Chapter One - 2016
We dreamed of taking the Thankyou idea to the world – choosing New Zealand as our first test market. The problem was, we didn’t have the money to do it. Thankyou doesn’t have shareholders and investors like other businesses to invest in new ventures and big steps like this.
So we wrote and launched a book called Chapter One. 100% of the profit from sales of Chapter One would fund Chapter Two. The future. This began with the expansion of Thankyou into the Baby Category and then our first global test market, New Zealand.
A bestseller in Australia is 5,000 copies and would be lucky to make $50,000 profit. We set a target of raising $1.2 million in four weeks, launching Chapter One online and in retail stores at a pay-what-you-want price.
People purchased the book, shared the video and rallied together until we hit the target. A few people paid $0.05 cents. But some paid hundreds, even thousands. CEO’s purchased 1000’s of copies for their team. The most paid to date – $50,000 – was paid by an incredibly generous lady. But our favourite story was about 12-year-old Landon. His mum wrote to us after he’d purchased four copies at $20 each, which he gifted to people he thought should go on to change the world. We got an update that Landon has given 18 copies (and counting).
The launch video went viral, and within two hours of launch, we’d raised $360,000. In 28 days we’d exceeded our target raising $1.44 million and sold 55,000 copies ofChapter One. The launch week sales in airport book stores were second only to the Harry Potter launch week. To date, more than $2.5 million has been raised. The success of Chapter One has enabled our Baby products to go to market, New Zealand launch and contributed to our global campaign. The book continues to raise money every day to fund the future of Thankyou.