How Wimp Decaf built with Klaviyo from Day 1

In June 2024, Wimp Decaf Coffee Co. was a DTC brand with no website-but they had a vision.

Founder Matthew Smith wanted to rebrand decaf as a delicious, chill treat. Not a wimpy, second-fiddle option.

"We're asking people to give up the idea that decaf is bad coffee for weak people," Smith says.

He knew decaf's power firsthand. He used to feel dependent on caffeine. Decaf helped him turn his coffee habit into something sustainable-and he knew it could help other people, too.

He already had 3 decaf coffee blends, and a Shopify site in the works with offshoot.xyz. It was almost ready to launch.

He just needed to get the word out about Wimp. That meant he and his team needed a marketing automation platform they could afford from day one-and that could grow with them. And as the former founder of Really Good Emails, he knew that it needed powerful email capabilities.

Here's why Wimp chose Klaviyo, and how they're using the platform in their first months in business.

Editor's note: Watch this space for monthly updates on Wimp's experience.

Behind the scenes: choosing Klaviyo

Smith envisioned email as the pillar of Wimp's marketing mix: less pricey than paid ads, and less "controlled by the algorithm" - and more personalized - than organic social, he explains.

"Email is relationships, delivered," says Smith. With the right tech stack, of course.

Email is relationships, delivered.Matthew Smith

Why Wimp chose Klaviyo over competitors

Smith and Elijah Richards, head of operations, both knew the email space well-Smith from the design side at Really Good Emails, and Richards as an operator, formerly of In God We Must.

A few things stood out to them about Klaviyo:

• The powerful Shopify integration: It was seamless, reliable, and easy to set up.
• The granular targeting: With Klaviyo, Richards knew he could "really hit the customer journey out of the park," he says, by targeting customers ultra-specifically-based on which products they browsed and purchased, how often, and how recently.
• The scalability: "I plan on Wimp being a sizeable business," says Smith. " I'm not interested in having to start from scratch because our first marketing platform couldn't keep up with our demands."
• The familiarity: Richards had used Klaviyo for years, and he knew the platform inside and out.

"I felt that out of the gate, we could do more, faster with Klaviyo than with anybody else," Smith says.

Why Wimp started off with a paid Klaviyo account

"I want to build a real company," says Smith. "We're not in playground mode."

So from the day they launched their lightweight site, they've been on a paid Klaviyo plan. It offers maximum functionality out of the gate, and minimizes blockages.

I want to build a real company. We're not in playground mode.Matthew Smith

"I always tell people to get that base plan up front and pay for it, just to get the analytics and the website tracking dialed in," Richards explains. "And to remove the Klaviyo branding in the footer for emails, so you can add custom branding-which we're doing with delight."

July 2024: Launching everything but the store

On July 5, Wimp launched their lightweight website-with no option to purchase yet, just a waitlist sign-up form and product education-and their Klaviyo account. Here's how it was all going, one week in.

Performance by the numbers

Klaviyo activity by the numbers

How Wimp is using Klaviyo so far

They've launched an initial, bare-bones welcome flow-what Richards calls a "handshake email"-that's just one message at sign-up. It includes Wimp's planned ecomm store launch date (August 16), some more brand story, and a CTA to share Wimp with friends.

Other things they've set up in Klaviyo:

• A primary mailing list, currently populated by a Shopify form embedded in their lightweight site header (additional Klaviyo forms coming soon)
• An array of segments, like 30-, 60-, and 90-day engaged customers, repeat customers, and VIPs

Wimp's biggest email challenge to date

A few days before the lightweight site launch, Wimp switched their website URL from wimpcoffee.com to wimpdecaf.com. "We're always going to be only decaf, and we're really owning that position," Smith explains.

That meant they needed to authenticate the new domain via DMARC, re-start their warming process, and postpone their launch slightly-"otherwise, we're basically sending love letters straight to junk mail," Smith explains.

Next on Wimp's to-do list

Beyond warming Wimp's sending domain, Richards wants to move transactional Shopify emails into Klaviyo so they can be Wimp-branded.

In a few weeks, once they understand baseline performance, he and Smith also want to configure store tracking and segmentation for abandonment flows, and start A/B testing elements of their forms and flows.

To complement email, the team is also exploring paid social and paid search media buys.

Moonshot idea of the month

Smith dreams of one day segmenting customers based on whether they prefer "cussy" or "clean" versions of Wimp emails, and messaging each group accordingly.

For now, Wimp is setting up a robust customer preference center, where subscribers can set their preferred email cadence and topics.

"I really want to make sure out of the gate that we're responding to our audience," Smith says.

I really want to make sure out of the gate that we're responding to our audience.Matthew Smith

Check back in August for Wimp's next update!

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