Hi, for those of you that don't know me, my name is Jon. I am a co-founder of Dunsel's. We are trying to save the world. The current systems in place for the proper handling of our waste have proven inadequate, and it is why we are stepping up to the plate to conquer this issue with fresh ideas, and new solutions.
There are two pieces of cultural/dad wisdom Id like to share before I begin:
- The only way to eat an elephant is one bite at a time
- One man's trash is another man's treasure (Spongebob)
At the moment our approach to this extremely complex issue has been through the lens of the worlds we are already familiar with. Namely, sailing and the maritime life. We have spent our time obsessing over where waste develops and accumulates in these worlds, which processes are inefficient, and of all these, which areas we might be able to improve. The first issue we identified came from the sailing world. We continue to find stockpiles of old, discarded sails in lofts, dumpsters, and storage rooms. These sails have either been ripped, replaced, or forgotten about. We have also found that for the most part, they are all destined for the landfills. Considering the fact that the sail cloth material is incredibly durable, lightweight, hydrophobic, yet it is left to collect dust in some dark corner until somebody throws it all away is incredibly upsetting.
We would prefer to keep this material from entering the environment, and ultimately taking thousands of years to break down into microplastics that will add to the clogging of our fragile ecosystems (which we happen to be apart of).
That's what Dunsel's is trying to do. Save the world. We currently make bags out of reclaimed sail cloth, but we don't plan on stopping there. We want to keep you in the loop too. That is what these founders' logs will be for. For the foreseeable future I will be compiling our week's efforts into articles of a similar length to this one. I'm planning on sharing these articles on Fridays. The idea is to keep you up to date on what we are doing. We also have hopes of developing a community around our mission. We will eat the elephant alone if we have to, but we would love to share bites with you and eventually a community too. If you have insights into something mentioned here or in the future, if you know someone else who might be able to help us, or just have a thought, idea, or comment, please let us know!
Now that I've introduced myself, Dunsel's, and what these logs will be for, I want to share a little bit of what's been going on this past week.
- I have been in contact with a designer for some time now who is helping to update our logo. You can see one of the (still unfinished) proofs here.
- The team has been attending a variety of fantastic meetings and events provided by Domi Station, a business incubator in Tallahassee.
- We have slowed down in our sales since Christmas (we sort of expected this). However, we are hoping that as the team comes back together, we will be able to refocus our efforts with the development of new products. The new product will likely be a smaller coin purse/makeup style handbag with a zipper and a logo. This price of this bag will probably land somewhere in the $15-$40 range depending on a few different factors.
- Will and I have been working to perfect our Business Model Canvas for the 2020 InNOLEvation Challenge. In addition to fundraising, bootstrapping, and saving the world, we are also competing in Florida State University's very own business plan competition. We have our eyes on the big prize...
- Before Will drives back up to school, we have been fanatically calling sail lofts, boat owners, and marine shops all over South Florida looking for sails, materials, and any other kind of waste that we can keep out of landfills by turning into new products. We are very excited to share that we have found a few sails to pick up as Will drives back up to Tallahassee.
- Side note here: This is probably the most important factor in our survival. If we are able to consistently source material, we will make this work. We kindly ask that if you or anyone you know has an old sail, knows someone who might, or has knowledge of any other material traditionally classified as waste to please let us know. You can help us save the world.
I think that's all for now. If I think of anything else I will add it to this post, or I might just lump it into next week's Log. Thanks for reading.
- Jon