End of Year Notes...

End of Year Notes...

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Here we are again. The end of one year and the beginning of another. This is always an exciting time for me because I love reflecting on the past and thinking about what we have planned for the next year. 

This past year has been filled with a lot of learning and growth. We outgrew our old office and moved into a new office. Last year we tried to stuff 4-5 people into a tiny little office, and this year we got a little more space. One square footage means the world to us! We definitely count our blessings every day, and do not take anything for granted. 

We introduced new products to the line. You can now create custom palettes on the site, which went thru a few re-designs with new features we added based on your feedback. If you're like me, I travel a lot and don't like to have too many things, so I try to create products that help you consolidate. We have a few formats, and you can do a lot of with one palette. I literally only travel with an Overnight palette and the Starter Kit Lip Palette. If you know me, I always look pretty pulled together even when getting off a 14 hour flight :) 

We introduced FF Society, our rewards program, which is currently under beta. We'll be adding more to it as we build it out next year. If you haven't already done so, go activate your accounts. Your point balance should be pre-loaded in there. If there's anything you want us to add to it, just let us know, and we'll slot it into our development for next year. 

A few behind the scenes things that I want to highlight: 

When I started Finding Ferdinand, I wanted to take advantage of the opportunity to build something from the ground up to do things differently. 

 

1. Diversity in Models
Every single time we had a photoshoot, we had to go back and forth with the modeling agency to request more ethnicities. It's important to us to show diversity in the models we use because Finding Ferdinand is a place for everyone. Our job isn't to tell you what beauty is, but rather offer you a fun place to create products that are made specifically for YOU. In order for us to successfully accomplish that goal, we have to make sure the faces we use show that. 
2. Female Engineers
I was working with a technical recruiter, and I wanted to make sure we were also interviewing female engineers. At first they told me it was going to be hard because they were rare. We eventually got around it, and brought on our first female engineer. She really understands the products, the makeup and the technical.
3. Initial Rejection From The Apple App Store
Only a handful of people know that when we first submitted our app to the Apple store, it was rejected because the engineers didn't understand what we were doing. I had to contest it and explain to them what were trying to do before we could push it live in January.... and here we are 1 year into it. We'll keep adding to the app this year.

     

    As we grow, I want to make sure we uphold these values. Customers like you who continuously order from us and share us with your family friends play a HUGE role in helping us scale and create a better world thru our products and services. 

    The team is currently taking time off, and I'm wrapping up here in the office and will be with my family for a week. Things should be operating again on Jan 2. 

    Thanks for a wonderful year, and here's to even more in 2018! I'll write another post to share with you what we want to accomplish in 2018, so you can help keep us accountable. 

    xoxo
    Nhu

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