Madi Stefanis, 35mm Co

Madi started at 19 with a hunch about camera rolls. Today, she's built a cult film brand,  developed a community-designed camcorder and learnt the hard way what cash flow actually means.

Key takeaways

• Owning inventory isn't the same as owning growth.  Cash tied up in unsold stock is cash that can't be deployed elsewhere in the business.

• Building products alongside your community, not just for them, reduces risk and creates a better product. 

• Wholesale can create profitable scale by adding volume and reaching new audiences without relying solely on the customer acquisition costs of DTC.

• Revenue and profit are not the same thing. Cash flow is what keeps a business alive.

Madi Stefanis started 35mm Co at 19, off the back of a simple observation: we document more than ever and remember less than ever. Camera rolls fill up with thousands of photos that never get looked at again. She wanted to build something that made capturing a moment feel intentional, not disposable.

She started by selling vintage film cameras. It didn't take long to realise she wasn't the only one craving something more tangible. 

That insight became The Reloader, 35mm Co's first original camera and set the brand on a path toward its most ambitious product yet: The Recorder, a camcorder developed over two years in direct collaboration with its community and launching this September. 

"I wanted to create products that made capturing moments feel intentional and special again." - Madi

The mistake that taught her the most about money: Early on, Madi over-ordered inventory in the name of being ready for growth, before the demand was there to support it. 

It didn't look like a loss on paper, since the stock still technically belonged to the business. But the real cost showed up in cash flow. Capital  that could have been deployed elsewhere in the business was instead sitting in a warehouse. "Inventory is only valuable when it's moving."

The most profitable decision she ever made:

Not a revenue call, a margin one. 

Expanding into wholesale let 35mm Co increase volume while protecting margin, without the customer acquisition costs that come with generating every sale through owned channels. It also opened the brand to entirely new audiences through established retailers, accelerating growth faster than DTC alone could have.

What she'd do differently, starting today

Smaller, more frequent orders with manufacturing partners. Tighter forecasting, with a bigger cash reserve set aside for the unexpected. And every dollar assigned a clear purpose, product development, marketing, or team… instead of spending against projected growth that hasn't arrived yet.

“Revenue and profit are two different things, cash flow is what ultimately keeps a business alive."

Madi was young when she started 35mm Co and she's candid about the learning curve that came with it: understanding how much runway the business actually has, where to take measured risks in the name of growth and how to do both while still protecting cash flow.

F5 Collective exists for women in business navigating exactly this. he brand is working, the community is showing up and the hardest decisions are still the ones about capital.

The best form of support for Women in Business is paying customers. 

Discover and shop 35mm Co.