PFP One Year Later: 5 Key Reflections for Fellow Startup Leaders
By Kyler Lovgren, Palouse Fiber Packaging CEO & Founder
What a year!
It’s been a memorable 12 months since we first launched Palouse Fiber Packaging, filled with growth, thrilling moments and great camaraderie amongst our team. I’m beyond proud of the impact we’ve already been able to make in a young industry that has never really seen an approach quite like ours before.
Since we started, we’ve been on a mission to debunk common myths about “green” packaging and tackle the biggest barriers currently preventing businesses transitioning away from plastic in the CPG space. Heading into the final quarter of 2024, that mission continues.
In case you haven’t been tuned in from the start, our team has accomplished quite a bit.
We saw the rollout of new polystyrene packaging regulations in our home state of Washington and helped businesses in Oregon plan for their ban coming next year. We launched our PFP-branded, wheat based 4-cup carriers, 3 and 4-inch nursery pots and clamshell to-go containers.
As part of our ongoing efforts to break barriers in customization choices, we recently announced an in-house research and development program dedicated to creating and testing tailored solutions for small businesses and enterprises alike, using our own onsite technologies and talented staff. In our first year, we’ve also prioritized our local community by launching our Re<<Invest Initiative, contributing over $15,000 in support of local youth through various organizations.
And that’s just the beginning.
For my fellow startup leaders and founders kicking off their first few months of business – though this past year has brought more challenges than I can count, it has also presented us with myriad opportunities. As I reflect on my own wins and losses as a leader, here are a few takeaways worth sharing.
Leverage independent contractors and freelance pros while staffing budgets are tight.
For most startups, hiring, growing and retaining the right team can be one of the biggest line items on their expense sheet. By bringing in part-time freelancers for specialized workstreams like enterprise sales, UX design, marketing and others, you can get high-quality results while avoid overloading your full-time employees with the training and research they’d need to perform those tasks. For us, this has meant giving our PFP employees more of the time they need to focus on building great products and partnerships.
Review every agreement in detail -- no matter how small.
Retaining legal counsel for final reviews is a necessity, but it doesn’t have to break the bank. Utilize your in-house resources such as savvy investors, your personal network, and other folks on your team as a first review before paying an attorney. Extra eyes can help you find new opportunities, identify questions and potential holes to discuss with an attorney, and avoid mistakes.
Keep thoughts, resources and project details well organized and centralized for easy team reference.
Especially in the early days of your startup, every customer and investor counts, and quick turnarounds are expected. When you and your team need to be able to access or share information on a dime, shared files can take your internal organization to another level and avoid some of the urgent ‘Who sent that deck again?’, ‘Was the plan sent yesterday at 2pm the latest version?’, and ‘What kind of messaging did we use for that product launch last year?’ kinds of moments.
By keeping an organized documentation of everything going on, you and your team can more easily track and maintain progress on multiple tasks at once, saving time, money and frustration. After all, everyone is busy, and it can be easy to let early plans fizzle as you’re eventually distracted with assorted fire drills and other projects, so having that added visibility can help revive them.
To a similar point, using OneNote or a similar digital notebook to record your call jots and diagrams, thoughts, projects and meetings notes is a dealbreaker. If you’re old school like me and don’t want to be furiously staring at your screen and typing notes on video calls or live meetings keeping a hard covered, nice notebook physically with you will remind you to jot things down to later catalogue. Plus, when you bring a leather-bound notebook into a meeting, it’s noticed!
Start producing prototypes as soon as you can, no matter how rough or small in quantity they are to begin with.
It’s easy to convince yourself that your product is perfect and can meet customer expectations while you are planning it. Many startups spend years planning to produce something while selling the idea to potential customers. While I understand the need to make thought-out decisions, we can’t forget what Mike Tyson once said: “everyone has a plan until they get punched in the face”. Get your hands dirty in production and take those punches early on, because you need to improve your capabilities and skills to be able to deliver.
By ambitiously producing and prototyping your brand’s products from the start, you and your team have more time to quality test, work out kinks, and make potential improvements before bringing them to market. Your customers and sales pipeline will thank you.
Arm yourself with confidence by researching and understanding your business’s value.
Knowledge is power, especially if you’re venturing into an industry segment that’s relatively young. In the beginning stages, don’t be afraid to commit a big chunk of your time to your own personal research. No one carries greater passion for your company’s vision than you do, and it’s critical you feel personally confident in its current position and future. Among other things, this means keeping an eye on regulatory news, competitors, scientists, VCs and your customers’ industries.
Pursuing and equipping yourself with this information won’t only help you feel concrete in your conversations with investors, prospects, customers, friends and family, but also the internal team you’re leading. It also helps you develop a more grounded understanding of where you stand in the market. Overvaluing yourself can lead to unrealistic expectations, and undervaluing yourself can leave you with missed opportunities. The best balance is as close to subjective as possible.