CFO CASE STUDIES

Case Study 1: Consumer Facing E-commerce Business

Challenge

A B2C E-commerce business was struggling to reset itself after a period of high growth with a combination of high advertising costs and heavy discounting to meet growth targets.  New management was brought in to produce a revised strategy and put the company on a path to profitability.  New management needed a plan and a financial model to show investors an innovative approach which would lead to a sustainable business model.

The Solution

Oak Tree worked directly with the CEO and management team to rationalize the high growth by reducing discounts and bringing ad-spend into line with a targeted improvement in return on ad-spend (“ROAS”).  The CFO provided a financial forecast and pitch deck to demonstrate what a managed growth strategy would look like and achieve for the reconstituted business.  

Outcome

The company received multiple rounds of funding from existing investors.

Case Study 2 – Startup Media Business

Challenge

Well-known and recognized content provider of television content for targeted demographics was leaving her existing employer to establish a full-service studio focused on projects driven by complex and dynamic characters who represent diverse people, places, cultures, and concepts.  She believed that her target community was largely underserved by the large media providers.  She had created a high-level set of projections that potential investors gave feedback that the projections should be more detailed and more in line with what investors expected.

The Solution

Oak Tree was engaged to revise and expand the financial projections to make them more understandable  to investors.  The Consultant worked with the management team to expand and detail both the revenues and expenses.  A three-sheet model was developed to illustrate the implications of investments and to demonstrate how it would positively impact the business and its ability to get up and quickly.

The Outcome

The client was able to present a credible financial forecast for investors and received a much warmer reception to the request for capital.

Case Study 3 – Real Estate Developer

Challenge

Oak Tree worked with a real estate developer who was looking to obtain bank financing for the next stage of his combined commercial and residential development.  The developer did not have a good financial model that clearly communicated the amount of capital that was needed or the speed in which the project could be developed.  The internally developed projections that were not clear or acceptable to the lending institutions.

Solution

Oak Tree developed a detailed financial forecast with clear timing of revenues and expenses.  The Consultant worked with the developer to understand the timing of each segment of the project to allow the lenders to understand the timing of the loans and other investments and the payback periods.

Outcome

The developer was offered multiple loan opportunities and ended up getting cost effective funding from investors based on the model and the project returns.

Scroll to top