Profitability creates options. Dependence on outside capital narrows them.
When the business works, you choose your path. When it doesn't, the path chooses you. Profitability is the cheapest form of optionality you can buy.
~% founder advisory · consumer brands · $5M–$75M
You built the brand.Let's build thebusiness.
I help founders find what’s blocking profitable growth and put the right changes in place.
Chris WichertFounder, Commerce Catalyst
Track record
Built & exited Koio
M&A, J.P. Morgan
MBA, Wharton
$20M raised
AI + Commerce speaker
>>> beliefs
The operating truths behind the work.
Patterns from 10+ years inside a consumer brand and the founder calls I have now. These are the positions behind the work.
01
02
The decisions you're avoiding are the ones that matter most.
The product line that needs cutting. The hire that doesn't perform. The investor conversation that keeps getting postponed. Those compound, in the wrong direction, every week you don't make them.
03
You usually feel the drag before you can explain it.
The signal often shows up in the business before it has a clean name. Growth gets harder. The team feels stretched. Cash gets tighter. The work is finding the source of drag before it turns into the only conversation.
>>> how I work
Start with a sharper read of the business.
Start with the read01
DTC Operator Diagnostic
A guided diagnostic that turns your P&L and operating answers into a focused 90-day operating brief.
$197One-time
Built to give you a feel for where the business is strong today, where it needs work, and what deserves attention next.
Founder Hour
One focused call to pressure-test one live decision, name the constraint underneath it, and leave with the next move.
$500
60 minutes. Direct booking.
Diagnose the business02
Operating Assessment
Find the constraint blocking profitable growth and leave with a focused 90-day plan.
Starts at $7.5KScoped after read
For founders of $5M–$75M consumer brands.
Stay with the work03
Founder Advisory
Ongoing founder-side support to turn the read into decisions, meetings, metrics, and owner-by-owner follow-through.
Ongoing advisoryScoped after fit
Two focused working sessions each month, with direct access between calls.
Operator in Residence
A senior operator inside the business to run the weekly priorities, cross-functional decisions, and follow-through.
Ongoing engagementScoped after fit
Interim or fractional CEO, COO, or CFO support for a defined chapter.
Most founders start with the diagnostic or a Founder Hour. Deeper work only makes sense once the first read is clear.
>>> tools · self-serve
The self-serve diagnostic.
Use it before a Founder Hour, board meeting, capital conversation, or bigger operating decision. It turns your numbers and operating reality into a focused read: what is healthy, what is risky, and what deserves attention first.
The operator read
DTC Operator Diagnostic
An operator-grade read on financial health, operating risk, outside pressure points, and what deserves attention over the next 90 days.
$197One-time
What it tells you
- Your primary operating constraint and the evidence that triggered the read
- Economic Engine, Demand & Distribution, Execution & Ownership, and Cash & Resilience
- What the evidence supports, what remains uncertain, and what would change the read
- One or two focused actions, each with an owner, a weekly metric, and 30-, 60-, and 90-day checkpoints
- One included rerun after day 75 to show what changed
Free tool
Next Move Finder
Not sure whether to restructure, raise, sell, pivot, or keep going? Answer 12 questions and get the path I'd pressure-test first, plus the question I'd want to unpack with you.
Find your next move →
Free tool
Unit Economics Calculator
A simple way to pressure-test contribution margin, payback, and whether growth is actually helping.
Open the calculator →
>>> client review
Chris helped me look past top-line growth and understand what was actually driving profit in the business. He pressure-tested the numbers, pushed me to focus on the decisions that mattered, and ONDO is now in a stronger, more profitable place.
Daniel Shim, Founder & CEO, ONDO
>>> Operator Notes
Notes from the rooms I'm in.
Short notes from operator conversations: pricing, capital, AI, exits, hiring, and the decisions founders tend to delay.
When there's something to say. Unsubscribe in one click.
>>> founder hour · live working session
One hour.An honest conversation.A clear next move.
You bring the situation. We pressure-test the decision in front of you, name what has been postponed, and leave with a move you can make this week.
$50060-min session · Founder to founder
What the hour looks like
- 00–10Where the business sits todayStage, runway, and what's keeping you up at night.
- 10–35Find the real constraintThe decision being postponed. The blocker that isn't where it looks like it is.
- 35–55The next two movesWhat changes this week. Who owns it. What good looks like by quarter-end.
- 55–60Decide what happens nextFounder Advisory, Operator in Residence, the diagnostic, or go run it yourself.
>>> about me
I've sat in your seat.
Koio on the New York subway.
I started at J.P. Morgan covering consumer companies. Then I left to build one.
Our idea for Koio was to build the first DTC luxury brand, starting with the perfect white sneaker, made in Italy. Two German guys with no experience making shoes. So we bought a one-way ticket to Italy, knocked on dozens of factory doors, got rejected by most, and talked our way into a family-owned factory that made shoes for Chanel. Back in Brooklyn, our apartment doubled as warehouse, showroom, and office. Shoe boxes everywhere. We shipped the orders ourselves.
Then things took off. We raised $20 million, got an office in Soho, and opened stores across the U.S. Nordstrom and Neiman Marcus picked us up. GQ and Vogue wrote about us. We did a collab with Game of Thrones, saw our sneakers on Bella Hadid and Seth Rogen, and sold hundreds of thousands of pairs.
In 2023, when the DTC playbook shifted, the model we had built Koio on since 2015 stopped working: online marketing got more expensive and consumer spending pulled back. We made the best call of the whole ten years and put profitability ahead of growth. We went back to our customers to understand why they bought Koios, refocused the brand on that answer, and simplified the company around it. Eighteen months later, Koio was profitable and growing, and that gave us options.
We decided to sell. More than 200 conversations with strategics, PE firms, and family offices later, we found a partner who saw what we had built and wanted to take it further. Nearly ten years after that one-way ticket to Italy, we sold Koio.
I've done the full cycle as a founder: built it, scaled it, turned it profitable, sold it. Whichever part of that ride you're in, I've sat there. Now I put that experience to work for founders: getting into the numbers, seeing what is restricting profitable growth, adjusting the strategy, and executing alongside you.
Chris Wichert
>>> get in touch
Tell me where the business sits.
Send a few lines on the brand, where the business sits, and what decision is on your mind. I read every one personally. If there's a fit, I'll come back with a direction and a time to talk. If there isn't, I'll say that too.
ReplyWithin 2 business days, personally.
CapacityA handful of brands at a time.
FitConsumer brands, $5M–$75M.