Excuse the Drake reference. But yes, we started at the bottom and yes, we are now slightly further along. I’m talking about Uncle Jack. An idea that sprouted whilst I was sitting in my 2 metre square home office.
After putting together my founding team (myself, Brandon Ellis & Lachy Doran) we achieved some decent success right from the get-go. Our brand positioning in the market has been the cornerstone of our success to date. Our ’boutique’ style has been a selling point for Uncle Jack. We filled a gap in the market and we are doing it well.
Although we hit speed bumps early on including a cease & desist letter and subsequently a name change, we overcame adversity and pushed on. On September 17th 2014 we launched our website and sold 30 watches (woo!). For several months I was sending out orders from a spare bedroom. In December 2014 we secured our first office space (albeit, above a social function centre). In March 2015 our sales outgrew my ability to personally send out orders and we outsourced our storage and shipping to our Melbourne-based warehouse (best decision, ever). Following that, our website crashed several times due to unbelievably high levels of traffic and we updated to a new system (best decision, ever).
In December 2015 we experienced unprecedented growth and beat all of our previous sales records during the Christmas period. Then in January, we upgraded Uncle Jack HQ to Kensington. Following that, we hired our first official employee! (best decision, ever).
From very humble beginnings our business has experienced fantastic growth that is both exciting & uncomfortable. But being uncomfortable is good. It’s great. Why would you have it any other way?
This week, all three founders met together at Uncle Jack HQ and it was a timely reminder of how far we have come. But also, how much we still have to achieve.
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