Parker acts as a safety net for your brand – specifically for your bank account and expenses.

That’s advice from Jason Wong, a repeat founder and investor-advisor who’s scaled multiple eCom stores to 8 figures in annual revenue. Currently, he’s the Founder & CEO of doe beauty and Managing Partner of Pughaus, a venture studio growing brands and SaaS companies. The Parker team sat down with Jason to dive deep on his experience in DTC finance. We cover:

1. How to build your DTC financial stack from day one

2. Why cash flow cycles are crucial for every brand

3. Jason’s plan to scale with Parker for the future

“Every DTC brand should take advantage of Parker. Full stop. Having a strong credit partner helps you drive ongoing growth without the cash flow headaches.”

Why cash flow cycles are crucial for DTC brands

Given the volatility happening in the markets, extending your brand’s cash flow cycles is more important than ever.

Jason explains that all founders must learn to assess the risk in every financial decision they make. Whether it’s putting $5,000 into product dev or $10,000 into an ad campaign, there’s the inherent risk that those efforts will fail — wasting precious capital.

As a result, cash flow can quickly become a problem.

Let’s say you purchase inventory for $30,000 pulled straight from your bank account. A piece of your liquidity becomes physical product, which you must sell if you hope to see that cash again.

Put simply: If you don’t move that inventory, you’re screwed.

Enter Parker: your cash flow security layer

In these circumstances, Jason emphasizes the outsized value of Parker.

His companies utilize Parker to extend their cash flow. This way, there’s enough money in the bank at all times in case of an “oh crap” moment. If a product doesn’t sell as quickly as expected or ads don’t convert as efficiently as hoped, you have the extra 60 days to pay it all back.

With Parker, you buy yourself time and financial runway.

Whether you’re facing cash flow problems or have millions in the bank, Jason recommends checking out our terms.

“When you operate a business, you’re racing against time and your financial runway. Parker allows us to extend our cash flow and have more money in the bank.”

Jason’s plan to scale with Parker for the future

As an established investor-advisor, Jason gets countless emails and DMs every day from DTC and SaaS founders alike.

Parker managed to cut through the noise.

He attributes this to the fact that, as a bootstrapped brand, doe beauty found it difficult to navigate cash flow and scaling through COVID-19. Parker’s attractive billing terms were a welcome solution.

Ultimately, Jason evaluates vendors as a founder in the same way he would as an investor.

He looks at the product itself, the team and their resources, and the growth potential. “Parker checked all of those boxes,” he tells us.

Jason eventually became not just a customer, but also one of Parker’s biggest advocates.

The value of long-term vendor relationships

Rather than investing directly in Parker, Jason acts as an unofficial advocate and ambassador for the company.

He usually builds direct relationships with all of his providers, which leads to perks like:

• White-glove client support at all times

• Early access to new features or products

• Opportunities to shape Parker’s product roadmap

The last benefit is especially useful since, in Jason’s words, he is the end user — and will be for years to come.

Looking forward, he doesn’t envision running any of his businesses without Parker.

“As a bootstrapped business, every dollar counts. We really see Parker as our partners in helping extend our runway.”

Finding the right balance between Amex and Parker

The best part of a dynamic banking stack is that credit products aren’t mutually exclusive.

In Jason’s case, he often switches off between his Amex and Parker cards – they don’t need to be used in silo’s. Below, he explains how he optimizes usage of each account.

Amex: general expenses and points & rewards

Jason has been a self-proclaimed Amex fan since opening his personal card in 2016.

These days, he relies on them for more standard, predictable business expenses and accumulating points. Examples include:

• Ad spend — The Amex Gold provides 4x points on up to $150,000 in ad or inventory spend. Jason prefers it for ad spend since there’s an expected cost vs. ROI (although numbers for paid ads have fluctuated since iOS 14.5).

• Travel rewards — After building up a ton of points, Jason regularly uses them to make company trips around the globe. However, he advises other brands to not redeem Amex points for general expenditures.

That’s where Parker comes in.

You’ll eventually collect too many Amex points for reasonable use. Your rewards system stops making sense — and you’ll realize it’s far more useful to see those points as actual cash.

Parker: your safety net for longer payback periods

Jason turns to Parker to stretch expenditures as much as possible and make purchases that take longer to pay back or generate returns. For instance:

• Legal fees — Jason’s team might spend $2,000 on a lawyer to handle compliance, but that kind of investment won’t drive returns within 2–3 weeks.

• Creative projects — A professional photoshoot can cost $6,000, not to mention videography or editing costs. Again, you can’t instantly make that money back.

When all of your money in the bank goes toward everyday operating expenses (payroll, inventory, etc.), there’ll come a point where you lack the liquidity to pay for these professional services or other costs that surprise you.

That’s why Jason’s businesses default to their Parker cards during product launches: All kinds of unexpected expenses crop up, and Parker provides the buffer period to cover them.

“In today’s market, things are unpredictable, you can’t really forecast, and your growth goals aren’t being met. Having cash that you can hold in your hands is more important than ever before.”