Co-founders Russ Wallace and Mike Constantiner realized that the baby care industry didn’t reflect modern parents and the typical disposable diaper was highly unsustainable. Their answer: Freestyle World diapers – tree-free and 55% more absorbent than competitors. The team came to Settle for Working Capital and expanded to Settle’s Bill Pay for streamlined vendor payments. “Settle is exactly what we need - the price and features are right and it has that flexibility that we need,” says Russ.
At launch, the team quickly realized how capital-intensive operations were and sought financing partners to guard against unforeseen circumstances such as spikes in inventory and warehousing costs. At the same time, the team needed a straightforward vendor payments solution to automate their accounts payable workflows and get a handle on their cash flow.
Settle approved Freestyle World for credit within days. Impressed by the team’s speed and partnership, Russ knew Settle’s Bill Pay platform was a “no-brainer”, going against their bookkeeper’s recommendation of QuickBooks Bill Pay. He preferred Settle’s ability to provide an efficient way to manage vendor bills and payments and the interface that’s “more modern than anything else out there”, not to mention having it on one platform with Working Capital.
With Settle, they collaborate seamlessly with their external bookkeeper to store, approve, and pay bills and can also split and delay invoices when necessary. With the visibility and control to track payments and approvals (identifying invoices that may require dispute resolution), they are now projecting outgoing cash flows for the next 13 weeks through Settle’s cash flow insights visualization.
Armed with financial flexibility and a strong grasp of cash flow, the team is poised to pursue expansion initiatives. After successfully entering over 1,000 stores, they are now looking to SKU expansion, venturing into new baby care categories, and entering big box retailers.
“Settle is exactly what we need - the price and features are right and it has that flexibility that we need” - Russ Wallace (Co-Founder, Freestyle World)
As someone with deep experience in accounting and finance, Russ highlights that founders should have a detailed understanding not just of their P&L statement, but also of projected cash flows. Which is why they’ve come to rely on Settle to offer this visibility - “One of the reasons why I love Settle - I have a graph of all payables so I know when every cent is leaving our bank account.”
