Jenn Palmer is the founder and CEO of JPalmer Collective, bringing 20 years of experience in the financing industry. She specializes in helping growing consumer brands access capital and has developed a particular focus on food, beverage, health and wellness companies and women-led businesses.
JPalmer Collective is an asset-based lending company that provides flexible financing to growing businesses. The firm works as a long-term growth partner, helping companies fund inventory, receivables and other needs while providing founders with financial guidance and access to capital without necessarily giving up equity.
JPalmer Collective typically works with companies generating between roughly $5 million and $100 million in revenue, although it will make exceptions for companies it strongly believes in. The firm can also assign lending value to established trademarks, providing additional capital based on the value of a healthy, growing brand.
Supporting female entrepreneurs is central to JPalmer Collective’s mission. Jenn committed to maintaining a portfolio that is at least 51% female-owned or female-led after helping finance Stasher, a reusable silicone bag company that later sold to SC Johnson. Jenn said the experience demonstrated how having women represented in financing decisions can influence which businesses and ideas receive capital.
Jenn believes founders need to distinguish business momentum from financial health. Strong sales, publicity and retail distribution can make a brand appear successful, but margins, cash conversion, operational strength and a clear plan for funding growth provide a much better picture of the underlying business.
Rapid growth can create serious financial problems when founders don’t understand how that growth will be funded. Jenn cautions against pursuing every retail opportunity simply for the sake of increasing sales and believes growth needs to make financial sense before a company commits to it.
The cash conversion cycle is one of the metrics Jenn wishes more food and beverage founders understood. Inventory represents cash tied up until a retailer pays, so a company’s ability to manage the time between paying for products and receiving payment can determine whether its growth is actually fundable.
Jenn places significant importance on the founder and management team when deciding whether to finance a business. She looks for self-aware, coachable leaders who surround themselves with talented people, accept criticism and have colleagues willing to challenge their ideas rather than simply agree with them.
Landing a major retailer can create a cash crunch rather than immediately improving a company’s finances. Brands often have to pay for inventory and production long before receiving payment, while simultaneously absorbing expenses such as slotting fees, chargebacks and deductions.
Too much demand can sometimes be more dangerous than too little. Rapid demand can strain cash, create stockouts and late shipments, damage retailer relationships and force founders into expensive financing decisions. Jenn believes companies need the discipline to turn down opportunities they aren’t financially or operationally prepared to execute.
Jenn pays close attention to consumer trends but believes timing, the product and the management team matter as much as identifying the trend itself. She focused her career on health and wellness beginning in 2008 and now sees fiber as an emerging opportunity, describing it as potentially “the next protein.”
Jenn sees debt and equity as tools for different circumstances, describing debt as “dating” and equity as “marriage.” Venture capital can provide valuable growth funding, but it also creates dilution and pressure to generate outsized returns, making it important for founders to choose financing that fits where their business is and where they want it to go.
Jenn says the funding gap for female founders remains significant despite years of attention to the issue. Her experience building JPalmer Collective reinforced her belief that women need greater representation on the financing side of the table and that female entrepreneurs benefit from capital partners who genuinely understand and support their businesses.
QUOTES
“I’ve learned to separate momentum from health. Momentum is very exciting. But health is what determines whether that momentum survives the next big order or not.” (Jenn)
“At the end of the day, I actually have two businesses. One is lending the money and the other is getting it back.” (Jenn)
“Growth that outruns a founder’s grasp of their own cash is probably one of the fastest ways for a good brand to get in trouble.” (Jenn)
“Growth has to make sense on paper, and I don’t believe that growth cures all. When somebody says to me, ‘Sales cures all,’ I run for the hills.” (Jenn)
“Most founders are just laser focused on revenue growth and gross margin, which matters, of course, but it’s the cash conversion cycle that tells you whether the growth is actually fundable or not.” (Jenn)
“If I’m at a table of people who are agreeing with me, I’m at the wrong table. I don’t want to be at the table. I want people to challenge me.” (Jenn)
“Founders are visionaries. They just want to go and they want to dream, and you need people around you that can execute, but also say, ‘No, you can’t chase all of your dreams all at once.’” (Jenn)
“We make and break our own rules for the right deal.” (Jenn)
“Growth is a problem. It’s a great problem, but it’s certainly a problem with these big retailers.” (Jenn)
“Counterintuitively, too much demand can be more dangerous. It can strain a business’s cash to the breaking point, damage that retailer trust through stockouts, late shipments, and then force the founder into expensive, rushed financing decisions.” (Jenn)
“Trends are important, but probably even more is the timing around those and the management team and the product behind the trends as well.” (Jenn)
“Debt is like dating and equity is like marriage.” (Jenn)
