You're betting real money on a gut feeling and a spreadsheet.
I'm a fractional CFO for early-stage DTC brands — pre-launch through your first $1M. I build the forecast, the reporting, and the data infrastructure that tell you what you can afford, what's working, and how long your cash actually lasts.
A CFO and a data engineer in one seat — I build and automate the systems behind the model myself, so you get systems that stay, not advice that disappears.
The real problem
The questions you're already answering — with a guess.
If you run a DTC brand, these aren't hypotheticals. They're this week.
You're answering these questions every week whether you have the numbers or not — that's the trap. Every guess is a bet: ad dollars that don't come back, inventory that ties up cash for a quarter, a runway that's four weeks shorter than you think. Brands under $1M don't usually die from a bad product. They die from a cash surprise they could have seen coming.
A bookkeeper tells you what happened. Nobody on your team can tell you what happens next.
The way out
Not more advice. A financial operating system.
The fix isn't a smarter spreadsheet or an hourly advisor who leaves with the knowledge. It's a system: your Shopify, ad, and accounting data flowing into one place, a forecast that updates itself, reporting that lands every week, and an assistant that answers questions from your actual numbers.
Companies ten times your size run on exactly this. The only reason you don't is that it used to take a finance team and a data team to build. I'm both.
Services
One financial operating system
Four layers, one system. We start with the layer that's on fire — for most founders that's knowing their runway — and build down to the foundation.
Forecasting & Decision Models
The 13-week cash forecast, unit economics, and scenario models that answer the questions above: the reorder, the price change, the runway, the raise — and what happens when your assumptions are wrong.
Data Infrastructure
Automated pipelines connecting Shopify, GA4, ad platforms, and QuickBooks into one central database. Live dashboards that update themselves.
AI Operations
Custom AI assistants that query your data on demand. Ask a question in plain English, get an answer from your actual numbers in seconds.
Bookkeeping & Reporting
The foundation the rest runs on: clean books in QuickBooks with a chart of accounts built for decision making, not just compliance. Automated financial statements pulled from live data.
What I build
A financial operating system for a launching DTC brand
Enterprise-grade financial infrastructure, run for ~$20/month
A consumer-products startup preparing a direct-to-consumer launch on Shopify. I built and deployed the whole financial operating system:
- Automated data infrastructure — daily pipelines from Google Analytics, Shopify, Search Console, and QuickBooks into a central PostgreSQL warehouse, with 11 automated data-quality checks
- Monte Carlo planning engine — a six-stage model across five probability scenarios
- Automated weekly financial package — P&L, balance sheet, and cash position, delivered without anyone touching a spreadsheet
- A 13-week rolling cash forecast
- Live dashboards and an AI operations assistant that queries the data on demand
The forecasting model identified website conversion rate as the single biggest demand lever. Within the same week, the AI assistant ran a full CRO audit, pulling from the same central database.
The founders walked into launch knowing their cash runway to the week and the single biggest lever on demand — instead of guessing with the family's money on the line.
Enterprise-grade financial infrastructure for the cost of a streaming subscription — because I build it, I don't resell it. Total infrastructure cost: ~$20/month.
This is the kind of system I build — owned by you and running for pennies, not a tool you rent.
How it works
From fit call to a system you own
Fit call
20 minutes, no deck. A short conversation to see whether the work is a fit, where the financial fires are, and what "done" looks like for you.
Sprint or build
Most clients start with a two-week Runway & Unit Economics Sprint — fixed price, fixed deliverable. Or go straight to the full system build, staged, starting with the layer that's on fire.
Retainer that owns the system
An ongoing seat that keeps the model current, the reporting landing on schedule, and a CFO in the room when the decisions get made.
Packages
Start small. Keep the system either way.
Fixed scopes and "starting at" prices — no open-ended hourly meters. Every engagement produces a system you own, running on infrastructure that costs about $20 a month.
Runway & Unit Economics Sprint
$3,000 · fixed · ~2 weeks
- 13-week cash forecast
- Unit-economics & margin model
- One scenario stress-test
- Decision readout call
The low-risk first yes. Know your runway to the week before you bet on it.
The full $3,000 credits toward a system build within 60 days.
Financial Operating System Build
from $12,000 · staged
- Automated data pipelines — Shopify, GA4, ads, QuickBooks
- Automated weekly financial package
- Forecast & scenario models
- Live dashboards
- AI operations assistant
The system from the case study, built in stages — you fund the layer that's on fire first.
Fractional CFO Retainer
from $3,500/mo
- Keeps the system and forecast current
- Weekly / monthly reporting cadence
- CFO in the room for pricing, inventory, and raise decisions
Most engagements run $3,500–6,000/mo. I take 2–3 retainer clients at a time.
Not sure which fits? That's literally what the call is for.
Fit
Who this is for
A fit if you're…
- A DTC or ecommerce founder under $1M — pre-launch through early traction
- Flying on gut and a messy spreadsheet, and you know it
- Facing a real decision — a raise, a pricing change, an inventory bet — that needs a model you trust
- Wanting the system to stay after the engagement, not walk out the door with a consultant
Not a fit if you…
- Just need transactions categorized for tax season — that's a bookkeeper, and that's fine
- Want hourly advice with no system to show for it
- Aren't in DTC / ecommerce — this practice is built around that niche
- Compete with or overlap a global logistics / supply-chain operation
About
I'm a builder, not just an advisor
Dustin Kelly
I've spent 10+ years in finance, including ecommerce and payments, and my day job is in FP&A and commercial finance at a Fortune 500 supply chain company — month-end close, financial reporting, and data-driven decision support at enterprise scale.
I am a builder, not just an advisor. I write the Python, design the data pipelines, configure the databases, and develop the AI tools myself — so the financial brain I build for you is one I actually built, not one I bought and marked up.
Contact
Stop guessing. Start with 20 minutes.
The fastest path is the fit call. If you'd rather write first, use the form — tell me where the financial fires are. I take on a small number of early-stage DTC / ecommerce engagements at a time.
Prefer email? [email protected]