The fractional cofounder for D2C brands.

Kavea D Guptaa Cofounder in everything but equity.

For early and plateaued D2C founders. On every call, in every decision, without taking equity.

Book a Revenue Clarity Call See how to work with me

Over ₹4 crorein sales at the D2C toy brand I built and exited in 2024. ₹82L of it in year 1, with no ads.

18 yearsin consulting with McKinsey, KPMG and Deloitte. Then global head of Learning and Development at Jet Airways.

145 clientsand counting. Founders who brought me the decisions they couldn't make alone.

The problem01

Sales go up. Profit doesn't.

Revenue is not profit.

Most D2C brands don't struggle because the product is bad. Pricing, marketing, customers and teams are managed separately, and nobody looks at how they affect each other.

The founder ends up holding everything together. That's the gap I fill.

Who I work with02

The stage matters, not the company's size.

Early, or stuck.

Stage one:

0 to 1

Ideation, pre-launch and early launch. Before you spend lakhs on the wrong thing.

Stage two:

Selling, but stuck

Plateaued and unable to break through. Including large offline businesses whose online arm is just starting.

The role03

Not a consultant. Not a coordinator.

Inside the business, not on the sidelines.

I work as a builder and operator, on every call, across every team, in-house and outsourced. I take a stand rather than agree for the sake of it.

01Product and market fit. The right online, offline or omnichannel strategy.
02Pricing and unit economics. CM1, CM2, CM3 and profitability.
03Reaching customers. Ads, PR, performance marketing and BTL.
04Retention and repeat sales. Subscriptions, bundling and service.
05Competitor research. Pricing, channels, portfolios and USPs.
06Revenue model. Channel mix and marketing investment.
07Team systems. The right team and a growth-oriented culture.
08SOPs. Structured workflows to reach your goals.

I do everything a cofounder does except invest money. Equity was never the point. Decision-making authority is.

How I work04

Money, customers, marketing and sales, read together.

Diagnose. Build. Run.

"We need more sales" can mean a thin margin, a leaking website, a channel with no repeat buyers, or a team spread too wide. Each needs a different fix. More ad spend solves only one.

Cut 1:

What it costs to make.

Net revenue minus product cost. Below a 75 to 80% gross margin, it gets very hard.

Cut 2:

What it costs to deliver.

Courier, packaging, warehousing, gateway fees. Marketplaces can take 25 to 40%.

Cut 3:

What it costs to sell.

Your Meta and Google spend per new customer. A lot of brands go negative here.

Agreed numbers, so progress is visible:

Profit per orderLifetime valueCustomer acquisition costWebsite conversionAverage order valueReturn on ad spendRepeat purchasesProfit by product and channel

What you get05

A 60 to 90 day roadmap.

With agreed numbers.

Day 0

What to fix first. Product and channel priorities, website improvements.

Day 30

What to test. A customer acquisition and retention plan, product recommendations.

Day 60

Where to focus. Customer follow-ups including WhatsApp, tests to run and the numbers to review.

Day 90

Where it's going. Paid-media direction, progress tracked against the agreed numbers.

You know which products and customers make a profit. Your teams work towards one set of priorities. The business runs with less dependence on you.

Case files06

Names removed. Numbers as the founders shared them.

Decisions founders couldn't make alone.

A kids' play brand

₹3L a month on the website to ₹9L+ a month across all channels.

Every order was losing money: about ₹1,250 in ads to win a ₹1,200 order.
Average order went from ₹1,200 to ₹2,950.
8 months, February to October.

The founders worked with Kavea.

A women's comfort wear brand

From ₹18,000 to ₹30,000 in sales for every ₹10,000 on ads.

Selling ₹10L a month and earning nothing.
Ad spend cut by more than half, from ₹15,000 a day to about ₹6,000.

The founder worked with Kavea.

A bag brand

1 sale on day 1 to 2 to 3 orders every day.

Everyone doubted the bags. Hardly anyone had actually seen them.
In 5 weeks, with the same 7 bags.

The founder worked with Kavea.

A children's activity studio

From needing ₹2 crore to open, to paying customers in 13 days.

No rent and no interiors.
6 parents paid for the very first session.

The founder worked with Kavea.

A regional food restaurant going online

A ₹5.6L quote for new recipes, or test what already sells.

Her whole launch budget was ₹5 to 6L.
Her products already sold on her own shelf. She tested them under her own label first.

The founder worked with Kavea.

A craft chocolate brand

₹450 to ₹400 to win a customer, while halving the discount.

A one-bar order cost more to win than it brought in.
Welcome discount from 10% to 5%. No price cut.

The founders worked with Kavea.

A hand block print clothing brand

From sale after sale, to 30% of orders as 2-piece bundles.

No sale running.
In the first 2 days of the new offer.

The founder worked with Kavea.

A premium eyeshadow brand

From ₹0 for marketing to a ₹5 to 6L monthly plan.

Before selling a single palette.
About 3 months.

The founder worked with Kavea.

A craft gifting brand

480 leads and 0 orders, to "We've seen growth."

The co-founder wrote in October asking to re-engage.

The founders worked with Kavea.

A handmade kids' tents brand

From wanting to fire their ads person, to knowing he wasn't the problem.

Every ad asked a stranger to buy a ₹26,000 tent at first sight.
3 weeks. No new shoot.

The founders worked with Kavea.

From founders07

No lies, no mincing words.

There's someone else thinking about my business.

"What I really appreciate about her is her brutal honesty. She gives you a realistic picture of your business, without sugarcoating anything."A founder starting out, Topmate review

"My first call brought so much clarity that I knew I wanted to come on board with her."A founder, Topmate review

"No unrealistic expectations, gives clear goals to work on. Goal is to sell, keeping the core value intact."A founder, Topmate review

My story08

I have worked since I was 15. My first job was in sales.

Built, sold, and back in the room.

DubaiBorn and raised there for 30 years. Sales at National Bank of Dubai and Samsung Gulf Electronics.
18 yearsConsulting with McKinsey, KPMG and Deloitte.
AviationGlobal head of Learning and Development at Jet Airways.
2020Started a D2C toy brand from home, during COVID. ₹82L in year 1 with no ads.
2024Built and exited it, after over ₹4 crore in sales.

"What made it sellable wasn't just revenue or brand. It was independence. Systems that didn't rely on me."

In India for the last 16 years, worked across 9 countries. I know how it works across regions, languages and mindsets.