Will’s journey
About:
When Will was diagnosed with an Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IBD), the side effects and symptoms significantly disrupted his day-to-day life — and the multitude of prescription medications he was prescribed were expensive and exhausting to keep up with. Determined to get his life back, Will set out to find a natural remedy for his IBD. After years of research, Will launched a natural, affordable alternative to prescription drugs for IBD, and his store Intestinal Fortitude was born.
Challenge:
As sales for his Gut Lining Repair supplement, GLR-6, skyrocketed, he found that staying in stock through periods of high demand and unpredictable supply chain conditions was difficult — especially when he started advertising more. He found that as he reached more customers through ads, he became stuck in a cycle of selling too much and stocking out too quickly. Additionally, while Intestinal Fortitude was his passion, this store was also a side hustle, and growing the brand without more cash flow was simply not an option. Will knew he didn’t have the necessary credit history for a traditional bank loan, and needed a more flexible funding solution.
Without 8fig I can’t really say where we would be today, but with 8fig we have the financial backing we need to grow.
Solution:
Will partnered with 8fig for equity-free capital based on his unique supply chain needs. 8fig funding provided continuous cash flow injections at key stages of Will’s supply chain so he could fund individual batches of inventory. With traditional funders, Will would have been given a lump sum of cash to parse out over time; a funding method that requires near-instant repayment and doesn’t account for growth and change. 8fig’s supply chain-first funding model empowered Will with the constant cash flow he needed to scale his inventory orders to match his demand and to plan his store’s growth with confidence. And 8fig’s planning technology helped map out Intestinal Fortitude’s supply chain 6 months or more in advance, taking the guesswork out of planning and reducing the cash flow crunch between orders.
Additionally, with only proof of his store’s profitability, Will secured funding quickly from 8fig — something a traditional bank or funding provider could never offer without a credit check and more robust financial documentation. With his supply chain planned and funded, Will reduced stockouts and freed up the cash flow he needed to focus on scaling his store and reaching more customers.
Our first order was for 500 bottles, our most recent order was for 10,000. Without 8fig we would not have gotten to those numbers.
Solution:
Will partnered with 8fig for equity-free capital based on his unique supply chain needs. 8fig funding provided continuous cash flow injections at key stages of Will’s supply chain so he could fund individual batches of inventory. With traditional funders, Will would have been given a lump sum of cash to parse out over time; a funding method that requires near-instant repayment and doesn’t account for growth and change. 8fig’s supply chain-first funding model empowered Will with the constant cash flow he needed to scale his inventory orders to match his demand and to plan his store’s growth with confidence. And 8fig’s planning technology helped map out Intestinal Fortitude’s supply chain 6 months or more in advance, taking the guesswork out of planning and reducing the cash flow crunch between orders.
Additionally, with only proof of his store’s profitability, Will secured funding quickly from 8fig — something a traditional bank or funding provider could never offer without a credit check and more robust financial documentation. With his supply chain planned and funded, Will reduced stockouts and freed up the cash flow he needed to focus on scaling his store and reaching more customers.
I would 100% recommend 8fig to any entrepreneur wit doesn’t want to take on a partner, or equity-based financing. I still own 100% of my “baby,” and 8fig is just here to help me help it grow.
Result:
As a result of partnering with 8fig, Intestinal Fortitude has grown 600% in two years, and Will is reaching more customers every day. Without funding from 8fig, Will would have been trapped in the cycle of running ads for his product and stocking out, missing out on potential customers and failing to grow as ambitiously as he knew he could. Today, Will ramps up his ads with confidence and invests the cash that would have been tied up in inventory or manufacturing into marketing and product development. Will is already on his third funded product with 8fig and he doesn’t plan on slowing down — this growth means reaching more customers like him who want a better and more affordable fix for symptoms of IBD.