Overview
Get paid before you pay your suppliers. This model is all about optimizing cash flow, giving you capital to reinvest or pay down debt. It's financial engineering at its finest.
Examples
Dell
CostCo
Block
Berkshire Hathaway
Coca-Cola
Goldman Sachs
McDonald's
NVIDIA
Toyota
Visa
Walmart
Alibaba
AMD
Blackstone
FedEx
Intel
Johnson & Johnson
KFC
Mars Inc.
Mastercard
Monsanto
NFL
Oracle
Panda Express
PayPal
Porsche
Procter & Gamble
Renaissance Technologies
Standard Oil
Taco Bell
TSMC
UPS
Afterpay
AIG
Apollo
ASML
BHP Billiton
BIC
British American Tobacco
Charles Schwab
Colgate
Constellation Software
Dolby
DuPont
Epic Systems
ExorExxon Mobil
FC Bayern Munich
FICO
First Citizens Bank
Huawei
Intuitive Surgical
John Deere
Kaspi.kz
Lockheed Martin
Mercado Libre
Merck & Co
Moody's
Nubank
Pernod Ricard
Qualcomm
Ramp
Ryanair
Union Pacific
Vanguard
Vitol
WeChat (Tencent)
Adyen
American Tower
Applied Materials
AutoZone
Bajaj Finance
Brookfield Asset Management
Chemed
D.R. Horton
HEICO
Markel
Mineral Resources
MTN Group
NextEra Energy
Roper Technologies
Snap-on
Vistra Corp
Watsco
Agilent
Arthur J. Gallagher
Atlas Copco
DigitalBridge
Lifco
Vulcan Materials
Wyndham Hotels
Amazon- Dell's build-to-order computer sales
- Amazon's negative working capital model
- Costco's membership fees
- Magazine subscription models
- SaaS companies with upfront annual payments
How to cite
Faster Than Normal. “Negative working capital / Cash-first Business Model.” fasterthannormal.co/business-models/negative-working-capital. Accessed 2026.
