First and foremost. Welcome! I’m glad to announce that you belong to the inner circle of 5 people reading this newsletter, and yes, that includes Simon and Me (Yentl). 

Second: we’re happy you stayed after we missed our first weekly update! Gracias, gracias, gracias.

Muey importante:

Do us a solid one and reply 'kaffie' to this mail? It helps our delivery a bunch. Other replies are very welcome as well. 

Let's go. 

So... what may you not expect from this weekly digest?

• Nigerian prince donating you his legacy out of goodwill.
• Weekly updates on the relationship status of Kim Kardashian.
• Crypto advice on day trading & how to earn one Rolex/day.

If this disappoints you, I can subscribe you to some great mailing lists containing all of the above. So just send me your consent, and I’ll make it happen.

What may you expect from this letter:

Weekly updates on our adventures, disappointments, highs & lows while starting our own business. Written with love & without pretending this is accurate business advice.

here are 3 snapshots of running kaffie.co for over a month.

1. Administrative hustle is a real thing.

Have you ever found yourself in a spot where you thought: “this should be cleared in 1 month tops”. Well, for us, this moment was on 7 February when we came from the social secretary to discuss the legal form of our business. It was an ambitious goal to have our BV the month after... Well, guess what. We’re 1 April now, and no joke, we still do not have a VAT number.

If you ever can manage to start a company that takes care of all this administrative ping pong, then call us & we’ll market it with pleasure.

2. Iterating on pre-sales.

Whilst one month of pre-sales is hardly a good sample size,
we believe in short feedback loops. This is what our gut has told us so far ⬇️

• The intensity and time spent are too high:
  • We researched the prospect’s online presence.
  • We gathered 3 marketing insights for direct use (quick wins).
  • Then focused on 2 quick technical wins.
  • We redesigned 1 page of the prospect’s website that focused on these tips.
  • All this was gathered into a slide deck and presented to the prospect.
• We talk too much and listen too little. We were pushing one-way in marketing, whilst we believe sales should be more like a suave first date with some natural tension in the air.

All of this is now considered in future pre-sales experiments by focusing on listening first and postponing the action until we establish a connection. Less time spent on fence-sitters, more time for first-dates.

3. It's been a blast so far.

Whilst starting your own business with a friend does not help with hair loss, it has been a blast. Of course, I would lie if we said it’s all fun & games, but we can say without a doubt that we have no regrets in taking a leap for a new adventure.

We’re suckers for nostalgia. That’s why we love overpriced analog polaroid pictures. Here are three of ‘em from the month of march:

PS: 31st of March: First client closed. Rrrrrrr.