One of the most important, and yet surprisingly overlooked, things in a startup is morale. We’ve got a small team of four, so we're pretty clued-in on know how everyone’s doing work-wise, but also how everyone’s feeling emotionally and motivationally. All four of us are dedicating our lives to this, whilst still doing ‘the day job’ to feed the family, pay the bills, buy the food, etc. Living two lives is tough. Special kudos should be given to Zee, our Chief Interweb Builder, he’s just crazy, hundred hour work weeks are the lighter weeks. And he's got the fam too. As I said, crazy. But it's one of situations where I'm glad he's on our side to help us provide amazing men's dress shirts online.
Getting the support from friends and family always makes this a little special. I want to take this opportunity for the kind words from our loved ones and those of us who've seen us toil behind the scenes and cheer us on from the proverbial sidelines. But let's be honest, we're decent people, and family and friends kind of have to give you a bit of encouragement every now and again. What's made this week really great is ... you.
It's kind of all worth it when people visit what you've built and buy what you believe in. We invest a lot of time trying to understand users (people who browse the site) and even more time speaking to customers (at least those who reply back to my emails thanking them with a caveat of looking for feedback). We're racking our brains trying to figure out how to enhance the experience for you, so I can say we totally, totally appreciate the people who do go to that extra effort of dropping a few words of commentary. I also want to say a special thanks for those who’ve taken the extra step of sharing us and our launch with their spheres of influence by blogging about us;
Johnathan Bell from Guy Style Guide – Definitely one of our favorite male fashion bloggers threw us a plug in A FAQ for Finding the Perfect Dress Shirt
Michael Tornato from the Trendy Dwarf – A true lover of fashion who has supported us for a while wrote this really in depth piece about us Blank Label … Do YOU like the Creative Types?
You can also find us in District Cut, DC’s Premier Men’s Fashion Blog who titled an article Exclusive Report | Blank Label
A post with an interesting twist comes from The Momentum of Failure on Creativity is a privilege, not a right. Blank Label isn’t here to judge. That’s my job
Brandon Crittle from Metro Style Men gave us a good plug on Express Your Individuality with Blank Label and he followed up suit by creating and purchasing a really cool shirt of his own
Serious kudos goes out to Dave Baldwin of men’s fashion and lifestyle megablog Thrillist, who reached out to us well before we were anything really and was in addition was one of the very first to post about us. Can’t wait to give you a hi 5 when we see you wearing your Blank Label custom dress shirt around Boston.
Stay posted on more updates on Blank Label from Fan Bi and Danny Wong, on our Co-Creation Blog, as we journey beyond our first week and onto a crusade to change the way men shop through mass-customization and co-creation, starting with custom men's dress shirts.