Co-founders Tom Zanelli and Cameron Mitchell fuelled their love for LEGO® into a booming business. However, their journey to transform this passion into a full-time job was once deemed impossible in their minds whilst growing up.
Brick Borrow, is a revolutionary service that allows you to enjoy a vast collection of LEGO® sets without cluttering your home. LEGO® toy bricks have always captivated children's imaginations, but their high cost can often be prohibitive for many families. Brick Borrow is changing the game by significantly reducing the entry cost and making this fantastic toy accessible to more children than ever before.
Tom Zanelli
Co-founder, Brick Borrow
If we weren't using Shiptheory we would have to employ at least ten more people doing manual tasks. It saves us so much time, hundreds of hours, and we've only been using it for a couple of months.
Brick Borrow interview
We spoke to Brick Borrow co-founders Tom Zanelli and Cameron Mitchell to learn how Shiptheory's allowing them to build their business to new heights.
Q: Give us a little background on the Brick Borrow story, what you do, where you started and how you got to where you are today.
I’ve always been a big fan of LEGO®, finding and building new sets. Growing up, I thought there must be more…There must be a business around LEGO® past a hobby. That ignited my desire to buy new sets for myself and my children. However, I soon realised that the frequent purchases were quite expensive. Consequently, we brainstormed an alternative solution to alleviate this issue, particularly considering the high cost of living.
Starting at the end of August last year, Brick Borrow is effectively a LEGO® library. It's a subscription-based service, where customers get a plan, pick which Lego set they would like to borrow, then we send it out to them. Customers are free to build their set to their heart's content and keep it for as long as they like. Once the customer is ready to explore a new set, they pack it back up and send it back, allowing them to choose another.
As well as being cost-effective, this is also a sustainable alternative to frequent re-purchasing and discarding of plastic. By the concept of sharing, we actively contribute to a circular economy. We find that people keep lego growing old, whether in the attic or just sitting around. Often we come across people who want to pass it on to others or donate it to us to find new homes. This has been a massive part of our journey as well.
Q: What were you doing for shipping before this?
Before Shiptheory, shipping was a nightmare, in fact, an absolute nightmare. It was a very, very slow process that involved manually writing labels based on customer orders and then entering each address individually into the Yodel website. This painstaking process was followed by manually printing the labels and packaging the items in our bedrooms. To make matters worse, the next step involved heading to the local petrol station the next morning to post many parcels, usually around 15-20. However, this meant standing in line alongside people rushing to get to work, adding to the frustration of the shipping process.
As our business grew and we received an increasing number of orders, it became clear that our existing shipping methods were not feasible anymore. The manual entry of addresses and the time-consuming process were significant roadblocks to our business expansion.
Q: Can you indicate the return you’ve got on your Shiptheory setup?
If we were still doing what we were doing at the beginning, manually inputting addresses, we couldn't scale up. We wouldn't be able to have a unit. We would have to employ an extra ten people working with us doing manual shipping tasks. It saves us so much time, hundreds of hours, and we've only been using it for a couple of months.
Another massive indicator is the time we've been able to spend concentrating on things like getting the unit sorted, getting advertising, and posting on social media. We’ve re-concentrated our efforts on scaling, which in the past was being filled by creating labels which Shiptheory now does.
Q: What are your ambitions for Brick Borrow?
Due to just moving to a new unit and hitting a massive milestone of moving out of our bedrooms. I’d say, our ambition next would be these units x10. Currently, we are only UK based, with a franchise in Australia as well. We would love to expand globally, to Europe and America, spreading this idea with us as we grow. We are always looking at new markets we can penetrate into.
Q: What areas would you say Shiptheory has helped most since using it?
From the customer's perspective, they have expressed how beneficial it is to have a readily generated label provided by us when they need to send their LEGO® back.
Before Shiptheory, a customer would get the box, and when they were ready to return it, they would email us through the website; then we would generate a label from Yodel and send it back for them to print. Now with Shiptheory, we can put the prepaid label inside the box, it's done so quickly. So it's saving our customers time as well as us.
Q: What are the biggest tips you’d give to someone thinking of starting a business in something they love?
Absolutely go for it! I’m an advocate of if you've got an idea or you've got a passion, run with it. You can turn anything into a business. That’s part of the fun of it for me. To run a business, you just need to research and work harder than anyone else, then you can make it happen. Hard work will pay off.
Q: Now the important question what's your favourite LEGO® set?
I'd say I still like the Vintage old sets. That's where my love of LEGO® stemmed from as a kid in the 90s. Another great LEGO® favourite would have to be the Bugatti. I wish I had time to build more Lego sets instead of packing them.
Q: Would you recommend Shiptheory to other businesses looking to streamline their shipping?
100% absolutely, It's like night and day from where we were before Shiptheory to now being in our own unit. Even speaking to Josh, our account manager, who's been like a mate, his patience when setting up has just been amazing.
The support we’ve had has been incredible day-to-day. We ask questions, and the support comes back instantly with an answer. This, however, hasn’t been the case with some shipping services which can be a nightmare to speak to anybody. Shiptheory has even answered unrelated questions just because their knowledge of this industry is so vast. So, Yeah, I couldn't recommend Shiptheory enough.