MNML Golf

MNML Golf is an American golf bag brand founded in 2020 by ex-golfing teacher Sam Goulden. They create customizable golf bags made from 100% recycled materials, with features like film pockets, magnetic closures, built-in solar chargers and Bluetooth speakers.

The challenge for MNML Golf: Shifting $500,000 of inventory

Despite starting his golf brand two months before golf courses around the world shut down, Sam Goulden felt fortunate – he had found two great factories, one in China and one in Indonesia, which he had found during a surf trip there.

“The factory has always been really good to us, even at the beginning”, says Sam. Although many major manufacturers would be doing orders of a hundred thousand, they only ordered 400 bags to start.

This wasn’t the only big ask, says Sam: “Not only did I only ask for 400, I asked for 400 of the most innovative golf bags ever made – there are seven things our company does that no other golf bag does.”

Amazingly, the factory didn’t bill Sam upfront.for this order, waiting instead until he had sold through the inventory. As many operators will know, most brands will be required to pay for half of their order first, and then the rest within 60 days.

By their third year, they had done $991,000 in revenue with no paid ads, marketing or paid ambassadors. Sam believes strongly in organic growth – and it’s really worked. According to their website, their customer acquisition cost is $0.

So, Sam put in a big order of over 3,000 bags for 2023. With a big review and a collaboration that would get them featured at the Super Bowl planned, they assumed they would need it. The factory assured them they could pay when they got the cash. However, neither ended up causing an influx of customers:

“Whoever did the review [...] gave us a, not a shitty review, but a boring review, and didn't highlight any of the things that make our product unique. It resulted in almost no extra sales. [The other] company actually laid off a bunch of people and didn't do their Super Bowl commercial. So that didn't happen.”

It took MNML Golf two years to sell the golf bags they had ordered. By the time they ordered their bags for 2025, the factory looked for upfront payment, along with the rest of what they still owed for the 2024 order:

“That was the first time we were like: ‘We've never been able to do that. We've never had a surplus of money.’ It was kind of a punch in the arm. I was like: ‘Well, we don't have $100,000. How are we going to do that?’”

While they had enough inventory to foot the rest of the original 2023 bill, they didn’t have the necessary capital to pay for the stock they needed for 2025:

It was a tough time: “We were sitting on half a million dollars worth of inventory and not seeing the sales. Website conversions were down, exposure was down. I didn’t have a strategy.”

The solution for MNML Golf: Funding that reflects seasonal success

Thankfully, a good friend Sam had collaborated with had a suggestion: “He had used Wayflyer. So we talked to him and asked him like, ‘what's the deal? Is it good?’ And he's like, ‘everybody uses something like this’. And I had no idea.”

Why private equity wouldn’t work: Sam didn’t believe an investor would continue to support or be aligned on the business five, ten years down the line, when he planned to run the company for the rest of his life.

Why a line of credit wouldn’t work: “Once I did research I was like, hell no. They’re so bad. It’s the last thing I would ever do. There's so much money being burned in a line of credit. We’re not talking 10%, we’re talking huge chunks of the money that you spend on product is just going to debt.”

Sam realized that with a line of credit, his customer would have to pay more – something he says is "totally against all my values". So, Sam had a positive call with a Wayflyer rep who explained the terms, and he quickly realized their rates were so much lower than the bank’s.

In his mind, Wayflyer was “by far the best option” and suited how his business worked: “The terms were really simple. We could just on-demand get the money we needed based on Shopify sales.”

The results for MNML Golf: New, reactive inventory in weeks

Thanks to their easy access to higher levels of capital, the team can order and receive the inventory they need ahead of moments of peak demand (such as the Masters), in a number of weeks.

The investment has also enabled the team to boost their customer service to exceptional levels, sometimes even offering additional design support for elements like customer logos when professionals order a customized golf bag.

They’ve also invested in sourcing eco-friendly materials and regular innovations to “make their golf bags do things no golf bag has never done before”.

They also support junior golfers by offering customers the ability to donate their old golf bag when they upgrade it, by just covering the shipping costs. Over 1,200 junior golfers have received a golf bag through the program.

MNML Golf is now on the exact kind of trajectory Sam wants: “I want this job for the rest of my life, so I’m cool with steady growth. I'm actually way happier with that than some crazy volatility like we saw in the first four years.”

Interested in following in MNML Golf’s 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.