The Week @ Vitra (06/09-12/09)

[ryan]

The Week @ VitraCash
[WC: 06 September through 12 September]

Hi all, welcome to the latest post in the The Week series.

As usual, everyone has been busy this week. Let’s see what’s been done.

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This Weeks Personals

@koraykoska “Our VitraCards are ready to be shipped . Conducted an employee compliance training. Finalised Checkout due diligence. Helped Gabriel with some iOS quirks. Released a PDF template generator for our bank statements. All our final contracts with suppliers are in review on our side right now, and once signed by us, we are nearly ready to go live!”

@FlorianWinkler “Worked on the due diligence for Marqueta. Finished CRM campaigns & got the pre-launch marketing campaign running with the team . We also got some exciting news that we can’t talk about publicly yet, but as soon as we can, we’ll share it with everyone.”

@gabriel_sperrer has been hard at work getting the iOS app ready for BETA launch.

@Ryan “I have confirmed, and ordered investor merchandise ! Investors will have received an email to a survey to confirm addresses. If some people haven’t replied by 20 September, we will use the address linked to the Crowdcube investment (however we won’t be able to take liability if any go missing or don’t get delivered). We conducted employee compliance training this week. I have done some other small bits in terms of paperwork which will make me fall asleep if I write about them here!”

@benyam has been hard at work getting the Android app ready for BETA launch. He is also celebrating the Ethiopian New Year today with his family, which we send him congratulations and good wishes for!

@Zulfia_Kadarberdieva ”Created different accounts for VitraCash on various social media (GIPSY, Pinterest etc). Made some different VitraCash branded stickers on GIPSY, which once verified, will be able to be used on the likes of Instagram and Telegram. I created 2 VitraCash effects for Instagram! We also reached around 100 active followers on Instagram this week, and look forward to this increasing.”

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This Weeks Good To Know

• Our apps are close to being opened to Investor BETA testing.

• Cards are ready for shipping!

• Merchandise has been ORDERED! (I am slightly fangirling because the merch is literally )

• A couple of new plugins for the forum will hopefully go live this week. I’ll update you more on these once they’re good to go.

• A massive 20% of spaces have been booked for our Investors Q+A; which is already more than we had at our first one a few months back. We’re looking forward to seeing all of you at the end of this month

• Our partnership with Growth Gorilla continues to blossom and help us ready towards launch, with some exciting bits nearly ready to go live.

• We are close to confirming which provider we will be going through to Plant a Tree for Every Investor.

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Until the next update, if you have any questions, feel free to drop a post or comment on the forum!

Signing off;
~ Ry

[Steve]

Sounds like you’re all putting in some long days and nights to get the product, marketing and brand off the ground.

As I understand the aim is to launch as soon as possible when all the boxes have been ticked, to start generating cash flow, however has there been any analysis on a better or more beneficial time of year to take a product to market? Or in your opinion will it not make a difference?

I guess with the pandemic and consequential economic fall out, any previous ideas of preferential launch windows are no longer valid.

[ryan]

Hi Steve

It won’t make much of a difference in my opinion on time launch, except around the Christmas/New Year period when finances are lower for households.

We had aimed originally for a mid summer launch, however, the current estimate is a full launch (cards being sent out and used) towards the end of the month.

We want the app to have a good degree of usability before launching and sending the cards out, which is why it’s important for this BETA phase.

[Steve]

For sure it has to be robust and polished prior to launch with customer first impressions being all so critical. Only get one chance and all that.

Sounds like the team has it all in hand.

[Steve]

@ryan

@Zulfia_Kadarberdieva ”Created different accounts for VitraCash on various social media (GIPSY, Pinterest etc).

@Zulfia_Kadarberdieva are there any social media accounts taking priority and you are targeting more than others or is the aim to cover all bases?

I see that YouTube shorts are increasing in popularity having recently launched.

[Zulfia_Kadarberdieva]

Yes. Instagram and Tiktok for now as I think Tiktok users could be our potential customers in a couple of years.

YouTube shorts Are like Reels, right ?
This might be a really good idea …

[ryan]

Yeah. I think they’re up to 30 seconds (?) and are basically like reels/vines/stories etc

[Steve]

TikTok Creators Turn to YouTube Shorts Amid “Insane” Subscriber Growth

Just think that having you go to the huge effort of brainstorming content, shooting the footage, editing and so on, potentially it could recycled and uploaded onto other platforms?

I mean I have no idea how it works, would you need to re-create the content on each platform if they use proprietary software requiring specific file formats etc. or is it a simple drag and drop?

If I needs re-creating then hand picking Insta and Ticktok makes brilliant sense and focus on building from that fantastic 100 active followers of a business that is yet to launch!

[Steve]

The recent email that came out I noticed only three social media channels are linked on the signature. Is this because this is where most of the written updates will be as opposed to Instagram which is more brand awareness? I guess it keeps it looking clean and not cluttered with multiple icons.

[ryan]

To be honest Steve; this is down to me.

I haven’t had time to update our footer yet. I’ll be doing that this week though.

Once I update it, all the important ones will be there.

[Steve]

I’m positive it’s the least important of your responsibilities right now!

[ryan]

It’s still an important one, but it is a way down the list