Founder@ Interview
Interview with Candelaria Reymundo Santos and Greg Waloszczyk
“Don’t settle and don’t take no for an answer. If you think something is achievable, make it happen! And try save the planet along the way 🙂 .” – Candelaria Reymundo Santos, Greg Waloszczyk
Today we feature Candelaria :Reymundo Santos Greg:Waloszczyk, the founder at Trouvaille Global Ltd. We hear their story in their own words, their successes, their challenges and their insights.
Let’s start by getting to know you. Can you please tell us a little bit about you and what you do?
We are Candelaria and Greg, a couple who shares an immense passion for travel and who believe it is possible to do business without having a negative impact on the environment. We design unique products inspired by wanderlust and partner with sustainable European manufacturers who help us deliver the best quality while keeping the planet in mind.
A great introduction and start to this interview. Can you please tell us, how did you start, from what age, and what made you decide to change direction and start?
When we met and got together while studying in the UK, we made each other a promise that before turning 30, no matter what was happening then, we would go travel the world.
We have always been very aware that life is short and we didn’t want to wait to make our dream come true. So in 2017, after living and working in London for 6 years, we needed a change, and we decided we were going to leave the 9 to 5 to fulfil our promise. I was 28 and Greg was 29. But we didn’t want to simply take a couple of years off and make a holiday out of our round-the-world trip.
We were motivated to invest our time and money in our own business that we would run from wherever we were. Our passion for travel has always inspired us. We believe that travel really does make you richer, kinder, more open-minded, and aware of your impact on the planet.
We, therefore, knew this had to be at the core of what we did. So we started thinking about innovative travel-related products that would inspire people to explore the world and bring them joy.
At the time, our London apartment started becoming too small to fit all the mugs we bought as a souvenir from every place we visited. After months of brainstorming, it was on a flight during a weekend break that Greg asked me: “What if we could enjoy our tea in one mug that reminded us of all our adventures?”. And the idea behind our colour-in mugs was born.
Thank you for that insight. So can you tell us…What does your business do and where is your company based?
The company is registered in London, UK. We design products that any travel lover would find original, fun, but also practical. Then we find the perfect partners to bring them to life. We are motivated to be a sensible alternative to the mass-produced, low-quality products that are so common in the gift industry.
Therefore, we strive to remain ethical, meaningful and eco-friendly. Our mugs, for example, are manufactured in a factory in Poland where people carefully put the finishing touches by hand. The covers of our world journal which have a world map relief are hand-pressed one by one and are therefore all one of a kind.
Each of our products offers something special, a unique characteristic that, on the one hand, gives it the qualities we personally love and, on the other hand, becomes a unique selling point from a commercial perspective.
What’s the story behind your success? What led to your aha moment? how did you get to where you are now?
We have always been very confident that we are bringing value to the customer and we strongly believe that quality and an environmentally sound business matter more than anything else.
This conviction, our combined skill sets, and some savings are really all we had. That and the desire to work for ourselves, to work on something that truly mattered to us, and to be able to do this from anywhere in the world. Greg’s background in business was an extremely valuable asset when it comes to B2B sales, which helped us grow rather quickly from our first year in business.
My background as a freelancer was useful to build our brand, our internet presence, and a structure that would allow us to run the company remotely. We will always remember the first online sales we had as we were about to embark on an expedition to Antarctica, where we would be off the grid for 8 days. We had to connect via satellite to make sure everything was running smoothly.
Since then, we have both learned a lot and it makes us extremely happy to know that our products are bringing travel in some way to thousands of homes all over the world.
Thank you for sharing that. What’s been your life’s biggest lesson so far?
Our biggest challenge was setting up the business remotely, finding the right people we could trust who understood the company and what we stand for. We are really lucky with the partners who help us day to day, from manufacturing to fulfilment and accounting. We would not be here today without them.
Also, as travellers and people who lived in different countries, for us dealing with multiple currencies on a daily basis is completely normal. However, it has proven challenging on a business level, as despite living in a global economy, not all players are ready to trade like it’s 2020.
For example, US retailers are still used to paying with cheques. So imagine our surprise when we receive a cheque in our US warehouse, then having to forward it to our UK office, where it’s scanned and sent via email to us in the other side of the world just to find out that our UK bank requires director’s signature to cash in the cheque. So we get the cheque, we sign it, we send it back and wait patiently for the payment. After a couple of weeks, the bank gets back to us saying we are not on the approved list to cash in a cheque in a foreign currency.
After a few phone calls and £100 spent on roaming later, we managed to get the payment. And all in the context of trade between two leading economies. We just don’t think simple things should be this complicated. On the upside, situations like that taught us how to diligently plan every single step of each of the processes in our company.
It’s a long and bumpy ride to make a product idea a reality and something you are completely satisfied with.
If you were to go back in time, what piece of advice would you give to your younger self?
The sooner you start, the earlier you learn from your mistakes.
We’re nearly halfway through our interview so it’s a great time to ask how does your business run. What three tools make your business run better?
Transferwise is a perfect tool for us thanks to the cost-efficient, multi-currency online financial services they offer.
We could not run our business without encrypted cloud storage and we’re very happy with Sync.
Canva and Lightroom are our go-to when it comes to photo editing and marketing content creation.
What do you know now that you wished you had known before?
It’s a long and bumpy ride to make a product idea a reality and something you are completely satisfied with.
What has been your greatest or proudest achievement or moment?
We are particularly proud of our growth. Since launching Trouvaille, our mugs have shipped to over 30 countries, which means that a product we designed has made it to thousands of homes all over the world and that we are sharing our passion for travel with so many people!
What future life goals do you want to achieve and why?
We are excited about scaling up and expanding our range of products! We want to bring sustainability awareness and promote an appreciation for small businesses who are trying to do the right thing.
To finish our inspire questions…”We believe that sharing inspiring words can inspire others.” If there was one positive thing you would say to someone to inspire and empower them what would it be and why?
Don’t settle and don’t take no for an answer. If you think something is achievable, make it happen! And try save the planet along the way 🙂
“Thank you it has been great learning more about your founder story and Trouvaille Global Ltd”
To learn more about Trouvaille Global Ltd Visit www.trouvailleglobal.com
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