Welcome to this week's journal: This week, Re Fresh was officially launched, a major earthquake struck Türkiye, and we may have more details about our collaboration with Yalan Mattress.
Hello everyone, it's Sunday again, time for another week's journal entry. Another week has flown by, and it's already 2013 (037) and almost 2015 (052) – a whole year! It suddenly occurred to me that while looking back at this journal entry from a month or two ago might not seem like much, looking back at it from 4 or 5 years ago reveals its value and interest. I hope we can all witness that day! After all, 90% of startups fail. That's just the cold, hard reality.
This week, our experimental project, Re Fresh, officially launched. Re Fresh is a completely charitable project; after deducting costs, all remaining funds will be donated to four organizations for customers to choose from. These perfumes were all blended and made by me and my high school classmate David. Around September or October this year, when I met and chatted with him, he told me that he had been taking a perfumery class since the beginning of the year, studying perfumery for more than half a year and obtaining various certificates. Then he showed me some of his creations, and they were really good. The scents were quite new and unique, unlike the commercialized mass-market scents, which I really liked. (In addition, I found that his scents really lasted a long time when sprayed on clothes, and I could still smell them.) Therefore, from that time on, I became interested in making a series of perfumes together for customers to try. Later, I thought, why not use this channel to do what I've always wanted to do through Re Pillow Co.? To do something meaningful and helpful to the world and Hong Kong. Everyone knows that perfumes are quite profitable, and even if I sell them at the normal market price, about half of it can be donated. So, Re Fresh was born.
On a side note, we have no resources, and the product has no revenue. We have to list all the costs and try to save money as much as possible. The stickers on the bottle and the box were printed and pasted on by a regular printer on my computer. It was very difficult to apply. Many of them had to be applied multiple times. I tried to be perfect, but it was not very professional... I have to say sorry.
A massive earthquake struck Turkey this week, causing heavy casualties. We have an important supplier in Turkey; they supply one of the materials for some of our new products, and we've maintained contact with them. Although the earthquake didn't hit their factory, they have family members living in the disaster area. Fortunately, they were unharmed, but they lost their homes. Because of the cold weather in Turkey, their situation is even more difficult. They said their factory immediately started production, constantly making scarves, felt, and other items to send to the disaster area. This is truly a major disaster for their country. Speaking of which, back in 2020, when I was working on the first Re Pillow, I considered what to do if Hong Kong were to experience a natural or man-made disaster. That's why we chose to manufacture in Hong Kong and why we kept our own production lines. There are some thoughts on this. If something happens someday, we can convert the factory to produce certain scarce materials and send people out to work. Of course, writing this out might make people think I'm being a bit too virtuous and self-important, like "If you're so great, why are you taking money?" But there are few people here, and the money is enough, so I can write it!
On a side note, I also went to the headquarters of Yalan Mattress last week to discuss some potential cooperation plans. Since it would be a real shame if we couldn't cooperate in the end, I won't go into the details. However, during our conversation, I felt that they shared similar ideas with us. Even if we can't cooperate in the end, I'm still glad to have met them.
#036 "Leaked" (05/02/2023)
#038 Re Fresh's post-match review (19/02/2023)