👋🏽 Welcome to The Folklore, our weekly newsletter where we talk about our journey of building Folklory, a startup that helps you turn family memories into podcasts. We’ll share weekly updates, wins, and learnings, so sign up if you want to hear from us.
We started building Folklory in March this year. Since then, it’s been a journey filled with ups and downs, and as we approach the end of the year, we wanted to reflect on some highlights and lowlights over 2022.
We sold 77 Folklories
The north star metric for our business is the number of customers who have paid for a Folklory. We sold 77 episodes to 31 customers, with some customers buying multiple episodes (up to 12). Another big highlight was that we spoke with people across 12 countries - Singapore, Macau, the USA, Canada, Mexico, India, Australia, Malaysia, Germany, South Africa, and Hong Kong. This is fascinating as it proved to us that our business has the potential to grow beyond Singapore.
Our customers gave us great reviews
Listening to what happy customers had to say about their experience is one of our biggest drivers. We received many of these positive reviews (you can find them on Google and Instagram). Here’s one from a few days ago.
One of the most meaningful gifts I've received - Sheryl Ang put together a series of 14 videos / podcasts (up to 1 hour each!) of the closest folks in my life - dad, mum, brother Darian and friends through the years. Spoke about the memories they've had with me, how they have seen me grow through the years, the relationships and well-wishes. Chuckling at the funny moments, the crazy things we did, a number of the low moments and how we pulled through together. Super grateful and appreciative of all the wonderul people I've had in my life. Thank you for shaping me and being ever present through the years. Quite funny how almost consistently everyone mentioned - 'this bloody Declan ah.. he has too much energy, don't forget to slow down and enjoy life." Hahaha... A great reminder to stay true to my inner self, values & passions while acknowledging my weaknesses and shortcomings. Big thank you to Terence Chia & Folkory team for putting it together.
We got featured in the news
The first of anything is always a big thing, and thus our first piece of press was a special moment. The fact that this was an unsolicited feature, where the journalist reached out to us, made it feel even more special. We’ve seen many startups being featured in the news, and while we don’t believe it’s an achievement in itself, it surely was a highlight.
A big thank you to Surabhi and e27 for writing about us.
We hired a full-time audio editor
In order to deliver Folklories faster, we hired an intern to help us with post-production. As the business grew in size, we felt it was the right time to get someone full-time. This was a big milestone for us as the company is now more than just me and Terence. It was a great decision and has helped us streamline production as well as free up our time to work on other problems.
If you know someone who is interested in social media, interviewing, or business development, send them our way as we’re looking to grow the team. You can write to us at theteam@folklory.com or DM us at @thefolklory on IG
We closed our first B2B customer
Right from day 1, we felt that Folklory could be a great tool for companies looking to build their internal culture. While it was clear to us, we found it very hard to explain this to companies. So when we finally closed our first B2B order - 12 members of a newly formed creative team, each sharing about who they are and what creativity means to them - it was a big milestone. Folklory for companies is a whole new world, very different from the ones we do for consumers, and we’re super pumped to have kicked started it this year.
If you think your company might be interested in something similar, don’t hesitate to reach out and we’d love to speak with you.
We’re excited about 2023 and building towards our vision of Folklory - to capture stories for generations. I hope you’ve enjoyed reading it and will continue to follow our journey.
Wishing you and your loved ones a happy 2023.
Until next time,
Haresh
Hope you’ve enjoyed this week’s episode of The Folklore. If you’d like to follow our journey, do subscribe using the button below
If you have feedback or ideas, or just want to get in touch, you can always write to us at theteam@folklory.com or DM us at @thefolklory on IG. We would love to hear from you ❤️