SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA — 33.8727° S, 151.2067° E
The embedded operating partner for ambitious, product-led brands.
Who we work with
We work with founder-led brands that already have product, pricing power and demand, and want the business underneath to match. The aim is to fulfil the brand's potential and make the business worth more, to its owners, its people and the community around it.
Founder-led · typically $2m–$50m revenue · fashion, retail, beauty, premium consumer
What growth exposes
Growth exposes the business underneath.
Founders who build great consumer brands can build great consumer businesses.
It asks for a dual existence: keep the soul of a boutique atelier while running with the discipline of a much larger business. As revenue passes about $2m and channels multiply, cash, margin, inventory and people start to weigh on the creative side.
We help founders hold both, so the brand doesn't lose its character as it matures.
- CashForward visibility, working capital, funding runway
- MarginLanded cost, channel mix, pricing discipline
- InventoryBuy depth, sell-through, aged stock
- PeopleSingle owners, capability, founder dependency
- RhythmReporting cadence, decisions, accountability
What we build
We build the operating architecture that makes a brand bigger, better, more profitable, and therefore more valuable.
The aim is to increase the value of the business and of everyone it touches: its customers, its people, its community, its environment and its owners. We measure the work with one equation, and every lever with the same reporting we install.
- Customers (served by Bigger)
- Employees (served by Bigger)
- Community (served by Bigger)
- Environment
- Owners (served by Bigger)
Bigger
Revenue, channels, customers and reach.
- CustomersMore reach, range and channels
- EmployeesNew roles: 22 to 34
- CommunityLocal wages and suppliers grow with it
- OwnersRevenue up 26%
- Channel and range plan
- Demand-led buying
- Wholesale and partner growth
Three flat years, then growth that held: net sales up 26% in FY26, with FY27 forecast higher again.
Better
Brand, people, governance, and what the business gives its customers, community and environment.
- CustomersRepeat buyers up 35%
- EmployeesTurnover down from 38% to 14%
- CommunityLocal contribution up 29%
- EnvironmentEmissions down 26%
- OwnersQuality that compounds
- Scorecard and weekly rhythm
- Pay above award, a plan for every role
- Local suppliers, measured footprint
Repeat buyers up 35% and stock turn up 62% since H1 FY24, with margin rising alongside.
Staff turnover fell from 38% to 14% while the team grew from 22 to 34.
Local contribution rose 29%: more local wages, more spent with local makers, and programmes the business can now fund.
Emissions fell 26% in the same year sales grew 26%: sea freight, renewables, packaging and fewer returns.
More Profitable
Gross margin, channel mix and operating leverage.
- EmployeesA profit share tied to the scorecard
- EnvironmentLess rush freight and fewer returns
- OwnersEBITDA up 2.6 times
- Margin architecture
- Cost-to-serve
- Monthly management reporting
EBITDA rose 2.6 times, after reinvesting 260k in the team and systems that made it repeatable.
More Valuable
Working-capital efficiency, fundability and exit readiness: the verdict on the other three, for everyone the business touches.
- CustomersA business built to last
- Employees62% of value added paid to the team
- CommunityA share of profit for local causes
- OwnersEnterprise value up 3.7 times
- Founder-independent operations
- Investor-grade reporting
- Governance and board rhythm
Enterprise value grew 3.7 times: higher earnings, valued at a higher multiple.
Of the 3.0m in value the business created in FY26, 62% went to its people and 9% to its owners.
Who each lever serves
| Stakeholder | Bigger | Better | More Profitable | More Valuable |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Customers | More reach, range and channels | Repeat buyers up 35% | Not a primary effect | A business built to last |
| Employees | New roles: 22 to 34 | Turnover down from 38% to 14% | A profit share tied to the scorecard | 62% of value added paid to the team |
| Community | Local wages and suppliers grow with it | Local contribution up 29% | Not a primary effect | A share of profit for local causes |
| Environment | Not a primary effect | Emissions down 26% | Less rush freight and fewer returns | Not a primary effect |
| Owners | Revenue up 26% | Quality that compounds | EBITDA up 2.6 times | Enterprise value up 3.7 times |
Illustrative composite business, not a client result. AUD k unless marked. Exhibits drawn to IBCS notation (ISO 24896): AC solid, PY grey, PL outlined, FC hatched; colour only on judged variance. ○ marks where a lever is not the primary driver.
How we work
An operating partner, not a consultant.
We bring careers spent in operations, investment and capital advisory. That discipline goes inside the business, as the cadence, reporting and decisions that carry an ambitious plan.
Every partnership starts with 432 Embed, a minimum three-month commitment to diagnose the business and implement our operating approach, starting at management level. First we agree the ambition (growth, transformation, optimisation, investment or acquisition) and what value means for the business, and how we will measure it together. Then we test it against the numbers and build toward it.
We work with a small number of companies at a time, so each one gets a senior bench rather than a junior team.
The system
Enterprise value is built in rhythm.
Our operating system is how we de-risk the work. It brings together tested methodologies, refined with every engagement, and decades of experience in operations, finance, funds management and investing in emerging companies across technology ventures and private equity.
Clear structure, accountability, an effective meeting rhythm and applied discipline are the hallmarks of a repeatable process. That is what builds exceptional teams and gets outcomes. 432OS is our approach, codified: the structure, and the surface to trace and monitor how value is being created.
- WeeklyWeekly RhythmThe leadership team, the scorecard, the issues list.
- MonthlyMonthly Governance PackA board-quality view of the month.
- QuarterlyQuarterly RealignmentGoals reset against the plan.
- AnnualAnnual RealignmentThe Strategic Blueprint renewed.
Built on practices the research supports. In a randomised trial, firms that adopted structured management practices raised productivity by 17% in the first year (Bloom et al., 2013, Quarterly Journal of Economics).
The research behind 432OSOur model
Our risk sits beside yours.
We invest our time and capital alongside yours: your investment in us, and ours in your vision.
We're a boutique firm that partners deeply with a small number of companies. We invest in our own services, technology and technical partners, so the business gets as a whole what it couldn't economically buy one service at a time. Embed is fee only. In partnership, we shape our fee and process to what the business can afford, in exchange for upside through equity or a performance fee against the value we agreed.
Our goal is to partner with the region's best brands and support their personal and global ambitions.
Your investment in us
- A fee tailored to what the business can afford
- The leadership team's time, data and candour
- In partnership, upside through equity or a performance fee, earned only against the value we agreed
Our investment in your vision
- Senior partners inside the operating rhythm
- 432OS, its technology and reporting
- The specialist and capital partner network
Bought one at a time
- CFO
- Design
- Growth and digital
- Range and product
- Wholesale
- Systems
Delivered as a whole
One team, one operating system, one fee shaped to the business
Schematic, not to scale.
Share in the upside.Be at risk in the downside.
Any equity or performance-fee arrangement is subject to separate agreement, due diligence and legal review. We're not a fund, any capital comes after the operating work, not before it, and no fee is ever calculated on capital raised.
Selected work
The brands we work with, past and present.
Founder-led brands across fashion, retail, beauty and consumer. The work is discreet by nature, so outcomes stay anonymous here. Ask us about it, and we'll walk you through what we did and what moved.
- One TeaspoonFashion · Current
- Kinga CsillaFashion · Current
- Ciao Ciao VacationFashion · Current
- AntehnaFashion · Current
- Esse StudiosFashion · Current
- NagnataFashion · Current
- Havaianas AustraliaRetail · Current
- TitlebooksArts · Current
- FREQUENSIÉConsumer · Current
- HaulierFashion · Past
- Good LightBeauty · Past
People
Two partners, and a specialist network built for the work.
Ben Cheyne
Omar Varts
Behind them, specialist partners in CFO and finance, design, growth marketing and digital, range and product development, and wholesale, brought in where the business needs it most. When the operating work is ready, partners in private and institutional capital and investment boutiques.
Specialist services and the networkBegin a conversation
Most conversations begin by introduction.
Not sure where to start? The two-minute fit check maps what growth is exposing to what we'd do first, then a 15-minute call. Or write to a partner directly: we reply within two working days.
Take the two-minute fit check hello@fourthreetwo.com