Ilumina Partners · Revenue Systems
Your dashboards disagree. Your P&L is quarterly.
We build DTC brands a real-time revenue engine — live SKU contribution margin, a predictive 13-week cash floor, and cross-platform MER — with alerts that surface problems before the accounting does.
§ I The condition
You are not short on data. You are short on truth.
Finance reports $100,000. Meta claims $80,000. Klaviyo claims $40,000. The bank holds $62,000 — and nothing is broken except your visibility.
By the time the P&L shows a margin problem, the POs are placed and the ad spend is spent.
The hindsight tax — paid every quarter, in inventory and media.
Six to ten hours a week copying numbers between platforms that refuse to agree.
The spreadsheet tax — paid by the person whose judgment you can least afford to rent out.
At your size, a two-point margin slip on one hero SKU is a hire, an inventory buy, or a quarter.
§ II The instruments
Three instruments. Continuous watch.
Not dashboards you learn to ignore — instruments with thresholds, watching every hour, speaking only when something moves.
No. 01
SKU Contribution Margin
True per-SKU margin after COGS, fees, fulfillment, and returns — computed continuously, not quarterly.
18%
fires when a high-volume SKU drops below this margin
Engine · SKU-2847Sample
⚠ Contribution margin — [SKU-2847] fell to 14.2% (was 19.8%). Driver: inbound freight +$1.90/unit. Volume: 312/wk.
Telex 01 The alert as it arrives
No. 02
13-Week Cash Floor
A rolling forecast of bank cash — pending payouts, committed PO deposits, and scheduled ad spend included.
45 days
fires when the projected floor dips under this much OPEX
Engine · Cash floorSample
⚠ Cash floor — projected low of 38 days OPEX in week of Nov 9. Largest driver: $86k PO deposit, week of Nov 2.
Telex 02 Thirteen weeks, watched ahead
No. 03
Cross-Platform MER
Total revenue against total spend — the one number no platform can inflate — correlated with channel signals for early warning.
7 days
fires when leading indicators point to a slump before it hits the books
Engine · MERSample
⚠ MER correlation — CPM +22% and CVR −0.4pt over 6 days; historical pattern precedes revenue dip by ~1 week.
Telex 03 The early warning
§ III The proof
It runs in our own house.
The engine described above runs first in our own DTC operation — every day, on real money. It is the demo.
What the machine reads
Proof plates from our own books — the data layer, the engine canvas, and one redacted weekly brief — are being prepared for this page. Meanwhile, the offer below is unchanged: the first alert on your numbers arrives within 72 hours of access.
§ IV The engagement
Four movements. No mystery.
The Fit Check Free
Send your stack and your goals. The questions that matter arrive by email and take five minutes. The verdict comes back in writing — go, conditional, or no-go. No call required.
Written verdict — no call required
Blueprint Week
An architecture map of your data and an automation blueprint for the engine — delivered in week one, and yours to keep whatever you decide.
The blueprint is yours, regardless of what follows
The Build Fixed scope
A fixed-scope menu, not open-ended discovery. The first real alert runs on your data within 72 hours of access — ROI visible before the second payment is due. The full engine stands in three to four weeks, with a 30-day break-fix window behind it.
First live alert ≤ 72 hours from access
The Retainer Optional
Managed infrastructure, a weekly agent-narrated executive brief, and a monthly strategic call. Three-month minimum; annual commitments earn a month free.
Weekly brief · Monthly call · Quarterly review
The guarantee, stated publicly
You'll know by day five whether we're right. You keep the blueprint either way — and you don't pay the second half unless the build goes ahead.
The build is a fixed-scope menu, quoted in writing once your fit check clears — never a moving number. The retainer, should you keep it, is quoted the same way.
§ V Discretion, applied to data
What we never touch.
Your infrastructure. Pipelines and the data layer run on your instance and your accounts — your credentials, your instance, your data.
Write access. Read-only, least-privilege access, scoped per connector and revoked at engagement end.
Credential custody. You create and own every credential. They reach us through a password manager — never email, never chat.
Your raw access. Our systems never store client credentials. The narrative layer sees computed outputs only — never raw access.
Your financial data. It stays in your infrastructure. Only derived metrics leave it, for narration only.
Not a dashboard tool
BI displays what happened. The engine tells you before it happens.
Not fractional CFO
No taxes, no compliance, no bookkeeping. We make the numbers real-time; your accountants keep their job.
Not a growth agency
We measure true contribution margin and bank cash — not platform ROAS.
Out of scope — media buying, ERP migrations, custom software — declined or referred.
§ VI A fit check, before anything
Begin with a fit check.
We qualify before we quote — so should you. Send your name and your stack; the questions that matter come back by email, five minutes to answer, free. A written verdict, not a call sequence.
Go
A fixed-price quote, in writing.
Conditional
Workable with scoped add-ons — you'll see exactly what they cost before you commit.
No-go
An honest pass, with the reason. Most firms won't tell you; we'd rather tell you early.
§ VII Questions, answered plainly
Asked and answered.
Why is the fit check free?
We qualify before we quote; you shouldn't pay to learn whether we can help. If the answer is no, you deserve it early and in writing.
What if our stack is partly legacy?
Most are, somewhere. The fit check sorts proven from workable from disqualifying — and "workable" arrives with the add-ons scoped and priced.
What does an engagement cost?
The build is a fixed-scope menu, quoted in writing after the fit check — never a moving number. The optional retainer is quoted the same way.
Who holds our credentials?
You do. Read-only, least-privilege, created by you, revoked at the end — our systems never store them.
We already have a bookkeeper or CFO.
Good — the engine feeds them live truth instead of month-end archaeology. Taxes, compliance, and bookkeeping remain theirs.
How is this different from the BI tools we already pay for?
Dashboards display what happened. The engine watches continuously and tells you what's about to — with a recommended action attached.