2016, I Can’t Quit You
…but it will be over soon.
2016 has been some special kind of a year for me, equal parts bitter and sweet.
January: My baby girl Noemi Rose was born, coming into the world with much fanfare, the same week Tinsel pitched at CES.
February: Back to work full force and starting to fundraise for Tinsel, doing everything I could to get intros to investors. Trying to raise $2M for some solid runway, producing The Dipper, and developing the next couple products in the queue.
March: Chosen at 2016 Code2040 Entrepreneur-in-Residence, something that would change me in more ways than I could ever know.
April: Pitching, pitching, pitching and barely moving the needle on funding; we change our target to $1M goal. Tinsel is accepted into The Workshop at Macy’s, turns out to be an enriching program. We cut ties with product consultants we built Tinsel with, after realizing a diminishing value in what they were doing for us.
May: Tinsel is accepted into HAX Boost, our hardware and retail network expands considerably. Hope wanes on getting further investment though; I’ve pitched over 100 people and come up empty.
June: Excitement and top-tier press for The Dipper continues. Our team goes to China for first time after fully taking over management of our manufacturing. We discover a LOT of problems with the process, systems consultants left us with. Course correction begins.
July: I’ve gotten my fill of fundraising bullshit; the company and product need me and I refocus on getting The Dipper to market. We roll up our sleeves to do whatever we need to ship The Dipper by October 2016.
August: Our first sales-ready samples are delivered; they are drop dead gorgeous…and have a 50% defect rate. Certifications are taking forever. An essential part we need for production run has 12 week lead time. Things are looking shitty on the manufacturing side.
September: Another trip to China, this time we are armed to the gills and ready assemble the product ourselves if needed. We document every process, meet with every supplier, make recommendations for how to resolve issues, hire new boots on the ground in China.
October: Press ramps back up as we get close to our shipping deadline; new issues threaten our manufacturing deadline, but we manage to get the very first units out before the end of the month.
November: We are officially fulfilling orders (ayyyye!!!), but in waves as we get small quantities shipped from the factory. Most pressing issues from earlier pilot runs are resolved, but a few minor problems persist. We resolve to test and ship each unit ourselves until everything is worked out. We get the honor of pitching at Google Demo Day, an amazing event yet (unsurprisingly) no investments come afterward.
December: We have all the units from the first run in the USA, tested and shipping out each day; great feedback and excitement pouring in from backers who have gotten their units. We’ve started on the next run, development of new products. We now need to get more visibility, sell units to keep moving forward with the future we want to build.
Do you want to help us build a future for fashion, tech, and well-designed products? Buy a Dipper, invest in Tinsel, or spread the word about what we are doing.
