How to Pitch Your Brand to a Lender in 2025
Key Takeaways
Lenders don’t fund your brand’s story—they fund your ability to repay, so your pitch must prioritize financial clarity, cash flow, and operational discipline over vision or vibe.
Different lenders have different risk appetites: revenue-based lenders want predictable online sales, asset-based lenders care about inventory and receivables, and banks focus on cash flow and collateral.
A lender-ready pitch includes five core documents: P&L, balance sheet, cash flow forecast, use-of-funds plan, and debt schedule—all grounded in realistic assumptions and clean bookkeeping.
To earn trust, show proof of traction, connect the loan to a concrete growth initiative, back it with DSCR math, and demonstrate how you'll handle risk—even in a tougher-than-expected market.
Wondering how to pitch your brand to a lender? Raising capital might bring to mind slick VC pitch decks and stories of explosive, Silicon Valley-style growth. But for most founders in the wine and beverage world, the steadiest path is building a smart relationship with a lender.
Bank financing might not feel as glamorous as a seed round, but it could be the key to funding a new bottling line, expanding your tasting room, or simply smoothing out the intense cash flow cycles of our industry.
The catch? Lenders and investors speak two different languages. An investor buys into your vision for the future, while a lender buys into your ability to pay them back, starting next month. They aren’t investing in your brand’s vibe or the unique terroir of your vineyard. They’re investing in the clarity of your pitch deck, your financial discipline, operational maturity, and the cold, hard data that proves your business is a good risk.
But that doesn’t mean emerging brands are out of luck. Far from it. In my years as a fractional CFO and angel investor, I've seen countless founders shift from thinking they're unbankable to securing the capital they need. It all comes down to speaking in a way lenders will listen to, with realism and a solid grasp of your numbers.
Know What Lenders Look for (Not Just Banks)
First, let's broaden the definition of a lender. Your options in 2025 go beyond the traditional bank on the corner. The CPG financing ecosystem is diverse, and knowing who you’re talking to is half the battle. Each type of capital partner has a different appetite for risk and looks for different signals of a healthy business.
CPG-Specific Revenue-Based Lenders (e.g., Wayflyer, Settle)
These fintech platforms are built for brands with strong, predictable revenue, especially from e-commerce or DTC channels. They aren’t as concerned with historical profitability as they are with your future sales:
What they’re looking for: They typically want to see at least $400K in annual revenue, clean books in a system like QuickBooks Online, and a clear understanding of your cash conversion cycle. For a winery, this is ideal if your wine club or online store is your primary sales engine.
How to prepare: Your pitch should focus on sales velocity, marketing ROI (like your return on ad spend for online sales), and customer lifetime value. Let’s say your DTC wine club is booming, with predictable monthly subscription revenue. A revenue-based lender sees that recurring income as a reliable source for repayment, making them a great fit to fund a big digital ad spend before the holiday season.
Non-Bank Asset-Based Lenders (e.g., Palmer Collective, Dwight Funding)
ABLs lend against the value of your assets. For a winery, your biggest assets are often aging in barrels or sitting in a warehouse as cased goods. Here's how to get approved for a small business loan from non-bank asset-based lenders:
What they’re looking for: These lenders usually require at least $1.2M in eligible collateral (like accounts receivable from distributors or finished goods inventory) to support a line of credit of $1M or more. You'll need solid internal finance systems and likely a CPA-reviewed compilation of your financials for your loan application.
How to prepare: Get a firm handle on your inventory valuation and your accounts receivable aging report. If you have $1.5M in invoices out to your distributors and need cash now to fund the next bottling run, an ABL understands that specific challenge. They see the value locked up in your assets and can help you turn it into working capital.
Traditional Banks
Banks remain the most risk-averse, prioritizing what my finance team and I call the four C’s: cash flow, collateral, credit, and consistency. Let's go into a bit more detail:
What they’re looking for: They want to see a history of positive cash flow, tangible assets they can secure a loan against (like your vineyard real estate or high-value equipment), a good personal and business credit score, and a track record of stable operations.
How to prepare: Gather historical financial statements, detailed forecasts, and a comprehensive business plan. A bank needs to see that your tasting room traffic, distribution sales, and wine club retention all contribute to a business that can comfortably make its loan payments month after month.
Get Your Financials in Order (And Explain Them Clearly)
No matter who you’re pitching, your financial documents are the foundation of your request. A compelling story is nice, but lenders make decisions based on numbers. Before you even think about scheduling a meeting, you need a lender-ready financial package.
Your checklist should include:
P&L statement (last 12–24 months): This shows your profitability over time. For a winery, it's pivotal that your cost of goods sold is dialed in—accurately capturing everything from grape and glass costs to corks, capsules, and labels.
Balance sheet: This is a snapshot of your assets and liabilities. Be prepared to explain it. A lender will zoom in on your inventory line item and want to understand how you value your bulk wine versus your finished cased goods.
Cash flow forecast (next 12–18 months): This is arguably the most important document. Your forecast must be grounded in reality and account for the unique seasonality of the wine industry. It needs to show you’ve planned for the big upfront costs of harvest and bottling, followed by the slower ramp-up in revenue as you sell that vintage.
Use-of-funds plan: A lender wants to see a detailed plan, so be specific. For example: "$100,000 to purchase 50 new French oak barrels from our cooper in Burgundy" or "$75,000 to pre-pay for a container of imported glass bottles to avoid supply chain disruptions and lock in pricing."
Debt schedule: If you have existing loans, list them all out—who you owe, how much, the interest rate, and the monthly payment. Transparency is key.
Just keep in mind that lenders have seen it all. They can spot overly optimistic projections or messy bookkeeping from a mile away. Before you send anything, sanity-check your numbers. Are your gross margins realistic for the industry? Can you defend every assumption in your forecast? Clarity and consistency trump creative accounting every time.
Show Proof That Your Brand Is Working
Lenders want to see evidence that your business model is viable and that you have a foothold in the market. Your job is to connect your operational successes to financial reliability (Our operations experts can help with this).
Instead of vague claims, use concrete metrics that demonstrate momentum:
Show your year-over-year growth, broken down by channel. Did your tasting room revenue grow by 20% after you renovated? Did your wine club membership double?
Point to tangible distribution wins. "In the last year, we expanded from 50 to 150 retail doors in the tristate area through our partnership with a new distributor."
Velocity and sell-through are powerful metrics that show your wine doesn’t just sit on shelves. "Our flagship Sauvignon Blanc has a sell-through rate of 85% within 90 days at our key retail partner, leading to consistent reorders."
Make the Ask: Framing the Loan Like a Business Investment
Pitch your brand to a lender by:
Stating the exact amount and the type of loan. Maybe a "$250,000 five-year term business loan for a food brand" or "$150,000 line of credit".
Connecting the funds to a specific growth initiative. For instance, "We need this term loan to purchase a new automated bottling line that will increase our production capacity by 40% and reduce our per-bottle labor cost by $0.25."
Showing them the math. A healthy DSCR is typically above 1.25x. You could say, "The cost savings and increased sales from the new bottling line are projected to generate an additional $80,000 in annual cash flow, resulting in a DSCR of 1.5x, which comfortably covers the new loan payments."
Thinking through the risks. Present a base-case and a best-case forecast. Acknowledge potential headwinds. "Even if sales are 15% lower than projected, our model shows we will maintain a DSCR of 1.2x, demonstrating our ability to service this debt even in a tougher market."
Being transparent about risks doesn’t make you look weak, it makes you look like a credible and trustworthy business operator.
How to Pitch Your Brand to a Lender like a Business, Not a Brand
You don’t have to be a financial wizard to pitch your brand to a lender, but you do have to be prepared. Securing debt is a powerful tool for smart, sustainable growth. By telling a credible story backed by solid financials, you’re already ahead of the pack.
If you’re ready to grow but aren’t sure how to build a CPG founder lender pitch, that's where we can help. At BBG, we work with founders to prepare financials, model cash flow, and craft a narrative that gives lenders the confidence to invest in your business.
Looking for more CPG financing tips? Let's talk.
