Financial Pulse

Revenue rebounded 4.3% MoM to $4.80M after January's seasonal trough. The YoY growth of 14.4% reflects continued momentum across all channels except Alt Retail. The channel mix is shifting: DTC was 79.4% of revenue in Feb-26 vs 89.5% a year ago, as Amazon (10.2%) and Retail (8.7%) gain share. December's $7.4M print — driven by holiday Costco loads and gifting — remains the high-water mark for the trailing 12. Stripping out the Dec-25 outlier, the business is averaging ~$4.7M/month, which annualizes to roughly $56M — meaning the current run rate needs ~34% acceleration to reach the $75M implied by the 30% growth trajectory off 2025's base. No 2026 budget has been loaded into the model, so budget variance is unavailable this month.

DTC revenue was essentially flat at $3.81M, down 1.0% from January. Gross sales of $4.29M were slightly up, but a discount rate of 7.7% (vs 5.9% in Jan and 4.3% in Feb-25) ate into net revenue. Refunds improved to 4.1% from 4.6%. AOV ticked down to $50.63 from $50.84 — the fourth consecutive month of compression from the $53+ levels seen in H2 2025. New subscriber acquisition bounced back to 15,697 (561/day), a 16.8% increase from January's 13,433 — likely reflecting post-holiday promotional activity evidenced by the elevated discount rate. The key question: is the discount-driven acquisition bringing in quality subscribers, or are we buying churn? Watch March retention on Feb cohorts closely.

2024+ cohorts are outperforming historical averages on retention through Month 4, then the curves converge. Month-0 retention of 89.3% (vs 88.3% all-time) and Month-1 of 63.6% (vs 61.6%) show the acquisition funnel is attracting slightly stickier subscribers. However, skip rates remain elevated — climbing from 12.7% at Month 1 to 40.1% by Month 5. This means a significant portion of 'retained' subscribers are skipping rather than ordering, which pressures revenue per subscriber and LTV. The churn curve flattens meaningfully after Month 6 (~12-13%), suggesting a loyal core emerges around the 6-month mark. The gap between 2024+ and all-time churn is notable at Month 0: 10.7% vs 11.7%, a 1pp improvement — but it narrows quickly, suggesting the newer cohorts aren't structurally different from historical ones after the initial month.

Gross margin recovered to 52.3% — the highest since April 2025's 59.9% outside of the Dec-25 seasonal spike. The 2.2pp improvement from January was driven by: (1) lower shipping & handling ($659K vs $712K, -7.5%), (2) reduced product costs as a percentage of revenue, and (3) the higher revenue base diluting fixed cost components. EBITDA improved to -$41K (-0.9%) from -$112K (-2.4%), narrowing the loss by $71K. S&M spend increased 6.9% MoM to $1.72M (35.9% of revenue), which is where the margin compression lives — Paid media alone was $1.24M, or 25.9% of revenue. Payroll ($340K) and G&A ($488K) were stable. The P&L waterfall tells the story: 52.3% gross margin is healthy for a CPG subscription brand, but 35.9% going to S&M leaves razor-thin room for OpEx before EBITDA turns positive.

Amazon delivered $490K in net revenue, up 14% MoM and 87% YoY — the strongest growth rate of any channel. Daily orders jumped to 367 (vs 263 in Jan), and total orders hit 10,281 — the highest in the trailing 12. Amazon now represents 10.2% of total revenue, up from 6.3% a year ago. PPC spend was $50K (10.2% of Amazon revenue), which is efficient for marketplace growth. The mix continues to skew toward the OG 30-serving Tin (implied by volume), with Matcha (7.9%), Turmeric (5.7%), and Rest (5.0%) maintaining share. Amazon gross margin of 73.5% (after COGS of $130K) is significantly higher than blended — worth monitoring as channel mix shifts, since Amazon marketplace fees aren't fully reflected in the COGS line.

Retail net revenue of $420K was the second-highest month in the trailing 12 (after Dec-25's $1.69M Costco load). Gross revenue of $502K came in strong, with trade spend netting out at 16.4% ($82K). The trade spend composition: displays ($24K), chargebacks/returns ($15K), prompt pay discounts ($12K), and slotting ($4K). Trade spend as a percentage of gross has been volatile — 17.7% in Sep, 8.7% in Oct, 15.1% in Nov, 10.4% in Dec — making it hard to establish a stable net margin expectation. The Dec-25 outlier ($1.88M gross, $1.69M net) was clearly a Costco holiday load-in. Stripping that out, the trailing 5-month average gross is ~$473K, suggesting Feb was an above-average month.

The Café (Gather) nearly broke even in February at just -$713 net loss, the best month in the trailing 6. Revenue of $54K was up 2.3% MoM, driven by slightly higher transactions (2,984 vs 2,925) and AOV ($13.46 vs $13.32). Product costs dropped to 35.0% of revenue (vs 47.6% in Jan) — a significant improvement that suggests menu cost management or mix shift. Labor costs of $30K (74.3% of revenue) remain the dominant expense; the path to sustained profitability likely requires pushing revenue above $60K/month to dilute the fixed labor component. The Dec-25 loss of -$34K was an outlier driven by elevated product costs ($43K) against lower revenue ($50K) — suggesting a stocking or waste issue that appears corrected.