Bursting at The Seams & How We Choose Partners

After the intensity and uncertainty of the last few months, I have some exciting news to share! This is only thanks to every person in our awesome TrueStart community continuing to support us and sharing the love with your family and friends!

We are now bursting at the seams of our office and this week are moving our shipping operations to an amazing local family-owned business, just down the road from us here in Bristol. In this Dive In Series video, I want to touch on this move and also talk through our decision-making process when we are looking for partners to work with. Read below or watch my video here:

Celebrating the wins together

It's important to pause and celebrate the wins, no matter how small, especially in today's world. We also want to share these wins with you, so you can share in the good vibes :) For me, finding great people to help us grow is a big win. I also look after all the ops stuff, which doesn't generally get talked about. So, rather than hide "behind the scenes", I thought it would be better to show you where the magic happens, so you can feel as connected as we are to this journey from a simple idea to a world-leading brand that spreads massive positive energy and doesn't compromise on ethics.

Pre-Covid, e-commerce was not a big part of our strategy. It was always on the list as "I must get round to sorting that out". But since the world changed, it immediately became the only way we could save our business. With 85% of our sales wiped out overnight, we needed to move quickly... and we did! :) We bought boxes, a label printer and a branded stamp and started packing! From 5 orders a day, to over 50 a day and beyond. It's brought us closer to you and we are hugely grateful to have you with us.

Here is some footage from today, with Nate packing up your orders in what has been lovingly named "The Pablo Room". It's meant to be an office for 45 people but for the last 3 months, it's been our warehouse. A clean, air-conditioned warehouse! A quick shoutout to Runway East who have been super supportive of us during Lockdown, allowing us to use this space and their reception as the DPD collection point!

I've hand-written well over 2,000 thank you notes in the last 4 months, and Nate has been helping with the increase in orders recently too. I love seeing the same names pop up every couple of weeks for your regular delivery of your favourite dopamine-boosting coffee and watching how people explore our whole range over time. I'm a bit of a data-nerd but there is nothing better for your intuition and understanding than being super close to your customers.

This will never change. You guys make us what we are.

So... the next exciting phase for TrueStart will bring in our friends at Diamond, who will be taking the reigns on our storage, packing and delivery of our website orders. They are a lovely family run business, with a very small team, just down the road from us in Bristol. The lovely Simone will be writing your notes going forward. She's your dedicated dispatch person, who will pack every order up with as much love and passion as we do! She's also a massive coffee lover like us!

Choosing our partners... it's a big deal

I wrote a list recently of everyone (and the companies they represent) who plays a part in what we do and I was surprised... there are a lot! (We can't possibly do everything ourselves, so we need trusted experts to guide us) and we depend on them all to care as much as we do about everything you care about:

Quality, Customer Service, Sustainability, Ethics, Human Rights and more.

So how do we decide who to work with...?

1 - Look as local as possible

2 - For people like us, with a strong moral compass and personal values

3 - Then ask, would we be proud to work for them

It's an art, not a science, and we are big believers in going with your gut and diving in head-first!

That's all from me this week, you might be lucky and get Helena back next week! :)