Unpacking CPG Finance: Ryan Williams, Founder of Northall | Investor Spotlight Podcast

Описание: In this episode of the Startup CPG Podcast, host Hannah Dittman sits down with Ryan Williams, founder of Northhall, to break down CPG Finance and Accounting 101—covering the critical terms, frameworks, and hard-earned lessons that founders need to build a strong financial foundation from day one.

Ryan's path took him from investment banking at Houlihan Lokey (where he was an intern on the sell-side of Snack Factory/Pretzel Crisps and caught the CPG bug) to CFO of a venture-backed coffee brand, to founding Northhall—a full-cycle accounting and finance partner serving CPG brands from $3M to approaching $100M in revenue. Through Northhall, Ryan and his team handle everything from bookkeeping and financial statements to FP&A, modeling, and fundraising readiness—exclusively for physical consumer goods companies.

The conversation digs into the nuts and bolts of CPG finance: why gross-to-net revenue reporting matters (and why booking your Shopify or Amazon payout as "revenue" understates your true sales), how to think about your general ledger and chart of accounts, and how to calculate contribution margin by channel. Ryan also shares his three-stage CPG accounting lifecycle, why founders should connect their GL directly to their financial model for speed and precision, and why adding software too early often creates more problems than it solves.

On the fundraising side, Ryan shares two of his most important lessons: why optimizing for valuation while your bank account is declining is a common and dangerous trap, and why capital efficiency—trailing revenue divided by capital burned—is one of the clearest signals of value creation an investor can see. He also argues that early-stage brands should prioritize 3x growth over near-term profitability, and that the brands with the best exits weren't stories of incremental improvement—they were stories of wild consumer fervor.

Connect with the guests:

Ryan Williams — Founder, Northhall
🔗 LinkedIn:   / ryanstuartwill  
🌐 Website: https://www.northhall.com/
  / northhall  

Hannah Dittman — Host, Startup CPG
🔗 LinkedIn:   / hannah-dittman-011b844b  

Key Moments:

00:00 Introduction and Ryan's Background
02:42 From Investment Banking to CPG: Ryan's Career Path
04:14 Northhall Overview: Who They Work With and Why
06:27 Why CPG Finance Is Different From Other Industries
09:13 Building Financial Foundations: Where to Start
13:56 Bare Minimum Finance for Early-Stage Founders
14:44 Gross-to-Net Revenue: What It Is and Why It Matters
19:05 Online vs. Offline Deductions: A Practical Walkthrough
20:48 Chart of Accounts / General Ledger 101
25:32 Gross Margin vs. Contribution Margin Explained
28:07 The "What Happened to My $1" Framework
29:46 Fundraising Lessons: Valuation Traps and Capital Efficiency
33:20 Finding Real Product-Market Fit: Take Bigger Pivots
34:43 Key Investor KPIs: Capital Efficiency, Growth Rate, and More
38:03 How to Reach Northhall and Break Into CPG Finance

About Startup CPG:
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Stay connected:
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🔗 LinkedIn:   / startupcpg  

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