I Built Kedia Consultants Because I Needed It and Couldn't Find It
- Priyanka Kedia
- 1 day ago
- 11 min read
What $5M-$25M Founders Need to Know
The hardest transition in building a business isn't 0 to $1M - it's $5M to $25M - at $5M, you can't operate like a scrappy startup anymore, but you can't afford full executive teams either. Operational complexity multiplies faster than your ability to handle it alone, and decision fatigue becomes the hidden constraint that stalls growth.
No one can sell your vision better than you, but operations will drown you if you try to do both — the breakthrough moment for most founders is realizing they need to hand off operational execution entirely so they can focus on the growth activities only they can drive: sales, fundraising, strategic partnerships, and building the brand that only you can build.
What growing brands need isn't another part-time advisor — it's someone who makes decisions like you would and executes on them — the gap between $5M and $25M requires operational partnership that understands your business deeply enough to act with your judgment while you focus on revenue, not someone who shows up monthly with recommendations you don't have time to implement.
Most consultants fail growing brands because they treat $5M-$25M like small enterprise or large startup — this stage is neither. You're too complex for basic systems, too lean for corporate infrastructure, and too cash-constrained for inefficiency. Generic consulting frameworks break here because they don't account for the reality of limited bandwidth, tight margins, and founder-led decision-making.
I focus exclusively on $5M-$25M brands because I've lived the loneliness and decision fatigue of this stage — after building, scaling, and selling my own business, I know what it feels like to be drowning in operational details while knowing your real value is elsewhere. That's why I built Kedia: to be the operational partner I needed but couldn't find.
The Decision Fatigue No One Warns You About
When you're building a business in the early days, you do everything yourself. That's expected. You're scrappy. You're resourceful. You figure it out.
Inventory management? You handle it. Production planning? You're on it. Freight quotes? You're comparing carriers at midnight. Demand forecasting? You're building spreadsheets between sales calls.
And it works. For a while.
But here's what happens when you cross $5M in revenue: the operational complexity multiplies faster than your ability to keep up. And you're still trying to do it all yourself.
Because that's what got you here, right? Hard work. Attention to detail. Refusing to let things slip.
But here's the truth I learned the hard way: at this stage, doing everything yourself isn't dedication — it's the bottleneck.
Every hour I spent reconciling inventory discrepancies was an hour I wasn't spending on sales calls. Every morning I started troubleshooting production delays was a morning I wasn't building retail partnerships. Every week I burned managing operational fires was a week I wasn't working on fundraising or strategic growth.
And the decision fatigue was crushing.
Not big strategic decisions — those I could handle. It was the relentless barrage of small operational decisions that drained me:
Should we expedite this shipment or wait for the next container?Do we reorder this SKU now or wait to see if the forecast holds?Which freight carrier should we use for this lane?How do we allocate limited production capacity across competing priorities?
Hundreds of these decisions every week. Each one small. Each one necessary. Each one requiring context and judgment.
I was drowning in decisions that needed to be made but didn't need to be made by me.
FAQ: How do you know when you've crossed the line from "founder hustle" to "founder bottleneck"?
When you're consistently choosing between operational execution and revenue-generating activities — and operations is winning. When your calendar is filled with internal coordination instead of customer conversations, investor meetings, or strategic partnerships. When you know what needs to happen to grow but can't find the bandwidth to do it because you're buried in the work of running what you've already built.
The Moment Everything Changed
I'll never forget the moment I realized something had to give.
I was supposed to be on a call with a potential retail partner — the kind of conversation that could open hundreds of doors. But I was late joining because I was handling a production issue that had cascaded into a delivery delay.
By the time I got on the call, I was distracted, reactive, and half-focused. I didn't bring my best. The opportunity didn't move forward.
And I realized: No one can sell your vision better than you. But if you're buried in operations, you're not selling.
That's when I made the decision that changed everything.
I stopped trying to do it all. I handed off operations entirely so I could focus on what only I could do as a founder: sales, growth, partnerships, and building the business forward.
And we scaled profitably because I finally had the bandwidth to do the work that actually moved revenue.
Here's what I learned from that decision:
Operations doesn't need you to execute it personally. It needs someone who can make decisions with your judgment and execute with your standards — but it doesn't need to be you sitting in the weeds daily.
What does need you — what can't be delegated — is selling your vision. Building relationships. Closing partnerships. Driving revenue.
That's the work only founders can do. And when you're drowning in operations, that work doesn't happen.
FAQ: Isn't handing off operations risky? What if someone doesn't execute the way you would?
It's risky if you hand it to the wrong person - someone who doesn't understand your business, your standards, or how to make judgment calls that align with your priorities. That's why operational partnership works best when it's embedded, accountable, and focused on one client at a time. Part-time consultants spread across five clients can't develop that depth. A dedicated operational partner can.
What I Needed (But Couldn't Find)
When I realized I needed to get out of daily operations, I started looking for help.
Here's what I tried:
I looked for consultants. They gave great strategy decks and frameworks. Then they left. The recommendations sat in a folder while I scrambled to figure out how to actually implement them on top of everything else I was already doing.
I talked to advisors. They had valuable insights and pattern recognition from working with dozens of companies. But they didn't have time to get into my specific business deeply enough to make decisions the way I would. Their advice was directionally helpful but operationally vague.
I considered hiring full-time. But I couldn't afford a $120K+ operations manager, and even if I could, the ramp time would be 3-6 months before they'd be productive. I needed help now, not in six months.
So I kept doing it myself. Because there wasn't another option that fit what I actually needed.
Here's what I needed and couldn't find:
Someone who understood both the operational grind AND the growth decisions. Not just logistics expertise. Not just strategic thinking. Both, integrated, because at $5M-$25M, every operational decision has strategic implications and every growth decision has operational constraints.
Someone who could make decisions like I would without needing me in the loop constantly. I didn't need a taskmaster who waited for instructions. I needed a partner who understood the business well enough to make judgment calls that aligned with my priorities — then execute on them.
Someone embedded in my business full-time, not juggling five other clients. Part-time consultants can't develop the deep context required to operate autonomously. They're always playing catch-up, always needing to be briefed, always one step removed from the real situation.
Someone accountable for outcomes, not deliverables. I didn't need another report or presentation. I needed someone whose success was measured by whether inventory turns improved, COGS tightened, and cash flow strengthened — the same metrics I cared about.
That partner didn't exist. So I kept grinding. And eventually, I figured it out. But I never forgot how hard it was. And I never forgot how lonely that stage felt.
Looking to free up your bandwidth so you can focus on sales and growth instead of drowning in operational decisions? Let's talk about what operational partnership actually looks like when it's built for your stage.
FAQ: Why didn't you just hire a full-time operations manager?
At the stage I was at, I couldn't justify the cost or the ramp time. A senior operations manager costs $120K-$150K annually plus benefits, and it takes 3-6 months for them to understand your business well enough to operate autonomously. I needed immediate capacity from someone who already understood how growing businesses work - and I needed flexibility as the business evolved, not a fixed headcount commitment.
Why I Focus on $5M-$25M (And Why This Stage Is Different from Everything Else)
After I scaled and eventually sold my business, I knew I wanted to help other founders. But I didn't want to be a generic consultant working with companies at every stage.
I wanted to focus on the stage where I knew I could add the most value - because I'd lived it, survived it, and understood exactly what breaks at that inflection point.
That stage is $5M-$25M.
Here's why this stage is uniquely hard:
You're Too Complex for Startup Playbooks
At 0-$5M, you can operate scrappy. Spreadsheets, gut instinct, and founder hustle carry you through. Systems can be loose because the founder remembers everything and can course-correct in real time.
At $5M+, that doesn't work anymore. You have too many SKUs, too many channels, too many stakeholders. The founder can't be the central node holding everything together -there's too much information, too many decisions, too much complexity.
You need systems. But not enterprise-grade, overbuilt systems that slow you down and cost a fortune. You need right-sized operational infrastructure that scales with you, not ahead of you.
Most consultants don't know how to build that. They either give you startup advice (too loose) or enterprise frameworks (too heavy). The middle path — operational discipline without bureaucracy — is rare.
You're Too Lean for Full Executive Teams
At $25M+, you can afford a full C-suite: CFO, COO, VP of Operations, VP of Supply Chain. You can hire specialists who own functional areas end-to-end.
At $5M-$25M, you can't. You're still founder-led with a small team wearing multiple hats. You need executive-level thinking but can't afford executive-level headcount across the board.
This creates a gap. You need operational leadership, but hiring a full-time COO or VP of Operations is financially untenable or strategically premature.
Fractional leadership solves this — but only if the fractional partner is actually embedded, accountable, and operating like an internal leader, not an external consultant.
Decision Fatigue Is the Hidden Growth Constraint
At this stage, founders aren't failing because they lack strategy. They're failing because they're drowning in operational decisions that consume the bandwidth they need for growth activities.
They know they should be talking to investors. But they're managing production delays.
They know they should be closing that retail partnership. But they're troubleshooting inventory discrepancies.
They know they should be hiring ahead of growth. But they're buried in the operational details of managing current scale.
Decision fatigue becomes the bottleneck. Not capability. Not vision. Just sheer bandwidth.
What founders at this stage need isn't advice. It's capacity. Someone who takes operational decisions and execution off their plate entirely so they can focus on the work only they can do.
The Loneliness of This Stage
Here's something no one talks about: $5M-$25M is lonely.
You're past the stage where other startup founders relate to your problems. You're not dealing with product-market fit or early traction anymore. You're dealing with working capital management, SKU rationalization, and retail distribution strategy.
But you're not at the stage where you have a leadership team to collaborate with. You're still making most decisions alone, often second-guessing yourself because there's no one in the room who's been here before.
You can't talk to investors about this stuff — they want to hear about growth, not operational struggles. You can't talk to your team about it — they're looking to you for confidence and direction.
You need someone who's been in your chair. Someone who understands the weight of these decisions. Someone who can help carry them.
That's why I built Kedia for this stage specifically. Because I know what it feels like. And I know what you need.
FAQ: Why can't founders at this stage just figure it out like you did?
They can. I did. But it cost me time, bandwidth, and missed opportunities that I'll never get back. The question isn't whether you can grind through it alone - it's whether that's the best use of your time when there's a faster path that lets you focus on growth instead of operational firefighting.
What I Built (And Why It's What You Need)
When I started Kedia Consultants, I designed it around one question:
What would I have needed when I was in the founder's seat at $5M-$25M?
Here's what that looks like:
Operational Partnership, Not Consulting
We don't show up monthly, deliver a deck, and disappear. We embed in your business — in your Slack, your systems, your operations — and operate like an internal leader.
We make decisions with your judgment because we take the time to understand your priorities, your constraints, and how you think. Then we execute on those decisions without needing you in the loop constantly.
This is what operational partnership actually means: you get your bandwidth back because someone else is handling execution with the same standards you would apply yourself.
Focus on Outcomes, Not Deliverables
We're not measured by how many recommendations we deliver or how polished our presentations are.
We're measured by the same metrics you care about:
Are inventory turns improving?
Is COGS tightening?
Is cash flow strengthening?
Are operational bottlenecks clearing so you can scale?
If those metrics aren't moving, we're not doing our job. It's that simple.
Right-Sized for $5M-$25M
We don't give you enterprise frameworks that require a team of 10 to implement. We don't give you startup playbooks that are too loose for your complexity.
We build operational systems that fit your stage: structured enough to scale, flexible enough to evolve, and efficient enough to implement without burning months of runway.
Because we've operated at this stage ourselves, we know the difference between what's necessary and what's overkill.
Embedded, Not Spread Thin
Unlike part-time consultants juggling five clients, our operational partners work with one client at a time (or very few). Your business becomes their focus.
This depth matters. It's the difference between someone who needs to be briefed constantly and someone who knows your business well enough to make autonomous decisions.
It's the difference between tactical execution and strategic partnership.
FAQ: How is this different from hiring a Fractional COO from other firms?
Most fractional COOs are advisor-level — they attend leadership meetings, provide strategic guidance, and check in periodically. We operate at the execution level. We're in your systems daily, making decisions, driving implementation, and accountable for metrics moving. It's the difference between strategy consulting and operational partnership.
Frequently Asked Questions
How do I know if my business is at the right stage to work with Kedia?
If you're generating $5M-$25M in revenue and feeling stretched thin by operational decisions that consume bandwidth you need for growth, you're at the right stage. If you're earlier (under $5M), you may not have enough complexity to justify fractional operational leadership yet. If you're later ($25M+), you likely need full-time executive hires.
What does an engagement with Kedia Consultants actually look like day-to-day?
We embed in your business like an internal operations leader: daily Slack communication, direct access to your systems (inventory, production, financials), weekly progress check-ins, and monthly strategic planning. You're not briefing us constantly - we operate autonomously based on deep understanding of your priorities and make decisions that align with how you'd decide yourself.
How long does it take to see results?
Most clients see measurable improvements within 60-90 days: inventory turns increasing, COGS variance tightening, cash flow strengthening, decision-making bandwidth freed up. Longer-term transformation (systems overhaul, process redesign, team building) takes 6-12 months, but quick wins happen early.
Do you only provide operational support, or do you help with fundraising and growth strategy too?
We integrate operations with fundraising and growth. Many of our clients need both — operational readiness that makes them investor-ready, plus warm introductions to capital partners. We don't operate in silos because at $5M-$25M, operations, fundraising, and growth strategy are interdependent.
What if I've already tried consultants and it didn't work?
That's a common story. Most consultants deliver strategy but leave execution to you - which doesn't help when you're already at capacity. We're different because we take execution off your plate entirely. We don't just tell you what to do; we do it. If past consulting didn't work because of the execution gap, operational partnership solves that.
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