Growth architecture
Where to play, what to sell and at what margin. We turn scattered opinions into one quantified plan your team can actually run.
LeverModelled upside
Independent growth consulting
Email / SMS92%
Organic74%
Paid search46%
Paid social31%
Affiliates22%
Growth, engineered from the margin up.
We instrument what your shop already knows, model the economics underneath it, and build the operating system that turns the next euro of spend into profit you can bank.
Senior-led, start to finish
Fee agreed per engagement
Reply within one business day
Contribution margin31.4%▲ 6.1 pts
Break-even ROAS2.18x▼ 0.34x
CAC payback58 d▼ 23 d
Repeat rate 90d29.6%▲ 2.4 pts
Contribution after ad spendrolling 12 w
Margin by channelcontribution
Illustrative interface — figures are examples, not client data
Updated 14 s ago
The stack we work in
Shopify
Meta Ads
Google Ads
Klaviyo
TikTok Ads
GA4
Recharge
Triple Whale
Shopify Markets
Postscript
Looker Studio
Amazon Ads
100%Senior-led. The person on the first call is the person doing the work.
2–4 wksFrom kick-off to a complete, evidence-backed diagnostic.
In writingScope, deliverables and fee agreed per engagement, before anything starts.
1 dayEvery serious enquiry answered within one business day.
Capabilities
Six levers. Nothing decorative.
We go deep on a small number of things that decide whether growth is profitable. Everything else is somebody else's job, and we will tell you so.
Acquisition systems
Account structure, creative testing cadence and measurement that let you add spend without CAC quietly eating the business.
Creative cycleWeek 24
UGC · before/afterCAC 24.10Scale
Founder storyCAC 31.80Testing
Bundle offerCAC 48.30Paused
Conversion engineering
Behavioural data over opinions. We find where revenue leaks on the way to checkout and prioritise the fixes by what they are worth.
Open capabilityLifecycle & retention
Flows, segmentation and subscription design that raise second orders and LTV — without discounting the brand into the ground.
Open capabilityUnit economics
Contribution margin per order, break-even ROAS, payback and runway. The numbers every other decision on this page depends on.
Open capabilityMarket expansion
Choose the next country on evidence, localise properly and launch against defined go/no-go criteria instead of a hopeful test.
Market scoringsize · rivalry · fit · logistics · tax · payback
Not sure which lever is binding?
That is the first thing a diagnostic answers — usually in week two.
Book a call
The method
Four phases, no mystery in between
Every engagement runs the same sequence, scaled to the size of the question. You always know which phase we are in, what it produces and when it ends.
Baseline
Weeks 1–3Everything starts with facts nobody argues with. We instrument the data you already own and rebuild the picture from the bottom line up.
- Shop, ads, lifecycle and P&L pulled together
- Contribution margin and cohort baseline
- Interviews with the people who run it
- The three constraints that actually bind
Blueprint
Weeks 3–6Options on the table, each with a number attached. You choose with the trade-offs visible, not after the fact.
- Growth levers sized by expected impact
- Recommended path and the reasoning
- Roadmap with owners and milestones
- Targets for CAC, LTV, MER and margin
Build
Months 2–6+We work inside the accounts next to your team. Weekly cadence, one dashboard, no reporting theatre.
- Weekly operating meeting and KPI board
- Hands-on work on the priority levers
- Creative, CRO and lifecycle test cycles
- Course corrections from live results
Compound
OngoingThe point is that it keeps working once we are gone. We hand over the system, not a dependency.
- Results measured against the business case
- Playbooks, models and SOPs transferred
- Coaching for the owners you hire
- Optional check-ins once it closes
Why independent
Operator rigour without the agency machine
The structure of an engagement decides what gets recommended. Here is ours, next to the one you already know.
Typical agency
MCO Operations
Who does the work
A pitch team sells it, a junior runs it
The operator you met runs it, start to finish
How you pay
Monthly retainer, often indexed to ad spend
A fee agreed per engagement, in writing
What you get
Decks, dashboards and a weekly status call
Models, decisions and work inside the accounts
Whose side
Commissions and partner fees from tools
No referral fees. Nothing to sell you but the work
After it ends
Knowledge leaves with the account manager
Playbooks, models and SOPs stay with your team
Sectors
Where we already know the terrain
Context matters more than frameworks. These are the categories whose economics we already know from the inside.
Beauty & personal care
Crowded auctions, heavy creative turnover and repeat purchase as the only path to profit.
Health & supplements
Subscription economics, compliance constraints and churn that decides the whole model.
Fashion & apparel
Returns, size logic and seasonality that can quietly erase a good gross margin.
Home & living
High AOV, long consideration and freight costs that belong in every margin model.
Food & beverage
Thin margins, cold-chain logistics and a repeat rate that has to be engineered.
Subscription & digital
Cohort retention, pricing ladders and payback periods measured in months, not days.
Operator's note
“Most growth problems are measurement problems wearing a costume. Fix what you count, and the right decision is usually embarrassingly obvious.”
MC
Mark CarkovFounder & Managing Member
Engagements
Three ways to start
Each one starts with a written proposal: scope, deliverables, timeline and the fee, agreed before work begins.
Diagnostic
2–4 weeks · fee by agreementOne question, answered with evidence. Usually asked before a budget increase, a market launch or a funding round.
- Full review of shop, ads, lifecycle and margins
- Constraints ranked by the money behind them
- A 90-day plan you can run without us
- Findings session with your team
Operating Partner
3–9 months · fee by agreementStrategy through implementation, with a senior operator in your weekly rhythm until the numbers move.
- Everything in the diagnostic, as the starting point
- Roadmap, targets and the operating cadence
- Hands-on work across ads, CRO and lifecycle
- Tracked against the business case throughout
Standing Counsel
Monthly · fee by agreementAn independent second opinion on the decisions that are hard to take alone.
- Scheduled strategy sessions
- On-call input when something breaks
- Hiring, agency and investor preparation
- Full confidentiality, NDA on request
No commission from tools · no lock-in
Questions
Asked on most first calls
Do you run the ad accounts, or only advise?
Both, depending on what the engagement needs. In a diagnostic we analyse and recommend. As operating partner we work inside the accounts alongside your team — structuring campaigns, briefing creative, building the models — while your people keep ownership. We are not a media buying agency on retainer, and we do not want to become the single point of failure in your growth.
How small is too small?
Below roughly €25k a month the honest answer is usually that you need operators, not advice. We will say so on the first call and point you somewhere sensible rather than sell you a diagnostic you cannot act on.
What do you need access to?
Shopify or your platform, the ad accounts, your email and SMS tool, analytics, and whatever P&L or margin data exists. Read-only is fine to start. If the margin data does not exist yet, building it is usually the first thing we do.
How is this priced?
Every engagement is priced in a written proposal, agreed before anything starts. Depending on the mandate that is a project price, a percentage of your revenue, or a base fee plus a share of revenue — which of the three applies is set out in the proposal. There are no standard retainers, so no two invoices look the same. What we never take is a commission from the tools we recommend: that would change what gets recommended, and we would rather be useful than aligned with a vendor.
How do clients pay?
By invoice or by a payment link — card or bank transfer, whichever suits your finance side. Terms are set out in the proposal alongside the fee.
What happens on the first call?
Thirty to forty-five minutes, no slides. You describe where you are stuck, we ask the questions that narrow it down, and you get an honest read on whether this is worth scoping. If it is not, we say so — that call costs you nothing either way.
Next step
Let's find out where the margin is hiding.
A free, no-obligation first call. You describe the bottleneck, we ask the questions that narrow it down, and you get an honest read on whether we can help.