Nearly the End of Summer Break

During this time in summer 2018, we were in the middle of a crowdfunding campaign with Te Amo.  It was an awesome learning experience - enjoy this blog post from our startup archives!

Hello folks,

If this summer has taught me anything, it's that one summer alone is not enough time to make a huge impact in a startup business.  It's enough time to take some small steps towards your next goal - but, building a business is hard.  There are many moving parts - and a lot of the time these moving parts require many talented people united under a vision, and TIME - a lot of time compounded with effort.

I've learned a lot - which was invaluable.  My self awareness has increased by leaps and bounds.  I've met some incredible people, with whom I hope to maintain long term relationships with.  I've also started meditating, which is an enlightenment in and of itself.  See - in order to build something extraordinary, the "builder" must be extraordinary in order to withstand the journey.  Thus I am working on myself everyday!

Some milestones this summer include:

   - Selling at DOZENS of vendor shows and thus growing our email list!

   - Expanding to 20 locations

   - Launching our awesome crowdfunding campaign

   - Working closely with 4 other talented college-aged individuals

   - Being featured in the Pittsburgh Post Gazette on 8/15/2018

   - Growing social media account following!

This summer has been one big grind - and I'm not going to lie, I'm exhausted.  I wish to hibernate until school begins BUT it is at this time which we must keep the gas pedal on the floor.

There is only 12 days more until I go back to Grove City College.  It's at this time that things will slow down for Té Amo and things will pick up academically.  It's also at this time when we will be changing our name and redesigning/re-branding our business.  We must do this in order to avoid being sued by another company called  TE AMO.  As the name means "I love you" in spanish, it's quite popular.  No worries, however. 

This is my thoughts on our re-branding: when you do something for the first time, it's typically pretty rough - as it was with Té Amo.  When you do something for the second time, things are much smoother and BETTER.  I am looking forward to burning everything, recollecting the ashes, and rising out of those ashes like a phoenix - rising continually towards the success I have envisioned.  It will be filled with effort, and it will be exhilarating. 

We have the rest of 2018 to rebrand  -  thus I want everyone's feedback in rebranding.  We will put out a "name our bottled tea business" competition, where the winner will win a case of Té Amo... or whatever we are called at that time.  BTW - Don't worry, we'll still plant trees in Haiti! 

By 2019 when we're completely rebranded, our first duty of the year will be to travel to Haiti in January to build onto our own tree nursery.  It will be an incredible experience that I am incredibly excited for.  In order to help us achieve our goal of fundraising $4,000 we need as much help as possible - you can go to www.PieShell.com in order to check out our video, prizes, information, and to contribute!

Thanks for reading,

Mark