Proper Form Consulting
Financial clarity that scales
Bringing Fortune 500 financial discipline to companies that need it most* 20+ | Years of Financial Leadership
* $1B | Revenue Environments Led
* $40M - $125M | Growth Through Acquisition
* $1M+ | Annual Savings Negotiated
About David Ramirez
The CFO your business deserves
David Ramirez is a finance and operations executive with 20+ years of experience scaling consumer brands, retail organizations, and growth-stage businesses from $5M to $1B in revenue.Through Proper Form Consulting, David provides Fractional CFO leadership to founder-led companies and growth-stage businesses ranging from start-ups to $100M+ in revenue — bringing the financial rigor of enterprise companies to the businesses that need it most, without the full-time cost.He is a trusted partner to CEOs, founders, and boards, known for building and mentoring high-performing finance teams and fostering strong cross-functional partnerships.
• Enterprise Pedigree — Finance leadership at Dressbarn ($1B), Ralph Lauren ($500M retail), and Jump Design Group, plus VP and Director-level roles across major organizations.
• ERP & Systems Transformation — Led Oracle ERP implementations, MicroStrategy forecasting systems, and full finance infrastructure builds.
• M&A Integration Experience — Led financial diligence and integration for two acquisitions, growing revenue from $40M to $125M.
• Bilingual: English & Spanish — Serving founders and investors across domestic and international markets.
What We Do
Services
CFO Leadership
Embedded, senior-level finance leadership without the full-time cost. Ideal for founder-led companies ready to professionalize their financial operations and reporting.
Financial Infrastructure & Systems
Build forecasting models, KPI dashboards, and cash flow reporting that give founders and investors the visibility they need to make confident decisions.
FP&A & Business Intelligence
Improve pricing discipline, markdown planning, and inventory turnover through disciplined forecasting and reporting cycles tied to your business model.
Working Capital & Cash Flow
Structure production financing and improve cash flow planning to increase working capital availability and operational flexibility across your business cycle.
Investor & Board Reporting
Prepare financial presentations and data packages that support partnership discussions, board communication, and investment readiness with clarity and credibility.
Acquisition & M&A Support
Lead financial diligence, integration planning, and post-merger reporting for growth-stage companies navigating acquisitions or preparing for a transaction.
The numbers behind the label.
Apparel
20+ Years in Apparel Finance
- Corporate to founder-led, vertical to D2C$1B Revenue Environments Led
- Ralph Lauren, Dressbarn, Jump Design Group$1M+ Annual Savings Negotiated
- Margin recovery across seasonal cycles
The Problem
Most fractional CFOs will take your apparel brand as a client. They'll look at your P&L, nod along, and hand you a dashboard. But they've never touched a chargeback reconciliation, never modeled a landed cost stack under shifting duty rates, never had to explain to a founder why gross margin looks great but cash is always gone.That gap is expensive. And it's completely avoidable.
VERTICAL MANUFACTURERS
Full-stack economics from raw material to retail — where margin is made or lost before the tag is sewn.
D2C BRANDS
Contribution margin discipline, CAC/LTV modeling, and the cash flow reality behind your Shopify dashboard.
SMB & PE-BACKED
Investor-ready reporting, working capital structures, and board-level financial clarity — without a full-time hire.
What I Do
Built for how apparel actually works.
01 Landed Cost & Duty Modeling
Scenario planning for tariff volatility, origin diversification, and margin impact across your full sourcing mix. Know your exposure before the season locks.
03 Wholesale vs. D2C Economics
Net margin per channel is rarely what founders think. I build the comparative unit economics and help you decide where to lean — and when.
05 Fundraise & Investor Readiness
From seed to PE diligence — I prepare financial packages that tell a credible growth story and hold up under hard questions.
02 Seasonal Cash Flow Planning
Apparel cash doesn't flow linearly. I build models that reflect your actual buying cycle, production deposits, and seasonal receipt timing.
04 Inventory & Working Capital
Production financing, factoring relationships, chargeback exposure, and inventory turn optimization — the levers that actually move cash.
06 Finance Team & Systems Build
ERP implementation, KPI dashboards, and reporting cadences that give your team the infrastructure to scale. Built by someone who's done it at $1B.
Get In Touch
Let's talk about your business.
Whether you're a founder looking to build financial infrastructure, preparing for a capital raise, or navigating a critical growth moment — Proper Form Consulting is here to help.