Apr 26, 2024

8:30 - Surf

11:00 - First email

12:00 - Campbell call

1:00 - Axel call

2:00 - Rob call

3:00 - N call…

So just about every week someone reaches out wanting to be an investor of MNML GOLF. My typical response is that we are good. But lately, we haven’t been “good”. We’ve been struggling to get our conversion on the site back to where it was before we made a bunch of “upgrades” last year and cash is getting tight. For the first time since 2019, I have started to question if we can keep doing what we are doing and still make it. 

I’m not unaccustomed to this kind of struggle. I spent 9 years of my adult life trying to make it to and eventually win the US OPEN. That challenge came with multiple moments of being broke, not having money for basic things like range balls and gloves to use in qualifiers. Sleeping in my car. And sometimes living off of $5/day in food. 

But this hits a little harder. 

We have a lease on a 4000 sq ft building that costs $8800/month. 

We have staff who depend on MNML for income and livelihood. 

We have a factory who builds us bags on the faith that we’ll pay our bill.

So when N expressed interest in providing capital and insights to help us grow, I listened a little more closely. 

At first I was really hopeful. “Give me the cheat code to business so I can keep this family and this dream alive.” And at first it seemed like N could be the answer to all of our financial worries. Here is this guy with $100k offering to help us grow to $100Million in sales. And his track record is good. He’s been a major contributor to a bunch of ecommerce brands' success. Brands I’ve heard of. Brands you’ve heard of. 

But man. We do things differently. We don’t do paid ads. We don’t pay influencers. We don’t offer discounts. We don’t tell the factory to cut costs to help us increase margin. We don’t gauge our customers to make more money.

The question is always the same “Sam, what do you want to do with this company?” And when I say I want to grow with our team and make the best bags on the market and help as many people as possible they always say the same thing.. “The more money you make the easier it will be to do that.”

But there’s something special about doing it the way you want. There’s something special about breaking the rules to be different and proving the status quo to be a fallacy. 

One of the last things N said to me in our call was “Sam, you won’t be able to compete in the modern business world if you don’t do paid marketing.” 

That’s a bold statement. I don’t like those. I don’t like hearing what another person thinks is impossible. At the end of the day that’s their belief. And for now, I’m going to stick with mine.

We can do it our way. We can grow organically and offer the best products for the player and the planet and give back to the junior golf community and we can do it all without the standard paid marketing routine. 

5:00 - 18Birdies review with Matt and Alex. 

6:00 - Email + call with Campbell and Nicolle.

8:00 - Watch new Stab surf film

After - bed