Last week, the Bob boys went out to enjoy a well-earned Christmas day out together. This included an afternoon of Max and his moustache drinking mulled wine, with many German bratwurst sausages. William’s tipple of choice was Guinness, and I decided to let my hair down and try a bit of everything. Keeping on the theme of sustainability we started the day with electric go-karting (E-Karting. Max won unfortunately), followed by a trip to Winter Wonderland in Hyde Park, London. A very festive day of founder bonding, and a rather romantic few hours together taking stock of everything we have achieved to date.
We had so much fun that I forgot to draft our weekly email update, so here I am on a Sunday evening watching Masterchef, having just returned from a friend's birthday in a local pub, drafting last week's very late update, which will arrive in your inbox some point on Monday, once William and his mum Louise (the grammar police) have reviewed. For those of you wondering what the local pub is like at this time of year, picture this: A Sunday roast (pink beef), Christmas lights, everyone wearing Barbour jackets and tinsel, with a Guinness in hand. Wholesome.
Back to the update. As a second-time founder and CEO, I promised myself that we will take stock and celebrate our achievements, no matter how big or small the milestone is, at every opportunity. And after receiving an email on Wednesday morning from our German Soap manufactures CEO, confirming their board meeting was a good one and they are now considering both investment and distribution of Bob across Europe, boy did we take a moment to celebrate whilst on our Christmas party the same afternoon. (We are flying out to Germany in early February 2024 to firm up and explore the next steps of investment, and launching Bob into Europe).
So what else did we talk about and celebrate together on our Christmas bash? Well, below I have listed the achievements / things we discussed on our Christmas doo which we are most proud of delivering over the last few weeks and months;
- Secured over £220k in investment commitments to date
- Travelled to Dubai to meet with our early investors and advisors
- Found our product design partners (Beta) and prototyped, and tested, the initial thingymabob product
- Found our soap manufacturers in Germany, after researching and speaking to over 150 suppliers globally
- Potentially secured our European distribution partner
- Began building a world-leading advisory board
- Designed Bob’s brand and new website, which we are excited to drop in mid-January
- Planned and in the process of, executing our pre-launch Kickstarter campaign in the new year
- Began exploring future versions of Bob, along with our wider product range.
- Loving every moment of the journey
And this is all since July 2023. I’d say not bad for 5 months of hard work between the three of us.
This week we are focused on getting everything ready for our 2024 kickstarter campaign. Max and Will are going to have a very busy first two weeks of the new year begging, boring and persuading friends to give us their showers (and bodies) to take lots of photos and videos of, for our first pre-launch marketing campaign.
I’d say this is the most exciting time as a founder, being as resourceful as possible, whilst spending as little money as possible. Will however disagrees. He has already told me on numerous occasions to stop being so tight and to spend some more money on marketing, editing, and props. I think I will make him sweat a little longer, and then give him some marketing budget. Until then, I can tell investors that we are being very resourceful and sparing with our funds, and that Will is doing a wonderful job.
You’ll receive another email update on Friday, which I will do my very best to be on time with. This will be our final update of 2023, and our final update before we begin to launch our new website, our new brand, our kickstarter pre launch campaign, and our official launch of Bob in 2024!
EXCITTINNGGGGGG!!
Happy Monday (whenever this email arrives in your inbox!)
Bob