Strategy and operations,
built to execute.
You know where you're trying to get. What's missing is the path.
Most founders can describe the destination: the retail deal, the raise, the next stage of the business. Few can describe the six moves that get them there, in the right order, without burning cash on the wrong one.
I build that path with you, in detail, and I stay close enough to help you run it.
As a co-founder of Lumina Investment Group, I sit on the other side of the table too.
Merril Gilbert
Why founders work with me
I've been where you are, across every part of the business.
That breadth is what I bring to your operation. Most people in this field see one slice: the market, the numbers, the operations, the customer. I've run all of it, and I still do the work with you, hands in it.
I also sit on the investor side, deciding which businesses get funded. Not as your investor, but as the person who helps you build the case before you walk into that room. So you're asking the right question the first time instead of paying to go back and ask it again.
There's a difference between someone reviewing the deck and someone who's built what's in it. That's what you're getting here.
This isn't for founders still figuring out the idea. It's for people already running the business: with real revenue, real decisions, and no room to get the next one wrong.
For comparison
Four retainers, or one conversation.
What that usually takes
What I do instead
What that usually takes
A strategy consultant to study the market
What I do instead
See all of it at once, because I've done all of it
What that usually takes
A fractional CFO to run the numbers
What I do instead
Sit on the investor side too, so I know exactly what the money sees
What that usually takes
An ops consultant who has never run a plant
What I do instead
Know the co-packer, the label, and the COA, not just the deck
What that usually takes
A brand agency to study the customer
What I do instead
Understand the market, trends, and what drives buying decisions
What that usually takes
A lawyer, once it's already a problem
What I do instead
Prevent problems from becoming problems. Get the thinking built so when you sit with the lawyer or CFO, it's one meeting instead of five.
What I do
Start here, and stay as long as it's useful.
The work happens in three steps. Everyone starts with the first; not everyone needs the third.
For growth-stage founders · Step 1 · Start here
We get organized. (The Assessment)
$950
What it is
One structured pass across your whole business: operations, margins, market position, team, and money, looked at together instead of one slice at a time. Runs three to six weeks, start to finish: intake, deep dive, findings, and a check-in to walk through what we found.
What you get
Everything competing for your attention and your cash, laid out in one pass, so you're deciding from the full picture instead of your gut. What to fix now, what to leave alone, and what it's worth.
Example: deciding against hiring the three people you don't actually need yet, and working with a co-packer who can scale once the bigger order lands, staying scrappy until then.
Worth knowing
Skip it and you hire the three people you didn't need yet, and find the co-packer problem the week the retailer order lands.
For growth-stage founders · Step 2 · Next
We build the plan. (The Money Decision)
Scoped in conversation.
What it is
We work out whether you need outside money at all, and if you do, which kind fits: debt, revenue-based, grants, community capital, a strategic partner, equity. Not the legal or financial paperwork; that's your attorney and CFO. This is getting the thinking straight before you sit with them.
What you get
The concrete sequence: what to fund, what to leave alone, what to ask for and why, not just an opinion on it. You walk into that room knowing what you're asking for, instead of hoping.
Worth knowing
Skip it and you take the money that's offered instead of the money that fits, and somebody else starts designing your business.
For growth-stage founders · Step 3 · When you need hands on deck
I help you carry it. (The Differentiation)
Scoped in conversation.
What it is
A plan doesn't run itself. This is me staying in the business as an embedded operator, not a once-a-month advisor, carrying the plan through the parts that actually change outcomes: the hire, the vendor conversation, the launch week.
What you get
The same person who built the plan is the one making sure it actually happens. Nothing gets handed off to someone else's team once the strategy work is done. (See the About section for how this played out at Pastry Smart.)
Worth knowing
Skip it and the plan sits in a slide deck while the business drifts back to old habits within a quarter.
The other side of this
What it looks like once you've been through it.
You're not guessing anymore. You know which fire is real and which one can wait. You've either raised the right money on the right terms, or decided you don't need to raise at all, on purpose, not by default. The team you have is the team you need, nothing more. And when the next big decision comes up, you already have someone who's seen the whole board, not just their slice of it.
Let's talk
Bring me the thing you've been circling.
One conversation to find out whether the problem you're worried about is the one that's actually costing you money. If it's not a fit, I'll tell you that too, and who to call instead.