I have had conversations with a lot of you, some just once when we first welcomed you, and others on a consistent basis; either because they want to be a part of the journey or have been consistently helping us to improve. Either way, I’m thankful to every single one of you that has decided to believe in me. That has been the driving force at most times where I have thought, “This was a bad decision, Jas”.
Before I take you through our thrilling story, I understand not everyone likes reading a long message. So for the people that don’t like long emails, this is what you can expect to read in the email-
Where we are currently and what is holding us back?
Features that you have requested and we think that would fit in well with your feedback.
What to expect from us other than features?
Timelines for everything.
On to the Story
Two years ago this boy started this journey, trying to build something that we knew was clearly a big problem that was being left unattended. If not by choice, but by the nature of the beast. No one was willing to take on such a project. Maybe because of its daunting implications. Maybe because it could not be done. Turns out he liked impossible odds. Fast forward two years, he had a business. He had customers that wanted the service and craved the transparency he was trying to provide. They were waiting for someone to take the initiative.
The dopamine rush he received when first couple of people joined was, and is, inexplicable. There was never a better feeling he had felt before. It was a rush that he wanted more of. Once the initial feedback came through, the dopamine levels just kept on getting higher. Were there faults within his system? Yes. He was aware of them but all he wanted to do was carry on and keep providing the service to the people that trusted and believed him. Even with him putting all his money into the business, he was content.
There were small things that popped up in the middle which needed urgent fixing.
A small message that wasn’t delivered.
A question about how things work.
A missed pickup(He, himself, was doing the pickups at this point; as well as the sorting of the recyclables).
Worried that he might lose the momentum he had gathered, he started looking for someone to help him with capital. And luck there be. Got introduced to a really good investor (After going through a few bad apples). The investor was everything we was looking for. It gave him the opportunity to amplify and better the service.
The messages which didn’t deliver when the QR code was scanned to let them know it has been scanned. Not being sure when the bags have been ordered. Not getting a message when the route was planned(Fixed that) or the message not staying in the app as a notification. Or just the simple fact of not having a way of paying. All of this now could be sorted. He didn’t have to put everything he had worked for in this. He could disrupt the industry properly. After a couple of months of back and forth, terms were finally agreed. But alas, the journey isn’t linear, so of-course problems arose.
A hint of recession.
A small whiff of a family tragedy(on the investor side) and everything was delayed, at-least till Mid September. All of a sudden he had two people on my paying roster and no money. Except for some savings. While he poured everything into it, slowly but surely, he moved forward. Got talking to customers. Got them to sign on. And they loved it. Even with the small errors and delays here and there.
Good times continued. HSBC got in touch with us and so did some other companies. He, and his team, were excited. Finally, they were getting somewhere. And you know how I said, the journey isn’t linear?
Well, due to some tough decisions that led to this, the backend team, managing the software, decided that they couldn’t run maintenance on the software, and decided to not work on it and deploy solutions that we had paid for.
Our protagonist now had a big fire on his hands. What does he do? In the meanwhile, the system also crashed(Due to the lack of maintenance). His lovely community understood though. And that’s what spurred him on. He didn’t stop. Eventually, through amazing family and friends, he did get through and made the payments and had the software up and running; for a week. For within that week, while they were trying to deploy the new solutions, it crashed again.
Ahhh, what a ride. And here we are, finally. At the end of a story that a single E-mail does not do it justice. The protagonist, now currently sitting at home, next to his cats, answering the questions you wanted answers to -
Where we are currently and what is holding us back?
Features that you have requested and we think that would fit in well with your feedback.
What to expect from us other than features?
Timelines for everything.
We are currently in the green zone. We are working on three new big updates:
Payment gateway - To make your payments as smooth as possible; and not worry about it.
Referral Program- Due to our entire business model relying heavily on you guys, we are working on a referral program that will allow you to introduce your friends to this, and fasten the #REEVolution.
An impact report system- It’s just not enough to tell you where your recyclables go, and what happens after. We need to give you the impact you, personally, are having on the environment by working with us.
We also have some small updates:
We have added a driver to the team so we can do your pick-ups much quicker.
Adding better messaging system so we can communicate with you. Let you know exactly where we are when it comes to your recyclables.
Better Reward partners.
We are also updating our socials and website to include more educational and engaging content. The big updates should be ready within this week; and the smaller ones soon after.
I just want to say thank you to every single one of you. The future is bright if we carry on adding more people like you to our community. Because of this community of amazing recyclers, it makes me want to get up everyday and make the place we call home 1% better everyday.
To make sure your voice is heard, if you have any feedback, or want to just discuss in general, have a conversation with me, drop me an email and I always reply.
Thank you for being part of the #REEvolution.
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