The wins and mistakes of our beginning. What we would, and wouldn't, do again.

We've been wanting to tell this for a while, no holding back.

Because when you start out, everyone tells you their wins, but almost nobody tells you what they did wrong. And what really teaches you —what would have saved us years— aren't anyone's wins. They're their mistakes.

So here go ours. The real ones.

What we wouldn't do again if we started over

Going so fast there was no time to think. Labienhecha was running, and us behind it, putting out fires. We confused speed with progress. They're not the same. Going fast with no direction is just tiring yourself out before getting anywhere.

Underselling ourselves out of fear of not selling. We called it “going to the supermarket hungry”: when you absolutely have to sell, you price the product below what it's worth. And every time we did it, we didn't win a customer. We lost the price, and it took us a while to recover it. Giving away your work doesn't bring anyone closer: it takes you further from being able to keep doing it. And if on top of that you grow fast, at scale you'll find yourself with a huge problem.

Dramatising problems that weren't the end of the world. We spent brutal energy on things that resolved themselves in an afternoon. We learned late to look at the forest and not the tree. Most fires put themselves out - or nearly - if you don't pour petrol on them. I promise.

Not trusting our instinct. Every time the rational side said “go ahead” but something inside said “no”, and we went ahead anyway… we paid for it. Without exception. Instinct isn't magic: it's all your experience talking to you faster than you can explain. Today, intuition is key and if something doesn't add up, stop.

Comparing ourselves. We looked at the person next to us to decide. And what works for someone else almost never works for you, because you don't see what's behind their photo. Learning from others, yes. Deciding by looking at them or comparing yourself, never.

What we would do again, a thousand times over

Getting out there and showing our face. Dropping the embarrassment. Telling the story, showing the workshop, putting ourselves out front. That's what created the bond. People don't join a logo: they join people.

From the very first time we went out to sell on the street until today, this is something you never forget. Get out, get out and get out. Anywhere! An event, a pop-up, a market, a group of entrepreneurs and, above all, show yourself, show your work, reveal everything that's behind it (even the bad stuff!) because that's where you'll find people who value people. That's the only thing that connects.

Taking risks when it was time to. Betting on launches, suppliers, crazy ideas or, as we say, "going to the bingo hall with your last note". Sometimes we lost. But what we won, we won right there. Whoever doesn't risk, doesn't make mistakes… but doesn't build either.

Reinvesting instead of rewarding ourselves. The money coming in went back into Labienhecha, not into a trip we really could have used. We didn't want to strike it rich. We wanted this to grow. And it grew because we fed it.

Never hiding. Honesty, transparency, closeness. Labienhecha doesn't hide: it shares. That was, from minute one, the most profitable decision we made without knowing it was.

It's true that not everything on the inside is visible, and in 7 years there are too many chapters to tell. But today we know that the best and the worst deserve to be told, because let's not forget we're people and here it's not just the bag, but what's behind it.

Caring for the customer, without seeing them as a customer. Our biggest win isn't a bag. It's the people, the community. And that's only built by creating relationships, not by chasing sales. Everything else can be bought. Not this. And the day we finally understood this, everything changed.

What we really learned

That the enemy was never making mistakes. It was taking too long to accept that making mistakes was part of the craft.

We started with tons of criterion for the product and almost none for the business. And we had to learn that looking after the numbers isn't betraying your values: it's the only thing that lets your values keep existing.

If you're starting out: your mistakes won't sink you. Taking too long to listen to them will.

It's taken us 7 years or more to learn about this.
We wish someone had told us sooner...