It’s the end of July.
We haven’t started shipping yet.
Instead, we’ve been busy doing this:
And this:
And a little more of this:
And waiting for this:
The rice protein arrived on Friday. Thank you, Axiom. The rest of the ingredients we need should be arriving within the next week or so.
The factory is starting to come together. It’s looking more like a place where something productive might actually happen, and less like a forgotten corner of a big, empty warehouse.
The clean room is looking pretty clean. No more paint flaking off the floor.
The shelves are starting to fill up. We’ve washed – and sanitized (you’re welcome, health department) – all the containers we’ll be using to mix and store ingredients.
We’ve got some comfy chairs and a shiny steel table to work on. We’ve got plastic strips over the door to keep the dust in. We’ve got some fancy scales to weigh everything precisely. We still need some thermometers and humidity sensors and an AC unit to make sure things stay dry and cool.
And we still need to find a supplier that can get us a custom multivitamin blend ASAP. We’ve got several inquiries out but we’re still waiting to hear back from them. If nothing turns up in the next week or so we’ll probably end up buying a case of vitamins and a coffee grinder from the nearest Costco. :p Just like the good old days.
I wish I were kidding.
So, we’ll probably be shipping in a few weeks. Early August if we’re lucky, late August if not. Don’t ask about September.
If you can’t wait that long, let us know. We’ll work something out.
See you in August.
For me, there is no problem with Costco and the coffee grinder. Costco sells excellent products, so the effectiveness and safety are assured.
It’s more an expense and increased workload for you, so I do hope you find a supplier of something better for you.
I JUST ordered a week of Keto fuel as a test. If it doesn’t work for me, I’ll be ordering the Light Fuel instead.
Yeah. Turns out they also have a bit of gelatin in their vitamins, for some reason, so they’re not animal-free, unfortunately. Vegans won’t like that.
Can you make a few batches of non-vegan just so the rest of us are not held up?
For that matter, leave the vitamins out for those like me who are perfectly fine with taking multis until you get it sorted?
And, so you can generate a little income, and get a leg up on catching up with orders.
We’ll be using the vitamins anyway, so it won’t delay things any further. It’s just an annoyance. Honestly, the amount of gelatin in the mix is probably comparable to the amount of ground-up insect that happens to find its way into any sort of flour product, vegan or otherwise. :p
You’re very good at this and the growth of your business is well deserved. I’m looking forward to getting Schmoylent back in my life.
Thanks Eryk! Customers like you help to keep us pushing forward. =)
Kudos for being transparent – it’s often difficult to find people/companies willing to share the bad with the good. Also for staying positive and finding some humor in the situation. :) Once this is all in the rearview, make sure to take a breath and do a nice post-mortem blog post to reflect and give a “if I had known then what I know now, here’s what I would have done differently” kind of rundown if you have a chance.
Good luck with finding the custom multivitamin blend and I look forward to seeing my pre-order ship! Hopefully you’ll be able to avoid the coffee grinder route. :)
Thanks James. I think the post-mortem post is a great idea – I’ll look forward to doing that once we’re out of the woods. :)