Happy Birthday MURO: Beginning of 3

Happy Birthday dear, dear MURO; I can’t quite believe it, one day they’re stumbling around in nappies, then you blink, and they’re out there making their own way in the world.

Today is 15th May, and marks the second anniversary of completing our Kickstarter campaign and, what’s more, it feels as though MURO has taken some significant strides in the last week to commemorate the event.

It’s a time for celebration, not the time to dwell on the mistakes of the past.   However there have been some, and in order to honour the journey and crystallise the insights gathered, let me just say this.  The last two years have been a rich tapestry of successes and failures, visible and invisible, depending on which side of the cloth you can see.  The product itself has shown grit and resilience in enduring the many, and mainly, logistical challenges it has faced and I couldn’t be prouder of it.  My greatest hope for MURO’s third year is that we are able to create an environment for thriving rather than surviving.

Today is a day for reflecting on our achievements: three prestigious awards, two production runs completed and sold, and one entirely new range of products launched.  I’d say that’s worth a raised glass or three!

Today is also a day for looking ahead, and for looking at the people who will be making the next part of the journey together.  The MUROteam (nee TeamMURO) is now, I’m very glad to say, made up of three (and doesn’t include the personified version MURO I’ve been referring to justify writing ‘we’ instead of ‘I’ without feeling like I’m puffing out my chest like some macho business pigeon).  The MUROteam is now Laura, Jamie and myself, and no pigeons in sight.  

Laura is the first true professional MUROmaker, originally getting involved to sort out our customer service, she also has a strong creative and entrepreneurial flair which has led to producing and directing her first shoot yesterday. It’s fantastic, I haven’t lifted a finger, and the initial images eluded to great things.

Jamie is someone I met when I first moved into WeWork at the beginning of May 2017.  He created and mannied for Manny&Me, a childcare agency, connecting the best childcare professionals to families in London.  When he isn’t busy with that he’s usually speaking to parliament about the gender inequalities in childcare and how it impacts families both at home and at work.  He comes from a teaching background and with a passion for early-years education I could not imagine anyone more suitable to continue building MURO with. And if that wasn’t enough it’s his birthday today too!

A new team has demanded the generation of yet another murism, MUROprinciples and with it three simple words that will guide all aspects of the business: sustainable, open, playful.  Definitions can be restrictive, and as such the MUROprinciples very much have themselves in mind when trying to understand the depth of their meaning:  open, playful and sustainable. It is my belief that these clear but fluid principles provide both the blueprint and flexibility for growth. Bending rather than breaking, evolving rather than reproducing.

Many happy returns all round.  I have a good feeling about year 3!