I got self-conscious the other day when we posted about new Bia shirts. I am not good at asking for things, and I feel that is all we are doing.
We’ve talked about our plans for a site that you can’t live without and a GPS watch that is going to make you throw out your Garmin….
But all we’ve delivered is a lousy t-shirt, a basic version of DailyMile meets Training Peaks, and some watchbands.
And then a friend reminded me of two things:
- Our running shirts are bad@ass
- By asking for help we are making you part of the company so we can build something amazing together..
You are our most valuable advisors and investors, so I want to let you know what’s happening behind the scenes. And I want to ask you for some more help.
Friggin’ Hustling!
Bia started because I wanted a GPS training watch that didn’t suck and it was clear no one else was going to make if for me. We’ve bootstrapped the company with credit cards, contributions from friends and family, and lots of sweat equity from an amazing team in Portland, San Francisco, Virginia, and Florida.
And I think we are on to something:
- Retailers who have seen the product have gushed over it.
- A heavyweight manufacturing partner has offered to help us produce it.
- We’ve enlisted amazing advisors including endurance pioneer, Sally Edwards.
- We have an amazing group of women on the site journaling workouts, supporting each other, and giving us feedback.
But now it’s time to raise some real money…
- We need to speed up development on the site. Two moonlighting developers and Sylvia’s html skills can only go so fast.
- We need to finish development on the watch and produce 100’s of units to test in the field to make sure it’s perfect.
It’s definitely a “special” experience working with traditional VCs and angel investors as a female-founded, female-focused company — especially one outside the “safe” zones of babies or beauty.
Along the way we’ve learned how to step around egos…
- Of course we will make a Kevlar/Titanium version just for men.
- I’ve blocked my Athlinks profile to avoid the time wasting macho chest thumping and defensive posturing – hard to tell which is which – that can derail a meeting.
- We’ve learned the proper technique for using a Shakeweight. …a story for another time.
And we’ve gotten some “classic” advice…
“Maybe you girls should try something easier first”. One potential investor suggested we start with shirts to “practice ordering stuff online and paying invoices and shipping out orders”. We had all we could do not to bust out laughing. …Ironic, eh?
The net-net is this will take some time…
Site fixes and changes are going MUCH slower than we wanted. Yet, we still need to show “momentum” and prove to investors that women who love to sweat – whether we are training for ironman or our first 5K – are not a niche market. So we need more women signed up for early access invites and more women on FB and twitter ready to spread the word when we launch. We have to show we are building an army.
Thank you for being part of that army.
Here’s is what we need to get over the next set of obstacles. Can you help?
- Rich aunts who run ultra marathons
- BFF’s with Reese Witherspoon or Julie Bowen
- DEVELOPERS! (PHP, Javascript, JQuery, MySQL, Zend, iOS …)
- Guest blogging: Be like Coach Carrie and Swim Bike Mom!
…..we promise the list is about to get easier….
- Spreading the word to your running group, your FB friends, on Twitter
- Using the site (www.bia-sport.com)
…..and of course…..
Remember: The more practice we get “going postal” the better prepared we’ll be!
Thanks for your support, patience, and continued help.
Let’s do this.
–C2K
