Greenling Bios
People
Ryan Adams
Routing/Driver Team Lead
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Michael Faircloth
Driver
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Ricky Goingora
Basket Builder
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Davor Hadzic
Basket Builder
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Candy Hunke
Warehouse Team Lead / Wholesale
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Enone Mellowspring
Basket Builder
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Lex Painter
Basket Builder (warehouse)
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Chris Ramirez
Basket Builder
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Steve Shirey
Driver
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Derek Smith
Driver
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Trenton Steinke
Driver
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Sam Teich
Basket Builder
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Jarrett Wilson
Eggplant Esquire
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Elizabeth Winslow
Buyer (Fearless Forager)
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Wheels
Greenling Team Photos
January 2008
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January 2007
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January 2006
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Greenling Stories & Blogs
Check out Mason's Blog Here - Adventures of an Organic
Company Blog - Greenling Organic Delivery
Greenling - The first 360 days -
Like most businesses that are striving for something different, Greenling started in a garage. Some folks may remember meeting us at First Thursday on South Congress one sunny March day as we bribed people (with free beer) to tell us what they thought of our organic food delivery idea. Aside from the surveys that had beer spilled on them and were unreadable, you seemed to love the idea. So we took a deep breath and hit the road to test the waters and see if it would sink or swim.
As we were gearing up for our first deliveries in May of 2005 (all phone orders or in person) the Austin Business Journal, and Mary Alice Kaspar, decided we were interesting enough to write an article about us. The response was very encouraging. Over 30 people signed up in the first 2 weeks, farmers were calling us to sell us their produce, and everyone was happy. Our very first delivery was made on May 12th to Brook & Ken Son (The best testimonial imaginable, Brook & Ken are still getting Greenling Deliveries - Check out their story in the Greenling Customers page. Then the tough work started.
Turned out that these fruits and vegetables only like to hang out in very specific conditions. And they get sad very quickly. None of the founding members came from a produce background, so we had no idea. We learned some expensive lessons early on. We limited the number of deliveries for the first several months so that these lessons didn't get more and more expensive each week. Our first customers were so kind and helped us along the way giving us tips on how we should be doing things. We worked out a lot of kinks and figured out how to keep the veggies happy while they stayed with us for a few days.
Then came a big decision. We were too big for the garage! And our cars were accumulating some wear and tear. So we took out a loan, moved into a warehouse, and bought a truck and a walk-in cooler. The walk-in cooler was actually just a tractor trailer with a residential air conditioning unit on it that we parked in front of one of our bay doors. It worked great, but when we painted it bright green, the landlord wasn't too happy (quote - "Well, I have to keep reminding myself that I'm in Austin .....if the neighbors don't complain, I guess you can leave it green"). All that seemed like the biggest commitment ever. We looked at how we wanted to grow and decided to rent a warehouse that was way to big for us, hoping we'd grow into it. It was so big we put a basketball goal in it because we didn't feel right not using it for something. We worked too much to play much basketball, but it was fun (and don't ever challenge Duffy to a basket contest).
We rented out space to all sorts of folks from a courier service, to a furniture store, to someone who turned out to be a con-artist (I had no idea that commercial locks can cost $500 to re-key) to a hypnotist along the way to help pay for the space. As we grew, and tenants left, we just didn't look for more.
We've had so many sleepless nights as Central Texas freezes over and destroys our product to floods that destroy our product to drought that destroys our product. Sometimes I really, really envy people who can source their product and then let it sit in a warehouse until it sells. Amazing. Seems so simple. As we grow, each of us ends up doing less and less of the overall business as particular tasks grow bigger and bigger. I still try to spend a day in the packing room at least every couple of weeks and run a delivery route when I can. But mostly, I sit in front of a computer all day. Typing away. I'm ok with it because I'm so into what we do. I love it.
Sometimes it's hard to realize you're growing. You've got too much to do so you go find someone to help you. Repeat. Before you know it, you've got a whole team of people and the company that seemed to be only in your head now has a life of its own. I will try to come back and update this story as it unfolds. Until then I just want to thank everyone who has helped us along the way and our customers for making this possible.
-Mason