Reflection, chaos & content

RUNLY NEWSLETTER #112
Thur May 29th 2025

Last night I was invited back onto the Startup & Running podcast. The last time I was on was almost 12 months ago, to the day.

Things move so quickly, and you get caught up in the 6 inches in front of your face (sorry for stealing your quote, Al Pacino), sometimes you need to take a second to step back and zoom out.

So that's what I did last night before I jumped on the podcast.

I wanted to see what was happening this time 12 months ago. And it's fair to say although it was a wild time, it feels like five years ago, not one.

Low key I love that these newsletters have become some kind of a documentation of this journey, it's amazing to reflect on what was happening in different points of the journey.

Aside from the obvious things that you would expect - our business has grown, we attend more (and bigger) races, and there's a bunch more people wearing Runly vests, there's also the side you don't see.

Operationally, things are a little different too.

For example, in the 66th edition of this weekly newsletter, I boldly stated 'we've run out of cash'.

Looking back, that is such a wild thing to say to your audience, your customers and people who might be looking to purchase your product.

But as I said on the podcast last night, I'm extremely unapologetic about being honest about 'running' Runly - sharing the highs, lows, weird, beautiful, emotional and awful.

I think you deserve, and sometimes want to know even more, when things aren't going that well, than when everything is hunky dory.

If anything, I think it has made Runly a more relatable brand than the big conglomerate of a competitor that you know, and that I don't need to mention.

This time last year we were really battling to stay in stock. Sure, the demand was high and lots of people wanted the vests.

But we also had several operational issues - slow production, long delivery times, unforeseen delays & not enough cash to place the big orders that we really wanted (and needed to).

In the 65th edition of this newsletter I shared the most wild story about how I thought all of our stock had been stolen by an Airtasker I hired to help transport our stock.

In this period of Runly, pre-orders were more common than they are now. And this particular pre-order run had a couple of delays way outside of our control.

I was stressed.

Like really, it was aging me daily. Possibly even hourly.

So when I was rushing to get our new stock to the warehouse so that pre-orders could be dispatched, and I thought that this frankly erratic guy was making a run for it with the stock, you can imagine my stress levels.

It's a good read, you can re-live it here.

All-in-all, the last 12 months have been brilliant.

Yes, we've had more challenges than I can count. It's been stressful, it's been hard and the hours are long.

But it's been incredibly rewarding.

On the podcast I shared that my absolute highlight of the last 12 months was being given the opportunity to exhibit at our home town marathon, the Melbourne Marathon.

That was a thrill that I don't think will ever wear off. Something very special.

I definitely need to remind myself to zoom out a little more, because sometimes we all get too worried about that one thing in front of us.