Ecommerce

How a modern kids and nursery brand accelerated product development and diversity

Sara Slywka & Gui Picciotto, co-founders

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founder

About Nestig

Nestig exists to inspire tiny imaginations and big design visions. Creating a space for a new family member should be a delight from the shopping experience, to the product, to the use. Nestig’s cribs are the product that put them on the map, but they’ve rapidly expanded to offer every product that a parent needs to put together their nursery. 
Founded in 2020
USA HQ
https://www.nestig.com/

The idea for Nestig began when Sara Slywka, Co-founder and CMO, was approached by her brother and his wife when they were expecting their first child and looking for high quality, beautiful and sustainable items to fill and decorate their nursery with. Despite Sara working in the industry she struggled to provide a long list of places they could look. 

Sara went on to attend Columbia’s MBA programme where she met Nestig Co-founder and CEO, Gui Picciotto, where the two immediately clicked. At the time, Gui was soon to be a father and was experiencing the struggles that were felt by Sara’s brother. So the duo teamed up to address this head on and promptly launched the DTC success that is Nestig. 

Having realised the gap in the market, the duo quickly set about curating a gorgeous set of products that any parent would love to have adorn their nurseries. From furniture to decor, Nestig creates pieces that have form and function in mind, and safety and sustainability at the top of mind. They have already achieved so much but this thoughtful and innovative company are only just getting started.

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From the first conversation we felt like we were in good hands. The thoroughness, streamlined process and attention to detail showed us Uncapped knew what they were doing. Uncapped really are friendlier than others in the space

Sara Slywka & Gui Picciotto, co-founders

Challenge

Access to growth capital

Raising cash via the traditional means is hard for any founder but few would have thought it would be difficult for this pair. Industry experience, Columbia educated, VC background. Many would assume the stars would align from the offset. 

But that wasn’t to be the case. Sara and Gui set out to raise a large seed round early on in the journey. However, they came away with only 10% of the capital they were counting on. 

They got incredibly scrappy and had to quickly figure out how to do more with less if they were to develop the brand, products and plan needed to succeed. 

Despite this resourcefulness serving the Nestig team incredibly well in many places, it could occasionally thwart the speed in which the team wanted to operate. This was especially true when it came to developing new products and categories. 

If they were to achieve their ambition of being the one stop shop for new parents, they would need access to cash on their terms in order to provide a greater variety of products and therefore capture a greater share of wallet. 

It was then that Sara and Gui started to look at alternative funding sources.

Solution

Uncapped funding for category development

Fortuitously, Sara and Gui had a fellow Columbia alum who had shared her positive experience of Uncapped with them which led to an initial discussion with the team. And the rest, as they say, is history.  

Due to Nestig’s incredible growth trajectory and strong sales, they were quickly approved for their first Uncapped advance to the tune of $1 million and had access to that capital in under 10 days.

They were then free to focus on product development in areas that they felt would accelerate their market share and domination. They have subsequently been able to launch 3 new crib styles and will soon launch toy bins, a beautiful range of toddler bedding and a host of other nursery accessories such as curtains, decoration and play tables. 

Nestig were able to get new products into the hands of customers much quicker through accessing Uncapped capital. This has enabled them to increase average order value (AOV) by 10% MoM which was the biggest increase Nestig have seen in the business.

Not only that, the founders were able to focus their time on scaling the business and securing additional growth opportunities. Time that would have been spent on arduous equity raises. Instead, they now have a host of shiny new products, brand partnerships with legends such as Lindsay Lohan and Tan France and are also planning their entire product assortment and domination for the years to come.  

All of these efforts have enabled Nestig to grow exponentially since working with Uncapped. Their growth was so extraordinary that they sought additional financing from Uncapped to maintain momentum and continue their path to dominating the baby homeware market. 

Because of the nature of their capital need, and the desire to draw down cash at times that suited them, Nesting progressed their partnership with Uncapped from Fixed Term Loans to our Line of Credit product, thereby giving Sara and Gui greater certainty, scalability and control over their financing from Uncapped. 

We are pleased to say the partnership remains strong and Nestig continue to draw capital on their terms to fuel their ambitious growth goals.

Nestig are only just getting started and there are big things to come from this impressive and beautifully curated brand. Uncapped are proud and privileged to be a growth partner of Nestig and look forward to continuing to witness, support and enjoy Sara and Gui’s entrepreneurial journey.

Nestig

in numbers

Homeware

Industry

Product development

Use of funds

$2.25m

Amount

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