About

An independent advisory practice for brand-side operators.

Durango Advisors is an independent advisory practice working with multi-unit retail brands, franchise systems, and the investors who back them.

We’re hired when leadership needs senior judgment without standing up a project office, onboarding a rotating bench, or watching a multi-quarter engagement consume the budget that was supposed to fix the problem. Engagements are personally led, scoped per initiative, and built for the room where capital allocation decisions actually get made.

Who we work with

Brand owners and executive teams at multi-unit retail concepts and franchise systems. Private capital sponsors evaluating, integrating, or operating retail and franchise assets. Franchisor CEOs and presidents navigating system-level change. Boards weighing investment in technology, operations, or organizational design.

We work with emerging concepts where the founder is still the CEO and with franchise systems carrying hundreds of units. The constant isn’t size. It’s that leadership has a question that matters and wants a senior answer quickly.

What we’re hired for

  • Pre-close diligence on franchise and multi-unit targets. Operating-model and systems diligence that goes beyond the QofE and red-flag report.
  • Post-acquisition integration. Untangling overlapping systems, rationalizing the technology stack, and protecting EBITDA through the transition window.
  • ERP implementations that need to land. End-to-end Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central delivery (or rescue), with the operating-side perspective most systems integrators don’t bring.
  • Franchise system architecture. Operating model, franchisee onboarding, royalty and reporting workflows, performance frameworks: the scaffolding that lets a 50-unit system run the way a 500-unit system can.
  • Executive coverage during transitions. Interim leadership, transformation oversight, or acting-CIO-style support when a senior seat is open and the work can’t wait.

How we work

  • Senior-led, no handoffs. Every engagement is run personally by the Managing Member. There is no bench of juniors, no account manager between you and the work, and no slide-to-substance ratio to manage.
  • Hypothesis before headcount. We start with a thesis about what’s actually broken or under-leveraged, validate it against the P&L, and size the work to fit. Long-horizon relationships happen because brands ask us back, not because contracts roll.
  • Operator-fluent, systems-fluent. Comfortable in the boardroom, the back office, and the codebase. Recommendations are grounded in the realities of running stores, paying royalties, and shipping software, not slideware.
  • Confidential by default. Our work isn’t a marketing channel. Client names, deal context, and findings are not part of our public materials unless a client has expressly chosen to make them so.

When we’re not a fit

We’re not the right fit for organizations looking to outsource judgment, follow a predefined playbook, or build a long-term staff-augmentation relationship under an advisory wrapper. Our value compounds in engagements where the question is genuinely open and leadership wants a peer to think alongside, not a vendor to manage.