My Firm Spent 7 Months Making an attempt to Keep away from Shopify (We Failed) | by Benjamin Davis | The Startup | Sep, 2023

The curse of being an underfunded startup within the face of simple comfort.

My firm had one rule once we determined to promote merch:

Let it’s higher than something that may get shot out of a cannon at a hockey sport.

Appeared like a good objective. As long as you ignore the truth that I’m fairly certain my enterprise companion Karina nor I’ve ever been to a hockey sport. They may very well be slinging Gucci for all of the fuck we all know.

To make clear, right here’s what we image: Some human-stuffed anthropomorphized critter skates round a rink launching tubed t-shirts into the group. Some ‘Hockey Individual’ (spitballing right here however: Beard? Hat? Twice-broken nostril?) catches the factor and unfurls it to discover a two-sizes too huge, flimsy shirt with a crusty outsized stick-on of the stadium’s sponsor.

It’s such shit, he forgets it within the seat subsequent to him when he leaves. The janitor snatches it up, ties it to a stick, and makes use of it to mop up beer and puke for the subsequent three years. So yeah. That…we didn’t need that.

On the identical time, we’re each extremely suspicious of enormous firms.

One way or the other these wires bought to talkin’ and we determined that Shopify should solely promote two-sizes too huge puke-rag hockey shirts.

So, with 0 analysis, we launched right into a seven-month journey to keep away from Shopify. As a result of: causes. Right here is how all this went.

Spherical 1: Regardless of the reverse of a Christmas miracle is.

We determined to kick issues off with one thing a bit extra distinctive.

We determined to promote…bookmarks!

No, however hear me out. These had been actually cool bookmarks. We had them absolutely illustrated. We went all out. Textual content, coloration, double-sided, rounded edges, thick good paper. The works. They got here in a set of six and we had been certain we’d get them out by Christmas.

Besides…who else of their rattling thoughts has ever thought getting cash off a single batch of bookmarks was a very good plan? No one. So, after all, there was no person who may make AND drop ship them for us.