Packaging problem

A few weeks ago, I wrote a post that covered the importance of packaging. This week, I’m writing to let you know that packaging is causing me some trouble.

We’ve been discussion production with Highwave, a California based company that produces really great travel mugs. They have been great to work with so far. They have spent a lot of time answering all my e-mails and questions. I am basically no one for them. I do not have a running company yet. I have not made a purchase yet (except for two samples). All I have is a story, a website and a claim that I would like to buy a somewhat large quantity of bottle from them (500 to a 1000). Yet they’ve treated me with respect and care when some companies didn’t even respond to my mails or calls.

Last week we hit a small roadblock though. When they produce their patented travel mugs in China, they are always delivered with the boxes. The boxes are already branded “Highwave” with all their information on the box. Andy+ needs its own box, with its own labeling. I want this box to be recycled and pretty awesome. I do not want to deliver a half ass service. You should get the Andy+ bottle with good packaging and you be stoked when you see it. Not confused because the box has our manufacturer’s name on it.

Getting new boxes isn’t really that complicated. Many companies allow us to make our own box with recycled cardboard. It’s not that expensive either. The problem is that I will receive my bottles with “Highwave” boxes no matter what. This means that I would have to discard 1000 boxes to use my own. Highwave isn’t capable of getting them with different boxes unless I order over 3000 bottles. I don’t have the financing for that much quantity. I want Andy+ to be as eco friendly and socially responsible as possible. Wasting 1000 boxes doesn’t seem like something we should do. I have yet to find a solution for this. Could something this “small” break my relationship with “Highwave”? They really have a great, high quality product and it would be a shame to miss out on it.

I’ve spent the last few days thinking about this problem. I’ve been searching Google for the best ways to recycle or reuse boxes. I’ve have been trying to figure a way to transform this roadblock into something positive. I haven’t found a perfect solution, only somewhat of a compromise.

The first thing I would do is own up to what I did. Transparency is one principal that will never be compromised. If I do discard a 1000 boxes, I will write and explain why I did it on directly on our custom boxes. I will then invite my customers to give me their best idea on how to recycle the boxes. I will use that idea and then donate 500$ to an environmental charity in the name of the customer who submitted the idea.

If all goes well, I will gain the customer’s trust and open up dialogue between the organisation and our customers. If I’m honest enough to tell them that I wasted 1000 boxes, they will know that I won’t bullshit them, ever. If all goes wrong, they will think Andy+ is stupid. At least honesty will have prevailed…

The other solution is completely changing suppliers. It is something I will consider. I really like the product that Highwave has to offer though.

Work in progress! Hopefully you will get to know the result of this problem.

Key Partner 1: Cup for Education

Recently, I was writing a business model canvas while applying for several grants Andy+. One question that asked were who were you key partners. I thought I would elaborate on this and give a small update on how the business is moving forward. I will offer three updates on what I consider to be our key partners at this point in time.

I have been in a few discussions with Cup for Education.They specifically target to kids in regions where coffee is grown. We are selling coffee travel mugs. It seemed like a good fit.

I wanted to learn as much about the organisation as I could before I committed to giving them part of the money we will make off selling our bottles. I also wanted to make sure they wanted my help! Karen, my contact over there, has been incredibly helpful and supportive. She’s been working hard for the last ten years to help kids all over the world. Cup for Education is a grassroots organization with everyone working as a volunteers. One hundred percent of the money funded goes to schools or local organisation to help gather the resources the children need to complete their studies.

I was attracted by their premises. What finalized my decision on staying with them was the opportunity to make a real difference. Yes, Andy+ will give them 5$ of every bottle we sale on our first batch (500 or a 1000 bottles, depends on the financing). Helping though, is not only about the money. They definitely could use a helping hand with their website and social media. I have the specific skill set they need to help them with this segment of their organisation. When we think of volunteering we often think about giving time to help with physical tasks or handing out food (which is great!). We rarely have (or take) the chance to use our specific skill set to help organisation in ways that help them even more. Next time you are looking for volunteer work, I would recommend you ask yourself what unique skills you could offer.

Cup for Education will be our official first partner. No matter what happens with Andy+, I will make sure that I offer a brand new website and a small guide for the social media initiatives. Although the work isn’t completed yet, the excitement I get with having the opportunity to really help is energizing.

How to stay motivated while starting a business

One of the hardest thing about trying to start this business is keeping the level of a motivation up. Like many have experienced before me, there are many highs and many lows. The longer the start up process, the harder it seems to remember why you started the project. The little step back often seems like huge failures. When in reality, these road blocks are often the challenges that help you create a better or service for your customer.

I have been going through the motions recently. I get really excited when I make some progress but really scared and stressed when I think of everything that still stands before me. I’ve gotten better at getting rid of that feeling so I thought I’d share with you guys the things that have helped me stay focused and motivated. The first three may seem like clichés but they really do help (most clichés are true).

1. Exercising. This has been really consistent throughout the last 9 months. Every time I feel stressed or unfocused I just get up and go for a one. Not only do I feel better (thanks endorphins) but I usually come up with some of my best ideas while I’m jogging.
2. Sleep. I believe in a goods night sleep. Motivation and energy levels are highly correlated. When I’m tired I’m only motivated to slouch around or sleep
3. Food. I’ve really been getting into eating a better. Someone (Kelly Slater I think) said: “What you eat is like the gas you put in your car. If you put in shitty gas, you get shitty performance.” That’s when I finally understood. I have been eating a lot a protein to carry me through the morning. I eat a smaller lunch than before to try to avoid a food coma and then I try to snack on almonds or raisins. I use to have really low energy levels in the afternoon and now it’s much better.
4. Reddit. I’m subscribed to the /GetMotivated subreddit. A daily doses of inspiration never hurts.
5. Reading. I try to read business related books or articles for 20 to 30 minutes every morning. I love reading so I really enjoy this part but reading is also well documented for having many positive benefits on the brain. It acts as a great stimulant and you can usually find some useful bits of information. My three favorite books in the last year have been The Promise of a Pencil: How an Ordinary Person Can Create Extraordinary Change by Adam Braun (founder of TOMs), Let my People Go Surfing by Yvon Chouinard (founder of Patagonia) and the 100$ Startup by Chris Guillebeau. The two first ones offer inspirational stories on people who choose to start something more than your typical business. The last book offers a simple blueprint on what you should focus on when launching a (smaller) business.
6. Podcasts. I commute a lot and I recently discovered how awesome podcasts are. I know there are a ton of great ones but I really enjoy The Tim Ferris Show, The James Altucher Show and Startup (by Gimlet Media). I love the fact that they’re not preachy. You just get honest discussions and success and failure stories. You’re not treated like a bunch of school children (like Entrepreneur on Fire).
7. Do one thing. I try to force myself to take one step forward, no matter how small. It can be just one email, one blog post or one phone call. It keeps me from losing momentum and you do get a small sense of accomplishment out of it.

That’s all! I put off this writing this post for a while because I was scared it would look like a Business Insider click bait article. The truth is that motivation fluctuation is a real thing. I can’t guarantee that these solutions work for you but they do work for me. I invite you to try them for yourself and wish you luck on your endeavours.

I’ll leave you with one more quote from /r/GetMotivated because everyone loves Peter Dinklage

Via /GetMotivaed subreddit

Unboxing, Packaging and how to make you product stand out

Unboxing and Packaging

A few weeks ago I read a blog post on the (awesome) Shopify blog about the power of the “unboxing experience.” I loved it and a recommend all of you to read it. It explains the added value a customer can get out receiving a well thought out package. Think of how great is it when you unboxed your first iPhone. A lot of thought and design when into developing that package. It just one more element that makes pruchasing from Apple a little bit more fulfilling.

It also explain the unboxing phenomena that now exist on the web. Just type “unboxing” on youtube and you will find hundred of videos of people filming themselves opening a new product. From the lastest iPhone to the Playstation 4, toys and even turtles, unboxing is now a thing.

One of Andy+’s value proposition that we want to create is close relation with our customer. To do this we want a great website, a captivating blog, lots of communication between us and the customers and a story that people want to share. We want to add little details everywhere to make the purchasing process fun and little less traditional. The product description has to be sincere and strong, the email that you get as a purchase confirmation has to be original and amusing and, finally, the package that you receive has to be exciting, like a wrapped Christmas gift. We want the first contact with our product to be a great moment. To do so, we want our packaging to include a surprise and a personalize thank you note. We aren’t trying to revolutionize the unboxing experience, we just want to the extra mile to show our customers that we are grateful for their support. Furthermore, Shopify’s blog post mentions that people that have a great unboxing experience are 50% more likely to become repeat customers. Customer retention is cheaper than customer acquisition. Hence, customer retention is good!

We hope these steps will make our customers happy and, hopefully, transform them into ambassadors. With a limited advertising budget, we our counting on the power of our story and word of mouth to grow. The “unboxing experience” is part of our strategy in creating this loyal customer.

But don’t forget your product.

I was telling a friend (and the person that designs our graphics) about this story and how I am crazy while I was giving him our lastest sample. He was listening to me while checking the bottle. He then stood up, went to the kitchen and put the box of our product package into the recycling bin. At first I thought he was making joke of me but then he said “well, that is what most people do with the boxes you know.” He was right.

As I said earlier, our business is relying a lot on word of mouth. Customer satisfaction, invovlement and loyalty helps a lot but our customers aren’t salesmen. They may glad to talk about and praise our product but I doubt they will go around showing off your bottle and initiating conversation about your organisation. So how does one go about talking about your product? We can always give them initiatives to share on social media but in a natural setting I assume it goes something like this:

“Hey! Nice shoes”

“Oh thanks! Their the new model from x company“

“Well they look good!”

“They’re also really conformtable. You should check XYZ Store, they have them on sale”

And so on. The challenge here is to make the product speak first. Having a great looking product is one way. In our case, we want to put emphasis on the social aspect of our company. In consequence, we think that incorporating 2 to 4 words into our bottle design could help spark the conversation about how our organisation is doing its part in helping the world.

To exemplify our idea further, I want to show one of the coolest branding I’ve yet to see. Please take a look at www.thisbarsaveslives.com.

Picture via http://trndmonitor.com

This bar saves lives is doing its share. Every time you buy a bar, a kid receives a food package. Simple, efficient, social, awesome. Obviously, you get that the packaging of the bar is usually the trigger that sparks the curiosity to know more.

In conclusions, here’s the lessons I’ve learned in the past weeks

• The power of unboxing. Take care of how you package and ship your product. Adding just a personalized hand written thank you note can go a long way in changing the relationship with you and your customer.
• If your package is really awesome, you might even get a youtube video on some social media exposure
• The product is a reflection of our company. We can use this to help our customer become ambassadors.

Storytelling, business philosophy and mission statement

I’ve talked about this subject a little bit already but I want to address it just one more time. The importance of Why. Why does your company exist? What is your mission statement? What is the message that you are sending to world? Is your mission statement different than your story and/or origins?

To me these question are very important. They’re the foundations of your business and they will help me make important decisions in moments of crisis and uncertainty. I find it hard and confusing to move forward without truly knowing and expressing what I want our company to represent. Up to now, I’ve written over ten different mission statements and countless values to represent my future organisation. I do not want it to be boring. I do not want it to be generic. I want it to be personnel and original. I also wanted it to be simple enough that anyone could read it, understand it and share it with someone else. Think of how TOMs “One for one” slogan is simple, yet powerful. The problem is that my Why isn’t that simple. I also want my mission statement to be wide enough to encompass any futur evolution of our brand. What if we don’t sell coffee mugs forever?

My solution to this is to separate the mission statement and our slogan. Slogans and products can evolve. Your mission statement can too but only if there is a major shift in culture or philosophy. It is not something that should be changing every few months. I’ve decided that I will use our products and slogans to share our current tactics in how we accomplish our mission. This is the message that people will be able to understand and share with their peers.

I will use our story to present our mission statement and business philosophy. This will be for those who want to know more about our company. The people that read this may become “loyal” customers. The rare type of customers that will go out of their way to buy and share your product even if it is not the best product on the market at the time being. They will do so because they believe in who you are and what you represent and they associate themselves with your beliefs. These customers are ambassadors, consumers, sellers, promoters, etc. These customer are important. The more loyal customers you have, the less you have to spend on traditional marketing. Especially if you consider that the word of friend is much stronger than the word of a salesmen. Another reason why the story you tell has to be so strong.

I finally think I have this story down. After many different versions the one I took is just the most honest one. I did not try to simplify it or to make it bigger than it is. I just explained my story as it was in my head. I hope it’s not corny but if it is, I can’t help it.

Here it is:

“Quite simply…

The reason Andy+ exist is because I was confused during my bachelor’s degree about what businesses were and how they evolved in the modern world. Two things stood out:

1. Most businesses that have green or social initiatives really didn’t do much good compared to the waste and harm they create for society and the environment.
2. Infinite growth seems to be the cause for a lot of the damage caused by business. This often leads to shady marketing and motives, overconsumption and, ultimately, a lot of waste. 

I just wanted to create a business that has foundations for a better future. No matter what I was going to sell, it had to give back to the community in some way. I also wanted to make sure that I was a profitable company. Businesses will always outweigh NPOs so unless businesses start contributing more to society, we’re in for some trouble.

I want my organization to become a simple, no bullshit company that really lends a hand to our planet. The best advice I ever read came from a picture on Reddit. It said: “The best way to live your life is to do what you love while lessening the suffering of other along the way.” I’m going to go for just that.

Here’s what you can expect from Andy+

• We will work with worthwhile organization and give worthwhile contributions
• We will stay profitable, so that we can keep spreading our message and keep doing good.
• We will never sell parts of the company to shareholders who demand growth and dividends. If growing is the path to go, we will. If its not, we won’t.
• We will be honest. We will most likely make mistakes. We will own up to them and correct them to the best of my abilities.
• We will always sell durable products that we like and that we use.”

There might be some work on the wording but I feel like the overall message is final.

I also had a look at a lot of mission statements and “About us” before writing this. I would like to leave and honorable mention to OXO. Its “About us” page is different, smart and much funnier than mine. Not what I was expecting from a Kitchen Appliance company. Check it out here.

The search for charities (A quick update)

In all honesty, I have done very little in my life in regards to NPOs and charities. The starting of Andy+ is the going to be my first major step in a little selflessness and trying to become a better person. Everything counts right?

This leaves me with little experience on charities, how they work and even where I can find them. A small challenge if I intend to find one to partner with. The non profits I knew are pretty well known: Chairty:Water, One Drop and Pencils of Promise. All three of these organizations could help Andy+ of achieving its goal of giving back. Even better, they target goals that we value specifically: education, children and the accessibility to clean water. I just wonder, with organizations that are already pretty big, will our contribution help them considerably? Will our humble contributions fall between the cracks of the 25 000$ checks the receive? (This assumption is based on the size of the organization, the stories I’ve read on their blogs, The book The Promise of a Pencil, their founders, etc). Our contributions will obviously help them at least a little bit because everything counts. I’m just wondering if I am better of giving to a smaller organization where each contribution will help them more because they have less money.

I did a little searching for new organizations and stumbled upon two new ones that I really liked: Rainforest Alliance and Cup for Education. I really liked the Adopt-a-Rainforest model from Rainforest Alliance. Imagine if the whole Andy+ community could help save a whole forest. How cool would that be? (Very cool). Rainforest Alliance is also a very big organization. (in this case I am using Facebook Likes as a metric for size. They have over 200 000 likes) . Cup for Eduction on the other hand is tiny. Under a 1000 likes. Their mission is to help educate children in the rural areas of the world. More specifically, these are the areas where coffee farming is done. I love the connection between helping the less fortunate people who make the coffee we love and providing a product that helps serve coffee. It feels right. Furthermore, the organization looks really small. I’m convinced that Andy+ could help them but I am also convinced that I could also help them personally (specifically with their online presence).

Finally, out of all these organizations, I ended contacting Cup for Education. After a week, I still do not have a response. Today I found a second e-mail to reach to same person a Cup for Education. I’ve resent an e-mail this morning. I will see if I get a response this time.

I am leaning towards helping Cup for Education because what we sell and what they do is complementary. In other words I am helping those who help us (by producing coffee). I still have the following questions, uncertainties and reflexions about this non final choice:

• Big versus small. Is the smaller company really going to help our society more than the bigger, more organized NPO? Can we help them grow into a big organization?
• The cup for education logo is far from modern and will not necessary look good printed on our product. Although looks aren’t everything, they definitely help a lot.
• If I partner with a bigger organization, they can help me promote Andy+ to an audience that is very similar to the one we are targeting. The bigger we get, the more we can give back.

I’ll leave you with this video which is totally relevant:

Live the search

Memorize and follow this never-fail recipe: get started, don’t quit. – Barbara Winter

The first samples we ordered weren’t up to the standards we our looking for as a company. The second sample we ordered was much, much worst. I then went on to spend way too much searching for products on Alibaba and Global sources. I couldn’t find any products that I could image starting a brand with. I was literally checking twice a week for new products.

This kept leading back to the big dilemma. Should I be designing a producing the bottle? This question just kept coming back every time I was doing online searches. Producing the bottle would allow to create a product that I was really proud in. It would also necessitate much more money upfront. My only option to bootstrap designing a bottle was to go to kickstarter or another crowdfunding platform. The cool part about crowdfunding is that I acquire my customers before any sort of manufacturing. The down side is that I lose part of the company to that platform. Also, I am uncertain that my business model of giving back a percentage of every sale to an organisation is a good fit with crowdfunding. Every bottle sold has to give back. I don’t see myself asking for money that I’m not going to use to create my product on a crowdfunding website. Creating our own bottle feels like a lot of money is being spent at the wrong place. We are not a manufacturing company. We did not set out to revolutionized the travel mug design. We set out to revolutionize the way of doing business. We want to offer a business identity that customers are proud of being part of.

I talked about this product-problem a lot and got different feedback. Someone told me that the product doesn’t matter as long as the customers support the cause that our company supports. “You can sell canned shit. If they believe in your cause they will support you.” This puts the emphasis on what we believe to be the most important part of organization: the message and the cause we support. I understand the thinking behind this statement but I don’t believe people enjoy buying crap (figuratively). Furthermore if I hope to scale my business buy gaining loyal customers that repeatedly purchase goods from us. Finally, selling a sub par product does not fit with our 4 Golden Rules. If the product is cheap, it doesn’t reduce waste as much as it should because it will be replaced quickly.

So I continued my search for bottles online. I promised myself not to give up. There are already thousands upon thousands of existing designs. There has to be one for me! I did, however, change my searching methods. Someone told me I should stopped looking overseas and maybe try to find an organization that is closer to home. Such simple advice and I had not even thought about doing this. I searched for “Top Travel Mugs” on Google, I searched for “Travel Mugs” on Amazon and I started finding companies that were much more interesting. I cannot believe I didn’t think of searching Amazon and eBay before. I also found a coffee trade show in Vancouver. Although I have no intention of attending, I was able to look through the whole list of exhibitors and I found a lot of great companies and great NPOs (more on that soon).  Will the bottles be harder to buy from established wholesalers? Maybe. Will they be more expensive? Probably. However, they will answered our defined criteria.

I’ve sent out around 7-8 different e-mail explaining our business model and asking for the permission to buy and rebrand the products. Some answered. Some didn’t. I had to call some of the companies. Sometimes I was redirected to the Canadian wholesaler. Some Canadian wholesalers redirected me to the company. I did talked to must of the people I needed to. I promised myself that I would push beyond the first “No” any company would give me. In the end, two different organization agreed (on different terms) to sell and let me rebrand and sell their (quality) travel mugs. One of those organisation was the one bottle I really really want.

I do not having pricing with these organizations yet and I cannot confirm that I will work with either of them (although I really hope so and we are on track to do so). If i don’t, the search goes on.

The point of this big rambling is to express the learnings I have grasped in the last two months. I hope I didn’t bore you too much.

• Figure out what your company stands for (in my case, I am not a design or manufacturing company)
• Don’t give up even if you some times feel you are at a dead end. Everything can be worked out. Someone once told that an a business doesn’t die when it runs out of money. It dies when the founder gives up.
• Some times you have to change tactics. I lost a whole month and a half searching in the wrong places
• Don’t be afraid to talk to other people about your ideas. You may find advice. (Don’t bore them either. I always make sure these conversations go both ways).

Product as a service

While I wait for my second sample to come in I have thought a lot about the product. It is really hard to find a balance between concentrating on a great product or concentrating on a great Brand. With limited resources, eventually I will have to make a choice about where I invest my time and money.

I want the product that we sell to be great, good looking and useful. But it can’t come at the cost of sacrificing resources that are meant to go towards the cause we decide to support. In the end, our product reflects the how and the what we do. But it also has to reflect to why.

In our case, the question is: should we invest over 10 000$ dollars to create or own coffee travel mug, or should we find a already existing product (in China or Mexico we certain work standards exist. We will avoid India). Saving this money allows us to make more money per bottle, and give more back to our cause while staying profitable.

Furthermore we want to look at our product as a service. We will be offering to keep your coffee warm, to identify yourself with a community of like minded eco conscious individuals and to give back to planet and society that gives so much to us. In the end, conveying this service is the most important element.

I’ll leave you on this video by Simon Senik which you absolutely have to see IMO. Especially if you are eventually thinking of starting your own company or project.

The first sample ever

A few weeks ago I received my first ever samples from China! (For those wondering, I’ve been mostly using Alibaba to search and order products.) I was pretty excited. It felt like I was getting closer to my goal of actually launching. Better yet, the products are actually good looking. But as much as I want to move things along, I don’t think that these are the droids bottles that I’m looking for. Here’s a picture. BTW, this is not our logo.

Our first product?

So this is a Vacuum Flask. They look good and are great for keeping their content warm (or cool) for extended amounts of time. The problem is a small but important one: you have the untwist the cap to drink. I set out to make travel mugs. They have to be convenient. These are are not that great when traveling by car and not great for multitasking either. I set only three rules and this contradicts one of them. It would not be the product that I would use. Not for coffee anyway. For water? Maybe. I’ll be trying it out in the following weeks.

This brings me back almost two steps. First, I have to find and order new samples from China. Second, I’m starting to revaluate a choice I’ve already made. Should I be selling metal water bottles or travel mugs? It seems that I keep seeing metal (and durable plastic) water bottles everywhere since I’ve decided not to sell them. They seem useful, they have cool shapes and designs, they’re popular and they are also helping reduced the (unbelievable) waste that is created by water bottles.

For now I have to keep searching for an actual coffee travel mug. Finding some nice ones is surprisingly hard, much harder than finding nice water bottles. Come to think of it, I don’t thing I’ve ever seen a cool looking travel mug. It’s like they don’t exist.

I don’t want to see this as a setback. I think it’s a critical step in making sure I don’t launch with any product. Launching with the first one would have been almost too easy. And who knows, maybe I will end up selling both products. I like the idea of selling water bottles as well.

Giving as a marketing tool

I just read a very interesting article on the Crew Blog. The story is about a startup with only three months of cash left and not enough customers and sales to get the company off the ground. Then, they “accidentally” were able to acquire tons of customers. Something they had not been able to do through traditional web marketing tactics. What happened? They offered free high resolution photographes (for commercial use) on a site they created called Unsplashed. This site offered true value to customers for free. It created a virale phenomenon that brought over 50 000 visitors to the site. All these visitors came because of the value of the product and not because of any form of advertisement. These visits came from people sharing and receiving a positive experience from the brand, something every company should hope for. In the end, the Crew acknowledge this side projet as the element that saved their startup by becoming the number one traffic referral source.

The rest of the articles talks about how great side projects can be and it’s good read. Instead of talking about the same thing, I’ll take a look at how a new form of marketing centered around giving can be used to help businesses. Lets look at two additional examples.

Tim Ferris and Sethi Ramit basically offer 98% of their content for free and sell the last 2%. The free content/service reinforces positive feelings for the brand and causes potentiel clients to act as ambassadors. Once they are ready to sell something to the public, they have a large customer base that is already won over. Of course, the content you offer has to be considered valuable for the audience. Giving something they don’t care about will get you nowhere (cough cough Apple and U2). One statement from The Crew article really nails this fact. You want to make: “marketing so useful, people would pay for it.”

I started thinking about the many ways I could apply this to Andy+, the startup that I’m working on. This business revolves around two ideas: empowering customers to do good and proving that businesses can have a positive impact on the world. 

Here is (up to now) the best idea that I’ve come up with based on the above statements. Before launch, I would like to have at least 500 people signup to our newsletter to learn more about us and maybe even buy a product at launch. Instead of spending let’s say 250$ dollars on Facebook and Adwords marketing, I’ll offer to give fifty cents to a dollar to a predetermined NPO for every signup I get up until a certain amount that I will mention before hand (my pockets aren’t too deep). So by signing up, you are actually donating to an organisation in need. I think it’s different, it’s something that has not been done before. If the business never works and everything fails (obviously not the outcome we are looking for) then it will have still contributed to a charitable organisation. Even if we fail, someone wins and we stay true to our core values and the reason I created this business.

In my eyes, this is a great idea. Hopefully I’m not wrong.