Assembled Brands is a financing platform and asset-based lender that provides working capital to high-growth 📝Direct to Consumer (DTC) companies, focusing on industries such as food and beverage, apparel, beauty, home goods, and electronics. Founded in 2016 by 📝Adam Pritzker after the sale of 📝General Assembly, and joined shortly after by 📝John Zdanowski as Managing Director of permanent capital, the company was designed to fill the financing gap left by the decline of department store credit systems. Its model combines non-dilutive credit facilities and hybrid capital solutions, supported by a $100 million equity-backed lending fund from Oaktree Capital Management. By integrating with client systems via APIs, Assembled Brands analyzes real-time sales and profitability data to guide lending decisions. The company works with brands across e-commerce, omni-channel, and wholesale distribution, supporting platforms such as 📝Shopify and 📝Amazon.

Portfolio partnerships include Ana Luisa, Campo Grande, Force USA, Une Femme Wines, Brami, and Baseball Lifestyle 101. Headquartered in New York, Assembled Brands operates with a lean team that emphasizes rapid experimentation in financial technology and analytics, positioning itself as both lender and strategic partner.

I was introduced to several portfolio brands through co-founder and friend, 📝John Zdanowski, who would drive up to 📝Los Angeles, CA three days a week and often lent me his Tesla, 📝Xandra, while he was in town. I watched the company’s growth unfold through his regular updates about its progress and his transition from managing director into a part-time employee and observer of the credit committee. That experience not only gave me a firsthand view of Assembled Brands’ evolution but also set the stage for his launch of 📝Weekly Accounting, which has scaled as rapidly as the lending platform itself.

Contexts

• 🏷️#adam-pritzker (See: 📝Adam Pritzker)
• 🏷️#john-zdanowski (See: 📝John Zdanowski)