About us
Cash Margin Partners is an inventory cash-recovery practice for independent, owner-operated retailers. Connect your store and within minutes you'll know — to the SKU — how much cash is trapped on your shelves.
Our story
We specialize in one problem: cash tied up in inventory that will not sell at full price. No messy integrations, no guesswork — just straightforward retail recovery.
Why we exist
Most independent retailers carry months of dead stock without realizing it. Rent, payroll, and next season's buy are all funded by cash locked in the back room. We built this because your growth shouldn't be held hostage by inventory that isn't moving — we turn that dead weight back into liquid capital.
How we help
We bridge the gap between complex data and confident execution. By analyzing your history we send back a plain-English picture of trapped capital, what to discount, and what to move — a live dashboard, weekly alerts, and a practical recovery plan instead of another pile of reports.
The double bottom line
Why Cash Margin Partners exists, in John's own words. Recovering trapped cash for independent retailers is the business; keeping local retail healthy is the point.
Our core values
Guiding principles behind every line of code we write, every report we generate, and every recovery plan we hand back. No fluff, just retail truth.
Minutes
From connect to your first trapped-cash number
Read-only
OAuth access — tokens encrypted, never sold
Every SKU
Classified against verifiable sell-through history
Week over week
Monitor alerts track inventory as it shifts
Our principles
Every recommendation is auditable. We show the math, the history, and the assumptions — never a black-box score.
No SKU enters a recovery bucket without verifiable sell-through history. New arrivals stay in Data Incomplete, never a risk bucket.
If the diagnostic doesn't surface meaningful recoverable cash, you still keep the report. The execution layer is there when the opportunity justifies it.
Read-only access, encrypted tokens, and private short-lived file staging. We never take ownership of your catalog and never sell it — deletable on request.
Advisory board
Cindy Zoller
Owner, Habit Footwear and Accessories
Independent retail & customer experience
Cindy is the proud owner of Habit Footwear and Accessories. For more than a decade, she has been curating and retailing stylish, unique, and high quality apparel and accessories to a loyal following at her boutique in Studio City, CA. Habit's informal motto is, "life is short, buy the shoes" but its true superpower is providing an outstanding customer experience.
Prem Akkaraju
CEO, Stability AI
AI & technology scale
CEO of Stability AI and former CEO of Weta Digital, the Oscar-winning VFX studio behind Avatar and The Lord of the Rings, where he led the $1.625B sale of its tech division to Unity. Columbia MBA with degrees in applied math and economics; deep expertise scaling technology and AI ventures.
Sandy Climan
CEO, Entertainment Media Ventures
Media, entertainment & venture
CEO of Entertainment Media Ventures, which he founded in 1999. Former senior leader at CAA, Universal Studios, MGM, and 3ality Digital; producer of U2 3D and The Aviator, and a longtime venture investor and advisor bridging Hollywood, Silicon Valley, finance, and global corporations.
Sandy Climan is CEO of Entertainment Media Ventures, which he founded in 1999. He previously served on the senior management team at Creative Artists Agency, and was the co-founder of CAA’s corporate practice. Sandy has held senior executive roles across the entertainment industry, including Corporate Executive Vice President and President of Worldwide Business Development for Universal Studios, executive positions in production and distribution for MGM, and as the first CEO of 3D filmmaking pioneer 3ality Digital. His productions include U2 3D, the first digital live-action 3D film, and The Aviator, starring Leonardo DiCaprio and directed by Martin Scorsese, for which he was awarded a Golden Globe and a British Academy Award. He has been an active venture investor and advisor, and has served as a bridge between Hollywood, Silicon Valley, the financial industry, and global corporations. For over 30 years, he has served as an advisor on media and entertainment to the World Economic Forum and its Annual Gathering in Davos, Switzerland. He serves on several charitable boards, including the American Cinematheque, Sands College of Performing Arts at Pace University, the Ellis Island Honors Society, and the Federal Enforcement Homeland Security Foundation.
Allen DeBevoise
Founder & Managing Partner, Third Wave Digital Partners
Digital media & venture
Two-plus decades building and scaling digital media businesses; co-founded Machinima and led it as Chairman & CEO to billions of monthly video views. Active angel investor and board member spotting emerging digital opportunities.
Asbed Kassis
Co-Founder & CEO, Alena Solutions
Product & technology
Co-founder and CEO of Alena Solutions, a digital product studio delivering first-class products for startups and established brands. BS in Computer Science (CSUN) and MBA (USC Marshall); pairs deep technical skill with strategic leadership.
Sal Siino
Investor & Operator / Private Equity
Investing & operating
Sal is an investor and operator with experience spanning private equity, media, and sports entertainment. He has served as a senior executive at major media companies, led wholly-owned portfolio companies across health, defense, and technology, and advised high-growth businesses from early stage through exit. Harvard MBA and former M&A attorney.
How the diagnostic works
One OAuth click into Shopify and our engine starts mapping your trapped revenue. No complex setup, no changes to your workflow.
Connect Shopify, Square, or Lightspeed Retail, or securely upload a tabular export for a one-time diagnostic.
We pull your sell-through history and classify every SKU against your seasonal baseline — dead stock, slow mover, overstock, healthy.
A single dollar number — the cash trapped right now — broken down by SKU, bucket, and category, every figure traceable to your catalog.
A prioritized written plan. Optional liquidity exchange for inventory that won't move at full price — participating buyers and a guided transaction workflow.
The team
CMP brings sales, business development, marketing, valuation, and technology together around one job: helping independent merchants see what is tying up cash and act with confidence.
John Valenti
Founder & CEO · Cash Margin Partners
Founded Cash Margin Partners to give independent retailers the inventory-to-cash discipline big chains take for granted. Sets direction and leads the partnerships that turn unsold stock back into working capital.
Ross Blanchard
Head of Business Development · Cash Margin Partners
An Accredited Senior Appraiser with deep experience in machinery, equipment, and inventory valuation. Connects retailer needs with disciplined, evidence-based recovery strategies.
Henry Fadoni
Inside Sales · Cash Margin Partners
Brings account-executive experience and hands-on knowledge of digital products, SaaS, and AI. Helps retailers move from an initial inquiry to a practical next step.
Philip DeBevoise
Inside Sales · Cash Margin Partners
A digital-media entrepreneur who co-founded and served as president of Machinima before founding Citizine. Brings experience building platforms, audiences, and partnerships at scale.
Rebecca Swanson
Marketing & Communications · Cash Margin Partners
Brings experience in brand storytelling, media relations, social content, video, and broadcast journalism. Turns complex work into clear, engaging stories for customers and partners.
Mason Wyatt
Cofounder & CEO · Ashlr.ai
Cofounder and CEO of Ashlr.ai, the technology company behind Cash Margin Partners' diagnostic engine. Leads the team turning raw inventory data into a defensible, auditable trapped-cash number.
Evan Deloria
Cofounder & COO · Ashlr.ai
Cofounder and COO of Ashlr.ai. Runs the operation behind the platform — keeping the diagnostic, recovery, and data pipelines reliable as Cash Margin Partners scales.
Mason Scofield
Cofounder & CTO · Ashlr.ai
Cofounder and CTO of Ashlr.ai. Architects the systems that classify every SKU and keep merchants' data read-only, encrypted, and fast.
From John's desk
John writes about owner-operated retail, inventory discipline, building Cash Margin Partners, and the decisions that turn products back into working capital. His recent public Posts and Notes are collected automatically on the CMP blog.
