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- Oct 20, 2019
- 9
- 20
Everything started with a phone call last November.
I had been mulling over this idea for some time but never had the courage to start executing it—really executing it. At the time, I was interning at a food company that produced products related to what I envisioned creating. After three months there, I felt I had reached the peak of my learning curve. Soon, the routine, the people, and the tasks became mundane. There was no spontaneity, no energy, and not much passion left. It felt like a result of several years of doing the same things over and over with no end in sight. The employees could have been programmed robots: going for coffee breaks at exactly nine every day, heading to lunch exactly three hours later, and leaving with the same monotonous “goodbye” four hours after that. I knew I could not do this for forty years and I just started...
On the other end of the phone was the organizer of the so-called 100-Day Challenge. The concept is simple: one idea, one room to live in for free, and 100 days to work on the idea without distraction. The catch: if the challenge fails, the participant has to volunteer for charity for 100 hours. I was approved to present my idea to the jury and, shortly after, was accepted into the challenge. My goal: develop a new innovative snack product, sell the first product within 100 days, and have a plan for continuing after the challenge ended.
After several failed experiments, a lot of trial and error, and numerous feedback rounds—initially through surveys and later with people testing the product—I finally received positive feedback. I started looking for stores and found a small shop with the concept of selling unpackaged goods. I brought the owner some samples to try, and shortly after she ordered the first batch of product. Was a nice feeling filling out the first delivery note and getting paid cash. Shortly after I could deliver two more bigger batches as the product was running very well.
At the same time, I was looking for some place to start producing my product which was quite a challenge. Eventually, I found a small producer selling just one product who was willing to give me a chance to start producing alongside him.
Yesterday, I moved out of my challenge room. The next steps will be finalizing the other recipe I created, conducting shelf-life testing for both products, figuring out packaging and starting to look for other stores to carry my products and then start production. I plan to bootstrap this whole adventure so I will also be working part-time on the side again.
I started this thread to keep myself accountable as I no longer have the outside pressure to complete the 100-Day Challenge.
Will post an update once a month.
Thanks for reading.
I had been mulling over this idea for some time but never had the courage to start executing it—really executing it. At the time, I was interning at a food company that produced products related to what I envisioned creating. After three months there, I felt I had reached the peak of my learning curve. Soon, the routine, the people, and the tasks became mundane. There was no spontaneity, no energy, and not much passion left. It felt like a result of several years of doing the same things over and over with no end in sight. The employees could have been programmed robots: going for coffee breaks at exactly nine every day, heading to lunch exactly three hours later, and leaving with the same monotonous “goodbye” four hours after that. I knew I could not do this for forty years and I just started...
On the other end of the phone was the organizer of the so-called 100-Day Challenge. The concept is simple: one idea, one room to live in for free, and 100 days to work on the idea without distraction. The catch: if the challenge fails, the participant has to volunteer for charity for 100 hours. I was approved to present my idea to the jury and, shortly after, was accepted into the challenge. My goal: develop a new innovative snack product, sell the first product within 100 days, and have a plan for continuing after the challenge ended.
After several failed experiments, a lot of trial and error, and numerous feedback rounds—initially through surveys and later with people testing the product—I finally received positive feedback. I started looking for stores and found a small shop with the concept of selling unpackaged goods. I brought the owner some samples to try, and shortly after she ordered the first batch of product. Was a nice feeling filling out the first delivery note and getting paid cash. Shortly after I could deliver two more bigger batches as the product was running very well.
At the same time, I was looking for some place to start producing my product which was quite a challenge. Eventually, I found a small producer selling just one product who was willing to give me a chance to start producing alongside him.
Yesterday, I moved out of my challenge room. The next steps will be finalizing the other recipe I created, conducting shelf-life testing for both products, figuring out packaging and starting to look for other stores to carry my products and then start production. I plan to bootstrap this whole adventure so I will also be working part-time on the side again.
I started this thread to keep myself accountable as I no longer have the outside pressure to complete the 100-Day Challenge.
Will post an update once a month.
Thanks for reading.
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