You built this business from the ground up. The systems, processes, and team that took you from zero to $10M will not take you to $50M. You know it, and you may already have an abandoned fix or two behind you, but nothing has quite worked. That's where I come in.
I'm Emily Adler. I consult on finance, AI, and business systems for construction and inventory-based companies. I take a holistic, executive-level view, connecting operations and finance rather than just looking at the numbers.
Before consulting I was the fifth employee at a modular construction company and spent 11 years building its financial and operational backbone as it grew from $2M to $60M with a national footprint. I cofounded a venture-backed SaaS company, led finance and operations, helped raise $3M, and scaled to $2.5M ARR. I have also been the interim finance leader who walks into a cash crisis and steers the company through it.
I'll be honest, it is a hard profile to put a clean label on. I am a generalist who is good at a lot of things, and for owner-led companies that range is usually worth more than another specialist.
I am not advising from a distance. I come in, work out what is happening, and fix it.
It usually shows up in two ways. Either ownership cannot see what is actually happening anymore, because the reporting is late, incomplete, or contradicts itself. Or the team is spending its week on manual work that should run on its own, and that work has become the ceiling on how fast you can grow. The tools, processes, and people that helped you get from zero to where you are now do not seem to be working anymore.
The team says the ERP is the problem. The controller says it is the process. Someone wants new software. Someone else wants better communication. Everyone is describing the same symptom from a different seat.
I have spent 25 years inside scaling companies, turnarounds, and startups, and I have run these functions rather than advised them from outside. This combined experience is how you tell a process problem from a data problem from a tooling problem from a people problem, and those four have completely different fixes. It is also why I can put the work in the right order. Too much time and money can be wasted on the wrong solution in the wrong order.
A structured look across finance, operations, and systems. You get a prioritized list of what to fix, an estimate of what each fix costs, and what it costs to leave each one alone. This is where most engagements start.
The Systems RoadmapThe diagnosis often points at cash, margin, reporting, or capital. I do not hand that off to someone else. Cash flow forecasting, three-statement models, lender and investor readiness, refinancing. I have led all of it directly, as an operator inside the business rather than a consultant outside it.
The right answer is usually software that already exists. I run the selection: what the workflow actually requires, which tools meet it, what each one costs to implement and to own, and which one your team will use. I take no reseller commissions, so the recommendation is about fit and nothing else.
Off-the-shelf rarely covers everything a business does. Where it falls short I extend what you bought, connect it to the systems you already run, or build the piece that is missing. A custom build used to be priced out of reach at this size of company. AI changed that math.
See a build: the AR Command CenterMost teams that use AI use it as a supercharged search engine. The larger gain comes from questioning how your work gets done in the first place. I work with your team in four steps:
Everything I teach uses your team's own work as the example. I do not run a generic AI course.
A few of the results. Each fix showed up in the numbers.
My goal on every engagement is to work myself out of a job. I build the systems and train your team to run them without me. If you want me to run them with you for a while first, that is what Run it and Bridge it are for.
A structured look across finance, operations, and systems, ending in a prioritized plan. This is where most engagements start.
3–4 weeksI execute the roadmap. Systems, reporting, automation, process, software selection, and custom tools where what you can buy falls short.
defined scopeFractional finance or operations leadership, when you need the function led but not a full-time hire.
ongoingInterim leadership, when there is a gap to cover or a crisis to steer through.
part-time or full-timeMost engagements start with a 30-minute conversation. No pitch and no canned proposal, just an honest look at what is going on and whether I can help.