A truly meaningful milestone for all of us here at
@FinaloopTeam
as today we announce our $35M Series A funding led by
@Lightspeedvp
! 🙌
Huge thanks to our customers, investors & the team around here, all true partners in a mission to help DTC founders and brands completely
1/Call it supply chain, call it value loop - one thing's for sure: today we announce a $35M Series A funding led by
@lightspeedvp
thanks to the ecosystem’s belief in our mission to help DTC founders become financially savvy, profitable, and FINALLY trust their numbers.
The ugly truth about ROAS and CAC
… and why it shouldn’t be your north star metric in eCommerce
A 🧵 on what the agencies don’t want you to know about 👇👇
(From an ex-PwC Partner and DTC owner)
We need a lot more product, finance, and operations people to join DTC twitter
Some days, it seems like the only thing people are talking about is marketing
Am I right, or am I not following the right people??!
Any performance agency worth their salt will ask you about your contribution margin, revenue structure, and cost structure before making any recommendations on new offers, campaigns, or initiatives.
🚨Amazon REAL-TIME COGS is out! 🥳
Finaloop now syncs all your SKUs sold or restocked on Amazon and records COGS in your Finaloop P&L in REAL-TIME
Real-time multichannel Shopify+Amazon COGS in Finaloop 🤜
Still using a bookkeeper working on QBO/Netsuite?
Think twice✌️
Whether you’d like to admit it or not, the DTC bubble has burst.
- It’s not as easy to acquire customers.
- Consumers are scared
- Investors are holding their money
Over my career, I’ve seen this happen a handful of times
Here’s what I’d recommend you do
(From ex-PwC Partner)
I’ve been getting more DMs recently asking about
@FinaloopTeam
and what we do.
The best way to answer is by explaining my painful history with
#DTC
and
#ecommerce
accounting…
I’m Lio, CEO of Finaloop. Here’s my story.
Which is harder?
DTC Marketing or
B2B SaaS Marketing
Having been in both industries, I’d say B2B SaaS marketing is much more complex and harder to nail than DTC marketing
Sorry, not sorry
Hot take 🔥
People who work in DTC marketing should have an advanced understanding of how DTC finances work…
Unfortunately most don’t…
Which is why people still think ROAS is everything that matters 🤦
Many DTC brands have died because of financial mistakes. And more or less all of them stem from a few common myths about finance in the DTC landscape.
Now it’s time to kill a few of the top DTC finance myths 👇👇
If I told you, you can see your Contribution Margin in REAL-TIME, you'd say IMPOSSIBLE right?
I get it, it's probably because:
You don't really know your COGS 😱
Or your Gross Profit 😡😡
Or Contribution Margin 🙀
Or Operating Cash Flow💀
Until it's TOO LATE!! 💩💩
Why is it, that so many DTC founders take their hard-earned money - and light it on fire every month 🔥
Useless subscriptions, ineffective SaaS tools, and the new category: AI tools that don't even make things more efficient…
Here’s a dead-simple way to save thousands of $$
What's a concept you'd love for the DTC community to talk more about?
I'll start with my top 3;
- Incrementality
- Inventory forecasting
- Cohort analysis
What's on your list?
Most eCommerce brand’s financials are fu***d
The more brands I speak to, the more clear this is.
At ECF live, I gave a session called “How to unfuck your financials” with
@sam_hillg
from Ecom CFO
Since there was a lot of interest in the topic, I thought I’d share the key
If your agency helps you calculate your break-even ROAS, and they don’t even ask you about your shipping costs, 3PL fees, and merchant fees - run away. 🚩 🚩 🚩
They clearly don’t know how to calculate your gross margin properly
… and you clearly don’t know your numbers too
I've been mostly quiet for 50+ days. Continuing my posts about finance, DTC, and entrepreneurship seemed too mundane, too normal.
How can I pretend things are normal while living in a world that is anything but?
At the same time, I know one of Hamas' main goals is to stop
In a time where entrepreneurship is being glamourized on social media, it’s more important than ever to remember:
- Everyone has issues
- There’s no overnight success
- What seems like overnight success took 10 years to build
Patience is the key here.
Nothing nice comes easy
The amount of times I speak to extremely competent DTC founders of multi-million dollar brands, who are calculating their COGS incorrectly...is insane 🤯
Hot take 🥵🥵🔥
Operations are more important than marketing for DTC brands.
When you really break it down, the best marketing is more operations than marketing
Dropping a thread on this on Sunday for nuances
Super fun founder event yesterday by
@FinaloopTeam
X
@gorgiasio
!
✅ Excellent builders, great vibes
Tons of challanges this year for everyone, good to have friends.
Thanks
@obviceo
for hosting! 🩶
Are you CASH-FLOW positive?
What's the breakdown of your brand's cash-flows in the last week? day? minute? second?!
Today
@FinaloopTeam
drops the first ever real-time, 100% accurate, cash-flow analysis report for DTC/ecom brands 💪💪
It's 2023. Cash-flow is everything 👑
I can’t wait to share what the team at
@FinaloopTeam
has been working incredibly hard at for the last year 🚀🚀
We have so many incredible products and exceptional content pieces on the way…
All with one goal;
To make your life as a founder easier. From every single aspect.
Every DTC founder on the planet is trying to cut their acquisition costs, every day
But also think very rarely about cutting their subscription fees, agency fees, overhead, merchant fees, etc.
Even though the bottom-line impact could be the same
Yes, there’s lots of competition in the eComm space…
But then again…
92% of ecommerce brands don’t know their REAL COGS…
So…
How competitive is it actually?
Wow
@AriSavitsky
This is totally unbelievable
98% of my day is improving, planning or fixing. Never see the glass half full.
This is SO energizing 🔥
Love it, love it, love it. ❤️
Thank you for making my day.
Mediocre DTC operators:
- Focus on cutting acquisition costs and wasted marketing spend
Savage DTC operators:
-Focus on cutting agency fees
-Focus on cutting overhead
-Focus on cutting useless subscriptions
-Focus on cutting processing fees
… and ofc also acquisition costs
Close your eyes for just one moment and imagine, God forbid, your child watching Islamic terrorists slowly slit your throat.
Your four year old hearing your twelve year old daughter raped and then shot in the next room.
If these are your freedom fighters.
Then fuck you.
In the last few years, DTC brands have been able to “win” by simply being better at marketing than everyone else.
The playing field is changing now - and the DTC brands that’ll come out on top over the next few years are the ones who understand Finance &Ops down to the bones
🚨🚨GROUND-BREAKING product drop 🚨🚨
Finaloop's new Transaction Grouping is out 🚀
We're using Natural Language Processing tech developed over the past 9 months by our data team
SPOILER - Yes, It's 10x better than ChatGPT's results 🧵👇👇
The old way:
- Guesstimate your financials
- Wait 20 days for your bookkeeper, so you can stop guesstimating
- Spend your time chasing down your bookkeeper
The new way:
- Clear visibility of all financials
- Updated every sec
- Fully reconciled with your bank, at all times
Super interesting read for anyone working in consumer products and eCommerce.
VC funding into CPG products was down 97% from 2021 to 2023.
I feel it's only temporary, as the 2022-2023 Gen of eCommerce founders is more skilled on average than the one from 2020 (will share some
@eliweisss
@FinaloopTeam
@eliweisss
TYSM for a fascinating session (as evident by the pic :)) and for making the time for us!
Great learnings coming from you, as always.
And priceless for the team to learn first hand about the ecosystem we're building for!
Got super feedbacks from everyone🙏🚀
For those of you who have been following my recent series of threads, you’ve read how great brands break down their P&Ls, you’ve read about the KPIs you need to track in order to understand the health of your brand…..
And now it’s time to understand the benchmarks….what
Operations is more important than marketing for 99% of DTC brands
So you should focus more on nailing your operations / systems, and less time thinking about your marketing
Here’s why 👇 👇
🔥New feature drop!🔥
1099 deadlines are fast approaching - Jan 31, 2023
But you don't need to go deep into the weeds or wait for penalties
Finaloop auto-detects your list of vendors and amounts, applying the relevant IRS rules, limits and exclusions
We then let you overrule
Cash Flow Management is not just for your bank balance
There are so many more strategic reasons to prioritize this in your business
... but most businesses focus on ALL the wrong things
Here are 12 reasons why managing cash flow should be your top business priority 👇
RT this
Do you know how to effectively manage your cash flow?
Cash is always king, resources are limited, and your goal is to invest available cash for maximum value.
Here’s a 5-step breakdown of how to tackle your cash flow management
RT if valuable
A lot of founders kill their eCommerce brand before they even start it
And most of the time, it can be avoided if they just spend A LITTLE bit more time on these 3 things 👇
Here’s what I learned from building a 7-fig eComm brand and how you avoid doing these mistakes
How to unf**k your financials.
That was the title of my presentation at eCommerceFuel Live this past week (shoutout
@youderian
and
@sam_hillg
)
... and although it seems like we're starting to talk more about finance and ops on the DTC web, there's still a long way to go
"Why did you start
@FinaloopTeam
? - when you were already running a profitable, 7-figure DTC brand?"
This is a question I get asked a lot...
And no...
Unlike most entrepreneurs - it wasn't because I had shiny object syndrome.
In fact, I loved operating my DTC brand.
I
Think of your ecommerce financials like a treasure hunt. 🕵️♂️💰 There's gold hidden inside, and this thread is your map.
Here are 5 cost-saving tips for your Shopify ecommerce brand. 🧵
(From an ex-PwC Partner and Accountant)
RT if valuable 👇👇
In the last thread, we talked about how to set up your P&L and understanding the difference between your fixed costs and your variable costs.
Today we’ll cover the top 4 KPIs to track to measure the health of your business (the importance of fixed vs variable will come up again,
7/ Does it work? It really does.
I’ve tried every ecomm bookkeeping service that I’ve found. IMO, Finaloop’s tech capabilities + expert knowledge are in a different league from what exists in the market today (there really isn’t much out there).
So special when the ❤️ comes from the G of finance.
Thank you
@obviceo
for standing behind this.
Building for legendary builders has its moments! :) 🙏🥹 (+
@jackybh
)
2022 made founders & operators realize that JUST knowing high level metrics such as revenue is not enough to survive in 2023
Capital Efficiencies, Cost Saving & Accurate Financials/Bookkeeping are more important than ever
Here's 4 changes we made going into 2023👇🏻 RT if helpful
4/ My experience with bookkeepers:
1. Most just didn’t get ecomm
2. Numbers were always delayed
3. Numbers were usually inaccurate
4. Expensive compared to value
Traditional bookkeeping for ecomm didn’t work and I was left flying blind. IYKYK.
The difference between the brands that really crush and the brands that struggle is…
Their ability to focus on the right things to work on, over a long enough period of time
Without changing their focus to shiny objects or lower-output work, just because it’s easier/more fun
Well guess what? Today
@FinaloopTeam
drops real-time COGS for Shopify brands!
Syncing your product costs in real-time, and adding all variable and fixed COGS, you can now track your inventory purchases, overall COGS and margins in REAL-TIME.
🚨 R&D Credit vs. Immediate Deduction - IRS Rule Change
Old: brands push to categorize expenses as R&D to access R&D credit + deduction
New: No more immediate R&D deduction, now you spread the tax benefit over 5 or 15 years
Impact on pockets 💸💸 gets tricky. Speak w your CPA.
Isn't it funny how 'data-driven' has become a buzzword in the DTC world?
So many brands can tell you exactly how many likes their latest post got but are stumped when you ask about their P&L. If we want to get ahead, we need to be true data geeks - that means financial data too!
Every DTC founder's worst nightmare is running out of cash…
I’ve been there myself in the past
BUT…
There’s a way to prevent it
In fact, I’ll show you 5 different ways in this thread (
#3
is little-known)
(From ex-PwC Partner and 7-Fig DTC owner)
Tax-Saving Tip of The Day
A large chunk of merchant cash advance payments are financing fees…
… and because of this you can and should be deducting it from your income instead of just treating it as a “loan repayment,” saving a HUGE amount of money in taxes.
New DTC founders, remember cash is still king!
Managing your cash flow effectively is crucial.
It's easy to get caught up in the thrill of sales, but understanding where every penny goes can be the difference between scaling successfully or burning out.
Our case study page is live!
Check out how Finaloop and a Fractional CFO worked together to help improve the Magic Brand's Profitability by 11.6%.
Click here to read the full case study:
When founding Finaloop, I had already been in your shoes for years and knew the struggles of being a DTC operator
So I became passionate about finding a financial solution and spoke with hundreds of brands that had same struggles
Lesson: Sometimes the best ideas come from pain
Struggling to get free cash-flow?
Here’s a trick I bet you didn’t know
You can ask your suppliers to pay them MORE in exchange for better/longer payment terms
= better cash flow
Oftentimes, you can a better “borrowing rate” with your supplier than your bank /CC provider
8/ Is it perfect? Nope.
We’re always refining, adding new features, improving, & learning. But we’re creating a brand I’m super proud to be a part of. Excited to keep building & solving the pains I felt every day as a DTC founder.
Follow
@FinaloopTeam
to watch our progress.
What most DTC founders learned in 2023 is that the “growth-at-all-costs” mentality was doing a lot more harm than good.
Controlled, calculated growth > uncontrollable exponential growth
@jackybh
@FinaloopTeam
Bro, the truth is:
@RaylaRapp
told me that -
- A 'Task' sounds like a burden
- A 'Mission' sounds like an adventure
Either she's in TLV for too long or accounting is indeed an adventure..🤐
Grateful to support you guys from earlier days of
@duradry
& thanks for the shoutout!
🚨War FAQ - Why does Israel have so many high level unit commanders from elite units dead? Are they not trained enough?
In a house full of hostages or armed, commanders always break first. They are also getting killed first, and open the way for their teams to handle the rest.
5/ I needed visibility, I needed to trust my numbers, and I needed real-time data to make real-time decisions. Also, IMO, “tax season” should be “tax hour.”
It was a pain that had to be relieved.
"Beware of little expenses. A small leak will sink a great ship." - Benjamin Franklin
Every DTC founder should have this quote on their wall.
A few dollars for an app here, and a few percent for a service there...
And poof!
Suddenly your profits are gone
Ur brand does VERY well 🚀
Great!
Now stay lean & build sustainable assets
Prioritize financial infrastructure, focus on efficiency, automation & processes
My brand had 55% NET profit margin
Never lasts forever
Down to 5% after 3 players raised $$$m
I survive for my infra
Getting your CFO to do your bookkeeping is like asking a Michelin chef to make you oatmeal…
… but still paying for a 3-course meal at a 5-star restaurant.
Is it possible? Yes
It is a good idea? Yes, if you like to waste money…
If you’re an entrepreneur making less than 7 figures per year
Your only focus should be to build a exceptional product that solves 1 specific problem for 1 specific type of customer
That’s it.
Don’t get fancy
Never accept the first price your supplier offers.
Even small reductions can lead to big savings over time.
Whether it's $0.05 off a unit or better payment terms, negotiation can free up cash and enhance your bottom line.
@andrewjfaris
@BillDA
@BillDA
is of the most knowlegable, smart people in ecom
Access to alternative financing is important. APR should be clear & upfront.
We see founders' face when it's too late.
Use this tool to calculate effective rates:
Also -
New 7-figure brand onboarded.
Top marketeers (ROAS is super).
Loan w/ APR of 84%!
No, it's not a typo
Told them they should refinance. They thought it's a great & creative idea 🤷🏻♂️
What's going on???
The most hard-earned lesson I learned while building my 7-fig DTC brand is:
You can always negotiate prices
With your 3PL, with your payment processor, with your agency.
Everything is for negotiation. Always
And you can unlock HUGE profits, simply by re-negotiating
2/ Sold my 1st venture in 2009 (for about the price of a fancy steak dinner, but the process was exciting).
In 2018, I founded a (now) 7-fig DTC brand to solve a personal obstacle I was facing (story for another time).
A client using
@FinaloopTeam
for their e-commerce bookkeeping hired me to audit their 2023 books to see if Finaloop is doing a good job.
This client is selling via Amazon, Shopify, and Faire.
Result:
Finaloop is spot on. They're a great product for ecom. Highly recommend!
Stoked to partner with
@AlekKoenig
and his team at
@usesettle
!
This is a huge step to help ecommerce brands scale faster by improving cash flow management and financial visibility!
We’re beyond excited to announce our partnership with
@usesettle
, an all-in-one bill payment & cash flow management platform tailored to fast-growing CPG brands
Integrate
@usesettle
with Finaloop to sync your financial data directly to your books and optimize your cash flow
Discover your marginal frontier!
Have you ever wondered what would happen if you doubled your ad spend?
Or tried to figure out the right budget to maximize contribution margin?
Take a deep dive into our new spend/aMER model that is leveling up our forecasting process at CTC.
3/ As an accountant, I thought finances of running a brand would be easy. I was wrong.
Operating my business without the financial visibility I needed is where Finaloop’s story begins.
6/ After getting funding from Accel and other truly visionary investors, my co-founders and I gathered an “A team” of engineers, tax accountants, designers, bookkeepers, financial analysts, & ecomm experts, and Finaloop was born.
@obviceo
and
@ashvinmelwani
said it pretty good in their newsletter last week
If you don’t have real-time data to make decision on, you’re screwed
If you don’t have real-time data to make decision on, in Q4, you’re super screwed
It’s equally as hard to build something big as it is to build something small.
So every entrepreneur needs to choose wisely.
The local pizza guy also works 14 hours a day.
Which proves that what you work in is more important than how hard you work
In eCommerce, speed of execution is one of the most important competitive advantages
But to execute fast, you need to make strategic decisions even faster
And you can’t make strategic decisions without having accurate and updated data to base the decisions off
Introducing the best AP and accounting automation integration for eCommerce brands 🎉 We are excited to announce our partnership with
@finaloopteam
, helping CPG businesses optimize cash flow and sync to financial statements in real time.
You can always get a better deal.
You just need to ask for it
Too many founders just take the first deal they get at face-value and never negotiate their; Merchant fees, supplier costs, agency fees, etc.
… simply asking for a better deal could save you a fortune
@TaylorHoliday
@finaloop
Thank you Taylor 🙏
Very special and encouraging when it comes from you since you're one of a very few people in the space that are able to:
- Easily spot all that we still need to build/improve as a startup
And at the same time
- Understand the potential and vision
As we approach tax season, big win for Amazon FBA sellers!
Pennsylvania Court recently ruled that an FBA warehouse in PA doesn't create sales/income tax nexus for out of state sellers.
I asked +20 DTC leaders to present on the least-sexy topics ever.
What happens next will shock you!
It’s going down live this week.
- Logistics
- Supply chain
- Finances
- Manufacturing
- Cash flow
- P&L analysis
- Sourcing
↓ Here’s the epic lineup