Maximizing Revenue Growth Pre-Acquisition

Driving 40% revenue surge in under a year through strategic transformation + My advice to pre-exit start-ups looking to boost revenue & valuation

startup exitD2CCM3valuationvanity metricsorganisational transformationperformance marketing

Natural Elements’ challenge: Accelerating revenue & valuation

Natural Elements is a D2C food supplements brand of Natsana based in Germany; whose main investor is BAYER Pharmaceuticals. Towards 2024, BAYER moved to acquire the rest of their shares, officially making Natsana a fully-owned subsidiary of BAYER.

8 months before the deal closed, the team at Natsana reached out to me to ramp up their revenue and secure a strong exit.

That meant:

Re-assessing their real potential
A full review of staff and re-org
Maximizing D2C revenue

How I led Natural Elements to a 40% revenue surge

With a tight timeframe ahead, it was essential to work on multiple fronts: not only tuning up marketing but also revamping the entire company setup, including operations, tech, and human resources.

I tackled this mission in 2 stages:

Stage 1: Assessing the potential

1. Reviewed the business case and current operations, technology use and performance of all teams - performance marketing, e-commerce, logistics and BI, amongst others

2. Reworked the organisational chart: identifying in-house capabilities and rightsizing to get the team ready for acceleration in a few months

3. Set up the martech stach and ensuring smooth reporting

4. Identified new channels to develop

5. Setting up more ambitious targets

Stage 2: Leading the acceleration

After getting both tech and teams ready to roll, I started heading that transformation alongside the C-Suite; managing 25 people in operations and marketing as fractional VP of D2C.

Together, we focused on 4 key areas to get Natural Elements to the next level:

Diversifying Marketing Channels to expand reach:

Maximized the performance of existing channels (Google and Meta)
Rolled out new channels like Social Media, Google Shopping, SEO, Display Ads and Influencer Marketing

Improving CRM for a smoother sales process:

Switched to more agile, D2C-tailored CRM tools
My hot take: there’s more to CRM than Salesforce and Hubspot - reach out if you want advice on my top picks for e-commerce and D2C

Optimizing CVR to reduce acquisition costs:

Boosted CVR
Implemented additional flows and campaigns

Increasing Data Accuracy & Comprehension for better decision making

Refined management tracking system, helping not only marketing but also operations, logistics and stock management
Upped data literacy across the teams
Built reporting and PowerBI dashboards

A 40% increase in revenue vs initial yearly spend

while keeping margins positive

In under 8 months of undergoing that transformation

for a business already generating 8 figures revenues

The Results: A 40% increase in revenue vs initial yearly spend while keeping margins positive

In under 8 months of undergoing that transformation, the results speak for themselves: a revenue increase of 40% above the projection, for a business already generating 8 figures revenues.

And because I am allergic to vanity metrics:

This 40% revenue boost was achieved whilst staying CM3 positive - ensuring that each revenue gain effectively contributed to enhancing profitability ahead of the exit to BAYER.

My advice to pre-exit start-ups looking to boost revenue & valuation:

1. Yes, you can - and should! - grow exponentially without blowing your marketing budget. Focus on diversity of channels, solid tech, sharp data tracking and a strong team - these are as crucial as the marketing spend itself.

2. Marketing doesn’t operate in a vacuum. Make sure your marketing goals are aligned with the entire organisation; and that whoever is in charge of marketing also understands your sales, tech, and ops.

3. Beware of vanity metrics sold to you by agencies. Real marketing results show up on the profit line, so invest in strategies that drive actual profitability. If you feel like something is off with your marketing results… it probably is.

4. Remember: proper marketing data should help inform decisions outside of marketing. In D2C, it can for example help inform logistics and stock management.

5. No CMO budget yet? Hiring a fractional transformational CMO who can deep dive into every facet of your orga, rather than only on ads, can and will propel you to the next level. Of course, you didn’t hear it from me.

Need to scale your D2C startup? Let's discuss how a strategic, integrated approach can boost your revenue and valuation.