PRO TIPS
Pre-orders for this week are now open! Now (earlier in the week, Sunday-Wednesday) is the easiest time to get a pre-order in. Here is the rough schedule of when you can expect pre-orders to go live:
Each bake day, we set aside about half of our inventory for pre-orders, and the remaining half for walk-ins. So whether you have a pre-order or decide on a whim to pop on by, we'll have something hot from the oven for ya.
As we approach bake day we begin to limit pre-orders to just the upcoming day. We are currently using the most robust pre-ordering software available on the market, but it's still not enough for our unique model where we're crafting product that takes 3-4 days to make and baking hot from the oven. Our third party ordering system does not allow us to manage inventory by day, so as our inventory for an upcoming day gets slimmer, we must shut off future dates to sell through that inventory first.
That means from Wednesday night through Thursday morning, you'll see that we may be taking orders for Thursday only. Then around the 10-11a hour on Thursday we close pre-orders for Thursday, allowing us to re-open pre-orders for Friday-Sunday.
It's an incredibly manual and hands-on process for us that we know is far from a seamless experience for you. And with your help, we can change that...
IZOLA's Equity Raise
HAPPENING NOW!
Part of the funds raised will go toward building a better pre-ordering system that will allow us to manage our inventory by day, meaning we can keep pre-orders live at ALL times, allowing you to order anywhere from minutes to weeks in advance!
Why is the Equity Raise Important?
Our Equity Raise empowers justice and profit. Here are a few examples:
Environmental Justice: Our new flour silos (and related material handling system) allow us to take 25,000 lbs of paper out of the waste stream each year. Boom! Not just recycled....never made! And buying in bulk (by the semi-truck load) reduces our organic flour cost by 15-20%. Win-win!
Racial, Sexual Orientation, Gender Justice: With a focus on members of underserved groups, our extensive training program allows us to hire based on personal qualities like kindness, curiosity, integrity, and work ethic, even if candidates don't have experience in baking. Then we train, train, train in the IZOLA Process. Defined, Measurable, Repeatable. Within days new team members are contributing members of the team, and often earn leadership positions. And it increases the size of our talent pool exponentially, it's how we have been able to stay fully staffed throughout the pandemic.
Economic Justice: We want to pay people more. How do we do it? Productivity. How do we increase productivity? Upgrading with cutting-edge equipment from around the world that increases our production by 10x (and improves our quality) with the same size team. We are currently certified as a living wage employer, but frankly, it's not enough for our employees to comfortably live on. So as IZOLA's efficiency and hence profit increases, each team member will earn more.
We are building the factory of the future - leveraging automation in a way that has not been done before, to create artisan croissants and sourdough at an even higher quality than handmade.
Here's a sneak peak at our plans:
Q1 2023's Equity Round Closes in 44 Days
At IZOLA we break up big tasks into smaller, manageable chunks. And that's exactly what we are doing with the Equity Raise. Over the next year, we will "Rolling Close" the equity offering on June 1, Sept 1, Dec 1, and March 1 (2024). Each quarter has a goal of $975,150. And we invite you to join us, to reach our our Q1 goal. Please visit our IZOLA Equity Portal for more information.
What does "Rolling Close" mean?
It means that we will ask each person who has invested in the previous quarter (in this case March 1 to May 31, 2023) to re-confirm their interest in investing. And for those who re-confirm, we will finalize the investment, issue the needed documentation and transfer the investment to IZOLA.
How Do I Get Involved?
Visit the IZOLA Equity Portal: Hint - Please visit the DATA room (tab at top of the page) where you'll find tons of important info:
Risks
Share Purchase Agreement
LLC operating agreement
Audited financials
Anticipated use of funds Attend an IZOLA Investor Conversation via Google Meet: Please register below to join an upcoming conversation. Hosted by Jenny and me, they are a fun way to meet community members, hear about IZOLA's past, present, and future plan from the co-founders and ask all the questions you can think of, get some good laughs at all the mistakes we've made and funny stories.
How Does it Work? In a nutshell, your investment purchases shares in Tallgrass Pictures LLC, the parent of IZOLA. The same shares that Jenny and I own. Somewhere far in the future, if IZOLA does well, you'll do well. If not, (and this is statistically the most likely outcome - most small businesses fail) then you'll probably lose all your investment, just like Jenny and I. The Securities and Exchange Commission asks that I remind everyone that the IZOLA Equity Portal is the sole official source of information for this equity raise, please review it carefully. ​ What if I Have Never Invested Before? Not to worry, we have created an inclusive, welcoming environment. We intentionally set a modest minimum investment of $1000. And even if you don't end up investing, there is a lot of good business information, including our novel approach to capitalizing a company (and lowering risk), to be gleaned from attending an Investor Conversation (signup below). So much so that UCSD's student-run Triton Consulting Group (TCG), a pro-bono, student-run strategy consultancy at UC San Diego specializing in market research, competitive intelligence, marketing strategy, data analytics, will be collaborating with IZOLA this spring to give its members the opportunity to work with a disruptive company with an evolved justice and profit focus Want to help build something amazing? Join us! Jeffrey + Jenny
IT'S BACK!!!!! Espresso drinks and Potions are officially back at the bakeshop! Come on by for a hot cappuccino - made with a double shot of Cafe Moto's Papua New Guinea beans and grass fed milk. Or try our Hot or Iced Potions - a peppermint tea infused with thyme, honey, and lemon.
IZOLA MUSIC SATURDAY
Every Saturday IZOLA hosts live music - come see how diverse and talented our San Diego community is! We publish the full schedule every Friday night in our Instagram Story. Head on over there and follow us now!
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