Industries

Consumer brands scale fast. The infrastructure behind them has to keep pace.

Consumer businesses carry complexity that software companies don't: inventory, multi-channel margins, trade spend, and seasonal working capital swings. We embed senior operators who've built consumer finance and people functions from scratch. We arrive knowing your cost structure, your channel math, and what your investors will ask for next.

Who we work with

From DTC-first brands to omnichannel consumer businesses at national scale.

Typical client revenue ranges from $5M to $100M+.

DTC and digitally-native consumer brands
CPG businesses entering or scaling in retail
Food, beverage, and alcohol producers
Wellness, personal care, and beauty brands
Multi-channel and omnichannel consumer operators
PE-backed and publicly-traded consumer companies

When founders call us

Most engagements start when the channel mix outgrows the infrastructure.

These are the moments where the financial infrastructure built for a DTC-only brand stops being adequate for what the business is becoming.

01

Retail is coming. The buyer wants a trade spend budget and a chargebacks process you haven't built yet.

02

Inventory is your largest asset and your largest liability. The model to right-size it doesn't exist yet.

03

Your investor wants gross margin by channel and DTC vs. wholesale profitability. The P&L doesn't separate any of that.

04

The team is scaling fast. Equity, comp structure, and HR compliance haven't kept pace.

The metrics we model and report on

Every metric below has been modeled, reported, and defended in front of a consumer investor.

When a growth equity investor asks for SKU and channel profitability or a working capital bridge, your team should be able to produce both the same day. These are a few of the metrics our team builds, defends, and reports on. Every engagement gets calibrated to the metrics your business needs to grow.

Financial Metrics

SKU and Channel Profitability

Gross margin and contribution margin modeled at the SKU and channel level. DTC, wholesale, retail, and Amazon each carry materially different margin structures, and product-level economics vary within each channel. We model both layers so portfolio decisions reflect what's actually profitable rather than what's growing fastest.

Inventory Turnover

For physical-product consumer businesses, inventory is the working capital story. We track turnover by SKU, category, and channel so growth doesn't get strangled by trapped inventory.

Cash Conversion Cycle

The time between paying suppliers and collecting from customers. Negative or short cycles are the difference between consumer brands that can self-fund growth and ones that can't.

Cash Runway

Months of operating cash remaining at current burn. The anchor metric for every fundraising conversation and capital allocation decision.

People and Organizational Metrics

Operations to G&A Headcount Ratio

Consumer businesses scale on operations: warehousing, fulfillment, customer service, retail staffing. The ratio of operational to overhead headcount tells the operating leverage story.

Seasonal Workforce Planning

For consumer businesses with seasonal demand patterns, temporary and seasonal hiring is a planning discipline. We model labor needs against demand curves so peak season runs on plan.

Comp Benchmarks for Operations and Retail

Warehouse, fulfillment, and retail comp moves with local labor markets and is often misaligned with corporate compensation. We benchmark by region and function.

Employment Compliance Across Jurisdictions

Consumer businesses with retail, warehouse, or distributed teams accumulate multi-state employment exposure quickly.

How engagements evolve

The right infrastructure depends on where you are in the channel journey.

Consumer engagements follow channel maturity, not just funding stage. A Series A brand entering retail often needs more operational support than a larger brand with a stable channel mix.

Foundation

Foundation before channel complexity arrives. 

Seed-stage consumer brands need clean financials and basic infrastructure in place before the first retail conversation happens. Most of what goes wrong at Series A traces back to models that were never built correctly at launch.

What we focus on:

Accurate COGS modeling: landed cost, co-man fees,
Clean P&L with gross margin by SKU, not just blended
DTC unit economics: CAC, AOV, LTV, and repeat purchase rate
Basic inventory tracking and reorder point modeling
Payroll, equity, and HR compliance as the founding team expands

Build

The multi-channel model investors need to underwrite your next raise.

This is where most consumer brands hit their first infrastructure wall. Retail is entering the picture, working capital is getting complicated, and the board wants reporting the existing model can't produce.

What we focus on:

Channel P&L: DTC, wholesale, and marketplace contribution margins separated cleanly
Working capital model and inventory forecasting tied to purchase orders
Trade spend budget and chargeback management as retail enters the picture
First-time audit preparation, which carries extra complexity for brands with physical inventory
People infrastructure: multi-state compliance, benefits, and org structure as headcount scales

Scale

Omnichannel infrastructure and transaction readiness for what a strategic buyer will stress-test.

Omnichannel complexity demands more sophisticated financial modeling, and the leadership gaps that were manageable at 30 people become operational risks at 80. Consumer transactions require QoE work that goes beyond standard financial normalization.

What we focus on:

Advanced scenario planning and trade promotion management across channels
Capital raise readiness and transaction advisory preparation
Quality of Earnings: trade spend normalization, inventory reserve analysis, COGS reclassification
Retained search for VP Finance, VP Supply Chain, and Head of Retail Sales
Strategic Talent Planning™ and succession planning across retail, DTC, and operations

From founders

What it sounds like when the infrastructure works.

"

"It is clear to me when choosing a strategic partner to build the single most important part of an organization, the people; that they rise above the rest. With any partnership, their ability to listen, ask probing questions and truly seek clarity up front really expedites the balance of the process in hiring the best candidates. I look forward to a continued partnership growth as we move forward into the future."

Jason Bronstad

CEO, Malk Organics

"

"We have worked with the team at 512Financial over 15 years and had a great amount of success in finding A-team players through them. They have a great network of talented people and really took the time to understand our business and people needs to help us find the perfect fit."

Ty Thaggard

Artesia Springs

"

"Their strategic approach and thoughtful partnership allowed us to develop and execute on a Strategic Talent Plan together. The talent plan substantially changed our business and allowed us to operate in new ways."

Scott Jensen

Co-Founder & CEO, Rhythm SuperFoods

Six service lines, one integrated partner

Finance, Accounting, and People Operations rarely operate in isolation for a consumer brand.

Services are available individually or as an integrated engagement. Consumer brands entering retail most commonly engage Finance and Accounting simultaneously, because working capital, trade spend, and COGS require both functions operating in concert.

financial leadership

Finance

Fractional CFO, ARR modeling, board reporting, capital planning, fundraising prep

Channel gross margin modeling, inventory-linked cash flow forecasting, DTC vs. wholesale profitability analysis, and board packages designed for CPG and consumer-focused investors.

Accounting

GAAP-compliant financials, audit-ready close process, controller services

Perpetual inventory accounting, landed cost capitalization, trade promotion accruals, chargeback deduction management, and a month-end close that survives first-time audit.

Transaction Advisory

Quality of Earnings, due diligence support, working capital assessment, M&A readiness

Consumer-specific QoE covering trade spend normalization, inventory reserve analysis, COGS reclassification, and channel profitability restatement.

organizational leadership

People Operations

Fractional People leadership, HR compliance, benefits, comp benchmarking, HR systems

Compensation structure for hybrid field and HQ teams, equity administration for founder-led brands, and multi-state compliance as distribution expands.

Executive Retained Search

C-suite and VP placement, success profile development, candidate evaluation

Placement of VP Finance, VP Supply Chain, Head of Retail Sales, and Head of DTC.

Strategic Talent Planning™

Org design, hiring roadmaps, leadership alignment, team structure development

Org design for brands managing simultaneous DTC, retail, and operations functions, and hiring roadmaps tied to channel expansion milestones.

Also serving

Other industries we work in

SaaS/Software

ARR modeling, cohort retention, burn multiple, audit-ready financials for VC-backed SaaS companies

Fintech & Financial
Services

Complex revenue recognition, regulatory reporting, banking partnership financials, SOC 2

Healthcare & Life Sciences

Reimbursement cycle accounting, multi-state compliance, clinical milestone cost modeling

Industrial & Energy

Project-based accounting, field-to-corporate workforce dynamics, capital-heavy operating models

Real Estate & Construction

Job costing, bonding capacity,
working capital cycles, project-level economics