Sorry we took a brief hiatus from the weekly update… I’m sure none of you noticed, but if you did, you should get other things to worry about! Just kidding.

Last week was a short week, and I know I’m not the only person who gets a slight bout of senioritis when there’s a vacation on the horizon. I know admitting that as a startup founder is probably frowned upon, but startup founders are people too, okay?!

In all seriousness, I’ve been reflecting recently on startup life and the culture that comes along with it now that we’re about 2 years into this thing. I plan to more eloquently express those reflections at a later date, but for now what I will say is this: when we first started BARO, I felt such immense guilt any time I was doing anything other than working. I always felt like there was more to do, and that the second I stopped moving, doing, thinking everything would screech to a halt. A few breakdowns later, I realized that that mindset isn’t good for anyone—not my co-founders, not my partner, not my friends or family, and certainly not myself.

As a founder, you’re so emotionally connected to what you’re doing, everything can feel like life or death. I think about BARO basically 24/7, and I have to work to remind myself that I deserve to have a life outside of that. And, honestly, when I have a slower week or take a couple of days to recharge, my overall mindset and productivity is actually much better. So, take this as your sign to not feel guilty putting in those PTO days… even if you’re just putting them in to yourself.

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Win of the Week

This is still a little *hush hush* but giving you all the inside scoop. After nearly a year of schmoozing an engineer friend and trying to convince him to join the BARO team, we may finally hooked him. I won’t name names (yet), but he’s agreed to help out part time to start chipping away at some of the things on the product roadmap. Most of those things have come from your feedback—features you want to see or things you want us to improve.

We’re feeling newly invigorated and so, so excited. Also, a reminder that your feedback actually does matter to us, and if there is anything (big or small) that you think we can do to make BARO better, we really do want to hear it. We also love doing feedback calls, so if you want to chat email me at allie@trybaro.com.

Learning Moment

This isn’t necessarily a new learning, but something that was reiterated to us again this week was that sometimes, try as you might, there are just things that you are never going to be able to control—especially when it comes to the United States Postal Service.

While we stand by our men and women in uniform, sometimes, they really love to test us. A user reached out earlier this week concerned that a package wasn’t tracking correctly, and after personally calling the USPS customer service line no fewer than 7 times, we finally had to admit defeat. Due to (unknown??) route delays, the package was not going to make it to her in time. Even though it was out of our hands, those sorts of things never fail to make us feel terrible. Thankfully, we were able to problem solve and overnight her another dress for her event, but it was a bummer nonetheless. Just know that we will always go above and beyond to try to make things right and make sure that you get to wear the dresses of your dreams!!!

Team Updates

Zoe has returned from Italy and with thousands of unread emails to prove it! But, truthfully, I think she might have had thousands of unread emails before she left—her inbox is a scary, scary place.

Personally, I have to get to inbox 0 every night and meticulously categorize and label everything that comes in, so that simply couldn’t be me. That being said, very excited to have her back, chaos and all. Zoe and I spent the 4th together at a friend’s house up in Maine, where she learned how to crack open a lobster thanks to BARO friend™️ Hannah!

Emily was up in Vermont hanging out with her 93 year old grandma, Miama. In addition to her wisdom, Miama also taught Emily about the importance of a proper skincare routine. See below for the product recommendations from the icon herself.

As some of you know, I’m getting married this fall. Admittedly, I’ve been pretty bad at the whole wedding planning process (I’ve got a lot going on!), but this week was a big one because we finally sent out our invites. Truly couldn’t be happier with how they turned out, shout out my friend Herron for her incredible design skills (check out her work here)! Now that the ball is rolling, I’m feeling mentally prepared to tackle some of the other to-do’s (for now).

One Last Thing!

🚨 NYC Based Friends 🚨

It’s that time of year where we’ve gone through our closets and worked up the courage to admit to ourselves that, as much as we may love that pair of neon green sparkly pants, we haven’t worn them in 3 years and it’s time to say goodbye.

Zoe and I are having a stoop sale TOMORROW (along with extremely fashionable BARO friend™️ Abby) where we’ll be selling an array of fabulous clothes, shoes, home goods, and random objects that no longer spark joy. There will be drinks, there will be snacks, there will be tunes—so even if you’re not in the market for anything, we’d love to see/meet/hang with you in person. Details below!

So grateful for your continued love and support—follow us on Instagram and TikTok to stay up to date, and download the BARO app here.

See you next week! 💚

Allie & The BARO Team

It’s officially summer and it is also officially too hot to go outside. I had to trek to a meeting in Times Square (of all places) yesterday, and let me tell you—the bright lights weren’t the only thing that was shining… so was my face, because of the perspiration.

Win of the Week!

We wanted to start sharing some of the highs and lows of building BARO with you all since there is no shortage of either! To kick it off, sharing our highlight from last week which was receiving the below text from BARO friend™️ Sam (names blurred for anonymity since we don’t know these people!). For context, Sam mentioned BARO to a girl he had been on a couple of dates with and she said “wait I think someone in my group chat mentioned BARO this morning!” which is just the coolest thing ever IMO.

Learning Moment!

We’re rebranding our “lows” as learning moments because something we’ve learned on this journey is that even the seemingly worst things that happen are an opportunity to learn and grow and make BARO better. Rejection is redirection, or whatever they say.

Last week we were dealing with an unfortunate bot/scammer/generally bad person who got onto the BARO app and was sending phishing messages to some of our users. They have since been blocked, and we are now creating a new verification process to make sure that this doesn’t happen again. If you were one of the people who received the below—we’re sorry! Please don’t click any links, we’ll never send you a message or ask for any info like that.

On the plus side! This forced us to finally figure out how to send push notifications (small win!). While copy and marketing related efforts are not usually Emily’s thing, Zoe and I were both tied up elsewhere so Emily went CRISIS MODE and jumped in did what she had to. Shout out Emily for getting on it ASAP and getting that loser off the app 🫡.

Team Updates!

Zoe is currently living la bella vita in Italy right now (sort of rude that I didn’t get an invite). While I selfishly can’t wait for her to get back to NYC (I miss her!), I’m glad she’s getting some much needed R&R—and will also be expecting some sort of gift for holding down the fort for two weeks. Preferably some Italian vintage??

Emily and her wife Alex spent this past weekend out in Greenport doing what they do best: being cute and going antiquing! Although Alex did tell me that she had to have a stern conversation with Emily about planning better and packing shoes that aren’t Crocs next time (to which I say, let the girl live!).

Back in Brooklyn, I am dealing with a crisis of my own. I posted an innocent video on TikTok of me getting ready to go to happy hour, and while the point of the video was to show off my very cute outfit, it ended up turning into something much more sinister.

After a couple of hours, I received a comment on the video from a kind follower saying “there’s a mouse in your house!” At first, I thought nothing of it. However, when I rewatched, I did in fact see what this person was referring to. Circled in the screenshot below for reference. If you’d like to see the phantom mouse for yourself you can watch the video here. If you have an exterminator you like LMK.

That’s all from us this week! We’re continuing to chip away at some BARO updates and improvements, and are always looking for thoughts and feedback. If you want to chat (about BARO or otherwise), send me an email at allie@trybaro.com!

We’re so grateful for every single one of you and are so proud of the little community we’re building over here. If you haven’t downloaded the BARO app yet, you can do so here. It would mean the world if you did!

See you next week! 💚

Allie & The BARO Team