This is one in a series of posts where I document my startup journey. If you just landed here, go to this link and you’ll find all the other posts in the series.
In September of 2019, I started writing a blog post about what we had going on at Bear Appeal. A lot of things had happened, and we were quite excited about our future prospects. Back then, I didn’t know how much of what had happened could be shared publicly, so the post didn’t end up being written.
As 2019 came to an end, I was tasked with writing an email to our customers. (We did this in 2017 and 2018, too. We wanted this to be a regular year end/new year email, where we can write to and thank our customers for sticking by us.) Since September, a few more things had happened and we were now at liberty to share. We decided this email would be the perfect opportunity to break the news.
Here is the email:
A lot of things changed for us in 2019. For the better. And we have you to thank for that. When the year began, we were a small team, having just hired our very first team member outside of our two co-founders, still making a lot of mistakes, but learning as we went. As the year ends, we’re 5-people strong, slightly more capable than we were the year before, slightly wiser.
The numbers were good to us in 2019, because you made it so. That is a testament to the confidence you have placed in us, and we can’t thank you enough for it.
The most exciting bit of 2019 was towards the end of year. We’ve kept things under wraps until now, but there isn’t a better time than the dawn of a new year to break this news to you, so here goes: we entered into our very first substantial business partnership. Our new partners, Tavistock Group and SeedingAlpha, have placed their trust in us and will be investing in our growth. They liked what we had achieved in the past 2.5 years. They liked that we take your convenience seriously. But most of all, they love that fact that you have stuck by us all this time.
This is the big leagues for us, and it’s just beginning. This year will be challenging, and exciting, as we take on new territory. For you, this means an even better level of service, because that will always be a priority for us, and now we have partners who understand its importance just as much.
So, thank you! Your support over the years has made this all possible. And good luck to you! Because we know you’ll be taking on your own challenges this year. You’ve already shown us that you’re capable of great things. We’re eagerly waiting to hear more of your stories in 2020.
We can’t wait to continue this journey with you.
Happy New Year!
TLDR; we were acquired. The discussions for this had been happening for almost a year, and they finally came to fruition in December 2019.
This new phase is only just beginning. We have a shared vision about where the business needs to go in the next 3 years. And with our partners’ help, we have access to resources and a network we couldn’t have dreamed of building ourselves. As you can probably tell, I’m excited!
I want to go back to 2017 and tell the two kids who started a t-shirt business in a bedroom that good things are waiting for them.
They’ve done well. They’ll do more.
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