ABOUT

immi reinvented instant ramen, with a focus on better, more nutritious ingredients and delicious flavors. Since launching in 2021, sales have skyrocketed. Take it from immi investor Naomi Osaka: “immi is my go-to meal when I’m craving delicious ramen that makes me feel great.”

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THE CHALLENGE

immi needed precise forecasting and complex modeling post-Series A

From day one, immi Co-Founder Kevin Chanthasiriphan handled all of the company’s financial forecasting and modeling work. But as the business grew, Kevin couldn’t afford to spend several days each month copying and pasting financials across spreadsheets, addressing reconciliations, and adjusting nuances in his model. So, immi outsourced the job to a CFO services company. 

Things didn’t go as planned. The CFO service’s modeling was far more basic than Kevin’s original model. It used unrefined assumptions and lacked the level of sophistication needed for accurate forecasting. Forecast vs. actual variances increased significantly after changing methodologies. All the time and money immi had spent transitioning to a new model and outsourced CFO felt like a waste. As they pivoted to find a new solution, they looked for: 

1. Precise forecasting for inventory management – immi’s lead times are long because products ship internationally. As the brand expanded into wholesale, inventory requirements became more stringent, and they needed a forecasting system that kept product in stock for their customers. 
2. A tighter feedback loop for reporting – After immi raised its Series A, it began dealing with institutional investors that significantly upped their reporting requirements. 
3. Help recalibrating business strategy – immi prides itself on being capital efficient, so Kevin needed to be able to react quickly and shorten end-of-period close and update cycles. 

When Kevin heard that Drivepoint offered low-lift forecasting software and a modern approach to FP&A built just for consumer brands like immi, he decided to give the platform a chance. 

SOLUTION

Because of the heavy lift of implementing a new platform while immi rebuilt its financial model, Kevin says Drivepoint’s white-glove service was invaluable. Drivepoint even adapted its model to immi’s processes. And, in less than a month, everything was ready to go. 

These are the benefits that made the largest difference for immi: 

Benefit #1: Accounting interactions that easily updated historicals

Sometimes, investors want access to immi’s general ledger or specifics for historicals. But that information can change if an old invoice gets processed later on. Drivepoint solves this problem by allowing immi to update historical data from its accounting platform in a few simple clicks.

So there's no more manual copying and pasting of thousands of rows of numbers — Drivepoint’s systems don’t miss anything. The process is way faster, and the level of accuracy is critical to immi. 

Benefit #2: Cohort-level forecasting for eCommerce

Cohort-level forecasting gives immi a clearer view of online customers for long-term forecast accuracy on the DTC side. Plus, Drivepoint recently added this functionality for Amazon, allowing immi to get the same level of cohort insights and granular forecast that they have for DTC. 

This helps immi plan inventory far better than ever before and understand what new products their customers would like to see in the future.

Benefit #3: Online version control for model scenarios 

With Drivepoint, immi can model upside and downside scenarios off the latest data without juggling spreadsheets.

Before Drivepoint, if immi wanted to run a scenario, they’d have to copy and paste a file, open two Excel docs, and compare them side-by-side. It was easy to forget which one was most recently updated because they might be stored locally depending on who last handled the model.. 

This created an issue where many people were constantly requesting the latest file as nobody knew where the source of truth was. Now, Drivepoint provides an up-to-date version on the cloud that everyone can access. 

“Drivepoint always ensures that the data tied up with our accounting system is accurate. There's no manual copying and pasting. It’s just way faster and way more accurate.”

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RESULTS

Drivepoint operates as immi’s ‘technical CFO’ — at a far lower cost than the alternatives

Drivepoint creates models based on immi’s historical data — Kevin says the DTC and Amazon business forecasts are remarkably accurate. 

Before, Kevin spent anywhere from 10 to 20 hours each month working on data modeling and forecasting. Since partnering with Drivepoint, Kevin spends zero time updating immi’s historical model. He just checks for any misclassified accounting expenses and gets on with his day. 

And take a look at the results:

• 20 hours saved per month  
• ~$150k saved (vs. hiring a CFO in-house)
• Lowered actual vs. budget variance by 50% through increased forecasting accuracy

With Kevin shifting his time to making strategic decisions, immi is ready to grow alongside Drivepoint. immi is particularly excited that Drivepoint has expanded the types of data they’re able to ingest and that they’re moving into wholesale performance forecasting. 

“We're excited to see what insights we can glean using Drivepoint going forward, especially because pulling data from Amazon is super challenging. Having Drivepoint automatically pull it is extremely valuable work.”

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