This interview is with Felicia Gallagher, Founder | CFO | Finance Strategist at ThreeStone Solutions.
Felicia Gallagher, Founder | CFO | Finance Strategist, ThreeStone Solutions
Can you introduce yourself and share your expertise in finance, startups, and the beverage industry?
I’m Felicia Gallagher, Founder and Principal of ThreeStone Solutions, a strategic finance advisory for consumer goods. I spent more than two decades in corporate finance, holding CFO and senior leadership roles before stepping out to build something that reflected my faith, family, and commitment to excellence. ThreeStone Solutions was born from a calling to help founders align their financial decisions with their deeper purpose, so they can scale with clarity and integrity.
What inspired you to become a fractional CFO, and how has your journey in entrepreneurship shaped your approach to financial management?
I didn’t set out to become a fractional CFO. I spent more than twenty years in corporate finance, moving through the traditional milestones: controller, vice president, and CFO. I was always focused on building value for the organization in whatever role I was in at that time. As the years went by, I realized that the fulfillment I was chasing wasn’t in the next promotion or larger budget but in helping people understand the “why” behind their numbers.
When I launched ThreeStone Solutions, I wanted to bring that clarity and confidence to founders who were building something deeply personal. For most entrepreneurs, they are building more than a business; they are creating a legacy. Many of them have extraordinary ideas and brands, but they’re often navigating complex financial decisions without the right level of strategic guidance.
The fractional model allows me to step in as a true partner, not just to manage the numbers, but to interpret them and connect financial structure to the founder’s vision, and to make sure every decision reflects both growth and integrity.
As a fractional CFO, what unique challenges have you encountered in the beverage and spirits industry, and how do you help startups navigate these specific financial hurdles?
The beverage and spirits industry carries a different kind of financial rhythm. It’s capital-intensive, highly regulated, and often driven by long lead times between investment and return. Many founders underestimate how much working capital it takes to produce, store, and distribute a product before revenue truly stabilizes. Inventory ties up cash, payment terms stretch out, and margins can erode quickly if pricing and production aren’t aligned with reality.
Another challenge is that founders are often artists at heart. They are driven by creativity, brand story, and community, and that passion is the heartbeat of the business. My role is to protect that creativity with structure. I help them translate that vision into numbers they can trust, build forecasts that account for seasonality and growth stages, and design dashboards that make their data usable rather than overwhelming.
We focus early on SKU profitability, margin integrity, and cash flow clarity, because those are the pillars that keep the business standing when growth accelerates. I also guide them through investor readiness, cost modeling for co-packing and distribution, and capital planning that matches their ambitions without overextending their resources. In short, I bridge creativity and finance. The numbers tell one part of the story; the founder’s values tell the rest.
When both are in balance, a brand has the stability to scale and the freedom to last.
Can you share a personal experience where your financial guidance significantly impacted a startup’s growth trajectory in the beverage sector?
I once worked with an international tequila brand preparing to launch in the United States. Their team had already entered Texas but were frustrated that their sales velocity wasn’t taking off the way they expected. Their product was exceptional. It was beautifully crafted, authentic, and award-winning, but they assumed quality alone would drive volume.
When they asked me to help model their expansion into Florida and California, they expected a straightforward plan. What they didn’t expect was the level of start-up capital required to do it right. Entering a state like Florida isn’t just about having inventory; it’s about having the marketing, sales support, and working capital to create real visibility.
The product can be great, but if no one has seen it, tasted it, or experienced the brand story, it doesn’t move. After reviewing the numbers together, I advised them to pause the launch and raise additional capital. That decision saved them from stretching too thin across multiple states and allowed them to focus on building a proper foundation for long-term success.
It was a difficult call to make, but it was the right one. You only get one opportunity to launch a brand in a new market. Doing it with discipline and understanding what’s truly required and deploying capital efficiently is what separates a short-lived debut from a lasting presence.
How do you approach creating financial clarity for entrepreneurs who may be overwhelmed by the complexities of running a startup in the competitive spirits market?
Financial clarity starts with empathy. Most founders I meet are carrying both the weight of their vision and the pressure to make it profitable. The spirits industry adds another layer of complexity, between production cycles, compliance, distributor relationships, and market saturation. It can feel like there are a hundred moving parts and no single source of truth.
My role is to simplify that. I begin by understanding their story, what they’re building, why it matters, and where they want to go. Then I translate that vision into a framework they can use daily. We build customized dashboards, define key performance indicators that actually reflect their business model, and create systems that connect sales, operations, and finance.
The goal is to move from reaction to rhythm, where decisions are made with confidence instead of urgency. Sometimes clarity comes from subtraction, not addition. It’s removing unnecessary reports, eliminating guesswork, and helping founders see the few numbers that truly drive growth. Once they see how every dollar connects to their larger vision, they start leading differently. Finance becomes less about spreadsheets and more about alignment.
What’s the most unconventional financial strategy you’ve implemented for a beverage startup that yielded surprising results?
Most CFOs start with the numbers. I start with the founder’s why. Before we talk about margins or capital plans, I want to understand what they value most and what the purpose is behind the brand. The founder needs to know the kind of company they want to build, the culture they want to create, and the legacy they want to leave behind.
From there, we design structure, strategy, and metrics that reflect those values in every policy, every financial model, and every decision.
A perfect example was with an international tequila brand preparing to expand into the US. They wanted to launch in Florida and California after entering in Texas, but their sales velocity wasn’t where they hoped. When I modeled the capital requirements, the founders realized they were underestimating what it would take to do it right. Rather than push forward prematurely, I advised them to pause and raise the proper capital first, even though it delayed their timeline.
It wasn’t an easy recommendation, but it aligned with their deeper value, which was to build something enduring, not fleeting. By honoring that purpose instead of chasing quick wins, they preserved their brand integrity and positioned themselves for sustainable success. The unconventional part was the mindset. When you lead with values, every financial decision becomes clearer, and growth becomes something you can sustain with pride.
In your experience, what are the most common financial mistakes entrepreneurs make when scaling their beverage startups, and how can they avoid these pitfalls?
The most common mistake I see is growing faster than the financial foundation can support. In the beverage industry, it’s easy to chase distribution and visibility without fully understanding the cash cycle behind it.
Every new account, production run, or flavor launch demands capital, and if the business doesn’t have a clear handle on working capital needs, it quickly turns into a strain rather than a win. Another frequent mistake is neglecting true product-level profitability. Founders often price based on emotion or competitor benchmarks instead of actual cost structure.
When I perform a SKU-by-SKU margin analysis, it’s not unusual to find that a “bestseller” is actually losing money once freight, broker commissions, and chargebacks are factored in. There’s also a mindset trap: assuming that fundraising will fix operational gaps. Capital can accelerate growth, but it doesn’t correct inefficiency.
I encourage founders to build internal discipline first, strong cash flow forecasting, clear metrics and accountability around spend, so that when capital comes in, it fuels momentum rather than covering mistakes. Avoiding these pitfalls starts with clarity and rhythm.
Know your numbers weekly, not quarterly. Understand your cash conversion cycle as deeply as your brand story. Make decisions from data, not emotion. Sustainable growth isn’t about constant expansion, but about scaling what works, protecting margins, and keeping your financial story aligned with your long-term vision.
How do you balance the need for financial prudence with the often risk-taking nature of entrepreneurship, especially in the volatile beverage and spirits industry?
It’s a constant balance between courage and control. The beverage and spirits industry rewards bold ideas and the willingness to take creative risks and try new formats. My role as a fractional CFO is to help founders understand the difference between calculated risk and careless risk.
I don’t believe in saying no to bold moves, but I do believe it’s important to structure them well. When a founder wants to take a big leap, whether that’s a new distribution deal, a co-packer switch, or a brand extension, we model it first. We test the upside, the downside, and the timing of cash flow impact. Once the numbers are clear, the decision becomes grounded, not emotional. That’s where true confidence comes from.
Financial prudence doesn’t mean playing small. It means making choices that protect the heart of the business while still leaving room for creativity and growth. In a volatile industry, that balance is what separates brands that burn bright for a season from those that build legacies.
Looking ahead, what emerging financial trends or technologies do you believe will have the biggest impact on startups in the beverage industry, and how can entrepreneurs prepare for these changes?
The biggest shift I see ahead is the rise of real-time financial visibility. Cloud-based accounting and integrated data platforms are finally allowing beverage founders to see their true position, their cash flow, margin, and performance by channel as it’s happening, not weeks later. That level of transparency will completely change how early-stage brands operate.
Instead of reacting to surprises, founders can course-correct in the moment. AI is another force that’s reshaping the landscape. Used well, it can automate inventory forecasting, optimize production planning, and even flag cash-flow risk before it becomes a crisis. The key is not to replace human judgment, but to enhance it. There’s also a growing investor demand for financial storytelling, clear, data-backed narratives that connect purpose to performance. Founders who can translate their mission into measurable outcomes will stand out in future funding rounds.
To prepare, entrepreneurs should start building digital fluency now. Invest in systems that talk to each other, learn to read dashboards as fluently as balance sheets, and stay curious about how technology can make finance simpler, not more complicated. The future belongs to brands that combine heart and data.
