Who we are

Our experience is operational.Our work is strategic.

Our perspective comes from building ecommerce brands and working through the operational decisions behind growth.

Across eight years of our team's own and partner ecommerce and Amazon operations, we have handled over €400 million in combined transaction volume. This is operating volume, not consulting revenue or a promise of client results.

Our work has involved brands across Europe, the US and the UAE.

We bring analysis, direction and review for the agreed period. Your team leaves with clear priorities.

Ecommerce · Amazon · Operations

The Profit First founders
01 / The origin

It started in the operation,not in a classroom.

The Profit First grew out of direct experience with ecommerce operations: stock, acquisition, suppliers, finances and expansion into new markets.

We started as founders. We scaled our own brands across Europe, the US, and the UAE. We built fulfilment processes, managed acquisition and worked with the financial measures needed to guide the business.

At some point, other founders started asking how we did it.

That experience became the foundation of The Profit First.

02 / The team

Three perspectives.A shared understanding.

FLÁVIO AQUINO, Co-founder, The Profit First, The Profit First

Flávio Aquino

Co-founder, The Profit FirstMARKETPLACES · OPERATIONS · INTERNATIONAL STRUCTURES

Flávio built his authority across multiple fronts. He started in industry, where he was part of creating multinational operations. He moved into retail, where he helped restructure established brands and launch them into digital. That intersection of traditional structure and digital channel is where the passion for ecommerce was born.

For over ten years he has worked across the digital ecosystem: DTC, marketplaces, international structures and cross-border operations. He entered Amazon in 2017 and is an Amazon Vendor. The team's combined ecommerce and Amazon operating experience accounts for over €400 million in cumulative transaction volume; this is not a figure attributed to Flávio or to Amazon alone.

He is founder of multiple digital brands, all built on the same principle: structure first, scale after.

At The Profit First, Flávio reads the P&L before he reads the brand. He identifies what is bleeding margin before any conversation about creatives or channels. He advises on decisions that connect margins, channels and operations.

Outside work, he is a dedicated father and husband. He values businesses that can operate without every decision depending on the founder.

CÁTIA SÁ, Co-founder, The Profit First, The Profit First

Cátia Sá

Co-founder, The Profit FirstPRODUCT STRATEGY · BRAND · ACQUISITION · EU MARKETS

Cátia built, from zero, digital brands that together surpassed ten million euros in revenue. Without physical retail, without external investors, in markets where the category had no installed awareness. It was by operating inside the business, not observing it from the outside, that she designed the experience she now brings to her strategic work with clients at The Profit First.

In just over six years in digital, she expanded operations to multiple European markets, scaled brands in mature categories and unexplored niches, and closed complete cycles: from the first product to owned stock, from the first euro in ads to the operational cockpit of a profitable brand.

Her view of brand building starts with the product and the customer. Not every business starts by building a brand. Some grow product by product, customer by customer, and the brand emerges as a consequence, not a starting point. When what you sell does not yet have a recognisable brand identity, the work is to make sure the product reaches whoever is looking for it. Recognition comes after. And it comes as a result.

At The Profit First, Cátia helps identify what blocks growth and sets clear strategic priorities. She guides founders and teams through their agreed programme; implementation can be scoped separately.

Outside work, she is a mother of two and describes her husband as her greatest ally. She has more energy on an off-road trail than in a meeting room, prefers hard terrain to flat ground, and believes no one is further from who they want to be than their next decision.

JOÃO COUCEIRO, Partner, The Profit First, The Profit First

João Couceiro

Partner, The Profit FirstAMAZON · MARKETPLACES · GLOBAL OPERATIONS

João built his authority in a place few can access: inside Amazon itself. It was there he learned how the algorithm decides who wins visibility, how the relationships between vendor and platform work, and where the invisible mechanisms are that separate brands that scale from brands that stall. That insider knowledge is what distinguishes those who operate Amazon from the outside from those who understand it from within.

Since then, he has worked with brands in global markets, covering the Amazon ecosystem in its entirety. Vendor Central and Seller Central. PPC and DSP. Brand Store, A+ Content, and high-performance listings. Operations, strategy, and growth without separating what should not be separated. The brands he has worked with represent over 250 million dollars in annual revenue on the platform.

His approach is data-driven but does not stop there. On Amazon, reading the numbers is easy. Knowing which one to move first is what defines the senior operator. João is one of the few who makes that reading at the speed of someone who has already operated hundreds of accounts.

At The Profit First, João advises on marketplace decisions, from developing Amazon as a meaningful channel to defending an established position as competition grows.

On stage

On stage and in the room.Sharing the work in public.

We teach founders in person, using real accounts, real numbers and the frameworks we apply in our own work.

Flávio on stage at Checkmate event with a large slide reading 'Diversificação não é um luxo. É sobrevivência.'
The same frameworks the biggest brands run
Cátia and Júlia on stage with a packed audience raising hands behind them.
Thousands of founders trained in person
Flávio on stage with a co-host, audience cheering with raised arms.
Building the digital path, at scale
Cátia speaking on stage, side profile with stage curtain behind.
Teaching what we run inside operations
03 / How we work

Strategic guidance.Clear scope and priorities.

01
Instead of

Channel execution without a broader strategic view.

We offer

Strategic direction across connected business decisions.

02
Instead of

Learning without guidance on your own business.

We offer

Strategists who guide your team through connected decisions.

03
Instead of

Undefined support without a set period.

We offer

A fixed period for analysis, guidance and review.

04
Instead of

Advice without ecommerce or Amazon context.

We offer

Specialists in ecommerce and Amazon.

Next step

Bring us the real decision.We will work on it.

The US$400 appointment is a paid strategic working session, not a free introduction or a promise of a complete audit. If a TPF project follows, we deduct the fee manually from that project's invoice.

Strategic working session
US$400 USD

60 MINONLINEPAID

Book the working sessionIf you later sign a project with TPF, we deduct the US$400 fee from that project's price through a manual invoice adjustment. No project is required.