How Huron’s Numbers-Driven CEO Runs a Profitable DTC Brand
Challenge
- 2-3 week lag in financial reporting and decision-making
- Manual processes created repeat errors and low confidence in the numbers
- Investor reporting required speed and precision the existing setup couldn’t deliver
- Needed tighter control over Opex and COGS to scale profitably
Solution
- Replaced traditional bookkeeping with automated, real-time financials in Finaloop
- Shortened month-end close from weeks to 1–3 days
- Achieved investor-ready accuracy with daily visibility across P&L, COGS, and Opex
- Uses live dashboards and automated reconciliations to proactively identify cost savings
Financial Stack
- Finaloop: Real-time bookkeeping, close, and reporting
- Internal team: Forecasting, analysis, and strategic planning
Meet Huron
Founded in New York City, Huron is redefining men’s personal care with high-quality, accessible products designed to make skincare simple.
CEO Matt Mullenax launched the brand six years ago with co-founder Matt Teri.
“I grew up with bad skin, and all products that worked were exorbitantly priced. The idea was simple: bridge the worlds of high-end products and guys trying to figure out the bathroom.”
With a background in private equity and investment banking, Matt approached building Huron with one non-negotiable principle: financial clarity had to come before growth.
Building bulletproof financials was mission critical.
“If you're bootstrapped and thinking about fundraising, the quickest way to get a no is to have financials that are all over the place, right?”
Now, 6 years later, with a lean team and strong financial discipline, the brand has grown steadily, proving that sustainable growth comes from clarity, not chaos.
The Challenge
Before partnering with Finaloop, Huron managed its books the traditional way.
"We had a bookkeeper and CPA who would close the books every month, but the process was quite laborious. We were often going back and forth for two or three weeks of the subsequent month just to close."
As a venture-backed company, Matt needed to deliver timely, accurate financials to his investors, and the old system wasn’t keeping up.
“Speed to close was really important. We’ve raised outside capital and send very detailed quarterly financials and monthly updates. The ability to have closed books on the first, if not the third of the month, is super important.”
At that point, continuing with a traditional bookkeeper setup no longer made sense. Matt needed a system that delivered speed, consistency, and audit-ready accuracy without adding headcount.
At the same time, he wanted a way to reduce human error and bring repeatable accuracy to the process.“There’s a lot of repeatability in the line items and transactions, but we’re human, and that means human error enters the chat. Having a platform we can rely on to report accurate numbers is really important.”
The Solution
Daily financial visibility
Matt turned to Finaloop to gain control over his finances and cash flow.Once on Finaloop, Huron could see their full financial picture immediately: every day, every week, every month.
"I update our financials every morning. We have a pretty in-depth dashboard showing where we sit month-to-date against our KPIs, goals, budgets, and forecasts. It all comes down to really knowing where you sit week-to-week."
That visibility gives Matt confidence to make fast, informed decisions across every area of the business.
“Where are we underperforming? Where are we ahead of plan? All those things are super important as you get into the day-to-day decisions - how to ratchet acquisition spend, how to manage owned channels, how to adjust strategy.”
Operational discipline
For Matt, lean operations aren’t just a mindset, they’re a process.
“At the end of the month, I go line item by line item through Opex. What’s this charge? Do we need it? If not, we cut it.”
Margin control at scale
That discipline extends to COGS as well.“We have a very detailed COGS reconciliation tab that we built internally to constantly track how we think about international freight and domestic costs, nothing escapes us.”
This level of oversight is how Huron stays profitable and investor-ready, even in a post-tariff, margin-tight environment.
“Acquirers don’t want to buy a high-growth brand that’s burning money left, right, and sideways. They want businesses with 15, 20 or even 25% margins. Every line item matters.”
The Results
- Fully loaded gross margin visibility across every SKU
- Faster, more confident forecasting
- Data-driven planning for BFCM and major promos
- Sustained profitability in a margin-tight environment
Looking back, Matt says one of his biggest mistakes early on was not understanding fully loaded gross margin from day one.
“Understanding where you sit from a fully loaded gross margin perspective is so important. Now we take every nickel and dime, freight, fulfillment, packaging, and throw it in there so there are no surprises.”
That shift has made Huron’s financial foundation rock solid.
“We’ve built our business to say: here’s our gross margin profile today. Where do we want it to be, and is that healthy enough?”
And forecasting, while never perfect, is part of the process.
“The only consistency of forecasting is that it’s 100% going to be wrong, but you try to narrow that degree of incorrectness.”
As BFCM season approaches, Huron’s planning is rooted in data, not instinct.
“We usually kick off that process in April or May. We keep a huge doc for every holiday and promo period that’s simply postmortem analysis: what worked, what didn’t, why.”
This cycle of review and reflection ensures the team constantly improves year over year.
“When we start to kick off BFCM, we just reflect on that doc. What we did well, what we missed, why. That intellectual honesty has been really helpful for us as a small team.”