Uplift & Wonder
Dear friend,
This is an invitation to join me on my marvellous mission to bring Uplift & Wonder to the world and improve spiritual wellbeing for everyone.
I am proud to share this proposal with you, which presents an opportunity to invest in my business Uplifting Products.
The art of relaxation!
Six years ago I set about making the most beautiful object I could imagine.
Uplift is a solar powered sculpture designed to soothe the soul.
Independently financed and developed with an original, protected design. The first generation Uplift was handmade in walnut and launched on Kickstarter in 2018, selling over 500 units and finding many new friends, including Calm.
Each Uplift was handmade by me and delivered to homes all across the globe, receiving universal acclaim and giving me the impetus to keep following my heart.
The second generation Uplift transforms waste Cornish fishing nets into a sustainably made spiral that elegantly demonstrates the power of regenerative design — also showcased by Calm who kindly supported our social media awareness campaign.
This is the story of how they both came to be.
Uplift 2.0 was also launched on Kickstarter and saw its popularity rise through the pandemic, selling over 2,000 units directly through our website beuplifted.co.uk (with an average 4.79/5 star review). I hand assembled each and every unit — building rarity and prestige into the brand.
“Wowzer, Tom has done it again! Uplift 2.0 captures the essence of the regenerative future; she runs on sunlight, turns waste material into timeless art, and calms the spirit as she spins. Just beautiful!”
Kate Raworth, Doughnut Economics
In developing Uplift 2.0 and needing to prove the process for injection moulding with pure waste marine nylon I was supported by my business partner Nick Pascoe, a friend and customer of Uplift and who wanted to get involved to help me shape the project into a viable small business — bringing investment and experience in business operations. With a pre-seed capital investment we founded Uplifting Products Ltd in July 2019.
“Wow! This is so beautiful and brilliant. I absolutely love it… I’m absolutely wild about this. It ticks every box: it’s clever, beautiful, meditative, and thought-provoking“
Brian Eno
With a very modest marketing budget — but bags of appeal and lots of hard work — we gained huge awareness for both products, building a fabulous reputation and an impressive list of fans, including Jamie Oliver, Chris Ramsay, Reverend Richard Coles, Julia Bradbury, Derren Brown, Suzi Perry, Fearne Cotton, NASA, Sir David Attenborough, The Muscle Help Foundation, Badly Drawn Boy and many more! Scroll backwards to take a look at our Uplift instagram.
Uplifting Products
Our intention with Uplifting Products is to lift people’s spirits and to grow a business based in the UK with a specialism in the design and manufacture of unique, moving design/art pieces, which simply & naturally inspire people to unwind.
With conscious creativity we pride ourselves on making soulful designs that elegantly endure and stand the test of time.
In four years we have developed two exceptional products, proving manufacturing viability and market potential — with very little resource. We have ironed out most kinks with our production design and supply chain — there is some further optimisation required.
All designs are protected by a portfolio of intellectual property that spans internationally registered designs, pending patents and trademarks. We also own industrial tooling, unique process know-how and hold strategic manufacturing relationships that deter market entry.
Upon sharing Uplift extensively in person and online we have discovered the powerful therapeutic effect of its mesmerising movement on others and realised that it’s purpose goes way beyond just being an ornamental design.
Through this continued investigation into visual harmonics, I was inspired to create Wonder, which accompanies Uplift in our portfolio, giving us two iconic designs.
Wonder
Enjoy peace of mind and the art of doing nothing.
Wonder dynamically stirs a sense of peaceful transcendence with its continuous state of flow, echoing the rhythms of life on earth and in the cosmos, where the only constant is change.
“It’s like a cosmic orgasm”
Paris Ackrill, Co-founder Avalon Wellbeing
Wonder is a vision five years in the making. From philosophy, through meditation and movement comes the pinnacle of human expression, the unfolding creative spirit. Original & bold, consistent & calm.
Wonder began with a quest — the desire to create the most relaxing object in the world. The result, is quite simply… out of this world!
“Wonder is perhaps the greatest ever expression of Heraclitus’s insight that ‘the only constant is change’ — it is a masterpiece in motion”
Dr Iain McGilchrist
“Utterly spellbinding” — Norman Cook (Fat Boy Slim)
New beginnings unfold with Wonder — a scalable design available in three wondrous offerings.
Baby, Big and Giant Wonder.
Baby Wonder
Designed for home and studio use.
“Wonder is an absolute joy to behold. I am ecstatic.”
Rory Sutherland, Chairman of Ogilvy
“I love my Wonder. It’s a mesmerising and magical work of art by the creative genius @tomlawton”
Michael Acton Smith, co-founder of Calm
View Baby Wonder in your space with our AR App on iPhone & Android
“Wonder has begun its simple yet complex journey of weaving our hearts together globally. Two young girls were in the shop yesterday, one was transfixed upon Wonder. I asked her how it made her FEEL? She stated ‘peaceful’. In this day and age, this is one of the greatest gifts we can offer people, a means of returning home to their true north, themself! Into their own bodies. I am honoured to be another node in a giant web Wonder is beginning to weave. It’s light, it’s vibrational and its silent yet profound presence has so much to teach us and our awakening hearts.”
Kelly Brown — Qigong teacher and owner of InnerLight store in Pittsburgh.
Big Wonder
Designed for wellbeing spaces.
The first Big Wonder is permanently installed and on public display at Malmesbury Abbey where it stands for all time attracting visitors from around the world.
“Enigmatic, mysterious and beautiful.
Tom’s incredible creation echoes DNA and has the essence of infinity & eternity.
The medieval chapel at Malmesbury Abbey seems the most befitting place for Wonder to find its first ever home. Here in the heart of our town for the marvel and enjoyment of us all.”
Reverend Oliver Ross, Malmesbury Abbey
Multiple Big Wonders have been purchased by the Museum of Illusions for front window installation as the ‘master illusion’ in their flagship location — on the strip in Las Vegas, which goes live in September 2023. Other MOI Wonder locations include Seattle, San Diego and Copenhagen, which all go live by the end of 2023. There is the potential to roll out into over 60 other global sites.
Giant Wonder
Designed for extraordinary private and public spaces.
The first Giant Wonder has already been privately comissioned in Bronze — on a stainless steel mirrored turntable. Bespoke plinths are made to order.
With R&D complete and a specialist foundry partner established in Germany, this iconic sized Wonder opens up exciting new opportunities to realise our dream of improving spiritual wellbeing for everyone.
How we came so far?
Wonder was realised as a side project through 2020 and was presented to the public on Tom’s instagram in January 2021… the response has been phenomenal and Wonder continues to self-generate interest wherever she goes.
Trending on the front page of Reddit in March 2021 the internet turned on to Wonder’s magical and mesmerising appeal.
Highlights of this viral awareness include this excellent documentary by You Tuber Chris Ramsay who comissioned his own Big Wonder.
We achieved over 400 pre-order sales for Baby Wonder, which has enabled us to set up manufacturing and we have already shipped the first 150 pieces.
Every day more people discover Wonder and her appeal is as potent as day one. For example, in the past few weeks a short video by veteran television presenter Timmy Mallet has achieved over 5.4M views (typically Timmy gets 1–3K views for his videos). Just look at the engagment in the comments! This is the power of Wonder.
On receiving his Baby Wonder this summer, Jamie Oliver has already been inspired to write his next Children’s book about Wonder’s magical effect of weaving hearts & minds and bringing us into harmony with the rhythm of nature.
We have made many extraordinary new connections and have garnered lots of support through a currency of kindness and good will.
Our Plan
Together, Uplift & Wonder present a unique opportunity to grow our business, but we have come as far as we can without taking further investment, which we are seeking in order to expand our team, streamline both products and begin a strategic marketing campaign to secure consistent sales and generate more impact.
Uplift has only a few barriers to increased volume production whereas Wonder will be available in limited editions for the forseeable future.
We are seeking investment to:
- Further protect our Intellectual Property portfolio.
- Finalise improvements to Baby Wonder and get Uplift 3.0 ready for launch.
- Purchase Uplift stock to fulfil a wave of new orders and establish new sales channels.
- Employ Tom’s apprentice Nandhit Reddy as a full time design assistant, remunerate the team for all future work, engage part time assembly workers and customer support.
- Re-build our website and integrate with a comprehensive social media marketing plan — to be coordinated and driven by Socialise Digital.
- Produce high quality film & marketing assets for all products.
- Enrich our installation at Malmesbury Abbey, prepare Giant Wonder for exhibition and generate further PR.
- We would love to open a factory shop here in the Cotswolds. We’d love to tour Wonder around the world and we’d love to make a documentary… but streamlining product and steadying sales is our first priority.
Everywhere we go people love to experience Wonder and everyone wants to own an Uplift.
The Opportunity
We are looking for an investor — someone who is excited about both products, with where we are going and who resonates with our values — someone who can bring capital investment, bring their expertise and help us to open up new strategic relationships while enjoying sharing the uplifting benefits of this remarkable body of work.
We are looking for an investment of £250K–1M in return for a 5–25% share in our business.
This proposal is an invitation for you to join us.
We are presently shaping an investment deck, sales & marketing plan and are beginning to talk with interested parties. As somebody I admire deeply and would relish having as part of my team, I would be honoured if you would be willing to explore this conversation with us.
Yours sincerely
Tom Lawton FRSA
