SERVICES

Most founders don’t come to Ondara because they lack intelligence or effort.


​They come because something feels heavy, unclear, misaligned, or unsustainable — and pushing harder isn’t fixing it.

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Strategic partnership

For founders navigating complexity without needing execution


The Focus:
This is thinking work, not doing work. How decisions are being made. What patterns are showing up. Where misalignment is creating drag. How to sequence growth without adding unnecessary risk. Support through identity-level tension as you transition from founder to CEO, creator to operator.

The Structure:
Month-to-month engagement with 1–2 calls monthly (60 minutes each). Founder-led agenda. Space to pressure-test decisions, identify blind spots, and reframe fear-based choices into strategic ones.

Investment: $500/month

What You'll Get:

  1. Strategic coaching sessions with accountability around financial habits and avoidance patterns

  2. High-level interpretation of existing financials as context (not detailed analysis)

  3. Pattern identification: cash anxiety, pricing hesitation, over-responsibility, misaligned incentives

  4. Verbal scenario thinking without spreadsheets or formal models

  5. Guidance on financial communication with team or partners

  6. Support clarifying what the business is asking of you as a leader

Who This Is For:
Founders in early growth or volatility. Leaders protecting cash while stabilizing. Business owners who value reflection, honesty, and long-term thinking over execution support.

What This Doesn't Include:
Bookkeeping, financial modeling, forecasting, budgeting, cash flow builds, KPI dashboards, pricing models, capacity math, entity design, equity modeling, board prep, or operational execution. If any of these become necessary, we'll discuss upgrading to a CFO engagement.

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Financial assessment + Cleanup

When the data isn't reliable enough to assess


The Focus:
Before we can interpret your financials or provide strategic guidance, the underlying data needs to be trustworthy. This engagement addresses messy books, incomplete records, or accounting that's fallen behind—the situations where we can't even begin CFO work because we don't know what's real.

The Structure:
Project-based engagement scoped after initial discovery. Timeline depends on severity of issues and business complexity, typically 4–12 weeks.

Investment: Project-based, typically $3,500–$8,500

What You'll Get:

  • Comprehensive review of existing books and identification of gaps, errors, and missing documentation

  • Reconciliation of accounts (bank, credit cards, loans) to establish accurate baseline

  • Cleanup of historical transactions and categorization

  • Establishment of chart of accounts aligned with your business model

  • Documentation of what was corrected and why

  • Recommendations for maintaining data integrity going forward

  • Final assessment of business financial position once data is reliable

Who This Is For:
Businesses that have fallen behind on bookkeeping. Companies that inherited messy accounting from previous providers. Founders who DIY'd their books and now need professional cleanup before strategic work can begin.

What Happens Next:
Once your financial data is reliable, we'll reassess which level of ongoing support makes sense: Strategic Partnership for coaching, Clarity for ongoing interpretation, or Stabilization/Reconstruction if immediate issues surface during cleanup.

What This Doesn't Include:
Ongoing bookkeeping services (we can refer you to qualified providers). This is remedial work to create a clean foundation, not permanent accounting support.

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Clarity cfo

For businesses with clean books but unclear insight

The Focus:
You're past survival. Revenue is coming in. But when someone asks "How are things going?" you hesitate—not because you don't have numbers, but because you don't know what they mean or what deserves your attention.

The Structure:
Month-to-month engagement designed for ongoing interpretation and strategic guidance. This is the tier for businesses that need consistent clarity without crisis intervention.

Investment: $3,500–$4,500/month

What You'll Get:

  • Monthly CFO Financial Summary (P&L, Balance Sheet, Cash Flow—interpreted, not prepared)

  • 13-week cash flow overview reviewed and updated monthly

  • Monthly written CFO narrative covering what changed, why it matters, and what to pay attention to next

  • Identified KPIs and financial pressure points

  • Clear monthly priority focus: the 2–3 decisions that actually matter

  • Ongoing access for questions between sessions

Who This Is For:
Founders with clean books needing interpretation. Businesses past survival, not yet scaling. Owners who want clarity before complexity.

What This Doesn't Include:
Bookkeeping or accounting cleanup, financial modeling or long-term forecasting, budget builds or multi-scenario planning, entity restructuring or partner modeling, board participation, operational execution.

Upgrade Path:
When the business faces structural decisions, capacity modeling, growth or contraction scenarios, cash flow struggles, or funding pursuits, we'll discuss whether Stabilization or Reconstruction is appropriate.

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stabilization cfo

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For businesses under financial stress

The Focus:
You're not sleeping. Cash is tight. Every decision feels urgent but you're not sure which one matters most. The business isn't failing, but you've lost control and predictability. This engagement stops the bleeding and restores your ability to lead instead of react.

The Structure:
Project-based engagement, typically 3–6 months depending on severity and complexity. More intensive meeting cadence because monthly isn't appropriate when a business is under stress.

Investment: $5,500–$7,500/month during active stabilization

What You'll Get:

  • Immediate rebuild and active management of 13-week cash flow

  • Cash runway assessment: exactly how much time and flexibility you actually have

  • Pricing, CAC, conversion rate, retention rate, and client diversity/risk analysis

  • Payroll and fixed-cost pressure analysis relative to revenue reality

  • Expense containment recommendations: what's flexible versus what isn't

  • Short-term financial action plan with clear sequencing: what must happen now, next, later

  • Rapid decision support and clear prioritization

  • Increased meeting cadence with documented decision checkpoints

  • Emotional containment during an acutely stressful phase

Who This Is For:
Businesses under financial stress. Founders losing sleep over cash. Teams that need containment before they can think about vision. Companies where cash reserves have fallen dangerously low and something must change quickly.

What This Doesn't Include:
Long-term growth planning, expansion modeling, new entity design, partner or equity structuring. Those only happen after stability is restored. This is about buying the business time and restoring control.

What Happens Next:
Once stability is achieved, the engagement can shift to Clarity CFO for ongoing interpretation or Reconstruction CFO if structural redesign is needed, depending on next goals.

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Reconstruction cfo

For businesses that outgrew their original design

The Focus:
The business used to work. Now it fights you at every turn. What got you here won't get you there, and forcing it is breaking both you and the company. This engagement addresses root causes, not symptoms. We diagnose what's structurally broken and rebuild the foundation.

The Structure:
Project-based engagement, typically 3–8 months depending on complexity of redesign needed. This is intensive structural work, not quick fixes.

Investment: $7,500–$10,000/month during active reconstruction

What You'll Get:

  • Full financial and structural diagnosis: what's actually broken versus what's symptomatic

  • Redesigned pricing and revenue logic aligned with reality

  • Capacity and utilization model that reflects actual constraints

  • Scenario models for different future paths—not just one prescribed plan

  • Payroll and role realignment recommendations

  • Sequenced roadmap for structural change with clear "stop/start/continue" guidance

  • Support through difficult decisions and leadership transitions

  • Accountability through implementation phases

Who This Is For:
Businesses that grew without structure. Founders at a breaking point. Companies that need redesign, not advice. Situations where the original business model no longer matches reality and incremental improvements won't solve the underlying misalignment.

What This Doesn't Include:
Passive oversight, cosmetic fixes, or avoidance of hard truths. This is not comfortable work—it's necessary work. It often involves letting go of what isn't viable and accepting realities that feel like failure but are actually just evolution.

What Happens Next:
Once the business is stabilized and redesigned, ongoing support may shift to Clarity CFO for continued interpretation and guidance, or the engagement may conclude with you fully equipped to lead the redesigned business forward.

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How to Know Which Level Is Right

Want to understand how we work together? See our process →

If you're overwhelmed by numbers but the business is stable → Clarity CFO
If you're stressed about cash and losing control → Stabilization CFO
If the business no longer works as designed → Reconstruction CFO
If your books are unreliable or incomplete → Financial Assessment & Cleanup first
If you need strategic thinking support without execution → Strategic Partnership

If you're unsure, that's expected. We decide together—with honesty, clarity, and no pressure to overbuy. You'll never be upsold silently or locked into something that doesn't serve you.

What happens if your needs change mid-engagement? We pause, name it, and re-scope. No surprise upgrades, no silent scope creep.

Learn more

FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

About the Work

  • Yes. This work requires honesty, accountability, and a willingness to let go of what isn't working. It's not cosmetic. If you're looking for someone to validate your current approach without challenge, this isn't the right fit.

  • That's normal. Most founders are. We'll move at a pace that's firm but humane. The goal is alignment, not shock therapy. We name what's not working, explore why it matters to you, and make space for the grief that comes with letting go—without letting attachment prevent necessary change.

  • We don't force decisions—but we won't avoid reality either. If hard choices are necessary, we'll talk through them clearly and thoughtfully. At the end of the day, YOU are the owner, and YOU have the final say in all business decisions. My role is to show you what the numbers are saying and what your options actually are.

  • They don't need to be perfect—they need to be directionally reliable. If accuracy issues are blocking insight, we'll name that clearly and discuss next steps. In some cases, we'll recommend starting with a Financial Assessment & Cleanup before moving to strategic work.

  • Your accountant ensures compliance—they make sure your taxes are filed, your books are closed, and you're following GAAP. I help you understand how the business is actually behaving and what decisions the numbers are pointing to. Think of it this way: your accountant tells you what happened; I help you understand why it matters and what to do about it.

  • It depends on which tier you fall into. None of the tiers lock you in long term. Strategic Partnership and Clarity CFO are month-to-month—you can pause, adjust, or stop at any time. If there's a structural change or an impending deadline, that creates a 3-6 month intensive engagement with more time and deeper work. After that critical period is over, you can shift back to monthly coaching or conclude the engagement.

About pricing and investment

  • Because hidden pricing wastes everyone's time. If the investment doesn't work for your business right now, it's better to know that upfront. Transparency also filters for the clients we work best with—people who value clarity and directness.

  • No. The pricing reflects fair market rates for the expertise, experience, and intensity of the work. We've learned that clients who negotiate hard before committing often become difficult relationships. If the pricing doesn't fit your budget, we can discuss which tier makes the most sense or whether the timing is right.

  • Monthly engagements are billed at the beginning of each month. Project-based work (Financial Assessment & Cleanup, Stabilization, Reconstruction) is typically billed 50% upfront and 50% at midpoint, with monthly invoicing for ongoing work. We can discuss payment plans for longer engagements.

  • For project-based engagements over $10K, we can structure payment plans. For monthly engagements, payment is due at the start of each month.

About results + Expectations

  • It depends on what you mean by results. Clarity often comes within the first strategy session—you'll understand your numbers better and know what deserves your attention. Structural change takes longer. Stabilization work shows impact within 30-60 days. Reconstruction work takes 3-8 months to fully implement. The real question is: what does "results" mean to you?

  • We address this early. The Right Fit call exists to filter for alignment before money changes hands. But if we start working together and realize it's not working, we'll name it directly and part ways professionally. For month-to-month engagements, you can pause at any time. For project-based work, we'll complete the current phase and reassess.

  • We work primarily with businesses that have real revenue, real expenses, and operational complexity. That typically means $250K+ in annual revenue, but there are exceptions.

    When startup work makes sense:

    We'll work with earlier-stage businesses if:

    • You're growing fast (a good problem) but drowning in the operational complexity that comes with rapid growth

    • You have investor or grant funding and your funders are requiring CFO oversight for accountability and strategic guidance

    • You have revenue and paying customers, even if you're not yet profitable—the business has traction, it just needs structure

    When it doesn't make sense:

    If you're pre-revenue, still validating product-market fit, or in the idea stage, you won't benefit from our CFO services yet. At that stage, you need a different kind of support—accelerator programs, product coaches, or advisors who specialize in early validation.

    We're not startup accelerator coaches. We work with founders who are carrying real weight: payroll, vendor obligations, cash flow pressure, growth decisions with consequences. If your biggest constraint is "I don't know if anyone will buy this," we're not the right fit yet. If your constraint is "I know people will buy this, but I don't know if the unit economics work" or "We're growing but the wheels are coming off," that's where we come in.

  • Probably not as much as you do—and that's actually the point.

    Why industry experience matters less than you think:

    Business fundamentals are business fundamentals. Revenue, COGS, gross margin, cash flow, capacity constraints, pricing models—these work the same way whether you're selling widgets, services, SaaS subscriptions, or physical products. The questions are universal:

    • Are you making money on each sale or losing money efficiently?

    • Can you see where cash is actually going?

    • Does your pricing reflect your true costs?

    • Is your capacity model built on reality or aspiration?

    • What's the real constraint preventing growth?

    We've worked across cannabis, nonprofits, e-commerce, consulting firms, and professional services. The industries are different, but the patterns are remarkably similar. Founders avoid the same numbers for the same reasons. Businesses break in predictable ways when structure doesn't keep pace with growth.

    What we bring:

    Pattern recognition across industries. When you're deep inside your business, you see trees. When I look at your financials, I see the forest—and I've seen that forest before, just with different products in it.

    I don't need to know the technical details of your product or service to help you understand whether your business model is sustainable. You're the expert in your industry. I'm the expert in financial structure, business diagnosis, and helping founders see what they're too close to notice.

    What you bring:

    Your industry expertise. When I bring the "what"—what the numbers are saying, what's structurally misaligned, what needs to change—you bring the "how." You know your customers, your market, your operational realities. That combination is what makes the work effective.

    When industry expertise actually matters:

    There are a few industries where specific regulatory knowledge or operational understanding is essential:

    • Cannabis: Compliance is complex, 280E tax implications are brutal, banking is restricted. We have deep experience here through Dope CPA.

    • Nonprofits: Fund accounting, grant restrictions, program-level financials, and board reporting have unique requirements. We've worked extensively in this space.

    For most other industries, your expertise + our financial rigor = clarity. If I need to understand something industry-specific to give you useful guidance, I'll ask. You'll teach me what I need to know. That's part of the work.

    The real question isn't "Do you know my industry?"

    The real question is: "Can you see what I can't see, ask questions I haven't thought to ask, and help me build structure that actually works?"

    The answer is yes—regardless of whether you sell software, services, or sandwiches.

About the engagement

    • Strategic Partnership: 1-2 calls per month (60 minutes each)

    • Clarity CFO: 1 call per month (60-90 minutes) plus async communication

    • Stabilization CFO: 2-4 calls per month depending on urgency

    • Reconstruction CFO: 2-3 calls per month during active redesign

  • For month-to-month engagements (Strategic Partnership, Clarity CFO), you can pause at any time with 30 days notice. For project-based work (Stabilization, Reconstruction), we complete the current phase and document where things stand before pausing.

  • We work with both. If there are co-founders, we require all decision-makers to participate in key strategic sessions. We don't work with one co-founder in secret—that creates misalignment and undermines the engagement.

  • We facilitate that conversation. If co-founders are seeing the numbers differently or have conflicting priorities, that's often a sign of deeper misalignment. We help surface those disagreements and work through them—but we can't make decisions for you.

  • I had the privilege of working on a team with Summer for several months. In addition to being skilled in accounting and finance, Summer is a fantastic leader who has a gift for teaching and inspiring those around her. From the moment I joined as a new hire, she went out of her way to make me feel welcome, and to help me grow professionally. She's also just plain fun to work with! Summer would be a strong asset to any team, and I greatly enjoyed the time we spent working together.

    Karis S., CPA

  • Summer is a hard-charging, focused professional. She makes well, thought out decisions and has a knack for doing what’s best for everyone. Her past military experience has given her the confidence to always find a way to get to “Yes” even when the task seems impossible, and simultaneously the charisma to inspire those around her to get involved and make a difference in a positive way. Her dedication to the task at hand is never over-shadowed by anyone else, however, if there is someone she can learn from, her pride never stands in the way. Her goal is to continuously learn and grow as a professional and a person.

    Jon J., Logistics Manager USAF

  • I had the pleasure of working with Summer for a couple of months on an audit engagement at EY. As a new staff working with Summer, Summer was supportive in answering any questions/concerns and providing guidance in audit procedures. Her previous experience in banking and accounting was valuable to the audit. Summer has a strong work ethic and had new ideas on how to efficiently complete the audit. I learned a lot from Summer and am looking forward to seeing her business grow under her vision and leadership.

    Clara Choi, Assurance Senior, Ernst & Young

  • "What I learned wasn't just about the dollars and cents; it was about being vulnerable, hearing new perspectives, and seeing things with clarity that I couldn't see before."

    — Bill L., 12 Year Non-Profit Executive

  • I found Dope CPA (Summer Thorn) through a friend in the industry. After struggling to find a CPA that actually knew what they were talking about, and not getting charged crazy prices for no results, we are lucky to find Dope CPA!! Summer and her partners are very helpful, clear with direction and great in communication. Accounting is a difficult aspect of our complex industry, and Dope CPA has taken that burden off our shoulders with ease. I would strongly recommend them to anyone in the Canabis industry.New List Item

    — Tommy K., Founder

  • The (Ondara + Dope CPA) team is an excellent addition to our company. The accounting services, tax service, and the knowledge they have about our field of work is unparalleled. We were blessed to find the DOPE CPA group at a time when we needed them most! They are Excellent!

    - Patricia P., Founder

  • "Thanks for recognizing that the weight of the role can be heavy. I have probably taken on way too much, because when our system worked when we were smaller, I was able to do that."

    — Non-Profit Executive Feedback