad spend that goes out ahead of the sale, and an Amazon payout or wholesale order payment that lands after it. The model shows that gap month by month, so you see when the next buy outruns the cash that funds it.
Can you help us get inventory or PO financing?
Yes on the preparation, no on the placement. We are not a lender or a broker, and we do not place financing. We build the model, the inventory story, and the downside case that a lender underwrites against, then we sit in the meeting with you. The inventory story covers the buy, the size curve, and what a markdown or a late reorder does to the plan. Whether to offer terms is the lender's call. No success fees.
Do you work with brands that use contract manufacturers?
Yes, and this page is written for them. A contract-manufactured brand places the PO, pays the factory deposit, and waits on the container while someone else's factory holds the schedule. The finance work is built around that wait, from the PO to the payout. If you make the product yourself, the manufacturing page fits better. If you resell other brands' products, this is not your page, and our main practice page is the better start.
Ask for a straight read before the next PO.
Send the PO or the lender question that is on your desk.
Go to the formPrefer to talk? Call or text Duncan: (510) 626-0509.