Meet the Founding Members of The Scribes
The Scribes is a mission-driven journal brand that makes tools for lifelong learners.
I had the privilege of interviewing the three co-founders of this game-changing brand. We can all learn from their positive message, charitable reach, and growing experience.
Tell us about your background and how it led you to start The Scribes?
Alden Bohrmann: I was born and raised in a small town outside of Portland, Maine. I went to Syracuse University to study Information Management & Technology with a concentration in cybersecurity and network administration. Ever since a young age I was interested in design. At Syracuse, I taught myself how to design by messing around in Illustrator, After Effects, or any design app I could torrent off the web. Many nights were spent forgetting to study because I was designing. After graduating, I attended the General Assembly to study UI/UX where I combined my passion for design with technology. From there I began work at a fin-tech company called Payability as a Product Designer. This is where I met Pooja and Mike. Instantly becoming friends, we shared a similar entrepreneurial mindset and we decided to start a company together.
Pooja Patel: I was born and raised in Princeton, New Jersey. My parents immigrated from India in the ’70s and have worked as entrepreneurs ever since. I like to think this is what created the entrepreneurial spirit in me! I went to Rutgers University where I majored in Finance, Supply Chain, and Marketing Science. I interned at numerous companies to get a feel for what industry, company size, and career path I enjoyed. I learned that I love continuously learning. I wanted to be in a role that would allow me to put on numerous hats and learn an immense amount of skills. I started my career at an ad-tech company on the Business Operations team. Wanting to try something new, I entered a new role at a small fin-tech company. During this job, I met my two co-founders at The Scribes! We constantly talked about how we want to be doing more, learning more, and thinking about what we could do to solve that. One day on one of our typical daily coffee runs, the idea of The Scribes was born. I like to think all three of us have similar work ethics, motivation, and entrepreneurial spirits which led us to be great friends and now co-founders.
Mike Reiney: Alden, Pooja, and I met at our former jobs in the fin-tech industry. We were often in the same strategic meetings representing different business units. We felt like the note-takers in the room. On Wednesdays, the company’s leadership team would head off to lunch and be gone 2-3 hours. We’d go have our own lunch where we really got to know each other and discuss things we were interested in. Alden has always been the creative one. He’s able to take ideas and turn them into something. I bring a little experience in sales and marketing and Pooja is the glue that keeps us together. We spent 4-5 months kicking around different ideas and ultimately decided on journals. These would be perfect for the fast-paced, hyperactive world we live in. We launched the business on November 8, 2019, and we’ve been busy ever since!
How do you use your Scribe journal?
AB: I use my Scribe to scratch down notes. I never found myself to be very methodical with my Scribe. It’s more of a tool I can grab at any moment to jot stuff down. If you were to open it up and read through my Scribes it’d consist of more everyday notes and less of a story. I’ve used it to sketch out designs, take measurements for a bike I was building, and notes on recipes.
PP: I typically keep two different journals. One for personal use where I track my goals, events, personal to-do lists, and daily habits. In my work journal, I write down my weekly goals, daily to-do lists, and meeting notes. For this journal, I like to experiment with new ones that we might have. Currently, I’m using the Essential Scribe but I’m looking forward to breaking open our improved Original Scribe.
MR: I’m a big fan of to-do lists so I use my journal to track what I need to accomplish. I try to sit down with myself for a few minutes each day or an hour per week to check in with how I’m doing mentally and emotionally. I write about it. It’s interesting to look back and see how I was feeling on a given day and compare that to what we’ve been able to accomplish. I really believe that daily checklists and to-do lists, combined with frequent reflection give us a good sense of what we’ve accomplished and help us stay focused.
What’s one thing you didn’t know about owning a business that you do now?
AB: Learning to fail and be okay with it. If everything was easy in business it wouldn’t make it fun. Learning there are hurdles to get over makes the adventure more interesting. The ups and downs are the things you come to enjoy. Every day you wake up you know it’ll throw something unexpected at you. My outside perspective of people like Jeff Bezos or Bill Gates before starting The Scribes was that they always had billion-dollar companies. But the more you learn about business, the more you understand they too had challenges even though we don’t directly see them.
PP: Don’t be afraid to ask for help. Companies hire and ask for outside help all the time. The reason we become entrepreneurs is to continue to learn something new every day. At times we might need extra help with learning and it’s okay to get some extra help in the areas you and your partners don’t excel in.
MR: I always thought of “entrepreneurs” or small business owners as people who executed on a good idea. What I didn’t know was how many ups and downs there’d be, how many times you’d have to pivot on your idea, and how creative you had to be. Being a founder can be incredibly hard and lonely too. Feedback is hard to come by so you really have to believe in yourself. You have to be relentlessly creative in order to make things happen.
Tell us how giving back has made an impact on your life?
AB: I believe the give back portion of The Scribes provides purpose to the company. When you build a company that directly impacts another life your motives shift. That’s allowed us to focus more on the important things. We’re on this earth together and no one person is different from the other. The culture within The Scribes has always felt more like a “we” culture than a “me” one. We want to leave the earth a better place than the way we entered it.
PP: I’m a huge believer that mentorship programs are a great resource for students and young adults throughout their educational and professional journey. We’ve been able to donate to a couple of organizations that specifically focus on mentorship programs. I’m excited to see how all of these mentees use their journals.
MR: Giving back has always been important to me and my family. We all realized how important it is to lend a hand when you can and to live a life that serves a greater purpose. Each time we launch a new product or market ourselves through a new channel, we think about how those decisions allow us to give back and stay true to our mission. Being a mission-focused brand has helped us stay centered during what has been a really challenging few months. We were able to get Huntsville, Alabama (where I was living during quarantine) 500+ journals to students in the community.
What advice would you give to aspiring entrepreneurs?
AB: Do what makes you happy and create something you’re proud of. Embrace the challenges and be passionate about what you do. There will be good days and bad, but recognizing that every company faces these hurdles makes the challenges more digestible. If you can get excited about what you do, you’ll find that nothing can get in the way. Always remember why you do something. Sometimes you’ll feel like you’ve detached yourself from the reason and love for what you do. Take a second to reflect on the reasons and rationale behind everything you do.
PP: You are your own boss. You’ll have weeks where you feel like you didn’t accomplish anything. You’ll have weeks where it feels like your business is changing for the better. One helpful skill to learn early on is to balance the tactical work with the strategic work. I like to create goals for myself on a weekly basis. These are goals that might not be aligned with my partners but something I want to work on that might streamline something or move the business forward. Daily to-do lists help me balance tactical work with more strategic projects.
MR: Don’t start your own business if you expect it to go super well, super fast. You must be committed to the business, product, or service before you take the leap. However, this doesn’t mean you need to have all of the answers at the beginning. Ultimately, you have to take the leap of faith and be excited to solve the problems as they arise.
Learn more about The Scribes and their amazing mission on their website. And make sure to follow them on Instagram for new products and company news.
