Oh what a year it has been!
Startup life is full of learning curves and curveballs, bringing fun, frustration and fizzing excitement.
This year began on a high! After a great first Christmas on our new website, we felt ready to join the big-girl companies and approach professional investors for funding.
There was a lot to learn, and pitching BuyMeOnce in front of 50 environmental investors perhaps still counts as one of my most exhilarating and terrifying moments ever. It paid off though, with the Green Angel Syndicate coming in to fund our enterprise.
As a company with a mission to help us as consumers, it made sense to open ownership to customer champions. We offered our community a chance to own a part of BuyMeOnce and help it prosper, with a crowdfunding raise on Crowdcube.
Summertime was crunch time, with the raise closing and the launch of the BuyMeOnce awards. The night was a wonderful success, and it was brilliant to be able to bring together some of the most extraordinary brands in the world in one space, recognising the amazing work they do. We planted a tree, to symbolise their long-term commitment to the planet.
With summer on the turn, we were able to claim victory on the funding front, smashing through our target of £300k on Crowdcube and finally achieving £600k of investment.
Autumn threw us a couple of curveballs in the form of an unforeseen office move. As luck would have it, a new office with Sustainable Workspaces opened up just in time to prevent disaster!
The second curveball was the departure of our lovely long-term marketing champion Amanda. Having worked miracles doing the job of 25 people as our marketing manager, she has left to pursue her passion for all things cake! We will miss her and all the yummy recipes she brought in every Monday. If you’re interested in sugar-free baking check out her flourishing blog Naturally Sweet Kitchen.
As the clocks went back and we all started to wonder where the sun had gone, we were joined by two fantastic new members of staff. Ben is our new super Marketing Manager, who brings Aussie charisma and suitcases packed full of experience. And Jasmine, our new Researcher who jumped right in to using her expert design eye to find you guys the best products on the planet.
And finally, as Christmas approached we put on a show with three pop-up shops in London. Thank you so much to everyone who came down!
2019 may have been tumultuous in many ways, but there are reasons to be cheerful. Never before has climate change gathered so much momentum - this is the year that the message reached a tipping point with the general population. We will continue to help those who want to make a change in how they consume by recognising that people need things in their lives - the difference is that we encourage people to buy once and buy well.
As always - help us spread the word about buying for life.
Thank you.
Love,
Tara
Photo: @marrbel pebblefestive 2019
