Something in your business stopped working. Let's name it.

I work with consumer founders who have a problem they can feel but haven't defined. We name it on the first call, then we fix it.

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Quoted inFast CompanyTechCrunchNew York MagazineCNN
Nicole Centeno
Nicole Centeno · Brooklyn

From bootstrapped to $190M+ in sales.

Building a consumer brand takes guts. Cutting through the noise of investors, co-founders and a team takes perspective, and perspective is the thing operator-founders run out of first. I know what it is to be the bottleneck, and what it takes to stop.

The work treats your time as the business's scarcest resource. I tell you what I see, we choose a path, you leave with a plan you can run.

Cumulative DTC revenue$190M+
Subscribers, all 50 states210,000+
Month-two retention, at 3:1 LTV:CAC85%
Capital raised, Seed through Series B3 rounds
Before thatThe New Yorker · Condé Nast · Wired
The work · the six founder blockers

Name your problems. I'll tell you which one is blocking you.

Our acquisition cost keeps climbing and nobody can say in one line what we're for.
Brand and growth gapThe product moved and the brand didn't. Positioning, voice, and the channel plan that follows from them.
Customers love us and still leave.
Subscription economicsActivation, cohort retention, churn and win-back, plan architecture. The model, then the plan.
We have forty products and no hero.
Portfolio architectureWhat leads, what supports, what goes. SKU logic, pricing ladder, innovation pipeline.
Growth stalled. The thing that got us here isn't going to get us there.
Re-finding product-market fitReading the demand signal and repositioning against it: product, channel, category, or the growth model itself.
The board wants a plan I haven't had a week to write.
Operating cadenceThe board narrative, the reporting rhythm, and the operating plan behind them. Written, not promised.
Everything runs through me.
Founder as bottleneckI take the brand and growth seat for a defined period, build the system, and hand it back or hire your replacement.

Every engagement is a fixed scope with a named deliverable and a price you see before we start. Most begin as a four-week sprint. Some become a capped retainer or an interim role.

Start

Thirty minutes. Bring your biggest worries.

No deck. You describe what's off; I tell you what I think it is and whether I'm the right person to fix it. If I'm not, I'll say so and point you somewhere better.

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Email · nicole@nicolecenteno.com
Based · Brooklyn, New York
Working with · US founders; Manila by arrangement
Availability · One new engagement for November 2026