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Fractional COO & CTO · grocery, hospitality & retail

Operational intelligence for your
premium grocer, new store opening, hospitality group or retail brand.

Exklusive Consulting bridges technology, operations and finance for food, retail and hospitality businesses, from pre-opening to multi-unit scale. Strategy that gets installed, not just recommended.

Request a consultation →Take the 20 questions
● Receiving: every case counted against the PO● Daily flash: sales, labor, shrink and margin on one page● POS, back office and accounting reading one item file● Count variance coded within 24 hours● Pricing reviewed on a fixed monthly cycle● Opening critical path signed off before day one
Some of the companies we have worked with
Happier GroceryVendoraSIRLBright EyedFutureProof RetailBark'n BiscuitsApna Bazar Farmers MarketCoast Grill & BarHappier People MGMTWSASAAWestside Market NYCShap MarketsThe Goods MartOne Seed
Where are you?

Scaling without infrastructure is expensive.

Pick the stage you are in. Every one has its own way of breaking, and its own fix.

01 / 05

Before the doors open

The cheapest moment to install structure is before there is anything to fix.

Typical engagementPre-opening and launch lead
What breaks
  • Systems chosen from the vendor demo, not from how the store will run
  • Item file, costs and recipes built in a rush the week before opening
  • No receiving, inventory or cash controls on day one
What we install
  • Technology selection and configuration: POS, back office, accounting, e-commerce
  • Item file, pricing architecture and recipe costing
  • Opening SOPs, roles, hiring plan and training
  • Pre-opening budget and the critical path to day one
The bridge

Most problems live in the gaps between departments.

Technology, operations and finance each work. The money leaks where they meet. Pick a connection.

TechnologyOperationsFinanceMarketing
The gap

The POS was configured by the vendor and the floor works around it. Receiving happens on paper and gets keyed in later, if at all.

The bridge

Systems configured around how the store actually runs: item file, receiving, transfers, waste and permissions set up by role, and a team trained to use them.

The cost of not seeing it

What is a point of margin worth to you?

Shrink nobody can explain, invoices paid above agreed cost, labor scheduled by feel. Each one is a fraction of a point. Together they add up.

That leak is costing about
$75,000
a year, or $1,442 every week the doors are open.
A simple estimate: annual sales × margin points. It is not a forecast. An audit measures your real number.
What makes this different

Most firms deliver recommendations. We deliver integration.

ComparisonStrategy consultantsTechnology vendors
What you getRecommendationsA platform✓ Integration, installed
Who does the workAnalysts, then your teamTheir onboarding team✓ An operator who has opened and run stores
FitA framework applied to youYou adapt to the software✓ Built around how you run
CoversStrategyTheir product✓ Technology, operations and finance together
Measured byThe deckGo-live✓ Margin, visibility and what runs without you

When the answer is software, we build it.

Exklusive Solutions is our technology business. It designs and runs custom platforms for operators, including Exklusive Hubs: ordering, vendors, finance, teams and communications in one place, built around how your business works.

20 questions · 5 minutes

Is your store a business, or a very expensive set?

The questions asked on day one of every engagement. They have nothing to do with how the store looks. Answer them and get your score, a readout and the list of what to fix first.

Insights

Notes from inside the operation.

All articles →
OperationsFoundersLeadership
October 16, 2026·8 min read

What Everyone Gets Wrong About Premium Grocery

Nine things the industry believes about premium grocery, corrected from the inside by someone who built one. The smoothie, the vibe, the price, the taste, the labor, the shrink, the apps, the data, and the founder's eye.

Read
OperationsFoundersLeadership
October 12, 2026·7 min read

The $20 Smoothie Is Not the Point

Foxtrot closed 33 stores in a day. Erewhon is opening in New York. The difference isn't the smoothie. It's whether all twelve systems a premium store runs on are built and held, and most operators find that out around month fourteen.

Read
FoundersOperations
March 29, 2026·1 min read

The Founder Transition

When instinct is no longer enough: the structural shift every scaling company eventually faces.

Read

Let's strengthen your operation.

A structured first conversation about where the business is, where the systems are and where the margin is going.

Request a consultation →Email Mike