Own Your Own Growth: Funding Expansion While Keeping Your Equity Intact
Scaling a beauty brand requires more than traditional bank loans—it demands smart, flexible financing that matches your growth trajectory. This session will demystify the alternative lending landscape for beauty entrepreneurs, exploring non-dilutive capital solutions from factoring and asset-based lending to revenue-based financing and purchase order funding. Through real-world case studies—including brands that successfully funded Target all-door rollouts and Amazon expansions without giving up equity—you'll learn which financing structures work best for different business stages and growth challenges. Attendees will gain practical knowledge on preparing for debt financing, understanding collateral requirements, and building the financial infrastructure lenders look for, leaving with a clear framework for evaluating alternative financing options and the confidence to access growth capital while maintaining full ownership of your brand.
Ying is an experienced commercial finance executive, having spent more than 13 years at CIT sourcing and closing factoring and asset based lending transactions. With a strong background in credit and underwriting, Ying successfully structured and closed financing facilities across multiple consumer industries, notably apparel & footwear, furniture and furnishing, food and beverage, health and beauty.
John’s beauty and wellness industry expertise is centered around identifying market opportunities, strategic planning, developing strategies for growth, cash and financial strategy, and building operational excellence. He’s an entrepreneurial thinker with diverse work experience and a bias for creativity and innovation that’s actionable and realistic.
John is also the founder and CEO of his own skin health brand, Ernest Supplies. He also spent six years as the COO / CFO of Paper Magazine, a multi-platform media company and content creation agency. In 2014, he was part of the team that “Broke the Internet.” Before that, John spent 10 years investing in and helping to grow well-known consumer brands, including Intermix, Skullcandy, All Saints, Morgenthal Frederics, and others.
