Real businesses. Real problems. Real results.

BACKGROUND

In 2007, when the U.S. Food & Drug Administration ruled that children’s cough syrups were unsafe for kids under the age of four, Dr. Zak Zarbock experienced first-hand the frustration that many of his patients expressed. As a father of four boys, he and his wife would do anything to help their children feel better but struggled with the available options. Zak discovered a compelling clinical trial showing dark honey was effective at calming coughs and sore throats in children and young adults. With help, he created a great-tasting, all-natural, vitamin-enhanced, safe, and very effective product, Zarbee’s All Natural Cough Syrup. Zarbee’s is now found in every major retailer in the country and includes therapies for the entire family.

CHALLENGE

As a startup with limited resources, Zarbee’s had an immediate need to clean up its financials and prepare for an initial outside investment.

SOLUTIONS

Ampleo helped Zarbee’s set up its first chart of accounts and trained their bookkeeper on how to provide solid and reliable financial information as Zarbee’s sought funding. Ampleo made introductions to investors and assisted the company in securing investment dollars as well as debt. As the company grew, Zarbee’s newly hired CEO recognized he would need additional information to present to interested private equity firms. Ampleo put together financial statements and due diligence information and presented it to a private equity group that invested over $6 million in growth capital. As the business requirements increased, Ampleo helped Zarbee’s hire a full-time CFO.

CONTINUED SUCCESS

Zarbee’s continues to expand distribution and offer the best natural drug-free cough remedies available.

BACKGROUND

Since its humble start in Oregon in the 1990s, Traeger Wood Pellet Grills have been the outdoor cooking choice of food enthusiasts. For years, the grills were offered in limited quantities and geographic areas. However, as people began to taste the food cooked on a Traeger, word spread about the unique flavors only Traeger natural wood pellets can provide.

CHALLENGE

Traeger’s financial reporting staff and systems needed upgrading during their headquarters move.

SOLUTION

Traeger hired Ampleo to mentor the finance team and engage them to implement a new ERP. The results were a seamless move to a new streamlined reporting system and a new finance team as they relocated headquarters from Portland to Utah.

CONTINUED SUCCESS

In 2021, Traeger went public.

BACKGROUND

Thrive Life is a provider of freeze-dried and dehydrated foods. Its product categories include fruits, vegetables, dairy, meats and proteins, snacks, seasonings, beverages, and more.

CHALLENGE

Regular financial surprises and mistakes left Thrive Life feeling a bit blind, and they wanted a strategic partner to assist with decision-making.

SOLUTION

Ampleo stepped in as a part-time CFO to guide the cleanup process and assist in the hiring and training of a competent full-time finance team. The results were a streamlined close process with no material surprises, reliable and trusted financials and a capable team that grew into the full-time role.

BACKGROUND

Stance’s founders saw a category – socks – had been ignored, taken for granted, and dismissed. By breathing life into something that had been overlooked, Stance has ignited a movement of art and self-expression that has drawn athletes, performers, and iconic cultural influencers to the brand – a group called the Punks & Poets. And by underpinning its creative roots with a relentless focus on technical innovation, Stance is now found in over 40 countries, worn by individuals who dare to be different.

CHALLENGE

Stance started and funded its startup business by recruiting a team of talented individuals, industry veterans, and committed investors. This group recognized early the need to have timely and accurate financials so that they could plan and manage growth with confidence. While they knew they needed additional financial expertise, they did not want to use their cash to hire a full-time CFO before they really needed one. As soon as Stance started shipping products, the challenges of consistently outperforming their sales forecasts became apparent. The meteoric growth meant Stance would need more cash, than expected, to fund inventory purchases and customer accounts receivable. Rapid growth also brought the need to better manage inventory purchases and distribution through demand planning and effective supply chain management.

SOLUTION

Stance’s senior team asked one of Ampleo’s partners with whom they had a long-standing relationship, to be their outsourced, part-time, strategic CFO. He supervised Stance’s accounting team, developed procedures and appropriate controls, and created a financial reporting deck to help the team manage cash, inventory, and receivables, and helped Stance recruit and train a full-time Controller and a Director of Operational & Business Intelligence with deep industry experience. In addition, the CFO worked with John Wilson, Stance’s President to secure a factoring line of credit with Wells Fargo Capital who provided not only much-needed working capital but credit reviews and underwriting of Stance’s customers to help mitigate collection risk.

Stance’s success and international recognition provided opportunities to expand distribution by opening more Stance retail stores, introducing new product lines such as performance socks and underwear, and improving its products through the addition of Stance Labs for research and development. These opportunities required more financial resources than Stance could generate from operations. As a result, Ampleo’s team helped Stance raise over $75M in equity capital in two financing rounds to finance these strategic initiatives at shareholder-friendly valuations and terms.

CONTINUED SUCCESS

As Stance executes its expansion initiatives and continues its rapid growth, it has established itself as the premier, global sock brand. Winning the NBA on-court sock contract and the grand opening of its flagship retail store in New York City has established Stance as a significant and influential player in the action sports and fashion industries.

BACKGROUND

Rick Alden, the founder of Skullcandy, first came up with his business idea in 2003 on a chairlift in Park City, Utah – he was listening to music when his phone rang. The existing technology required that he take off the earphones, turn off the MP3 player, find his phone, and answer it in order to talk. Rick decided that there must be a better way and Skullcandy was born with a spliced earphone jack that could be used for a phone and an MP3 player at the same time and a switch to go between the two. Since then Skullcandy has been a leading audio brand that reflects the collision of the music, fashion, and action sports lifestyles. Their brand and distinctive logo symbolize youth and rebellion, and embody their motto, “Every revolution needs a soundtrack.” Skullcandy products are sold in the United States and in more than 70 other countries around the world. They pioneered the distribution of headphones in specialty retailers focused on action sports and the youth lifestyle. Through this channel, they reach consumer influencers, individuals who help establish and maintain the credibility and authenticity of their brand. Building on this foundation, they have successfully expanded their distribution to select consumer electronics, mass, sporting goods, and mobile phone retailers.

CHALLENGE

Skullcandy needed controls in place to help manage its coming growth. Before seeking help from Ampleo, Skullcandy’s accounting records were contained within Rick’s personal bank account which his wife maintained for them. In addition, they knew they would need access to capital and needed a partner to assist them.

SOLUTION

Once engaged, Ampleo helped Rick separate the business from his personal finances, and start to track and better control inventory, purchasing, and collections. Over the course of the five years that Ampleo was engaged at Skullcandy, Ampleo provided an outsourced Controller and CFO to help Skullcandy set up its first accounts receivable factoring line, secure equity capital from local angel investors, forecast cash flows and operational growth, and manage revenue growth of over 7200% – often exceeding 300% annual growth rates. Ampleo also helped Skullcandy secure its first traditional bank line of credit with Zion’s First National Bank, just months after completing its first profitable year of operations. Ampleo’s CFO quickly became the CEO’s strategic finance partner, frequently being called into meetings to discuss important strategic ideas or decisions. Once Skullcandy’s growth required a full-time CFO, Ampleo helped in the process by recruiting, interviewing, and presenting management with multiple qualified candidates. When Ampleo presented Rick with two candidates for VP Finance, Rick said, “You can’t leave…you’re my Rent-A-FO”.

CONTINUED SUCCESS

Skullcandy continued its growth and went public in 2011 with a valuation of $500 million. They currently trade on the NASDAQ (SKUL).

BACKGROUND

Simplus is a Platinum Salesforce Partner and provider of Quote-to-Cash implementations. They provide enterprise-wide digital transformation through advisory, implementation, change management, custom configuration, and managed services.

CHALLENGE

The CEO of Simplus needed a trusted and experienced partner as he contemplated securing growth capital, and wanted greater visibility into the financial future.

SOLUTION

Ampleo helped the finance team learn to more accurately and efficiently forecast the business, and provide experience through a fundraising process. With the confidence gained and reliability demonstrated, the full-time controller has now replaced Ampleo as the top finance professional internally and occasionally still reaches out for specific assistance where gaps still remain.

BACKGROUND

In 2007, Rudy Larsen started Lawn Butler, a lawn care and maintenance company. Over the next 5 years, they evolved to focus exclusively on commercial maintenance and they acquired a company that performed commercial installs. Today, Lawn Butler is the largest landscaping, snow removal, and outdoor equipment installation company in the state of Utah.

CHALLENGE

During Lawn Butler’s early stages of growth, they relied upon the cash flows generated from their business rather than raising capital. Their rapid growth led to accelerating and increasing working capital demands with 90-120 days to collect receivables, leaving them in a cash crunch. This placed immense pressure on management due to their large payroll obligations. Lawn Butler used a simple budgeting process to manage the business but knew they needed a five-year forecasting model to better understand their cash flows. At the time, however, their current controller didn’t have much experience forecasting and Lawn Butler couldn’t afford to hire a full-time CFO with higher expertise.

SOLUTION

In 2016, Lawn Butler hired an Ampleo outsourced CFO for 15-20 hours a week. Ampleo stepped in and built a budget and 5-year forecasting model that strategically took into account different business scenarios. In Lawn Butler’s business, snow removal is a large portion of their revenue. Depending on the amount of snowfall in a given year would potentially put a lot of strain on the model. Putting everything into the new model and following Ampleo’s expertise and advice, allowed Lawn Butler to manage their cash flows and be more disciplined about their growth instead of constantly putting themselves in cash pinches. To this day they still use, add to, and build out this budget and model which helped as they grew from $30K to $20M annually before they sold the company. According to Rudy, “Hiring Ampleo wasn’t only good for our business but for my mental health as the CEO. Getting into a situation where we grew a ton but then were struggling to make payroll put a lot of pressure on me. Ampleo relieved a lot of that pressure.”

CONTINUED SUCCESS

Lawn Butler had many detailed, thoughtful and strategic conversations with Ampleo about if they should raise capital. After considering all the pros and cons, they ultimately decided that through discipline they could succeed on their own without raising capital. Because Lawn Butler never raised any capital and operated solely on the cash flows generated from their company, when they sold their company, they generated a 128,000% return on their money. That was an increase of 11,000% a year from their initial investment to what their exit was. Rudy said, “The expertise we received from hiring Ampleo was worth way more than what we actually paid them.”

BACKGROUND

Founded in 2011, Jane is a boutique marketplace featuring the latest in women’s fashion trends, accessories, home decor, children’s clothing, and more. With an industry-leading e-commerce platform, Jane empowers small businesses around the country – both online sellers and brick-and-mortar shops – and helps customers stay on trend, all at amazing prices. Featuring hundreds of new products every day, Jane has everything you need to live your best, most stylish life. Six-time Inc. 5000 winner, Jane is also ranked in the Utah Business Fastest Growing Companies and a recipient of the Best Workplaces’ Great Place to Work Award.

CHALLENGE

During the first four years, Jane experienced amazing growth and was number 11 on the Inc 500 list. However, it was tough for them to keep pace and deal with the new challenges that came. Jane had a small full-time finance team and the CEO wanted a financial strategist and mentor.

SOLUTION

In 2015, Ampleo helped firm up financial reporting processes, expand analytics skills internally and sit on the executive committee. The finance team and its reporting are now a trusted source of information and strategic decision-making for the company. By assisting Jane to understand its key metrics and performance, Ampleo helped improve its ultimate valuation and get ready for its first round of private equity funding.

CONTINUED SUCCESS

A six-time Inc. 5000 winner, Jane is also ranked on the Utah Business Fastest Growing Companies and a recipient of Best Workplaces’ Great Place to Work Award.

BACKGROUND

InWhatLanguage is a young, rapidly expanding tech-enabled translation services company.

CHALLENGE

Bootstrapped from the start, the founder and management team needed capital and financial guidance in order to achieve the company’s growth objectives.

SOLUTION

They hired Ampleo to mentor its accounting and finance team, provide financial leadership to the CEO and management team, and assist in securing growth capital. Ampleo helped develop a long-term financial plan, use the plan to secure non-dilutive growth capital on attractive terms, implement an annual detailed operating budget, bring its financials into compliance with GAAP, and assist management in making sound decisions as it grows the company.