How Huron’s Numbers-Driven CEO Runs a Profitable DTC Brand

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."

That lag left the team operating on outdated numbers, with little confidence that they could trust their numbers.As a venture-backed company, Matt needed to deliver timely, accurate financials to his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 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.”

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The Solution

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.”

‍For Matt, lean operations aren’t just a mindset, they’re a process.

‍“At the end of the month, I literally go line item by line item through Opex in our financials. What’s this charge? Do we need it? If not, let’s cut it.”

‍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

Looking back, Matt says one of his biggest mistakes early on was not understanding fully loaded gross margin from day one.

“Really 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.”