Issue 1: Our first fundraise, love-hate demos, and a few fails
I’ve been thinking a lot about how to authentically share the journey of building, operating, and scaling Guests on Earth. I’ve landed on a monthly roundup of wins, fails and what’s next.
CHA-CHING
August was a busy and monumental month for us: we closed our first Friends & Family raise! Fundraising brings a new level of intensity — now other people’s money is on the line, and the pressure to perform is higher than ever. At the same time, it fuels confidence and drive, because it’s proof that people genuinely believe in our team and what we are building.
For a long time, I wasn’t comfortable with the idea of raising. Our performance wasn’t there, and the numbers didn’t inspire confidence. Plus, my background is rooted in creative strategy rather than finance, and I felt out of my depth having detailed conversations about financial metrics and projections.
But things changed. Our business has been scaling steadily since the beginning of the year, and we became confident in our numbers and motivated by our growth. We pulled together a presentation with our vision, roadmap, actuals and projections, and started pitching.
With the support of my team (shout-out to Sarah), and lots of practice, I grew more confident speaking about the numbers, and the terms of the raise, in each conversation. The process forced us to dig deep into every part of the business and brought a new level of rigor to our forecasting and planning. There were ups and downs, of course, but we’re thrilled with where we landed — and can’t wait to keep growing.
EL AY
I’m writing this on a flight back from Los Angeles to Toronto, after a week of demos at Erewhon and The Detox Market, plus some general recon in the wellness mecca that is LA.
For the uninitiated: a demo is when a brand rep sets up a small table with products, engages with shoppers, and drives trial. I bring our scents, encourage people to smell them, and share how our concentrated refill model works.
I have a love-hate relationship with demos. I love connecting directly with people, hearing what matters to them when it comes to cleaning, and seeing how our brand shows up in-store. I love observing merchandising and discovering other interesting brands and categories. And I love meeting the passionate staff who work at our retailers, and being able introducing Guests on Earth to people in real time.
On the flip side, I hate how awkward it feels to interrupt strangers mid-grocery shop. A slow demo can bruise the ego. It’s tough to compete with free Yerba Mate samples across from the beverage wall when you’re demoing cleaners (“Smell us!”). Still, every time I do a demo, I learn something valuable. They’re time-consuming and exhausting, and it’s not realistic for a founder to be at them regularly. But I do think it’s important to get into the field a few times each year.
FAILS & FIRING UP FOR FALL
As fall approaches, we’re ramping up production to get ahead of the holiday rush. We underestimated demand for our laundry detergent and have sold out of bulk pouches again. We’re scrambling to make and fill more early next week!
Running out of product might sound like a good problem to have, but in reality, it hurts sales and frustrates customers. That’s why we’re launching an aggressive fall production schedule to ensure we stay well-stocked.
We also ran into a random technical glitch this week where our fulfillment software marked some orders as shipped when they hadn’t been. Cue delays and frustration — not ideal.
That’s all for now!
I hope this was at least entertaining — maybe even helpful. I’d love to hear feedback or suggestions about what you’d like to read more of when it comes to running the business.
Talk soon,
Jackie
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