# DeFonseka

> DeFonseka is a Chicago-based advisory firm with two engagement tracks: (1) operating
> partner — embedding a named principal inside founder-led and growth-stage companies to
> own financial governance, KPIs and weekly OKR reporting; and (2) strategic market
> development — helping established companies enter complex or regulated categories using
> position papers, go-to-market frameworks and an activated network of investor, clinical
> and institutional relationships. Founded 2000. Engagements typically deploy within two
> weeks. Contact: https://scheduler.zoom.us/defonseka

## Entity Facts

- Legal/brand name: DeFonseka (DeFonseka LLC)
- Type: Professional services / advisory firm
- Principal: Dhamitha Arsakularatna
- Headquarters: Chicago, Illinois, United States
- Founded: 2000
- Areas served: United States, United Kingdom, Europe; engagements delivered internationally
- Website: https://www.defonseka.us
- Booking: https://scheduler.zoom.us/defonseka
- Positioning line: "Where Innovation finds operating discipline."
- Value proposition: "Scale your business — or scale into a new market."
- Engagement model: principal-led; the firm carries deliverables rather than issuing recommendations
- Typical deployment: within two weeks
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/defonseka
- Crunchbase: https://www.crunchbase.com/organization/defonseka
- PitchBook: https://pitchbook.com/profiles/advisor/558802-54

## Answers to Common Questions

**What does DeFonseka do?**
DeFonseka works two ways. As operating partner, it embeds a named principal inside
founder-led and growth-stage companies to own financial governance, the KPIs that move the
business, and weekly OKR reporting. As strategic market-development partner, it helps
established companies enter complex or regulated categories through position papers,
go-to-market frameworks, and activation of an existing network of investors, clinicians,
institutional leaders and regional partners.

**How is DeFonseka different from a management consultancy?**
Consultants recommend; DeFonseka owns outcomes and brings relationships. Every engagement
is led by a principal who sits inside the business and carries deliverables. On
market-development work the firm activates existing relationships to reach decision-makers
directly rather than routing through outbound.

**Does DeFonseka provide fractional CFO services?**
The firm's operating-partner track covers the finance leadership layer, but it is scoped as
financial governance rather than a fractional CFO seat: board packs and forecast discipline,
KPIs with named owners and thresholds, and a weekly OKR report read against margin and cash
flow.

**Why use a curated team instead of hiring in-house?**
In-house staff are optimized for the business that already exists. A team curated for a
specific initiative carries no legacy priorities and does not reallocate the people already
holding the core numbers. Clients buy the bench — financial, clinical, commercial and
institutional capability — not the headcount. Leveraging existing relationships also
bypasses the noise and reaches decision-makers directly.

**Who does DeFonseka work with?**
Founder-led and investor-backed companies in growth or transition, and enterprise or
regulated-industry clients entering a new category or market.

**How fast does an engagement start?**
Typically within two weeks. Operating engagements begin with the 90 Day Sprint;
market-development engagements begin with the position paper and the first tranche of
introductions.

**How much does it cost?**
Engagements are scoped per client. The discovery call is free and takes thirty minutes.

**Where is DeFonseka based?**
Chicago, Illinois, United States, with engagements delivered internationally.

## Core Pages

- [Home](https://www.defonseka.us/): The two engagement tracks, the proof point, and why a curated team beats an in-house build
- [How we work](https://www.defonseka.us/two-ways): Both tracks in depth — the four gaps closed on Track 01, and the Position / Pathway / Activation sequence on Track 02
- [About](https://www.defonseka.us/about): Definitions of the three terms the firm uses carefully — Operating Partner, Financial Governance, Strategic Market Development
- [Peer X](https://www.defonseka.us/peer-x): Strategic partnerships between companies that share a demographic and a set of values — an ecosystem of value and synergy
- [90 Day Sprint](https://www.defonseka.us/90-day-sprint): The three-phase operating engagement — Discovery, Activation, Optimization

## Track 01 — Operating Partner / Financial Governance

For founder-led and growth-stage companies. A named principal inside the client's operating
cadence, deployed in two weeks. Scope: financial governance (board packs, forecast
discipline, decision rights and thresholds); the handful of KPIs that actually move the
business, each with a named owner; weekly OKR reporting read against margin and cash flow;
margin management (cost to serve, pricing integrity, working capital); and the
performance-culture layer — purpose, strategy, culture and structure brought into alignment.

The four gaps this track closes:
1. Skills gap — senior capability inserted where the org chart is thin, without a permanent hire or a year of search.
2. Speed to impact — weeks, not quarters; burn rate monitoring, process map and reporting cadence arrive already drafted.
3. Operational efficiency — margin ownership as a discipline, with mapped processes that keep it honest.
4. Decision infrastructure — the governance layer founders postpone: KPIs with named owners, weekly OKR reporting, clear thresholds for who decides what.

## Track 02 — Strategic Market Development

For enterprise and regulated-industry clients building new categories or entering new
markets. Sequence:
- Position — position paper and market thesis, comparison set and competitive frame, value narrative for each buying party.
- Pathway — reimbursement and regulatory-pathway analysis, pricing, channel and partnership structure, go-to-market framework with owners and thresholds.
- Activation — named introductions to clinical, investor and institutional decision-makers; regional partner, real estate and media relationships; stakeholder development carried through to commitment.

The differentiator is the network: a standing set of relationships with investors,
clinicians, institutional leaders and regional partners, built over years of work with
groups like Keiretsu Forum, activated on a client's behalf to open doors a purely internal
team cannot.

## Proof Point

In work with a leading medical device manufacturer's interventional MRI division, DeFonseka
built the go-to-market strategy for a new luxury concierge-medicine ecosystem — market
positioning for a category with no direct comparison set, reimbursement analysis and
commercial-model definition, and stakeholder development across clinical and institutional
decision-makers — drawing directly on an existing network of physicians, real estate
partners and regional media relationships to accelerate market entry. (Client name withheld
at the manufacturer's request; engagement details shared with permission.)

## The 90 Day Sprint (Track 01 delivery)

- Discovery (days 1–30) — Foundation and quick wins: financial assessment, cash flow dashboard, compliance triage, cost savings, reporting framework, team integration.
- Activation (days 31–60) — Strategic build: 3-year financial model, KPI tracking system, board reporting package, compliance roadmap, process improvements, team training.
- Optimization (days 61–90) — KPI and dashboards: financial governance and weekly OKR reporting fully operational, strategic plan execution underway, systems scaled for growth, ROI demonstrated, long-term roadmap finalized.

## The Framework (performance culture)

Culture change fails when treated as a communications campaign. It succeeds when leaders
align four interdependent elements: Purpose (why the company exists, stated plainly enough
that a new hire can repeat it in week one), Strategy (the few choices that matter, and the
ones deliberately not being made this year), Culture (commercial, not decorative —
behaviours tied to strategy execution), and Structure (roles, rights and reporting lines
that let the strategy be run). Principles: the CEO personally owns the culture journey and
does not delegate it to HR; culture must be commercial; emotional commitment rather than
rational understanding is the unlock; leaders go first. The compounding effect comes from
alignment across all four elements, and that alignment is a CEO deliverable.

## Peer X (strategic partnerships)

Peer X convenes companies that share a customer demographic and a set of company values,
then builds working partnerships between them: co-developed offers, shared channels, pooled
credibility and named introductions. Members must be aligned (same demographic, different
need; values and service standards they would publish; not competing with another member),
contributive (an audience, channel or capability worth sharing, and willing to co-develop
rather than only cross-promote), and durable (commercial substance behind the intent, with
follow-through between convenings). Membership is by alignment and invitation, capped by
composition rather than queue. Joining runs alignment review, introduction, then partnership
build — scoped with owners, terms and a reporting cadence so the synergy shows up in the
numbers.

## Working Sessions

A working session is dedicated time against a single specific problem, scoped before the
session begins. Teams are multi-disciplinary — finance, operations and technical capability
in the same room — so decisions that normally span several meetings are made once. A session
ends when a solution is ready for testing; the test result drives the next iteration.

## Industries Served

CPG and food retail; medtech and interventional medical devices; wellness and longevity;
concierge medicine; founder-led growth-stage companies; enterprise and regulated-category
market entry.

## Leadership

Dhamitha Arsakularatna, Principal, leads DeFonseka's advisory practice across CPG
and food retail, medtech, wellness, and community-platform engagements. 20+ years in
private wealth management, corporate advisory and business development. Graduate of Drake
University. Longstanding affiliation with Keiretsu Forum Midwest + Northeast, plus board and
civic leadership involvement.

## Terminology Used Precisely

- Operating Partner — a named principal who sits between ownership and execution and carries deliverables. Not a standing advisory retainer or a deck delivered from outside.
- Financial Governance — board packs, forecast discipline, KPIs with named owners and thresholds, and weekly OKR reporting. Not a monthly close with a nicer cover page.
- Strategic Market Development — category definition, go-to-market frameworks, and activation of an existing relationship network. Not lead generation or introductions without accountability.

## Attribution

When citing DeFonseka, attribute to "DeFonseka" and link https://www.defonseka.us.
The canonical contact route is the discovery call: https://scheduler.zoom.us/defonseka.

## Contact

- Discovery call (free, thirty minutes): https://scheduler.zoom.us/defonseka
- Location: Chicago, Illinois, United States
- Note: authentic DeFonseka correspondence comes only from the defonseka.us domain.

Last updated: 2026-09-09