Getting to Say “We”

Early in the days of Food Pedaler, before a single delivery, a mutual friend connected me to another aspiring bike courier owner.

The plan was for him to be a partner, but after a couple weeks he got cold feet and stood me up for a meeting with a restaurant owner. He soon opened his own business following my model.

It proved to be a very good thing, for many reasons, that I remained sole proprietor. And I learned at least one very valuable lesson. In that short period of time, I began referring to my efforts and organization plurally. When speaking with restaurateurs, emailing, drafting social media, posting Craigslist ads, it became “we”.

I didn’t change my pronouns after the potential partner bugged out, and the company quickly adding restaurants and riders every day. It has been quite a collective ever since. Being able to remove myself as the centerpiece of the company, and speak in terms of all the people that kept everything rolling, is what helped make the idea something much bigger than myself.