All good stories begin with a curious idea and a moment of inspiration.

My name is Mikołaj, and I'm the founder of TopWosk. My e-commerce journey began a year earlier, when I was selling various products online. At the end of 2021, I felt it was time to create my own brand from scratch. However, I didn't yet have a clear vision of which industry I should be in.

One day in January, while browsing a well-known Polish marketplace in search of inspiration, I came across products for making candles. It was a revelation! Candles had appeared in my life many times over the past year, so I felt this was it.

TopWosk was founded at the beginning of 2022. After thorough research, I discovered that there was a lack of a place offering all the necessary products for creating high-quality candles. I also saw many untapped opportunities that other brands were overlooking.

Pictured: the first wax with the old logo, the first season, and the first magazine :)

2023 was a year of dynamic growth for TopWosk, not only for the store and product range, but also for me personally. Our first employees joined the team, bringing new responsibilities and many things I had to learn on the fly. In 2023, we saw a dramatic increase in the number of orders and new customers. This surge in orders also brought new challenges – lack of warehouse space, packing stations, and difficulties maintaining high stock levels (a consequence of the first issue).

However, we didn't lack the most important thing – the will to work. In November and December, together with the team, we worked practically 7 days a week to ensure that your packages arrived on time and met your expectations.

The photo shows an InPost van, full of your packages. This happened almost every day, sometimes two or even three vans would arrive daily. They often showed up in the evenings, while we were still working, supporting each other and "praising" who worked the longest :)

This year is a culmination in our brand's history. At the end of 2023, I started wondering – what's next? We needed a new warehouse, much larger than the current one. I had two options: organic growth and slowing down development, or finding an investor. Of course, I chose option number two :) Even at the end of 2023, amidst a busy workload, I held several meetings and conversations with potential investors. At the beginning of 2024, I started cooperating with one of them.

What have we achieved and what do we plan to do this year?

• New warehouse : We moved to a much larger location, which allowed us to better manage resources. (I couldn't stand looking at stacks of boxes everywhere anymore, like we were playing some giant version of Jenga.)
• Office : We opened our own office, which streamlined our daily work.
• Rebranding : We have changed the visual presentation of our products to make them even more attractive to our customers.
• New Online Store : We've created a completely new store from the ground up to make shopping with us even more user-friendly and intuitive. (We designed it so that even my dog could easily shop. Of course, we don't recommend leaving him alone with a credit card.)
• Expanding our range : We are expanding our offer with new accessories, waxes and fragrances, responding to the needs of our customers. (Yes, now we have more scents than ice cream flavors in an ice cream parlor – from classic vanilla to exotic coconut and mango)

The picture shows our current warehouse.