Starting pootle online has been lurking at the back of our minds for almost a year. The idea of curating a collection of products we love, creating a brand that resonates, and connecting with customers fills us with excitement. Yet, despite the fizzy excitement, as we explored the idea the journey has been riddled with self-doubt which held us back much longer than it should have.

The inspiration was realising we had a passion for something worth sharing. We have always been drawn to beautiful things and finding the perfect gift for friends and relatives that spark joy, but we’ve always had a niggling doubt that we could make it work online only and that people would choose us rather than the e-commerce  giants. We’re committed to doing this purely in an online world (that’s a story for another time) so making it work online is, in the words of the great Chesney Hawkes, the one and only.

Enter imposter syndrome … it is a silent, pervasive shadow that creeps into the minds of many aspiring entrepreneurs (and we also feel a little bit impostery suggesting we are entrepreneurs). As we meticulously designed pootle online we constantly felt like we didn’t quite feel qualified. Until … we decided to go for it, and the more we immersed ourselves in the details of pootle online, the more we started to believe.

And then came a bit more procrastination - everything was ready, but the imposter found lots of reasons to delay, until now – and it’s done. We pressed the big publish button.

So, now it’s a thing: pootle online is alive and we hope you will enjoy having a little look around what we created. It’s early days, and as time goes on we’ll find new and exciting things to add to our little online shop. We hope you like it (and if you don’t, our imposter would love to hear from you – they’ll be sure to pass the message on).

Rachel & Paul