Happy Nuts

Happy Nuts is a company started in California by four friends. They make anti-chafing groin care products, including a #1 Amazon Best Seller deodorant, body washes, creams and shaving products.

The challenge for Happy Nuts: Funding inventory

When Matt Greene started the company with his three friends, it wasn’t long before COVID threw a spanner in the works for the production of their men’s hygiene products.

Almost overnight, their suppliers had to halt production so that they could focus on producing hand sanitizer and similar products, leaving the Happy Nuts team out of stock for a worrying nine months.

Thankfully, they began to grow from 2021, but with this came the need for much bigger levels of capital to purchase the inventory they needed. Not only did they need this capital to scale, they needed it to stay in stock, period.

And this was further complicated by the long production cycles for their products. Matt explains: “Producing cosmetic products, we have to buy our packaging and fill it and that can take a few months.”

The solution for Happy Nuts: Pre-Q4 funding

Thankfully, Wayflyer allowed biweekly repayments over eight months, so they had time not only to produce their products, but also to sell through them and get the cash they needed.

Matt explains: “Wayflyer was a big help in allowing us to get the capital we needed to stay in stock and fuel our growth. They have really simple terms and can get you a figure quickly, which we just draw from.”

Wayflyer’s funding also didn’t require personal guarantees – something that can become complicated in a business with four founders.

Happy Nuts’ business can be highly seasonal, which requires upfront payment to avoid stock-outs: “We do really well in Q4, which requires a heavy inventory build in the holiday season.”

And getting a financing provider that understood this was essential to maximize sales during these key periods: “Wayflyer recognized that and allowed us to increase our funding to an amount where we’d have enough inventory to stay in stock all holiday season.”

The results for Happy Nuts: 100% YoY growth

Prior to this, the team were reinvesting a lot of their own capital to grow inventory and the business. But they didn’t have the money to hire employees specifically skilled in growing their operations and marketing strategy.

“All of our investment was in our inventory, so being able to keep our balance sheet healthy meant we could free up that capital to use to grow the team”, says Matt.

It was something that traditional loans wouldn’t allow for: “Often, capital has to be completely tied to an inventory purchase, but Wayflyer’s capital is much more flexible, so we can spend it on advertising, employees or operations.”

And it’s enabled them to invest in the tools they need: “Without that type of flexibility, we wouldn’t have been able to afford things like a new enterprise resource planning system we implemented this year”.

Once they had access to healthier levels of capital, Happy Nuts experienced exponential growth, says Matt: “We grew a few hundred percent a year for a few years, and we’re on track to double this year in revenue.”

And when they need further funding, it’s extremely easy to manage, says Matt: “Whenever we request funds, we do it through an online portal. And we have an account manager who will reach out every few weeks just to see how we're doing, if we need capital, and how everything's going.”

Interested in following in Happy Nuts’ footsteps? Wayflyer has funded 5,000+ businesses worldwide with $5 billion worth of working capital, backed by world-leading financial institutions. Apply in minutes, access funds in hours.