This CPG Brand Needed Rapidly Evolving Financial Models as It Scaled
As business took off for the women’s Beauty and Personal Care company Cora, leadership needed to update their financial models to keep pace with inventory management, determine COGS, and execute deferred revenue schedules.
The Challenge
Like many entrepreneurs, Founders Morgen Newman and Molly Hayward were eager to move quickly and do as much internally as possible. However, Morgen realized in his CEO role that he was stretching himself too thin. There were areas of the business that needed better expertise and attention than he was able to provide. Morgen had developed finance and accounting systems and models that had served Cora well. But as the business grew and became more complex, he realized they had outgrown what was previously working. They had a problem understanding inventory, maintaining account accuracy, pinpointing COGS, and ultimately creating deferred revenue schedules. They needed a finance and accounting team with specialized CPG experience, but were not yet ready for a team of full-time employees in house. Enter Propeller.
About Cora
A Health & Personal Care company that modernizes period management with natural products focused on women’s health.
How Propeller Took Action
- Created a new financial model and streamlined accounting processes
- Transitioned & migrated new accounting & inventory software systems
- Adjusted inputs and reconciliation of the DTC business model
- Educated ops team on internal improvements and advised on visionary decisions
- Propeller’s Transaction Advisory team stepped in to provide comprehensive diligence process & created data rooms for multiple capital raises
- Improved inventory reconciliation and management process to drive more cohesive demand planning inventory purchasing
- Analyzed marketing KPIs and metrics and uncovered performance inefficiencies
- Developed a detailed retailer revenue and COGS forecast
- Assisted in determining timing and need for a full-time in-house finance role & oriented them with existing systems and processes
The Positive Results
Propeller Scaled and Flexed to Meet Cora’s Needs During Different Stages of Growth
- An improved inventory reconciliation and management process resulted in more cohesive inventory purchasing
- Better accounting processes established efficiencies, which improved gross margin trending and identified cost savings opportunities
- New financial model addressed their chief challenges around inventory, managing accounts, COGS, and deferred revenue schedules
- With finance and accounting solidified, the CEO could focus on areas of the business he could impact most, resulting in accelerated growth
- The Quickbooks online migration expanded reporting abilities on a multiclass level and provided a more organized chart of accounts and understanding of overall trending of margins spent
- During the successful raises in 2018 & 2020, due diligence provided by the Transaction Advisory team revealed missing data and KPIs that were key to understanding their business and made a positive impact on the day-to-day operations
- Business growth skyrocketed due to new systems and processes
"Propeller’s operators understand the fundamental elements for our category, which is why they feel like internal team members. If not for Propeller, we might have chosen an independent consultant who would have strung things together, leaving us with a mess to clean up a year later."
1300%
Employee Growth
(2015 - 2021)
1025%
Annual Recurring Revenue (ARR) Increase
(2015 - 2020)
Series A: 2018
$6M
Series B: 2020
$15M