Ivona Aya Schuler.
Commercial strategy for expert-founders
How good you are.
The gap I close
How much you make.

Brilliant founders — doctors, scientists, specialists, family businesses — build something exceptional, then watch it underearn because no one runs the commercial side: pricing, margins, distribution, growth. I'm the commercial brain that closes that gap, so your expertise finally earns what it's worth.

Book a Commercial Diagnosis See how it works
A background built on both sides — the lab and the ledger
PhD, Economics & Management Università della Svizzera italiana Tarchini Group Geneva Business School Founder, AIF Ticino
The real problem

The gap isn't your product. It's the business around it.

You spent years — sometimes a lifetime — becoming exceptional at your craft. Then the commercial side got improvised: prices set by guesswork, margin quietly bleeding into packaging and logistics, an audience that admires you but doesn't buy, distribution that stops at your own front door. None of that reflects how good you are. It's simply the part no one trained you for. That's my part.

01 — Start here

Commercial Diagnosis

A fixed-scope audit of your whole commercial engine — margins, pricing, funnel, distribution, growth — delivered as a clear, board-ready roadmap of where the money is leaking and where it's hiding.

Fixed fee · 3–4 weeks
02 — Build it

Fractional Commercial Lead

I become the commercial brain beside you — building the systems, running the numbers, making the calls — so the business grows without consuming you or pulling you from the work only you can do.

Monthly retainer
03 — Selective

Partner

For the rare business I believe in, I come in on equity or profit-share and build the entire commercial side as a true co-pilot — fully aligned with the same outcome you are.

By invitation
How it works

Three steps. No mystery, no long contracts.

Step one

A short call

Thirty minutes on where your business actually leaks, and whether a Diagnosis is the right fit. No deck, no pressure — just a clear read on your situation.

Step two

The Commercial Diagnosis

Three to four weeks. I go deep on your margins, pricing, funnel, and distribution, and hand you a board-ready roadmap you can act on the day you receive it.

Step three

You decide what's next

Run the roadmap yourself, or bring me in as your fractional commercial lead to build it. Either way, the Diagnosis stands entirely on its own.

The wedge

Start with a Commercial Diagnosis

One deep audit of your business, delivered as a roadmap you can act on immediately — whether we work together afterwards or not.

  • →Cost & margin architecture. Where every franc goes, line by line, per product or service.
  • →Pricing & positioning review. What you're worth, set against what you currently charge.
  • →Funnel & conversion analysis. Why your audience admires you but doesn't yet buy.
  • →Distribution & growth map. The channels and partners you're not using yet.
  • →A prioritised 12-month roadmap. Sequenced so you never scale the wrong thing first.
From
CHF 4,500
fixed, agreed before we start
Book a call

Most diagnoses pay for themselves in the first margin fix they uncover.

Recent work

What closing the gap looks like.

A Swiss dermatologist-founder skincare brand

Audience without revenue — the most common gap of all.

  • CHF 95k+
    in recoverable annual margin identified on secondary packaging alone, by tracing the supply chain past the middlemen to the actual factory source.
  • 5–7×
    revenue gap surfaced between a 600,000-strong following and actual sales — diagnosed as a distribution-and-funnel problem, never a product one.
  • 36 months
    a full commercial roadmap built to close that gap — sequenced, costed, and benchmarked against the brands that have already done it.
Who closes the gap

An economist who speaks both languages — the lab and the ledger.

Ivona Aya Schuler

"I've spent my career where rigorous economics meets real commercial operations. I bring both to founders who have the expertise — but not yet the machine that lets it earn what it's worth."

  • PhD in Economics & Management — Università della Svizzera italiana. Research on decision-making and risk in family firms.
  • Founder of the Associazione delle Imprese Familiari Ticino, the Ticino family-business association.
  • Operator's track record: European e-commerce & marketplace lead, a change mandate at the Tarchini Group, and business-school lecturer in change and family-business management.
  • Works in English, Italian and Croatian, based in Zurich, Switzerland.
Is this for you?

I work with a particular kind of founder.

This is for you if

  • You're genuinely excellent at your craft and have something real — a product, a practice, an audience.
  • You know the commercial side is the bottleneck, not your expertise.
  • You want a partner who thinks like an owner, not an agency that sells you a deck.

It's not for you if

  • You're looking for a quick growth hack or a viral shortcut.
  • You want to hand your whole business to someone and step away.
  • You're not ready to look honestly at your numbers.
Before you book

The questions founders ask me.

How is this different from a consulting agency?+

An agency sells you a deck and a team that rotates. I'm one senior brain who has actually run e-commerce P&Ls and built the commercial side myself — and I stay accountable to the outcome, not the billable hour.

I'm very protective of my business. What do you actually touch?+

You stay the expert and the face. I work on the commercial machine behind you — numbers, pricing, channels, growth — and nothing ships without you. The point is to free you to do more of what only you can do, not less.

Isn't this expensive?+

The Diagnosis is a fixed fee, agreed before we start, and it routinely finds more in recoverable margin than it costs. The genuinely expensive option is another year of underearning what your expertise is worth.

Do you only work with beauty or skincare brands?+

No. I work with expert-founders of any kind — clinicians, scientists, specialists, and family businesses. Beauty was simply one recent example of the same underlying gap.

I'm not sure I'm ready to scale.+

Then a Diagnosis is exactly the right first step. It tells you what's true today and what to fix first — so when you do scale, you never scale the wrong thing.

Let's talk

Find out what your expertise is really worth.

A short, no-pressure call to see where the gap is — and whether a Commercial Diagnosis is the right next step.

Book a call

I work with a small number of founders at a time, to keep every engagement genuinely hands-on.