Founder update
The first alarm went off at 0440 followed by the second alarm, and a solid elbow from the wife, at 0442. Time to get up, jump in the shower (longing for Bob), dry my bits and bobs and wipe the sleepy men from my eyes.
With my pants inside out and Uber at the ready, it was time to head to London Heathrow for a red-eye flight to Switzerland, followed by a road trip over the border into Germany to meet our German soap partners.
After assessing our first formulation, it did not quite smell right, a discussion around what ingredients can and can’t be used, and the opportunity to roll out Bob across Germany meant we were off to meet our German soap partners, Kappus.
Will and I travelled to LHR together. With Max being notoriously late for meetings and always being stuck on the toilet, we thought it safer that he travelled by himself and met us at London Heathrow.
Turns out Max was on time. Not only was he on time but he was dressed to impress. Beautiful boots, a turtle neck sweater, and his moustache groomed. He was the perfect cross between a German Porn star and the famous rapper, Macklemore. (Just google Macklemore and click images. You are looking for Macklemore in a long mink-like coat. That’s the vision I remember).
As we moved through security, we were pleased that our prototype made it through security checks without any challenges. In fact, the only challenge we had was Gordon Ramsay not including toast with a £17.50 full English Breakfast. Sort it out, Gordon.
After a lovely breakfast, talking strategy and discussing the agenda for the day, the gate was called and it was time to leave. The highlight of the morning was Will needing to pop in for a final preflight pee, only to be met with a final call and gate closing announcement. To Max’s delight, he shouted aloud that at least he was on time for the flight. Magic.
We boarded the flight to find that we were in rows 14d, e, and f however there were only 7 other people on the flight. We all agreed that once we take off we will all find a different row and spread out to have some time to sleep.
Within 4 minutes of sitting down, Will to my left, and Max to my right, had fallen asleep meaning that I was pinned between a wanna-be German pornstar, and a incontinent (an awful pairing on so many levels).
I think the weirdest part of the first leg of the trip was learning about my co-founder's choice of sleep listening.
To the left of me was Will listening to some political debate podcast via Spotify, while to the right of me was Max listening to what can only be described as two whales vigorously humping one another.
Each to their own.
Moving on. We arrived in one piece after a very bumpy and turbulent flight and exited the plane to be met with a choice of a French Basel exit or a Swiss Basel exit. This made Will rather panicky as his phone also welcomed him to France. Luckily after a little sweating from Will, we exited via the Swiss exit, Max hired a car, and off we three Bobs went to cross the Swiss border into the German capital of soap, which we call Kappus.
All things soap
In summary of the meeting, it was amazing:
- We recapped our main claims and reiterated the importance of needing to create the world's best soap for your bits, bobs and body.
- We clarified some confusion about what ingredients we can and can’t use. (Max was pleased after being told he was trying to change the world, which is hard to do)
- And we had a soap factory tour! If you have ever watched the Discovery Channel program, and how it’s made, you will be able to visualise our factory tour.
As for the outfits, Max’s looked like a human condom, whilst Will and I looked like 70-year-old dinner nannies. Safe to say we were three very excited boys in one big candy, I mean soap, factory.
You’ve heard of Willy Wonker and the Chocolate Factory, well he ain’t got nothing on Willy Richards and the Soap Factory.
The European Opportunity
As a cheeky chap, following a motto of ‘if you don’t ask, you don’t get,’ prior to flying out to Germany, we asked if we could meet the CEO of Kappus too.
Luckily for us, Axel agreed (what a name) and we had an hour and a half with him.
It turns out Axel loves Bob and so we are now in talks of rolling out Bob together across Europe. I’ll keep you up to date on progress with this over the coming weeks.
The way home…
It’s always an adventure travelling with Bob. And this trip was no different.
Apparently, we were retardé. I thought this was very rude of the Swiss-French to say this to us after we had enjoyed copious Heineken's stubbies, whilst politely waiting for our plane to arrive, however luckily for Will and I Max speaks French, and so it turns out retardé means delayed.
I also have Max to thank for bailing Will and I out with his French through the security checks too. Kappus had kindly provided us with 11 bars of white, pH-balanced, Syndet based, soap to take home to support testing (in the soap world this is crème de la crème) after the factory tour, and so we just assumed that it would be ok to go through security with a bag full of white blocks. Turns out this wasn’t so easy and after a few swab samples, a cheeky butt clench, and Max confirming the word for soap in French being ‘savon,’ we were back on our way.
After a few retardé’s (delays) it’s now 2132 and we are in an Uber home, and my goodness we are tired.
In summary
- A great team-building trip.
- A great soap-building trip.
- A great business-building trip.
Europe… we are coming for you. Now back to supporting Beta to make sure we build the best thingymabob the world has ever seen.
Sorry Louis, your short, sharp and sweet update will have to wait, as this was written on the go as a one-off special live update.
London > Switzerland > Germany > Switzerland > London.
All in all an excellent £1,216.78 was invested in the partnership (£90 of which was on 3x Gordon Ramsay breakfast - WITHOUT TOAST). I’m sure we will make an excellent return on this little investment over the coming months.
Now to have a quick shower to wash away the days travel, and sleep.
Until next week,
Bob
P.S. The Kickstarter campaign is coming soon so keep an eye out for more info on how to be the first to buy Bob, in the coming weeks.
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