Earlier this week, I shared how a former colleague set up a print-on-demand t-shirt business during lockdown.
Today, I’d like to share another inspiring story about my friends, Kylene and Harry.
As the coronavirus crisis began to escalate in the UK—along with Harry’s Masters programme being put on hold, and Kylene’s ability to work remotely—they decided to move back to Australia.
Instead of sitting around waiting for things to blow over, they teamed up with Harry’s sister, Victoria, to start The Flying Zucchinis—a fruit and veggie box subscription service built on the growing demand for grocery delivery brought on by the coronavirus pandemic.
I’ve loved following their textbook lean start-up approach. They’d set up a website and social accounts within days. They hacked together a range of Software as a Service third party systems to handle inventory, checkout, and subscription orders. And most importantly, they got their product out to market as quickly as possible.
At first, their product selection was modest—they only had one fruit and veggie box option, as they were testing to see if there was interest for their product. But as they’ve gained momentum, their product selection and their branding have taken leaps forward.
They now offer multiple fruit and veggie box options, along with eggs, milk, and bread subscriptions. They added a hella cute logo, and made a mini cooking show via Instagram stories for how to use that week’s produce.
They also follow Paul Graham’s classic advice of doing things that don’t scale by providing a handwritten card with each order to build a strong early community of customers.
I love seeing their posts about the inner workings of getting a business going: the 3am wake ups to head to the fruit and veggie markets, the delivery runs, the warehouse space they’re about to move into, and the new logo printed on their boxes. It’s gritty, real, and human.
And they’ve had success, too! Last week they completed their 1,000th order, and are now nearing 200 active subscriptions. This is huge growth in 4 months.
Finally, I asked them what they’ve enjoyed and learnt by going on this journey. I’ve summarised them into 3 learnings:
1. They’ve learnt the importance of customer obsession (in the Jeff Bezo’s sense. They use the product themselves and feel all the frustrations when things go wrong. And when that complaint comes in at 11pm at night about the missing brussel sprouts, they don’t go to bed until it’s sorted. They also realised their customers loved the more personal nature of the business (e.g., Harry cooking 3 times a week behind the camera) so they’ve invested heavily in growing that part of their operations.
2. Go hard when the opportunity is ripe (pun intended). They’re based in Melbourne which has just gone back into a strict lockdown. People want subscription boxes more than ever. They’re unlikely to have as much organic demand as they’re getting now, so they’re trying to scale up their operations as quickly as possible.
3. Starting a business and running it is all-consuming, but the joy that comes with throwing yourself into it 100% is intoxicating. They’re loving the journey, and that, perhaps, is the most important thing.