Record breaking cross-functional team: Reima’s venture went from planning to first buyers in 8 weeks

Record breaking cross-functional team: Reima's venture went from planning to first buyers in 8 weeks

Here’s a challenge to the rest of our LOOP Venture teams: Reima Play just broke all the records for fastest time-to-market! Admittedly, they had done a lot of pre-work, studying benchmarks and creating first hypothesis of the newly launched Reima Play service before the Play team really started working together. Nevertheless, in the beginning of January we were still deciding on some of the core guidelines of the service and managed to get first paying customers on the first days of March. That’s quite the speed for entering a market with a new business model. Furthermore, the first release of the service exceeded a lot of its goals from conversion rates to customer demand. This is a great start to keep working, validating the service with customers! In a recent retro for our first launch, the team – a combination of Reima experts and external support, including LOOP Venture builders – felt unanimously that the secret to exceeded results was good communication and clear goals. “We all knew what had to be done and did it. Not once did anyone have to double-check if something was done, it was simply done” we agreed. The team had a clear focus on tasks and their priorities. With very little management and extremely light documentation, we managed to deliver what we needed daily, week after week. The first release of Play was a true test of “Lean Corporate” methods used in LOOP Venturing. A way of delivering like a startup while reporting to regular corporate governance and delivering quarterly value. Not an easy task to achieve, but something we now feel certain can be achieved in all of our LOOP Ventures. Reima Play is a service for parents with small children, helping them buy the top-tier outdoor clothing hassle-free. In Reima Play, customers subscribe to a monthly fee, fill in information about their kids and receive automatically the right set of clothing throughout the year. Packages vary from overall only to full set of gloves, shoes and mid layers. Reima Play also helps parents re-sell the used garments, eliminating yet another cumbersome task from families’ daily chores. Reima Play is a case of moving towards a Product-as-a-Service model. The vision is to achieve a circular business where the clothing is all returned to Reima, enabling reuse, recycling and re-manufacturing of the clothing. In the first released version of the service Reima validates the customer need for an annual service to support families in the chore of clothing their children for some real outdoor fun. Next, recycling and refurbishing by Reima’s partner Emmy, emmystore.com, will be explored. There are still a million things to solve, but for now Reima seems to have found real customer interest and we will continue the good work to make the service even better – together with the first pilot customers. If this is the result of first eight weeks, what will be showcased after three months in World Circular Economic Forum 2019? Stay in the LOOP to find out! Images are screenshots from Reima Play in March 2019.

Q&A about LOOP

Q&A about LOOP

Why was LOOP created, who can join the ecosystem and what kind of challenges are solved within LOOP? This article tries to answer these questions, among others.

What is LOOP about?

LOOP is an ecosystem that brings together Nordic businesses looking to embrace the opportunities that the circular economy provides, while also creating significant business impact. With LOOP, we want businesses to find circular solutions and to build real ventures that can be taken to market. By using lean startup methods, in a short period of time (about 3-6 months) we validate business concepts that contribute to a transition into a circular economy.

Is LOOP an accelerator program?

No, LOOP is not an accelerator program. LOOP is an ecosystem where you are equipped with all the tools, know-how and networks needed to move forward on your circular economy venture. In LOOP, it’s not always about collaboration between growth companies and corporations. We also work on cases where two corporations have joined forces to tackle a specific challenge involving the circular economy. It’s worth highlighting that these ventures are built using lean startup methods with the final aim of bringing them to market as soon as possible.

There are so many ecosystems in the world, why do we need another one?

Because we want to go from words to actions. The circular economy has been on the agenda for some time now, yet there are few concrete results. We’ve now reached a point where something needs to be done. We need models for how ideas can be turned into concrete business solutions, ready to be taken to market in a short period of time. LOOP is here to facilitate that.

Who can join?

We are looking for corporations, growth companies and other ecosystem partners that want to be involved in projects that have a real and measurable positive impact on the world. The transition to a circular economy requires that all partners in different stages of the value chain get involved. To do this, we gather different partners, both big and small, around the same table. For corporations, the objective is often to scale new ventures while for growth companies LOOP presents promising co-operation opportunities and a chance to scale their own products or services. Other ecosystem partners (for example universities and institutions) might contribute by bringing know-how and resources for piloting the ventures or ideas for new projects.

As a corporation, do I need to be facing some sort of challenge to join?

No. You can join LOOP without a set challenge or venture in mind. As long as the Circular Economy and growth business is on your agenda, you can (and should!) be a partner in LOOP. Our database contains over 400 growth companies involved in the circular economy that are growing every day, which you will get access to as a corporate partner. If you don’t have a certain venture idea in mind, we can help you to screen the global market for possible ventures and partners.

As a growth company, why should I be in LOOP?

As a growth company, you benefit from visibility through our platform, which is available to all corporate partners on board LOOP. We continuously screen the market to find solutions for particular corporate challenges. Your solution might be just the one we need! To make sure your company gets onto our long list, leave your contact information here. We will get back to you as soon as possible.

What kind of business challenges are solved within LOOP?

The main themes for LOOP 2018-2019 are food, plastics, packaging and textiles. However, if your challenge or solution does not fall into any of those categories, don’t worry –  we are able to help you on a large scale and are always ready to investigate new concepts. As long as it has to do with business model innovation, it’s suitable for LOOP. The main themes for LOOP change regularly, and we are already researching future themes for the coming years. Currently we are working on ventures that aim to minimize food waste in grocery stores and in fine-dining restaurants, decreasing used plastics in retail and finding new circular solutions for the dairy industry.

When does LOOP end?

LOOP does not have an expiry date. Partners, both big and small, can join LOOP whenever they want.

How can I join?

Click here to start, we would love to hear from you! You can always drop us an email if you have a question or suggestion regarding LOOP.