With the unexpected arrival of COVID-19, HigherDOSE’s founders were forced to shift their attention from their 11 retail locations to instead expanding their direct-to-consumer (DTC) offerings. Within the first week of lockdowns, all of their store locations were shut down and HigherDOSE’s original (and only) SKU, the infrared sauna blanket, saw sales increase 4-fold. It became apparent that people were interested in bringing the sauna experience to the comfort of their couches. The team knew that in order to meet the demand for their products, they needed to start purchasing additional inventory.
Suddenly, the founders were faced with the new challenge of investigating financing options that could help them keep up. Berlingeri and Kaps, along with their COO Sumish Khadka, set out to find a financial partner that was able to provide the things that were the most important to their business:
- Flexibility to finance different parts of their supply chain, from building inventory for peak holiday seasons, to logistics fees, supply chain costs, and outbound logistics
- Extended payment terms when working with international vendors to make them more favorable to their supply chain needs
- Ability to grow and scale their brand with new hires and other needs
