A few months ago, we seriously considered changing our original business motto:
“A little bit of every organic thing from Ethiopia.”

As an engineer and entrepreneur, the conventional business advice was screaming at me. Experts say you need to “narrow your niche.” They say a motto should be ultra-specific, corporate, and hyper-focused on a single product line to scale.

So, my spouse and I tried to rewrite it. We struggled for weeks to force our vision into a standard corporate box. But every time we tried, it felt hollow. It felt like we were stripping away the soul of why we started.

Then, we started listening to our community.
We realized that the exact thing the “experts” told us to fix was the very thing our customers loved. They didn’t want a polished, clinical corporate tagline. They loved the raw honesty of our motto. They appreciated how true it is.

When we say “a little bit of every organic thing from Ethiopia,” we mean it. It reflects our journey of blending traditional Ethiopian craftsmanship, premium local leather, and organic textiles. It gives us the creative freedom to innovate for our community without boundaries.

In a world full of manufactured corporate identities, authenticity is a differentiator. We didn’t need to change our motto to fit the market. We just needed to keep living up to the promise we made on day one.

To my fellow founders: Have you ever ignored standard business advice to stay true to your roots? How did it pay off? Let me know in the comments👇