From Survival To Investment-Ready: the Full Journey Of Mem Academy

When MEM Academy first engaged with Do it Now Now (DiNN) in 2024, they were a respected Community Interest Company with a powerful mission: using non-contact boxing to steer young people away from offending.

But beneath the surface, the organisation was fragile. Income sat at just over £43,000, the academy was almost entirely grant-dependent, and cash flow was a constant "stop and start" cycle. The founder, Derrick Twum, captured the pressure succinctly: "Project‑based funding means we’re always chasing the next grant. We need to build a sustainable trading income so we can focus on impact, not just survival."

Phase 1: Building the Foundation

DiNN’s Level 3 Innovate Now programme was the first critical intervention. A health check confirmed the strengths, a clear mission and deep community trust, but exposed critical weaknesses in financial management, strategic planning, and the underdeveloped e‑commerce trading arm.

The wrap‑around support kicked in immediately.

Derrick attended cohort training, but the catalyst for change was the one‑to‑one sessions with Critical Friend Jay Maniar, a chartered accountant. Together, they built a plan to stabilise the organisation. They automated bookkeeping, created a proper asset register, and shifted fundraising from reactive applications to a strategic pipeline targeting larger, multi‑year grants. Part of the grant was strategically allocated to e‑commerce marketing, including hiring a Klaviyo specialist and running targeted META ads.

The results were transformative.

MEM Academy secured a £350,000 grant from the National Lottery Trust and a further £80,000 from the London Marathon. This multi‑year core funding ended the "stop and start" cycle, providing the "peace of mind" Derrick had craved. They expanded from five to seven sites, increasing their annual reach from 400 to over 600 young people. Critically, the foundation was now solid. Income had more than doubled, reserves were healthy, and the organisation had the operational stability to think beyond the next grant application.

This success made them a natural candidate for DiNN's next tier of support.

Phase 2: Preparing for Scale

With the transition to the Level 5 Big Business programme, MEM Academy’s goal shifted from stability to ambition. The new objective was audacious: raise £500,000 to £1 million in commercial investment to scale the trading arm and make the CIC truly self‑sufficient. However, as the first session with Jay revealed, the bar had been raised. The systems that impressed social funders were not enough for the "brutal" world of angel investors.

The Level 5 support became an intense, data‑driven strategy workshop. Jay didn't just offer advice; he acted as a surrogate investor, pressure‑testing every assumption.

Financial Discipline & the Data Imperative: The e‑commerce arm's financial tracking was now under a microscope.

Jay insisted on rigorous tracking of KPIs, average order value, return rates, and working capital cycles. He pushed Derrick to see unsold stock not as an asset, but as money that was "decaying" or "going stale." In a pivotal moment while reviewing ad performance, they identified a major conversion bottleneck: 71 items were added to the cart, but only 11 orders were completed. This data‑first approach, a skill honed across both programmes, allowed them to pinpoint and fix a user experience issue rather than guessing.

From "Beef Burgers to Vegetarians" to a Compelling Pitch: Jay helped Derrick pivot his powerful personal story.

With social funders, the lived experience narrative was gold. With commercial investors, it risked sounding like a charity case. Jay's feedback was blunt: "You were trying to sell beef burgers to vegetarians." The new narrative, forged in their sessions, became: "This train is leaving the station. Do you want to get on board?" The CIC's community impact transformed from a funding need into a unique "defensive moat" that no competitor like Gymshark could copy, a driver of brand loyalty and a justification for premium pricing.

Leveraging AI and Automation: In a memorable hands-on session, Jay guided Derrick away from hiring expensive marketing consultants and towards leveraging AI. He showed him how to use tools like ChatGPT and Midjourney to test dozens of ad creatives for a fraction of the cost, and how to automate personalised follow‑ups. "If you have to pay £100 each time [to test a creative], it's gonna kill your business," Jay warned. This empowered Derrick to move from guesswork to systematic, data‑driven experimentation.

By the end of the five sessions, MEM Academy had undergone a second, equally profound transformation.

They were no longer just a stable social enterprise; they were an investment‑ready business. They had a clear, de‑risked plan: use the secured social investment to prove the online model's viability and reach an £80,000 turnover break‑even point. They had a refined pitch deck that spoke the language of investors. And Derrick had evolved from a passionate founder into a disciplined, data‑aware entrepreneur, fully equipped to navigate the demanding path to commercial capital.

The journey from a £43,000 grant‑dependent CIC to a business positioned for a £1 million investment round was not a single leap. It was a deliberate, two‑stage transition, enabled by DiNN’s wrap‑around ecosystem that met the organisation exactly where it was and provided the right support at the right time to unlock its full potential.