[Ed.30] Why Olea is the worst business model in the world...
And how it might just become our competitive advantage.
Ello à tous et à toutes,
Those who know me personally know that the last few months in Dubai have been a living hell. After a week in France, I seem to be on the road to recovery. Amazing what a little French touch can do, eh?
This is the last week before Christmas and unfortunately the goals I set for Olea have fallen short. I won’t sugar coat this for you all, we’ve sold one Christmas bundle. One. A few limited edition PJs, and a few of the newest edition, Girls Night In. But not enough to have broken even on marketing costs. Nowhere close.
These results have not been in vein. Sofía has done an incredible job creating awesome content on our Instagram, writing articles, and even hosting a Girls Night In evening to showcase the new PJ. But it’s tough going with algorithm changes, a Founder who has been on the verge of a nervous breakdown, and an unknown game. “The naughty love child of Scrabble and Cards Against Humanity” is a little whacky I’ll admit.
Why am I being so transparent about this?
Don’t good entrepreneurs project positivity no matter what?
I decided to build Olea in public because a village is needed to reframe languages as fun, creative and accessible in the UK. An entire village. Schools. Individuals. Companies. Charities. Family. Government. Friends. Everyone.
That’s why we are doing this. To ensure that every single child in the UK (& later the world) embraces a love of languages, and can use their own vocabulary to navigate and express themselves.
I’m being very real about how hard it is to get this off the ground because I need your help. (In a minute I promise I’ll stop having a stress cry & outline positive plans for 2024, but bear with me).
Today is the last day we are offering the Christmas bundle at 55.33 GBP (& free shipping too). If you’re in London, I can drop it off to you on Tuesday, Wednesday or Thursday. The code is PJ2023. Grab a bundle for your friends, go halves with someone. Get one for the office.
Shop here, and then walk with me towards the silver lining …
The silver lining
There are people who are noticing what Olea is setting out to achieve, and they are on hand to help. We’ve tested PJ in a number of schools across the UK with great success and dozens of MFL teachers have provided testimonials. The creative workshops (Createathons) for schools and small businesses are ready to roll out in January. Sofía and I are meeting next week to brainstorm a marketing plan for 2024.
We are participating in the 33rd Cambridge Judge Business School’s Accelerator from January to March; the experience will open a number of doors, enable us to get into shops, lead to workshop bookings and hopefully also attract the right sort of angel investors to boost our mission further. AND the most exciting part is our new Olea Ambassador program for which applications will open very shortly.
So Q1, 2024 is going to be intense.
It is going to be hard, again.
Why have I not given up yet?
Well lol I’ve come close, and some days I have to look deep within myself and ask why I haven’t given up. Someone suggested to me in September that I could make Olea dormant, but it flicked a switch in me.
The very suggestion that I could walk away from everything, get a normal job, and finally have stability led me to: (1) onboard Sofia, (2) invest in 150 new editions of PJ out (Girls Night In), (3) get both the physical and digital version of PJ in schools for free (4) revamp our website (5) channel efforts into events etc.
Olea’s underlying mission is to reframe languages as really, really cool.
Ultimately, we simply won’t stop until every single home in the UK has a version of Private Joke. Christmas, therefore, is the bestest time to get a game for yourself and bring the magic to the whole (extended) family.
Our competitive advantage
… is you. Every single person who has purchased a PJ, played a PJ, and loved the warm, creative, open-minded environment that the game crafts. You are our competitive advantage.
Your humanity.
The words you create.
The sense of togetherness.
Sofía sums it up in her latest article (here) on wonky cartwheels, Pinot Grigio, and inventing words, outlining her personal experiences of how creating have enabled her to foster deeper relationships. Creating words yas, but also more generally just embracing the freedom that comes with authentically expressing yourself.
That’s what it is all about. Creating value, and empowering people to discover a side of themselves that they might not have seen before. So yes, I worry that maybe we have the worst business model in the world, that we’re not a VC-ready startup leveraged by AI blah blah blah, or that it’s been way harder than I expected to grow our Instagram account. But strangely, I’m not freaking out (yet).
Because I’ve seen how people light up when they play Private Joke, and I’ve seen how speaking another language can unlock something within a human being to make them connect with others on a more profound, meaningful level.
Sooner or later, Private Joke will be as popular as Scrabble, or Cards Against Humanity. It’s just going to take some time. Petit à petit, staying true to our competitive advantage - our community of creators.
That’s all for this week.
❤️, 🫒.