We Growing 🌱

Hey Substack friend! It’s Miriam, checking in!

Thanks for subscribing to the Quokka newsletter. Right now, as I type this, I’m eating peanut butter, and jelly sandwich and several of the team introduction posts are chillin’ in the drafts section. 🎉

We meet once a week, and over the last few weeks, I’ve been getting everyone onboarded to Substack. Sara and I have been working on the process that we will use to teach the team how to do user research, and Georgette and I had a couple of really exciting meetings.

We will have more regular updates for you soon but for now, keep reading for more details on our progress.

This is how you “Startup”

Building Quokka sometimes feels like I’m in a maze that I know I’ll eventually get out of, but there are multiple different endings depending on what turns I make along the way. It’s a lot of pressure! There is no one way! I’m trying to stay focused on why I’m doing this and, just as important, why I’m an entrepreneur. I’ll tell you one of the reasons I’m NOT an entrepreneur is to have a lot of pressure. Forget that. Over the last few weeks, there have been many decisions to make, and I find myself going from making one to changing my mind the next day. There are so many unknown factors, and information is constantly changing. These are some of the only things I know for sure at this point:

1. I’m building Quoka

2. I’m going to follow the “best practices” for going to market

3. I’m going to examine TF out of the traditional GTM process as I do it

4. I will share the experience here on our Substack

5. Nathaniel, Sabryna, Ariana, and Sebastien are with me for at least 2 more months

6. Family is a priority, a brand value, and it comes first before GTM

7. I must launch something

8. It must make money

9. I’ve never done this before

10. I literally know what I’m doing. It’s just about doing it at this point

Growth is the Goal

This will not be a zero to 100 real quick story. My team does not fit that model, it’s just not possible, and I won’t set expectations for us to fail. I just want progress. Week after week, laying bricks that are properly constructed. Here are some of the bricks we’ve laid recently.

• The compilation of “competitors” or collaborators got prettied up

• We launched this Substack, and the team is on Substack

• The user research flow is almost complete

• The team is technologically set up to start user research when they get back from taking a week off.

• Sara, Georgette, and I registered for a boot camp offered by Navigate

I’m sure I’m missing things, that’s ok, this won’t be perfect! Have a great rest of your day! Miriam