How Sierra Madre Golf Grew 150% Year on Year Through a Seasonal Cash Crunch

Sierra Madre Golf makes women's golf apparel that performs on the course and looks like elevated activewear everywhere else. Co-founder Bonnie Riddle came to the idea through her own experience: working in finance, she came to golf to network, felt the clothes were wrong, and started building the brand she wanted to exist. The brand she built with her co-founder sits between performance activewear and elevated casualwear, made for the golf course but easy to wear well beyond it. In its third year of business, Sierra Madre is growing at over 150% year on year.

The challenge: A cash crunch that arrives every fall

Golf is a summer sport, and Sierra Madre's sales reflect that. Spring and summer are the peak months. By fall, revenue has come off its high. That would be manageable, except fall is also when the cash demands are at their most intense.

To be ready for the following spring season, Sierra Madre has to place inventory deposits months before that stock will sell. Black Friday, which falls in the off-season, is one of the brand's most important sales windows, requiring both the inventory to fulfil orders and paid ad spend to drive conversions. Those demands land at exactly the same time as the next season's deposits.

"It's almost a double hit. And then it's a triple hit because we spend and invest in paid ads during this time."

Being bootstrapped meant there was no buffer for this squeeze. Traditional bank financing was a possibility Bonnie understood well from her years in investment banking and private credit. She also understood why it wasn't the right answer.

"I've seen big loans and heavy covenants. That's something I don't want to deal with as a small business owner. I want my eyes to always be on the ball on the business."

Speed was the other issue. Getting a bank loan takes weeks or months. For a brand placing inventory orders and funding ad campaigns within a tight seasonal window, that timeline doesn't work.

The solution: Capital in days, sized to the forecast

Sierra Madre first reached out to Wayflyer in October, at the peak of the fall cash squeeze. Wayflyer looked at the brand's historical sales data and forecast what they expected the business to do. The capital offer that came back was, in Bonnie's words, "pretty much the perfect amount."

The timeline was the other thing that mattered.

"You could get funding in a matter of days instead of weeks or months."

No closing fees. No covenants to track. With capital available, Sierra Madre could place inventory orders and fund paid ads at the same time, without one crowding out the other. The two things the brand needed to make Black Friday work were no longer in competition.

The results: 150% year-over-year growth and a first six-figure month

The impact showed up in the numbers.

"We had our first six-figure month this year, and we've been growing over 150% year over year every month."

That growth changed what the business looked like from the inside. Capital for inventory and ads meant more sales, and more sales meant Sierra Madre could hire properly and stop running on founder effort alone.

"Wayflyer leveled us up so that we could reach the scale to make the inventory buys, to spend on paid ads, to grow our company and bring on employees."

With the DTC business running as a proper operation, Sierra Madre is now looking at wholesale and B2B.

"It's about how can we expand our collections and our sizes and our colours, instead of how do we make ends meet and get through this inventory. It's a different feeling."

Interested in following in Sierra Madre Golf's footsteps? Wayflyer has funded over 6,000 businesses worldwide with $6 billion worth of working capital, backed by world-leading financial institutions. Apply in minutes and access funds in hours. Start your application today.