Last week, our company got stronger
Team Letter | March 20, 2023
March 20, 2023
Happy Monday, Alpaca Team!!
Last week, I watched our company get stronger.
I’ve been told by numerous investors and mentors that when your company can operate successfully when a key leader is out, you’ve got an extraordinary team and a company that is building strength. I loved watching the various operations, sales, and marketing updates this week, and l loved seeing this team pull together in such amazing ways. On a personal note, THANK YOU for making it possible for me to have spring break with my family. It was an incredibly memorable and special week with them, and I’m deeply grateful to each of you.
Alright, let’s get into it!
LAST WEEK!
WHAT A PACKOUT WEEK!
I was so impressed this week by the way Alpaca created an experience of hospitality. I’ve been thinking and reading a lot about the idea of hospitality, and I think hospitality is key part of what Alpaca offers the world. We’re not here to drop off a bag of school supplies. We’re here to elevate every educator, and that means creating experiences that are high quality, that show people authentic care, and that demonstrate a dedication to our mission.
Even from afar, I saw a LOT of hospitality this week! Here are some things I’m really proud of:
Alpaca crushed the Fusion Medical Staffing team event!
Alpaca built value this week by offering our customers (corporate sponsors) a way to see the value of their sponsorship through a team building event. The feedback from Fusion speaks for itself: this team ran a great community event! The free drinks at Kros Train (written on library cards! LOVE!) was exactly the kind of on-brand, highly aligned experience that Fusion’s teams will be talking about for a long time. Excellent work, ALL of you, for creating that experience!
Why does this hospitality experience matter to a corporate sponsor? Because it sets us apart from the other ways companies can engage their teams, and that can build more revenue opportunities for this company, which can support more teachers.
We moved fast with St. Margaret Mary’s!
When an opportunity for growth arrived at our door, the Alpaca team delivered! Where others might have said “we’ll just start them next month” or “we can’t accommodate more changes,” this team sprung into action to get this school onboarded and get them on the list for packs this week. That, too, is hospitality.
Why does hospitality matter to a school principal? Because no one is showing school principals very much hospitality right now. We can be the company that does that. And that can make the difference in our ability to grow.
Teamwork made the dream work!
Y’all really worked some miracles together this week!
We gotta start with some shout-outs to the incredible Ops Team! All 2700+ packs done by Thursday?!? Packs ready to ship by the 17th of the month?! Hell yes. So proud. Huge thanks to our Ops Queen Marina for leading the crew to another huge packout success. Marina, we wouldn’t be us without you!!!
And honestly, I heard A LOT about how awesome the entire Ops team was this week. Some of what I heard:
“Avalon really showed up with box building and master casing this week!”
“Lauren is a perfect angel and an amazing communicator!”
“Kaitlynn presented a wonderful idea to do a little guess how many pompoms we used this month!”
“Kailey is wonderful and having her in the office was so nice - her being on the team is special and her visit was a good thing for the whole team! She came through with 500+ thank yous!”
Also, I loved hearing about the collaboration happening between Kimberly and Julianne on corporate sponsorships and nominations. THANK YOU, Kimberly, for helping Julianne develop her pitch, and to both of you for coming up with ways to make Fusion’s experience so awesome.
Why does it matter if we have hospitality for our team internally? Because you choose to work with Alpaca. In a way, every employee is first a “volunteer.” You could work anywhere, and you choose to work with Alpaca. When we show hospitality to one another, we create a place where we want to come to work every day, and where we can do our BEST work every time we show up.
THIS WEEK!
This week, we’re in growth mode to finish the quarter SUPER strong! A few big things going on are:
1. Alpaca Day!!!!! It’s some schools’ FIRST Alpaca Day this week — how fun is that?! We’re doing some hand delivery of packs to a few schools this week, and celebrating Alpaca Day for all 78 schools!!! Let’s make this one a fun one — we only have 3 left this school year!! Kimberly is running a really cool project with Westbrook Elementary to create a “thank you video” for their corporate sponsor McGill Restoration.
2. Meet with Luminarium! This new museum in town stands to be an incredible partner for Alpaca. They’re looking to bring teachers and students across the state to this new museum, and we’re hoping to partner with them on the April pack. Marina and Kimberly and I will be visiting on Monday to talk about the possibilities.
3. Learn how to sell to districts! I’m heading to Little Rock on Thursday and Friday to meet with Apptegy, a software platform that supports schools and districts. These guys have been selling to districts for about 8 years and they have a great playbook. I’m excited to have been invited by their CEO to visit their company and learn how they do it!
4. Nomination Data & Systems: Now that Kimberly’s doing an amaaaaaazing job of bringing nominations in the door, it’s time to get serious about what we do with all those nominations! We’ll have some big efforts this week in prioritizing, processing, and SELLING to the schools that get nominated. Every single nomination is an opportunity. Let’s go get ‘em!
5. Technology strategy: Whether it’s our inventory systems, school database systems, nomination and Hubspot systems, or a totally out-there idea about creating a professional network for teachers (EEEp!!!! I’ve been thinkin!), I am going to be focused somewhat this week on building a technology plan for our company. We have some dollars yet to use in the Nebraska Prototype Grant, and we have some pain points around managing our schools and our inventory (and shipping!), as well as some opportunities for growth. I want to make sure we’re building for a strong future, and now is the time.
6. Letters to Teachers: Kimberly has been hard at work on a very cool project with Bones Co to allow anyone anywhere to write a letter to their teacher. I’m excited to dig into the overall strategy for this with Kimberly this week!
7. Quarterly Business Review planning: Oh that’s right! It’s the end of the quarter. Soon after March ends, we’ll be having a “QBR” or “Quarterly Business Review” to review our OKRs, our progress against them, and our plans for the quarter ahead. Be on the lookout for a calendar invite or two. There will be a few different meetings, including some with investors, but at least one “all hands” where we’ll all come together!
Value of the Week
You really, really excelled at last week’s Value of the Week: Bring out the Best. You brought out the best for Fusion. You brought out the best in the packs. And you brought out the best in each other. I could feel it from Utah, y’all. You lived that value, you celebrated it in others, and it is so cool to see it.
This week’s Value of the Week is: Elevate Every Educator!
This is probably the core commitment that we actually talk about the least, and maybe one that could use more time from each of us. This commitment came about because we don’t want to be a company that only supports “rich schools” or schools with a lot of parent financial support. We do this in a lot of ways, like finding corporate partners (Fusion!) to pair up with schools who need it (CUES Schools!). But I think we have more opportunities to live out this commitment.
So my challenge to you: What is one idea for how Alpaca could “elevate every educator” more in the 2023-24 school year? I’ll ask for these ideas at next week’s staff meeting, but feel free to share them in #general on Slack, too!
Okay, I think that’s this week’s letter! Thanks for the feedback on last week’s team letter, too. With that feedback, I’m sharing this week’s letter with our FULL team and will do so going forward! Writing helps me think and frame up our week ahead, so I’ll keep doing these weekly write-ups for now. Please continue to offer your feedback — I love to hear what’s resonating, what’s not, and where there might be questions.
I’m so excited to get back in the office with you! Let’s have a GREAT week together!
KB