2020 letter to our stakeholders

To our Stakeholders:

2020 will be the year people remember for generations. The entire world came to a pause, society was tested to the limits while so many of us were isolated. Millions of people were impacted in terrible ways. It’s a year that we should learn from – and certainly never forget. In this turbulent environment we find ourselves, our fundamental approach remains steadfast: heads down, staying laser-focused on the long-term with an unconditional love of customers.

Long-Term Perspective.

Long-term perspective challenges our existing abilities and forces us to accomplish the impossible. It allows us to embrace our failures while driving the iteration required for expansion. It frees us to build new muscles, regardless of how uncomfortable those first steps may be. If we just chase instant gratification – or some elusive idea of it – most likely we will find a crowd there ahead of us. Long-term perspective aligns well with an unconditional love of customers.

In our rewards business, we have strong conviction that customers value higher rewards, wider merchant selection, and a more convenient experience—and that these needs will remain stable over time. It is difficult for us to imagine that five or ten years from now, customers will want lower rewards, fewer merchants, or a worse experience. Our belief in the longevity of these pillars is what gives us the confidence required to invest in improving them. We know that the energy we put in now will continue to pay dividends well into the future.

Beyond the investment on the rewards side, we continue to build the social pillars of our business. To us, social sharing is more than just texting your referral code for a $5 bonus. It is an ongoing relationship with the people you connect to. We know our approach is different from many established competitors whose system seems to be working for now. We do not expect to capture the hearts of customers by doing the same thing as everyone else. We stand alone in our approach. We remain confident that our long-term investment will ultimately create greater value for our customers, community, merchant partners, shareholders, and team.

Customer Needs First.

Our approach: work backwards from customer needs instead of a competency-first approach, where existing skills and infrastructure are used to drive growth. The competency-first approach says, “We are good at doing X. What else can we do with X?” But one day, the customer will move past X, and the existing skills then become irrelevant. Working backwards from customer needs often forces us to develop new skills to better address the customer. We are not stuck with the expertise we have today. We welcome fresh challenges, driving us to take risks in new areas, no matter how unsettling that may be.

Listening to our customers helps us to see the miscalculations of our earlier assumptions, propelling us to iterate on what we already built. One example: this year, we rebuilt the payment journey within the app for the sixth time. Not because the first five versions were not great—they were. But the sixth iteration was better. This is something to be celebrated. We can never convince ourselves we did enough for the customer. They won’t have it. Neither should we.

Community.

The community sits at the heart of Fluz. It is what makes our product different while propelling us forward. This year, our revenues grew over 1300%. The credit for this is due to our passionate community who educated their friends, family, or followers about Fluz. We continue to invest more in helping the community grow and come together. We know this is just the start. We are beginning to see what began as a few rolling pebbles quickly snowballing into an avalanche.

Team.

Our year started with a small group of believers, committed to building something bigger than themselves. Early on, we put in the energy to create a culture of high standards, long-term thinkers with a sense of ownership. As we nearly doubled our team, the newer members have quickly adopted these same principles from the core members.

We are fortunate to have the opportunity to build something meaningful. I am forever grateful to the talented and dedicated people and their families for the many sacrifices they have already made. From the bottom of my heart, I thank all of you for the opportunity to be part of this mission.

Once again this year, I attach a copy of our original 2018 letter and encourage current and prospective stakeholders to take a look at it. Given how much we’ve already grown, it’s noteworthy that the fundamentals of how we do business remain the same.