Today we celebrate Yuup’s first birthday! What have we learnt?

Today we celebrate Yuup’s first birthday! 12-months ago we switched on yuup.co and, with the fantastic support of our 40 launch hosts, eagerly awaited our first customer order. Now, with over 160 hosts selling thousands of experiences every month, what have we learnt?

Give people the right tools and support and anyone can be an entrepreneur: we knew Bristol was a city full of creators and makers, but the range of new enterprises that have been created using the Yuup platform has surprised even us! From artists to aerial performers, cooks to crafters, florists to foragers, musicians to poets and skaters to wellbeing experts, just to name a few.

Community is alive and well: at community centres and village halls, local shops and pop-up venues, groups of people are coming together to experience and celebrate what makes Bristol great. The diversity of our hosts, our customers and the range of experiences on offer is something of which I’m particularly proud. I love reading new customer reviews each morning – a common theme being the new experiences people have discovered on their own doorstep and the new friendships that have been forged.

Pandemics inspire people: while very mindful during our founding year that Covid has been a time of great sadness for many, we’ve also seen it has been a time for reflection. With many inspired to re-evaluate how they spend their time, focusing more on the things they’re passionate about and evolving the way they earn a living to support this. Reducing the commute, staying local, spending more time with family and friends, and adopting a more hybrid approach to work are all trends we’ve seen accelerate.

I’m hugely grateful to all our supporters and particularly every single customer, our investors, our local business partners and of course the amazing Yuup team for bringing Yuup to life. But, most of all, I want to celebrate our hosts today – the side hustlers and the entrepreneurs, the businesses small and large for reminding us each day why the thing we now call Yuup was so important for us to do.

Happy Birthday Yuup!