TREY SISSON

Founder · Operator · Fractional COO
Encinitas, CA  |  724-263-9511  |  trey.sisson@gmail.com

Consumer brand operator with 15+ years across DTC, CPG, and e-commerce. Co-founded and scaled a consumer accessories brand from $0 to $20M in annual revenue and through a successful exit. Now a fractional COO/CFO advising founders of $10M–$100M+ brands on operations, supply chain, EOS implementation, demand planning, hiring, and growth infrastructure. Deep Asia manufacturing expertise built over 20+ trips across China, Vietnam, Taiwan, and Hong Kong. Builds AI-powered automation systems for operational leverage.

Experience
Fractional COO / CFO — Formosa Consulting
2016 – Present · Encinitas, CA

Embedded fractional operator for DTC and consumer brand founders scaling from $10M to $100M+. Build the operational, financial, and strategic infrastructure that founder-led companies need to professionalize without losing speed. Recurring pattern: marketer-founder with strong brand and audience, but no operational backbone.

  • Embedded operator for DTC founders scaling from $10M–$100M+, building financial and operational infrastructure across health & wellness, CPG, beauty, and apparel
Easy Street Brands (4+ brands incl. Hollow Socks) | ~$20M → $40–50M+ | 6–8 months
  • Built S&OP, cash flow models, daily dashboards, and meeting cadences. Negotiated raw alpaca fiber rates in Peru, saving multiple margin points. Pre-purchased raw materials at fiber level, enabling growth trajectory to $70–80M
  • Negotiated raw alpaca fiber rates directly with Peru-based suppliers and US manufacturer pricing, saving multiple points of margin across the portfolio
  • Big lever: Got ahead of raw material purchasing at the fiber level — negotiated volume commitments with Peru suppliers and had factories store yarn on-site, pre-loading supply chain capacity. This foundational decision enabled the growth trajectory from $20M to a projected $70–80M without supply chain bottlenecks
  • Strategic thought partner and sparring partner to founder on people decisions, strategy, and capital allocation
  • Helped build initial operational infrastructure for a portfolio supplement brand that has since grown to $100M+
Stay Golden — DTC Jewelry | $2M → $4M (2x in 16 months) | 15–16 months
  • Implemented EOS from scratch — weekly L10 meetings, Rocks, full operating cadence. Led inventory rationalization: identified over-SKU'd long tail, ran liquidation sales, streamlined catalog. Brokered co-founder equity partnership
  • Big lever: Identified massively over-SKU'd product line through data analysis. Ran strategic liquidation and clearance sales, then streamlined catalog to highest-velocity SKUs — freed cash, improved margins, simplified operations, and improved brand coherence simultaneously
  • Brokered co-founder equity partnership between two first-time entrepreneurs — structured the equity split, negotiated investment terms, persuaded both sides. Partnership remains intact today
  • Built dashboards, cash flow management, inventory planning, demand forecasting. Negotiated supply chain rates saving multiple COGS margin points
  • Served as mentor-advisor-operator: weekly strategic thought partner, deeply embedded in every aspect of the business and team
Supplement Brand | $15M (~$2.5–3M/mo) → $40M trajectory | 4–5 months
  • Designed VP-level hiring process using WHO method — scorecards, structured interviews, full pipeline in Notion. Rebuilt affiliate analytics model
  • Introduced stage-gating process for new product launches with senior supply chain lead
  • Built dashboards and reporting infrastructure for a fast-scaling team with a hands-off founder
Pet Supplement Brand | $10M → $20M trajectory | Current
  • Refined S&OP and PO management processes. Day-to-day operations management across Amazon, DTC, TikTok (incl. Fulfilled by TikTok), and wholesale. Freight/logistics coordination, vendor management
  • Refined S&OP and PO management processes. Managing day-to-day operations across Amazon, DTC, TikTok (including Fulfilled by TikTok), and wholesale channels
  • Freight and logistics coordination, vendor management, and cross-channel inventory planning
AI & Automation — Applied across engagements
  • Built AI-powered influencer prospecting systems — automated scraping, LLM-based scoring, and personalized outreach — replacing weeks of manual work with a daily pipeline
  • Actively builds with Claude Code and AI tooling — real automated systems and workflows, not just prompts
Co-Founder / COO — Baboon to the Moon
2017 – 2023 · New York, NY

Co-founded DTC consumer accessories brand with two partners (CEO, CMO, COO). Owned all operations end-to-end: supply chain, product development, e-commerce, digital marketing, customer experience, logistics, analytics, and tech stack. Scaled from $0 to $20M in annual revenue with a team of 8–10 and exited in 2023.

  • Co-founded DTC accessories brand; scaled from $0 to $20M in annual revenue with a team of 8–10. Owned operations, supply chain, e-commerce, product development, digital marketing, CX, and analytics through successful exit
  • Built nominated vendor supply chain across 4 Asian countries (20+ trips, 5 years). 300+ SKUs with 9–12 month dev cycles. Negotiated payment terms to net-200 days
  • Designed backend product management system on Sanity CMS for seamless 40+ SKU monthly drops. Managed developers, designers, and full e-commerce tech stack
  • Managed international freight via Flexport. Evaluated dual-coast and international fulfillment options. Zero fulfillment crises — built proactive 3PL forecast communication cadence
Supply Chain & Manufacturing
  • Built nominated vendor supply chain across 4 Asian countries (Hong Kong, Vietnam, Taiwan, China) — sourced and managed individual suppliers for fabric, zippers, and trims rather than relying on a single end-manufacturer
  • Completed 20+ factory trips over 5 years. Built deep relationships with Asian manufacturing partners across multiple production facilities
  • Negotiated payment terms from standard to net-200 days — demonstrating vendor relationship strength and cash conversion cycle sophistication
  • Managed 300+ SKUs with complex color matching across products, trims, and zippers. Custom graphic interior prints. 9–12 month development cycles, 3–4 months PO to warehouse
E-Commerce & Technology
  • Managed developers, web designers, and the full e-commerce tech stack — site, apps, plugins, and analytics tools
  • Designed backend product management system on Sanity CMS enabling seamless 40+ SKU monthly drops
  • Managed CRO program: landing page testing, PDP optimization, product launch workflows, email marketing, and retention programs
Fulfillment & Demand Planning
  • Managed single East Coast 3PL for full business lifecycle. Zero fulfillment crises despite frequent demand spikes from limited-run drops and Q4 surges — built proactive forecast communication cadence with 3PL so labor was always adequate
  • Evaluated dual-coast fulfillment, Mexico-based 3PL for Section 321 duty savings, and international fulfillment options. Managed international freight through Flexport
Strategic Impact & Leadership
  • Big lever: Shifted from monthly product drops to fewer, more strategic launches — applied stronger financial discipline (quantity planning, margin analysis) and used sell-outs as a demand engine. Result: better per-drop economics, reduced team strain, and increased brand heat through scarcity
  • Personally handled all CX tickets for 3+ years through $10M+ in revenue — the ultimate player-coach proof point
  • Built financial models, forecasting, and investor relations materials. Presented at quarterly board meetings
  • Led company through a successful sale — managed acquirer diligence process, financial preparation, and the operational handoff
Founder / CEO — Stefan's Head
2015 – 2016 · New York, NY
  • Built SMS-based retail platform. Grew subscriber list to 15,000+ through brand, concert, and creator partnerships
Co-Founder — Goods of Record (Techstars '15)
2014 – 2015 · New York, NY
  • Co-founded artisan men's goods brand. Accepted into Techstars accelerator program (2015 cohort)
Earlier Career
Product Manager — StumbleUpon
2011 – 2013 · San Francisco, CA
  • Led product strategy, design, and development for Paid Discovery — the advertising platform generating $35M+ annually, used by 100K+ advertisers and 30M+ users globally
Product Manager — Amplify Education (Wireless Generation)
2010 – 2011 · New York, NY
  • Led 40+ person cross-functional team (developers, designers, QA, PMs, technical writers) through full product lifecycle for mCLASS Beacon, a K–12 formative assessment system
Business Analyst / Project Manager — Goldman Sachs
2008 – 2010 · New York, NY
  • Managed cross-divisional technology initiatives (X-div) from requirements gathering through deployment
Education
MBA — Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania (2013–2015)
MS, Information Systems Management — Carnegie Mellon University (2006–2007)
BS, Information Systems — Carnegie Mellon University (2003–2007)
Mentorship & Advisory
Attentive — Advisor (2017–2019)  |  Techstars — Mentor (2018–2021)  |  First Round Fast Track — Mentor (2019–2021)
Ongoing mentor-advisor to early-stage DTC and consumer founders on operations, hiring, growth strategy, and organizational design. Trusted as a strategic sparring partner — a peer who understands the founder journey.
Dad · Golfer · Cyclist · Ironman Finisher