One Month In: Lessons Learned and Gratitude
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Dear Fellow Nerds,
It's hard to believe that it's been over a month since we officially launched nerdyStuff (the bulk order of our first product arrived at my home on 04/09/2024 afternoon). As I sit down to reflect on this milestone, I'm filled with a mix of emotions – from excitement and gratitude to a healthy dose of humility.
Let's talk about the elephant in the room: selling has been tougher than I anticipated. It's disappointing, no doubt. We poured our hearts and minds into creating our first product, the Normal Distribution and Galton Board Sweatshirt, and to see it not flying off the shelves is tough. But here's the silver lining – this struggle is teaching us invaluable lessons about the realities of the business world. It's forcing us to adapt, to innovate, and to push our boundaries. Every setback is a chance to learn and grow, and we're more motivated than ever to find the smoking gun and turn things around. Here are the most important lessons learned:
I also want to express my heartfelt gratitude to our dear friends – Grace, Fred, Rex, dqc, cb, wyk, Alex, MZ, and Andi – who volunteered their time and support. From taking product photos to reposting our content on social media, their efforts have been instrumental in spreading the word about nerdyStuff. Their unsolicited support has deeply touched me.
As we enter into June and the summer season, I acknowledge that our current product, the Normal Distribution and Galton Board Sweatshirt, may not be the ideal fit. But that doesn't deter our determination. We're in this for the long haul. I'm ready to embrace the challenges ahead, to keep learning, and to be even more prepared for the coming Fall. As the saying goes, be a short-term pessimist and a long-term optimist.
This first month has been a rollercoaster ride, but it's just the beginning of our journey. Thank you for being a part of it – here's to many more milestones, lessons learned, and successes ahead.
Yours in nerdiness,
Justin
It's hard to believe that it's been over a month since we officially launched nerdyStuff (the bulk order of our first product arrived at my home on 04/09/2024 afternoon). As I sit down to reflect on this milestone, I'm filled with a mix of emotions – from excitement and gratitude to a healthy dose of humility.
Let's talk about the elephant in the room: selling has been tougher than I anticipated. It's disappointing, no doubt. We poured our hearts and minds into creating our first product, the Normal Distribution and Galton Board Sweatshirt, and to see it not flying off the shelves is tough. But here's the silver lining – this struggle is teaching us invaluable lessons about the realities of the business world. It's forcing us to adapt, to innovate, and to push our boundaries. Every setback is a chance to learn and grow, and we're more motivated than ever to find the smoking gun and turn things around. Here are the most important lessons learned:
- It would be easier to launch a brand with a product with a lower price per unit, e.g., a t-shirt priced at around $20-$30 instead of a sweatshirt priced at $70-$80.
- Instead of finding a manufacturer overseas, we should have looked for a local manufacturer first. Overseas manufacturing slows down the sampling/production lifecycle and didn't significantly save costs, especially given our small order size.
- To sell the product, we opened social media accounts and tried to produce high-quality content ourselves. While a worthwhile trial, becoming a content creator to sell products is more of a detour. We should have been smarter in building formal collaborations with content creators and leveraging existing audience groups for targeted marketing.
I also want to express my heartfelt gratitude to our dear friends – Grace, Fred, Rex, dqc, cb, wyk, Alex, MZ, and Andi – who volunteered their time and support. From taking product photos to reposting our content on social media, their efforts have been instrumental in spreading the word about nerdyStuff. Their unsolicited support has deeply touched me.
As we enter into June and the summer season, I acknowledge that our current product, the Normal Distribution and Galton Board Sweatshirt, may not be the ideal fit. But that doesn't deter our determination. We're in this for the long haul. I'm ready to embrace the challenges ahead, to keep learning, and to be even more prepared for the coming Fall. As the saying goes, be a short-term pessimist and a long-term optimist.
This first month has been a rollercoaster ride, but it's just the beginning of our journey. Thank you for being a part of it – here's to many more milestones, lessons learned, and successes ahead.
Yours in nerdiness,
Justin