Can you imagine teaming up with your best friends to try your luck at starting a business and ending up being millionaires? This is what happened to Piotr, Szymon, and Michal, three young men from Poland who started their business during the COVID-19 pandemic through e-commerce. What did they offer? Personalized mugs. But that was just the beginning, as they gradually expanded their catalog to include t-shirts, pillows, and bags. Within three months, they were already reporting profits, which they decided to reinvest in the growth of their company, Tortli.
Given their success, they decided to target the market beyond the borders of Poland, but it wasn’t as easy as in their home country. After some setbacks in the German market, they decided to redirect their offer, and currently, they are working in the Czech Republic, Romania, and Hungary.
Tortli
Like Bill Gates and the creation of Microsoft, Tortli is a company of Polish origin, resulting from the union of three young individuals who began their journey in their sisters-in-law’s garage. It was in 2021, after the COVID-19 pandemic, when Piotr, Szymon, and Michał came together to launch a business idea. The scenario was encouraging: the three had experience in e-commerce, competition was low, and production costs were also low. What could go wrong? Well, nothing, because within months, the thirty-somethings were already millionaires.
That’s how Tortli was born, an e-commerce company specializing in the customization of mugs. As Piotr Szyska stated to the Polish media outlet Onet, “We started with the mugs themselves. For about 2-3 months, we created products in their garage. Eventually, we moved to our production room, where we still work today. Nowadays, it generates millions in revenue and its assortment includes not only customized mugs, but also t-shirts, pillows, and bags”.
From working in a garage to becoming millionaires
The benefits they obtained from the first months overwhelmed the young people. They reached sales of 100,000 zlotys a day (about 23,000), which could be a topic of discussion among friends. However, the three of them had the same vision for the business, so the profits they were generating never posed a problem. Szyszka explained, “We never considered ourselves millionaires, because even though this money appeared and was in the account, it had to be reinvested. Due to the fact that sales were growing very rapidly, it was necessary to buy more machines, invest in production, the team, expand the warehouse, etc”.
Crossing borders
Given the success, what was preventing young people from expanding their horizons and offering their products outside of Poland? Nothing, so they did just that. With a catalog that offers customization of mugs, t-shirts, pillows, and bags, they began operating in countries like Germany. The reality was that the Bavarian market did not behave the same way as the Polish one, so they took a few hits. “We lost some money and experienced some failures. In Germany, we cannot have the same offer as in Poland; society is more complex. The offer for these markets was not adapted to these markets,” Szyska explained.
Nevertheless, the company operates at full speed in countries like Romania, Hungary, or the Czech Republic.The combination of knowledge, experience, good product choice and offer, knowing how to control timing, and, why not say it, a bit of luck, has made the success of these three young people possible.
