You just joined a 7- or 8-figure CPG brand. The founder brought you in to "grow up" the business. The team wants structure. The board wants predictability.
And you're walking into a world that moves at e-commerce speed.
Inventory lead times. Platform payout delays. Multichannel revenue. Promotions that can blow up a plan in one weekend. It's fast, messy, and resource-constrained.
If you came from Big 4, banking, or a large retailer, this can feel like culture shock. In corporate, process is the default. In a growth brand, process is a project. The team isn't undisciplined. They've been sprinting to keep up with demand.
I started my career in banking, working across small-business lending and planning for high-net-worth clients. That's where I saw "systemic lending gaps" up close. Profitable consumer brands kept getting declined because traditional underwriting was built for factories and equipment.
One DTC beverage brand was doing over $3M in annual revenue. Customers loved them. Margins were healthy. Cash flow was steady. The bank still declined them. There were no hard assets, revenue was seasonal, and marketing spend looked like "expenses," not growth.
That experience shaped how I think about modern finance. In CPG, resilience shows up in cash flow quality. Predictability. Timing. Sustainability. Get those right and growth gets easier to fund.
My own path into entrepreneurship started in a messy moment too. I was laid off in 2020. It pushed me to build. Paperstack started as a CFO analytics tool. We later evolved into a capital partner because founders kept telling us they needed capital to act on the insights.
This checklist is what I'd focus on if I were you. It's built for your first 30 - 60 days in the seat. Run it in order. Don't skip ahead.
1. Understand how the brand really makes money
Your first instinct will be to improve reporting. Pause.
Before you change anything, learn what drives growth. Sit with marketing. Sit with ops. Listen more than you talk. The fastest CFOs I've met go deep in the trenches first.
Start with acquisition. Which channels are bringing in new customers today? What's stable? What's being held up by discounting or aggressive retargeting? Then move to retention. What makes customers come back, and on what timeline?
Now connect that story to the numbers. Gross margin alone won't tell you the truth. You need contribution margin after shipping, platform fees, promos, returns, and channel-specific costs that hide in the P&L.
This is also where you make marketing legible to finance and lenders. Growing brands often invest 15% to 25% of revenue into marketing. Traditional banks tend to read that as operating "burn." In commerce, marketing can be an investment engine. It needs clear ROAS targets, inventory coverage, and payback windows.
I push teams to answer one question clearly: are we built to be profitable on the first purchase, or do we win on LTV? Your spend posture depends on it. Your inventory posture depends on it. Your capital needs depend on it.
2. Map seasonality and cash timing, then scenario plan it
Most cash crunches in CPG aren't caused by weak demand. They're caused by timing.
You pay suppliers before inventory is sellable. You spend on marketing before payouts hit your bank. Amazon and wholesale terms stretch the cycle even more. You can look "profitable" and still feel cash-starved.
Build a timing model that shows when cash leaves and when it returns. Make it simple enough to explain in a meeting. If only finance can read it, it won't change behavior.
I like a weekly cash forecast that looks 13 weeks out. Start with the bank balance. Layer in expected platform payouts and wholesale receipts. Then layer in inventory payments, payroll, and taxes. Update it every week. It becomes your early-warning system.
Then add seasonality. Are you in low season right now, or heading into your busiest months? That single answer changes how aggressive you can be with inventory, marketing, and repayment commitments. Don't build a plan until you understand the natural rhythm of the business.
Now pressure-test it with scenarios. This is where my "unapologetic optimism" shows up in practice. Unapologetic optimism isn't about blind positivity - it's about discipline.
One of our brand partners got hit with new import tariffs that raised landed costs overnight. Instead of freezing, we ran scenarios. Tariffs hold, drop, or expand. Then we aligned a flexible capital plan around those paths. The goal was options.
Do the same internally. Decide ahead of time what changes first when revenue dips, lead times extend, or margins compress. When volatility hits, you won't panic. You'll execute.
3. Don't introduce new systems still
If you came from a highly structured corporate environment, the stack inside a growth brand can look chaotic. I get it.
Still, avoid the "new software" reflex in your first few weeks. Tools don't fix broken definitions. They don't fix broken workflows. They just make the mess faster.
Work with what's already in place and go deep. Watch how inventory is received and recorded. Watch how refunds are coded. Watch how Amazon fees flow through the books. You'll find errors that quietly distort margin and cash.
Build a minimum set of numbers you trust weekly. Lock definitions with the team. Document where each number comes from. Keep it boring and repeatable. When you have that baseline, you can add tools without adding confusion.
This lesson is personal for me. Paperstack started as a CFO analytics tool. Founders kept telling us, "This is great, but I need capital to act on what I'm seeing." That feedback was the pivot. Data alone doesn't move a business forward - capital does, when it's deployed with insight.
Inside your company, clarity plus action beats a perfect dashboard every time.
4. Get close to marketing and ops until the calendars match
In growth CPG, finance can't live in a silo. Your cash reality is created by two functions: marketing and operations.
The most common issue I see is simple. Revenue, marketing, and inventory timing drift out of sync. Then a healthy business gets trapped in a cash squeeze.
Pull the team into one operating calendar. Launches and promos. Inbound inventory. Reorder points. Expected payouts. Cash position by week. The point is alignment.
This is why I repeat the same line: Growth isn't just about how much you sell, it's about when you sell it.
And please, don't celebrate stockouts. It shouldn't be celebrated when the product is sold out. Selling out often means you paid to acquire customers you can't serve. Your CAC goes up because you now have to rebuild the relationship with the customer.
There's research that supports this. A retail fulfillment study found that stockouts reduce repeat orders, even among frequent customers. Stockouts change buying behavior.
If supply is tight, the strong move can be to slow down on purpose. Lower marketing spend. Pull back discounts. Protect availability for your best customers. A controlled slowdown beats a chaotic sell-out.
5. Treat Accounts Payable like a growth lever
AP looks operational. It's strategic.
Vendor terms shape your cash cycle. They also get outdated fast. Many brands are still paying on terms negotiated years ago, when volumes were smaller and leverage was lower. If your purchasing volume has grown, it's worth revisiting those terms.
Study AP closely. Who gets paid first? Where are you prepaying out of habit? Which vendors are you scared to negotiate with, and why? You'll usually find room to improve timing without damaging trust, especially if you communicate early and treat suppliers like partners.
Then connect AP to your capital strategy. One mistake I see all the time is over-borrowing early. Founders do it for comfort. CFOs do it for liquidity. Both end up paying for capital that stays in the bank account unused.
I compare it to maxing out a credit card. You feel safe for five minutes. Then you feel the payment pressure every day.
If you can draw capital in sync with manufacturer milestones, you protect margin. Draw the deposit, often around 30%, to start production. Wait to draw the balance until goods ship. That 30 to 90-day production window is real money.
Just because your business qualifies for a million dollars doesn't mean you have to take it all.
6. Pressure-test financing options the way you pressure-test inventory
If you want stable working capital, you can't evaluate capital partners on headline terms. You need to understand the structure behind non-dilutive capital.
Start with total cost. Fees hide in origination and admin charges. Get the full picture, then compare like-for-like.
Then ask what they underwrite. If you sell across Shopify, Amazon, and wholesale, a partner who only credits one channel is missing your real performance. That can limit capacity. It can also push you into multiple lenders, each with its own repayment schedule.
Next, dig into repayment mechanics. Ask about minimum and maximum remittance thresholds. Minimums can strain you in slower months. Aggressive maximums can drain cash in peak months. Caps matter.
Ask how they treat wholesale revenue, too. Do they count it when an order is created, or when cash actually lands? That one detail can make your forecast feel "wrong" every month.
Finally, ask about control and support. Do funds go to your bank account, or do they pay suppliers directly? Do you keep the same person post-close, or do you get handed off? In volatile businesses, relationship continuity is part of risk management.
One more question I'd add: are you talking to a direct lender or a broker? You want to know who holds the risk and who you call when things change.
Also ask whether you're getting a one-time advance or a revolving facility you can draw from. Tranche draws match how inventory actually gets paid for. At Paperstack, we issue revolving commitments that are often $1M - $3M, and brands typically draw $100K - $500K every 45 - 60 days. Repayment is a percentage of revenue, with monthly caps to protect cash flow. Look for mechanics like that, even if you don't work with us.
We worked with a CPG brand with strong repeats and steady growth, but constant cash gaps from supplier prepayments and delayed Amazon payouts. They were also multichannel.
Other providers wanted to underwrite one channel or factor wholesale only. That meant multiple lenders and multiple repayment schedules.
With Paperstack, they accessed capital based on total business performance and consolidated into one clear source. The team stopped juggling repayments and stayed focused on growth.
That's the bar. Alignment - not just access.
7. Build the financial backbone for the next stage
Your job isn't only to manage numbers. It's to design a system that can carry growth.
Start with decision rules. What triggers a marketing pullback? What triggers a reorder pause? What changes when margins compress or lead times slip? When those rules are clear, volatility stops being paralyzing.
Then get intentional about your capital stack. Equity capital is used for R&D purposes. Non-dilutive capital is for recurring expenses. Inventory and payroll are recurring. Funding them with equity long-term can create unsustainable dilution.
I'll acknowledge the exception. If a brand is extremely early and has no credit history, initial equity may be the only way to test inventory and market fit. Once you have a track record, you want the stack to mature.
Finally, choose partners who understand your cash cycle and grow with you. That's what I mean when I say capital starts working with your business, not against it.
At Paperstack, we talk about building a "Stripe-style OS for commerce capital." For you, that vision translates to one thing: your financing should fit into your broader financial architecture. It should support planning, not fight it.
Closing
Corporate training gives you structure. Growth brands teach you speed. Your advantage as a CPG CFO is learning to hold both.
Run this checklist. Build the rhythm. Improve cash flow quality. Then scale with confidence.
If you're navigating this transition and want to compare notes, my DMs are open. I built Tea Club Toronto as a community for founders. CFOs deserve that same kind of honest network.
FAQs
Is running out of inventory a sign of successful demand generation?
Not necessarily. While it proves demand, it often degrades long-term value. A study on retail fulfillment confirms that stockouts sharply hurt future purchases, causing even frequent buyers to order less often. A controlled slowdown - reducing ad spend to maintain availability - is often strategically superior to a chaotic sell-out.
How should a CFO model cash flow for a seasonal CPG brand?
Avoid over-complicated systems initially. Build a simple 13-week forecast updated weekly. Start with your bank balance, then layer in the specific timing of platform payouts (Amazon/Shopify) and wholesale receipts against inventory outlays. This reveals the 'cash traps' where you might be profitable on paper but liquid-poor due to payment cycles.
What criteria matter most when evaluating non-dilutive financing?
Look beyond the headline rate. Scrutinize the repayment mechanics: Does the lender set minimum remittance thresholds that strain cash during slow months? Do they underwrite your total revenue (including wholesale) or just one channel? You need a revolving facility that adapts to your volatility, not a rigid structure that forces you to juggle multiple lenders.
When should a growth brand transition from equity to working capital financing?
Equity is best reserved for R&D and initial market testing. Once you have a sales track record, funding recurring costs like inventory and payroll with equity causes unsustainable dilution. Shift to non-dilutive capital for these operational cycles to protect your ownership while ensuring your capital stack matures alongside your revenue growth.
How can finance better align marketing and operations?
Force a single operating calendar. Cash flow crises often occur when marketing pushes volume before inventory lands. Treat marketing not as 'burn,' but as an investment engine with strict payback windows. By synchronizing launch dates with reorder points, you prevent paying to acquire customers you cannot serve, effectively stabilizing your CAC and LTV.
