THE IDEA
Our Tampa Startup Consulting Company Sat Down With Three Forks And Listened.
Christian Knutzen, a retiring US Army Green Beret and Chris Kelley, a recently retired US Navy SEAL are the founders of a brand new company focused on international wood reclamation – Three Forks Wood Reclamation.
Together, they’ve dedicated 58 years of service to our country and throughout that time, they were part of elite teams working in faraway places working side by side with other nations to solve very difficult problems, while also enjoying the opportunity of being immersed in diverse and vibrant cultures.
After military retirement and no longer part of the Big Green machine, they wanted to find a way to stay connected with their global partners and friends to create a business focused on sustainability – and staying a little “green” – while also sharing the history and culture of these faraway places with customers in the US. So, they are now embarking on a new mission – Three Forks Wood Reclamation.
Three Forks specializes in hard-to-find and one-of-a-kind overseas wood reclamation, sourcing unique structures with rich histories from around the world.
Unlike traditional reclaimed wood currently repurposed in the US which may be about 100 years old without much character or connection, our sites from the Old World come with an incredible story that our customers will want to tell for years to come.
We document the discovery, disassembly, and journey of each structure, capturing its history, heritage, and original use. Our teams are composed of fellow veterans – foreign partners or US expats – who serve as local project managers, ensuring the cultural significance of each piece is preserved.
THE PROJECT
Startup Street worked with the Three Forks to develop the items needed to launch with confidence, a great brand and a solid understanding of what the growth will look like.
Items to Tackle:
- Business Plan: Three Forks had their business plan started, but needed some fine tuning in terms of further developing the offer in an easier to understand manner.
- The Brand: The startup was in need of logo design, website design and the underlying brand strategy.
- Presentations: Three Forks required professionally designed presentations for their clients.
- Streamline Projects and Information: We needed to create an organized approach to finding new projects, onboarding new projects, and marketing new projects, along with streamlining features and benefits, project onboarding processes, post project deliverables and more.
- Marketing: Once the project was finished, how would the startup get in front of their target market and stand out in the marketplace.
The Results
Business Plan: Startup Street created a condensed five page business plan that provides both a clear understanding of the company and also a solid point of reference for the company going forward.
The Brand: Startup Street created a brand that was first and foremost professional, being that Three Forks is selling their product business to business. We wanted to create a brand that was professional, yet captured the essence of adventure (sourcing the projects) and high end design (architecture, high end home development, etc). This was achieved through the brand messaging while also creating a design infrastructure that while clean, featured a color palette that represented an “outdoors” brand, along with amazing landscape imagery. This combination created the type of impression that we were looking for.
The Logo: The logo features the letters T and F, while also resembling the outline of a property, or a barn, into a clean and identifiable brand mark. The font for the logo was Astoria Roman, which provides the brand with character and emotion, through its “classical-modern’ design elements. The T and F for three forks also has an underlying meaning of “Task Force”, which ties in the military experience of the founders.
Note: Double Entendre: a sentence or phrase where there are two possible interpretations.” Not all logos are capable of capturing two relevant thoughts or features at once, but if possible, this angle adds significant power to a logo/brand mark. The Three Forks brand captures the first letters of the main two words, frames out a structure (barn) while also incorporating “Task Force” into the concept. Logos are meant to be subtly interesting. If they have a story to tell, even better.
Streamline Projects: The appropriate information was organized into a cohesive internal game plan for the startup, and also allowed for cohesive messaging through the website. All projects were categorized according to country, wood type, timbers vs planks, along with detailed specs (provided by Three Forks) of the finished product, onto one main “Projects” page that featured the appropriate drop down filters.
Each project page was set up as an organized template, that creates a consistent approach for end users while allowing the company to easily add more projects in the future. Each project page consists of the main project features, and then moves into the company features and benefits and project deliverables.
Global Map: In order to emphasize the global nature of Three Forks, Startup Street create a map feature on the home page with pulsing heat spots for each country of origin. This map was designed to fit with the brand, while the heat spots allow for end users to click and view the projects in that country. This is a great interactive feature of the website that helps to elevate the overall brand for Three Forks.
Note: Just like every great song has that one certain part of the song that just grabs ya, every website should have at least one feature that makes those looking at it say “wow, that’s pretty cool”. This is not an easy process as it’s a fine line between awesome and cheesy/trying too hard, but it’s an endeavor worth exploring on your next website development project.
Presentations: Startup Street designed clean, professional and on-brand PDF presentations that are attached to each project page, while also allowing Three Forks to email potential clients with the specific details of projects if required. You can view three of these presentations here:
Note: The need for a clean, professional design when selling B2B cannot be overstated. Great design is a bit like art - It’s hard to describe great art, but you know it when you see it - and it’s easily detectable by prospective clients, providing instant insight into the professional nature of the company. As the saying goes, there is only one chance at a first impression. Your startup consultant should always be able to either advise or point you to the right direction when it comes to understanding design.
Marketing: Through various discussions over the course of the website development project, Startup Street and Three Forks determined a cost-effective outreach strategy to place the startup in front of their desired clientele, mainly being interior designers, architects and high end home builders.
CONCLUSION
Through a dedicated process of startup consulting that included business development, brand development, offer development, logo design and website development, Three Forks is set to hit the ground running. As of this article the feedback on their company and website has been nothing less than amazing, and we’re excited to see where this company is in five years!
Startup Consulting
Startup Street LLC is a startup consulting and branding agency, focused on new ventures and growth oriented companies, located at 3024 W Swann Ave, Tampa Florida 33609.
For more information on how Startup Street can help you through startup consulting, website development, video production and branding, please fill out our contact form here:
