June Newsletter- Closing Our Round, Website Overhaul, and Podcast Recap

July 02, 2023 Alex Duncan

Co- founders of Outmore Living Discussing a power bar prototype for their Heated Outdoor Furniture.

Outmore Living Newsletter- June 2023

Hi everyone,

Kevin here to help you close out June 2023 with our latest updates and progress. We have a lot of exciting news to share.

Without further ado,

Company Updates -

1) Our Seed Round Is Officially Closed (and oversubscribed)!

No matter how good an idea may be, very few companies selling physical products can get off the ground without a significant capital investment. So, as our company approached fundraising, we were determined to not only raise the capital needed to successfully launch Outmore Living in the marketplace but also to build a cap table filled with strategic investors who will offer advice and mentorship as we grow.

We are excited to announce that we closed our $1M seed round, oversubscribing the round beyond our original fundraising goal. In a coming newsletter, I will share the final amount raised as well as highlight some of the advisors and investors that are helping us bring Outmore Living to life. In the meantime, thank you to all of our investors who are fueling our vision.

2) Secure your spot on our Waitlist!

Last month we launched our waitlist and have already gained tons of interest from potential customers. Filling out the waitlist form not only secures your position as the first customers to receive furniture this fall, but it also gives us valuable feedback that we are using to help project our demand by style and color.

Thank you to those of you who have signed up! If you haven’t yet filled out the waitlist form and want to secure your right to purchase our product at a later date, sign up here.

3) We redesigned and relaunched our website

Building a great website is critical to any direct-to-consumer business, which is why we are constantly re-evaluating and improving our site. We recently revamped our website and feel like its a huge step forward from our last version.

I want to give a shout out to Alex and Miranda, our Head of Marketing, for all the hours that went into the latest redesign. We'd love to hear your feedback, so please check out our website and let us know what you think!

Founder Perspectives -
Recapping the first 3 episodes of "This is Small Business: Next Generation."

As part of the leadup to the Rice Business Plan Competition, we were fortunate enough to be selected to be part of a new Amazon podcast mini-series "This is Small Business: Next Generation." This podcast features four of the competing teams and provides commentary, lessons learned and advice to aspiring entrepreneurs and small business owners. Check out our Instagram for reels mashing up clips from each episode!

To make this series a reality we conducted a series of interviews in order to be selected, weekly recordings from our homes, a joint interview in advance of the competition. During RBPC we had both a sit-down conversation and several quick sound bites, similar to a sideline interview one might see during a game.

It’s been a great experience. Thanks to all the team members who have been so helpful, insightful, and inquisitive. Only request for next time is that I hope they can help me not cringe so much at hearing the sound of my own voice 🙃.

Listen here!

Episode 0. Trailer: The Who’s who of business plan competition.

Here, the hosts, Andrea and Mitch introduce the new podcast mini- series.

Episode 1: Next Generation: High $takes.

The first proper episode opens with none other than Alex describing what competitions like these demands of your storytelling abilities. The rest of the episode covers the structure of the competition, the prizes, and the demands placed upon the participants.

Episode 2. Next Generation: Unveiling the Contenders (part one).

Outmore Living is one of the two companies profiled in this episode. Here you can learn more about our origin story, our mission, our vision, and how we hope to see this journey unfold!

**Behind the Scenes Notes**

You might think that in the photo below we were in the middle of a deep discussion about UX/UI implications of potential design changes. However, If I recall correctly, we were talking about where we could go for dinner that night. I guess that's showbiz baby!