Simon & I started TrueStart to prove a point. To prove that you can build something incredible from nothing that makes people feel good, by being honest, open and true to yourself. Also to prove that you can do business the right way, by truly caring about people, your customers, your suppliers and the world around us - you don't have to cut corners at the expense of others! The eagle-eyed amongst you have noticed that something is going on... something big. And you are right. We asked you to get involved in shaping the future of TrueStart and you responded to our surveys and voted on our polls in droves. Big up to all of you who joined the co-create group! The results have been wonderful to read (I shed quite a few tears actually!) and have massively energised us to take TrueStart to the next level for you. So first... some insights into the real you Yes we like fitness, it's really important to keep healthy and do things you love with great people... but the bikes we ride and the trainers we run in are only a small part of our true selves. We wanted to learn a little more about you and the results made us smile! 75% of you want to try Nitro Coffee and Cold Brew Coffee (lots of you commented that you haven't seen it on sale yet) and 82% of you want to try new coffee products in general, so it's awesome to see you guys are with us on the innovation side of life too! We asked you to describe TrueStart's personality in 3 words and we LOVE what you came back with! This image shows all words that were used twice or more in your answers. The larger the word, the more often it was used.   We asked you to describe your attitude to life and you really are a positive bunch of go-getters! We asked you what you would do if you could do anything you wanted for the day and you didn't let us down, so much activity and a little bit of coffee to power you through of course! We saw some genuinely hilarious responses to this question, plenty are not publishable and we had everything from the very specific... First I find the coolest, most banging car I can find and get hold of the keys. Then I drive to all my friends' places of work, barge in with an old skiing balaclava and kidnap them. From there we go to the airport and sweet talk our way into a private jet, which we take over to a remote island and bungee jump into the sea. We swim to shore and dry out on the beach before hiking our way to find the best feast imaginable and spend the evening dancing naked around a fire pit. To the active... Run through forests, up mountains and down trails. End up covered in mud before swimming in a lake, stoking up a bbq and sleeping in a bivouac on the side of a cliff. To the downright random (this has to be my favourite)... Flood the London Underground with strawberry jelly! And what did you ask us for? There were some very creative and amusing answers - one of my faves was caffeinated bananas! Here are the most prevalent points from your answers... You LOVE THE COFFEE and want us to focus on that! Simple. We won't get distracted by things like bars and clothing as part of our core range in the future - what we do best is the super clean, energising coffee with no crash that started us on this incredible journey! We are leading the way in coffee innovation. You want to see us launch a READY TO DRINK, on the go product... watch this space!! You also want EXCITING FLAVOURS and NESPRESSO PODS and MORE FRESH COFFEE... don't say we don't listen :)  You love the PERSONAL TOUCH and the fact we really care 💙 This will never change, we can promise that! Many of you have asked for BETTER AVAILABILITY, especially in the supermarkets. This is something we're working on, with new products that you will want to enjoy every single day, so they're perfectly suited to broader distribution. Finally, SUSTAINABILITY was high up on your list. This is a biggie on our agenda and we are so glad you agree. We have put the planet first going forward and will be making some huge moves to becoming the most sustainable brand you know! What are we doing about it? We are excited to announce that we are doing ALL of these things. On 26th June, we'll be unveiling the true TrueStart - a vibrant rebrand and new products that we've been working really hard on and cannot wait to share with you. Thank you for the overwhelming support for us and TrueStart to keep taking on the big boys as an exciting new challenger brand. We won't let you down! Above all, thank you for being you. Bring on 26th June... Helena & Simon #normalisboring #divein

Wow, what an adventure the past two years have been since we started TRUESTART Coffee. Although filled with fun, frolics, amazing people (YOU!) and fantastic highs, Simon and I are big on listening to our gut and have not been able to shake the feeling that we need up our game to another level yet! Why? We love sport, but it’s not our whole lives. Cycling is awesome, but so is a rave. We want it all! From talking to our customers as much as we do, it’s clear that they feel exactly the same. We never wanted to build an elite sports nutrition brand (there are already plenty of awesome ones out there!), because TRUESTART stands for so much more than that, and so do you! We’re not about fitting in and taking ourselves seriously, and nor are our customers. We’re about unlocking the adventure in every day, and being confident to push against the grain. We’re about getting the most out of life. We’ve started to feel restricted, which is the opposite of why we started TRUESTART in the first place, so it's time for more.  We're heading into the wild... (this is me doing exactly that in Canada) We have been doing a helluva lot of soul searching over the past few months. Maybe it was sparked by the fact that we're having a baby, it made us zoom out big time! We realised that what we want is a bolder, brighter, more fun and less serious future for TRUESTART. This is a much more accurate reflection of who we are and how we want to make people feel - vibrant, energised and wild for life. After all, normal is boring! It has become really clear that we need to make some changes to our brand to realign TRUESTART with it’s legitimate destiny. People drink TRUESTART to feel awesome, so it should fit into your entire lifestyle, not just the sports bit. This meant our product range needed an overhaul too. We’ll never lose the awesome feeling that TRUESTART gives you, but we want to deliver it in exciting new ways that fit with our customer’s lifestyle, habits and desires. The success of TRUESTART Nitro Cold Brew Coffee has proved to us that our gut is telling us to do the right thing - push boundaries with the product and be more available than “just” sports coffee. It's time to embrace an adventure! Pic from @oyaroundtheworld So, what's next? In many ways this is a story of TRUESTART’s coming of age. When Simon and I first had the idea for TRUESTART, way back before we launched our first product, we knew we wanted to build an iconic brand that represented our mind set and life philosophy of ‘going all in’. We asked each other loads of questions, until we fully understood our 'why'. Why are we doing this? What do we want TRUESTART to become? How do we want this brand to make people feel? We’ve always believed in having a strong purpose, without it there’s no passion. And without passion there’s no motivation. Without motivation, we’d never get through the tough days! The answer to all of those questions has never changed, we’re just learning how to communicate it better. We’ll never sit still, where’s the fun in that? We’ll also never hedge our bets, because trying to please everyone is a recipe for disaster. We have embarked on a journey to unleash our true selves (cheeky throwback there for those of you that remember our first ever tagline - “unleash yourself”!), and with your help we are preparing to launch a rebrand that we are so incredibly excited about and proud of. Something bold, confident and irreverent. Something that represents everything we stand for. We cannot wait to share it with you! How can you be involved? You are a big part of TRUESTART’s evolution. If you’d like the chance to be part of our co-create panel and have top-secret first access to what’s coming as well as valuable input into our new products (as well as the odd freebie!), click here to fill in a quick survey and leave your email at the end!  Let go of normal, jump into extraordinary It's time to embrace an adventure Follow the path less travelled, make a splash Liberate yourself to do the unexpected Awaken your senses and go wild for life

The team at TRUESTART HQ have some news to share. Brace yourself... it's a toughie! We've decided to discontinue the TRUESTART Hero bars. But... WHY?!This hasn't been an easy decision, but one we've made as part of our renewed focus on what we do best - incredible, energising coffee that makes you feel amazing!OK I get it *wipes tear from cheek*, so what's next?We have some really exciting new products launching this summer and want to say a massive THANK YOU for your continued support as we grow into the world's #1 energising coffee brand. We honestly couldn't do this without out you and the rest of #TEAMTRUESTART. And remember... sometimes good things need to end for even better things to begin! Much love,  Simon and Helena #TEAMTRUESTART

As we prepare for a huge 2018, we've taken a breather to look back our biggest ever year as a community. Across the world, more of you than ever have joined #TEAMTRUESTART and are upping the game with every cup of coffee you drink.

Like millions of people across the world, I always dreamed of becoming a professional athlete. I tried a lot of sports when I was growing up but never really found "the one" for me. I first discovered running whilst at university, when I signed up for the 2006 Bath Half Marathon. The challenge of running so far seemed incredible to me and I quickly became a huge running fanatic. Two years later on a work placement I stumbled across the world of triathlon when I read something about IronMan, and I thought... wow... that is ludicrous... how could someone EVER do that?! ... I couldn't shake it from my head so within 3 weeks I had signed up to the 2009 Wimbleball 70.3, bought myself some goggles, a basic road bike and I was off. I quickly developed an obsession for triathlon and posted some pretty good results in a fairly short space of time, so I turned my focus to Age Group qualification. Like it is for so many people, this was a dream and something that I could see within my grasp.  With my new mission in place, (Bala Triathlon GB Qualifiers) I wrote to dozens of brands in the sport. Brands that I admired with products I loved. I simply asked what so many people ask of TrueStart now... "this is why I love your brand, here are my recent great results, here is my current objective and vision of what I want to achieve in the sport long term. Can you please support me in some way?" I didn't get one response... not one. Not even a "sorry but good luck". I was left feeling a bit dejected. I knew deep down that I was just one guy out of thousands with the same dream but it didn't sit right with me that the sport that I put my heart and soul into and the brands I admired so much had simply ignored me when I reached out. Fast forward a few years and I still wonder what I might have achieved if I just had a little more support? What could I do about it, to help the thousands of athletes out there, just like me, who just needed someone to believe in them... What if I could sponsor everyone? When I started TrueStart with Helena, it was really important to me that we use this incredible opportunity to build a brand that can make a difference to every single athlete out there and help them achieve what they set out to achieve. I quickly found out that it is not realistic to sponsor everyone with free products or take on traditional sponsorship deals. It's also not very authentic to buy yourself ambassadors as so many other brands do. So what do we have to give? We have a huge a passion for sport and massive belief in everyone who engages with us. We put a huge amount of energy and time into the community around TrueStart and expect nothing in return. Since day one, Helena and I have been dedicated to every person who buys into and believes in what we are building. We know thousands of our customers by full name, sport, PB times, recent injuries, next challenge and more... and we love it! You are all the inspiration behind what we do and I want every one of you to feel like you are supported by us as a brand and as people. We are not elitist, we believe in everyone. Whether you are breaking world records or walking your first ever mile, we support everyone just the same. With advice, belief, courage and friendship. Training, racing, recovering, learning and everything else that comes with sport, can be lonely. That is where #TEAMTRUESTART comes in - it's a virtual team that spans the globe, of people who are upping their game in sport and life. It's a place where ideas are shared, encouragement is given, success is celebrated and failures are accepted.  With #TEAMTRUESTART, we are building a sense of belonging and community that so many people crave. We are honoured that you have joined us and that we are able to share this journey with you. Representing in the real world Hundreds of you already represent #TEAMTRUESTART when you train or race, by wearing our kit. Nothing makes me happier than when I hear someone in a crowd cheering on another person wearing TrueStart kit. It's a real-world representation of the awesome online community we are building. Now we are taking this to the next level. From today, anyone who purchases TrueStart kit to represent the team when they are training and racing, will get exclusive access to the #TEAMTRUESTART Portal for life. Completely free. So what's inside? Exclusive deals from our awesome partner brands. This is our way of saying thank you and giving you an extra layer of support to help you achieve your personal goals. You will also find occasional free race entries in there and will be the first to try new products as they launch! And don't worry, those of you who have purchased TrueStart kit in the past, you are already eligible for free access! Thank you for your support and for being part of #TEAMTRUESTART :)

Helena Hills Co-Founded TrueStart Coffee with her husband Simon, something that took a whole lot of courage! Here she explains what courage means to her, and why she and Simon gave up everything to go all in on TrueStart. WHAT DOES COURAGE MEAN TO YOU? Feeling able to try things you didn't think were possible, able to have a positive mind set. I believe you can only do that when you completely understand the consequences of doing versus not doing, have a network that genuinely supports you and the daily motivation to constantly up your game. That's what TrueStart is all about. WHY DID STARTING TRUESTART NEED EXTRA COURAGE? I guess for two reasons; firstly because we were turning our back on stable, successful careers (there's obviously a huge amount of risk involved in startups) and secondly because we decided to bring a brand new concept into the world, disrupting two well established sectors (coffee and energy drinks). It involves an awful lot of hard graft and passion, particularly on the down days!  WHERE ARE YOU FINDING THAT COURAGE FROM ON A DAY TO DAY BASIS? People. #TEAMTRUESTART to be precise - that's our customers and supporters who have been completely incredible since day one. They're bought into the same values and the same mission to launch a million personal challenges by encourage people to up their game in sport and life. #TeamTrueStart are a very inclusive, positive bunch. SUMMARISE YOUR STARTUP EXPERIENCE SO FAR IN ONE SENTENCE. Highs so high and lows so low that I didn't even know they were possible - I feel completely honoured to be able to impact the growth of others, and absolutely fulfilled when our customers smash their limits to pieces. WHAT'S YOUR NUMBER ONE PIECE OF ADVICE FOR ENCOURAGING OTHERS TO BE COURAGEOUS AND UP THEIR GAME WITH THEIR NEXT PERSONAL CHALLENGE? Surround yourself with people who will push you forward, not hold you back.

Hi team, Helena here. I'm incredibly proud to announce that at the Natwest Everywoman awards this week, I (well - TrueStart) was awarded the hugely respected accolade: Brand of the Future. Here's what everywoman had to say: The winners of the annual NatWest everywoman Awards, the UK’s most prestigious awards for female enterprise, were announced this week. For 14 years these annual awards have identified and championed the women behind Britain’s most successful businesses, from promising start-ups in their early years of trading to established international companies. These women are the epitome of entrepreneurial excellence whose companies’ combined turnovers amount to over £47million. Helena Hills of TrueStart Coffee from Bristol has been named the winner of the Brand of the Future category – awarded to a young brand that demonstrates huge potential for growth, sponsored by The White Company. Helena Hills was inspired to create TrueStart Performance Coffee when she experienced heart palpitations after drinking a coffee to get energy before a triathlon. TrueStart is the only coffee in the world designed to improve sports performance, providing an alternative to sugary energy drinks and synthetic pre-workouts. TrueStart It is clean, completely natural, and crucially gives you the perfect caffeine boost every time, with a controlled 95mg in each serving. Category Judge, Chrissie Rucker MBE, Founder of The White Company, adds; “We are delighted to sponsor The Brand of the Future Award. At The White Company we put the brand at the heart of everything we do and over the years I have been lucky enough to be given some really wonderful pieces of advice from colleagues and mentors. It has helped the business grow and develop enormously. I hope by sharing some of this experience with the winner it will be helpful for another young brand with a great future ahead of it”. I feel really honoured and hope that this opportunity to work with Chrissie will help us to make TrueStart into the impactful brand that we want it to be, a brand that connects people who help each other up their game in sport and life. If you don't follow #TeamTrueStart on Snapchat, here are some photos. And the winner is... Chrissie Rucker MBE (Founder & Chairwoman of The White Company) announces Helena Hills from TrueStart Coffee! I genuinely didn't prepare for a speech, which in all honestly was because I didn't want to visualise the situation only to be let down. It was awesome to address a room full of such influential people that have done so much for women in business. Thanking Simon - long suffering husband and Co-Founder! -, Chrissie, everywoman, all of #TeamTrueStart and of course, Entrepreneurial Spark who have been with us all the way.     Thank you so much for all your support. TrueStart are on a mission to launch one million personal challenges, start yours today and find out more about using caffeine to up your training game.

Hi everyone, Helena here. This post is a special one, about something we’ve been excited about for SO long! For the past 9 months, we’ve been hard at work on our new product range. I’m telling you – it’s lucky we’ve got a never ending supply of caffeine! So here it is - The power of TrueStart in your pocket, which we call The Hero Bar! SO WHY HAVE WE DEVELOPED A BAR? I’ve always made my own bars (and brownies!) with TrueStart, and all the time I hear new recipes from you guys too. From the marvellous Mel at Wonderfuel, making delicious energy balls powered by TrueStart, to so many of you adding it as an extra ingredient into your cooking and baking. We even have one guy who eats TrueStart by the scoop…(!) so we heard you loud and clear! People cleared wanted TrueStart on the go, more convenient and as a bigger part of their sports nutrition and general diet. The challenge for us was deciding how we make a completely natural, super convenient, edible version of TrueStart? Something that tastes absolutely awesome and is perfect for taking on the bike or throwing in your gym bag? What next then? Well, we needed a recipe and some inspired flavours. Time for the experts to step in and join us in some heavily caffeinated brainstorming sessions, and who better than some of the geniuses behind Nakd, Trek and 9BAR?! After plenty of weird and wonderful ideas (Remember the “Ballnut” and the “Raspotato” – Steve? << ask Steve when you see him...), we eventually stripped everything back to basics and developed what we believe to be the ultimate energy bar!  NAILING THE RECIPE From our experience and needs as athletes, we decided on a wholefood bar based on oats, seeds, nuts and TrueStart Performance Coffee, bound with coconut oil and agave nectar. It would come in 4 functional flavours with a Hero for everyone, whether you’re fruity, nutty, veggie or just obsessed with coffee! The bars are all gluten free, suitable for vegans, contain at least 5g of protein and crucially deliver the same 95mg of natural caffeine as a scoop or sachet of TrueStart Coffee!It hasn’t been an easy process. I remember when the (official) version 1.0 was complete. They tasted great, but failed the hand bag test and ended up as a bag of oats! Not ideal – we hadn’t even taken them out on the bike yet! Back to the drawing board. Version 1.0 - too dry Version 2.0 - too chewy Version 3.0 - arabica nailed! Version 4.0 - cherry is amazing, give us more cherry Version 4.1 - more cherry is a WINNER Version 5.0 - beetroot, the surprising slam dunk! Version 6.0 - brazil nuts… too bland Version 7.0 - can’t taste the pistachios Version 7.1 - STILL can’t taste the pistachios Version 7.2 - just take the pistachios out Version 8.0 - no Steve we can’t have the ballnut Version 9.0 - peanuts are yum (thanks to David, George and Marc for pushing us on this one!) Version 10.0 - peanut butter, wow. Keen on the peanut. Can we have more? Version 11.0 - combination of peanuts and peanut butter is a crunchy yet smooth ridiculously awesome winner Version 12.0 - broke the machine… 4 weeks delay...! Version 13.0 - a little tweaking, a touch more coconut oil and fingers crossed... Version 14.0 - nailed it Worth the wait...  TESTING, TESTING AND MORE TESTING! Each and every version was trialled by people we met at events, by our ambassadors, our friends, our family (thanks for letting us hi-jack so many family meals Sarah), #TeamTrueStart training runs, in meetings, whenever we could share them really. We asked people how to improve them, not just if they “liked it”.  The bars came with us on runs, lived in our top tube bags for hundreds of kms, got bashed about in the van and sat patiently in the office trying to avoid getting devoured by David, our resident Hero bar aficionado. The minor changes between each version inched us closer to the dream bar – massive kudos to Simon and Sioned, who worked tirelessly to absolutely nail the recipe. We’ve heard that Sioned has some well-caffeinated squirrels in her garden... Finally, we were happy. Great feedback was rolling in and the Hero was ready to reveal itself the world! And then – the bar failed the full scale trial. This was a big set back, and upsetting when we were so happy with the recipe. The equipment couldn’t cope with the consistency of the ingredients and had broken down, so we were back to square one which pushed the launch plan behind by four weeks. Never one to let a setback get the better of him, Simon was upbeat and straight back into development. Version 14.0 (!) is the best thing you’ve ever tasted. I was nervous that we wouldn’t be able to achieve the same level of awesomeness again, but in a blind taste test with 30 caffeine-hungry office workers, version 14.0 won hands down over the previous one! It was unanimous and I was relieved – everything happens for a reason. Most of all though, we were excited! TrueStart HQ was buzzing (even more than usual) and #TeamTrueStart were in for a treat!   WHY THESE 4 FLAVOURS? Getting the flavours right wasn't easy and was so important! We wanted them to be unique, inspired by functional ingredients and taste perfect. Here at HQ, everyone is completely mixed on which flavour is their favourite. For me, it's the Beetroot. For Steve, it's Cherry. Sarah is torn between the Original Arabica and Beetroot. For David, it's the Peanut Butter (he thinks... but his consumption suggests he's just addicted to all of them!). For Simon, he just can't decide. Apparently today it's the Cherry, but yesterday it was the Original Arabica and on Wednesday it was the Peanut Butter! I guess this can only mean one thing; they're all pretty ace. Originial Arabica - this guy was a no brainer! For the die-hard coffee lovers.  Coffee & Cherry - a fruity combination with an extra antioxidant boost from the sour cherries. Coffee & Beetroot - a winning curve ball with an extra nitrate boost provided by our friend, beetroot. Coffee & Peanut Butter - a truly epic combo providing extra protein from the peanut butter.  NAMING THE HERO As I’m typing I’m remembering so much! Naming the bar was a big job in itself. Do we just simply call it the “TrueStart Bar”? Not very imaginative, is it? How about Pace? TrueBar? Lift? None of them had the impact we wanted, or projected the massive awesomeness of the bar! With a serious brain block going on, the 4 of us decided that heading over to a sunny roof terrace for a Friday pint was the answer. It was there that the ideas started flowing and Simon said, “I’ve got it – the HERO bar! Everyone needs a hero sometimes”. He was right, and it was perfect. And so, the Hero was born. DESIGNING THE HERO That’s not the whole story though. Nailing the product is just one part of it - have you noticed how absolutely epic the Hero bar looks? This is down to Dan and Cole from Brond, our incredible branding partners. These guys are the creative geniuses behind all our products. They are truly part of the team and we owe them a huge thank you for the massive amount of work they have put into the Hero. We feel flipping lucky to have such talented and patient guys supporting us, who are as passionate about TrueStart as we are! I’ve lost count of how many times we’ve worked well into the night with them, after an identity crisis and I know there are plenty of times they’ve worked well into the night on the packaging without us too! Dan and Cole were involved in everything from the name to the tasting to the packaging. We’re proud of the huge attention to detail - have you spotted the cyclist, runners and swimmer training hard on each bar? THANKS TO YOU! Finally, we’d like to thank the groups of customers who have been so passionately involved in the bar. From everyone who took part in our initial surveys to those that have tested the bar in training and racing. Thank you, thank you, thank you! This product is a testament to what we can achieve when we work as a team, it’s a product that was created with you and for you. GETTING YOUR HANDS ON A HERO You can pick up a Starter Pack right here and try all 4 flavour bars and also 3 sachet of coffee for only £9.99 including delivery! Helena & Simon #TEAMTRUESTART #UPYOURGAME