Ladybird Provisions is on a mission to bring nutrition to your daily cup of coffee. Made from grass-fed proteins, good fats, and medicinal spices, their Coffee Bombs® and Dry Bombs™ make it easier to be healthier. When cash flow got tight during their production cycles, Co-Founder & CEO Sarah Rioux turned to Settle to extend their runway without raising capital.
Ladybird Provisions was self-funded and lacked the cash flow to scale. During some cycles, they were purchasing ingredients and making product 3–6 months before realizing revenue for it. Feeling the grind, Sarah and her team began looking for ways to keep up with production and grow their business. That’s when their fractional CFO suggested Settle Working Capital—a solution that came highly recommended from the CFO’s other CPG clients.
“We might have a lot of money in AR, but we just don't have it yet,” Sarah says. “But we have bills that we need to pay and so that's why we needed something like Settle.”
Now Sarah uses Settle Working Capital for big purchases, packaging, and ingredients. She says it’s “a no-brainer.” Settle’s founder-friendly approach made it simple to get started—from the easy-to-use platform to how they worked with Sarah to proactively lower her rates. She also loves how Settle has continued to make the Working Capital product even more flexible, like offering an amortized repayment schedule instead of lump-sum payments only.
With Settle, Ladybird Provisions is able to fund large purchases while using their cash reserves for other vital business expenses—without the stress of fundraising and giving up equity. “It's the peace of mind knowing that I will be able to pay my employees, pay rent, and purchase the raw ingredients and packaging that I need,” she says. Looking ahead, Sarah plans to focus on hiring new team members to take Ladybird Provisions to the next level.
“Settle is a lifeline for the CPG world because cash is tight” - Sarah Rioux (Co-Founder, Ladybird Provisions)
Sarah stresses the importance of planning and liquidity for new founders: “You can have a great idea and a great product, but that's not all you need. You need to have a really great plan and enough money to see it through. And you just have to have a lot of passion to keep going because it's hard.” Another cup of coffee never hurts either.
