· 01 Situation
TrackR had product-market fit on its own store and a viral referral loop, but retail was flat, margins were unmodeled, and the team was three quarters from a raise with no coherent story about unit economics.
Two channel partners were asking for exclusivity the company could not evaluate. Nobody owned pricing. Support volume was growing faster than revenue.
· 02 What we did
01
Unit economics rebuild
Rebuilt landed cost, returns, and channel margin per SKU into one model the CFO ran weekly. Killed two SKUs that lost money at retail price and repriced the flagship up 12 percent.
02
Retail channel strategy
Scored the two exclusivity offers against a three year distribution plan, declined both, and negotiated a non-exclusive endcap program with a national chain instead.
03
Embedded GTM leadership
One Inyo operator ran demand generation as acting head of growth for two quarters: paid mix, retail co-op spend, and a weekly pipeline review the founders kept after we left.
04
Fundraise narrative and diligence
Wrote the raise narrative around attach rate and repeat purchase, built the data room, and ran twenty investor conversations alongside the CEO.
05
Support and returns operations
Instrumented RMA reasons, shipped three firmware and packaging fixes that removed the top return driver, and cut contact rate per unit sold.
· 03 What changed
+12%
Flagship price, no volume loss
2.4x
Retail revenue in four quarters
−38%
Support contacts per unit
11 wks
Term sheet to close
- ◆Gross margin moved from unmodeled to reported monthly at the board level.
- ◆The weekly pipeline review and the margin model both outlived the engagement.
“They did not send us a deck. They sat in our standups, argued with our numbers, and left us running a business we could actually explain to investors.”