Thank you x125k

I can hardly believe it.

I feel like a cartoon, rubbing my wide eyes and blinking hard, checking the number again and again. And every time, it tells me the same thing.

There are more than 125,000 amazing suppliers using RangeMe.

More than 125,000 active suppliers.

Four years ago when I started RangeMe, I hoped we would build the company into something grand that would disrupt the CPG industry like nothing ever before it. A company that would help suppliers like myself at the time realize their dreams. We took many risks, and we started out nervous with excitement and watched with wonder over the years as we hit milestone after milestone that we set for ourselves. As our journey continued, we grew confident. Our questions turned from “Can we do this?” and “How can we do this?” to “We’re doing this,” and “Let’s do it even better.”

And so much of that success was because of you.

You.

You, who signed up for RangeMe and have used our platform to strengthen your business and market your products. By pursuing your dreams in the CPG industry, you have helped us pursue ours. You pushed yourself to new levels and inspired us to do the same. You navigated uncharted territories, and came out on the other side, bigger, better, stronger—and maybe with a newly formed retail relationship. And all the while, we studied you and learned from you. We asked questions and found answers that would help you be better, and even more successful.

In the past four years, we’ve seen a lot of action. A lot. We’ve witnessed buyers responding to a supplier nearly a million times–and that’s not an exaggeration. Literally, there have been nearly a million responses on RangeMe, a number that absolutely boggles me. And if I were to tell you the one thing I love the most about this business, it’s hearing supplier success stories. Not only the bits about how RangeMe has helped you get on the shelf at a big box retailer but also the story about how you started your journey, the story behind the brand and the founder is everything to me. Every time we see a new supplier sign up for the platform, or we sign a new retailer to our roster, I can’t help but imagine the partnerships that will bloom, the new products that will reach more consumers, the long-standing dreams that will become a reality. It’s the same feeling of nervous excitement that I had when RangeMe first launched—except now I’m nervously excited for the many suppliers, anxious for their journeys to start, and eager to help them along the way.

If I could, I would show up on each of your doorsteps to thank you in person for believing in RangeMe. And nothing gets me more excited when I get the opportunity to meet some of you face to face or a quick exchange over a LinkedIn message! But for those I haven’t had the chance to meet face to face, this post will have to do for now. (Besides, I’m not sure I’d be able to articulate in person what this means to me, and to the RangeMe team; I would certainly be so overcome with gratitude that I’d end up being a garbled mess!) When we surpassed 10,000 suppliers, I cheered. When we surpassed 50,000, I was in awe. When we topped 100,000, I was in disbelief. And now, with more than 125,000, I am speechless. I only have two words that will suffice:

Thank you.