- D
Dear friends, family and fellow humans,
This letter is not easy to write, but I feel it may be one of the most important in my life.
A RouteArrow is a sign. Well it’s technically a sticker. It’s a bright, colorful arrow, a signal to someone that they are on the “right path”. It says “keep going, this way”.
My dad, Randall Braun, invented RouteArrows to help events guide people. To give them easy directions, so they could enjoy a route, without constantly looking at their map.
My dad is a selfless man, not just for this, but for many other things. One of the most important to me in my life was his choice to live close-by after my parents divorce, when I was 2 years old.
He found a house as close as he could, that he could afford in the Bay Area, which ended up being a mobile home. He never showed embarrassment for this. He was doing what he needed to do to be in my life as much as he possibly could. When his father passed away, he could finally make a down payment on a new mobile home. Shortly after this, his leg went through the floor at a construction job. This injury and his aging body finally said “we’re done doing manual labor”.
Luckily, on the side he had been prototyping and building a small business called RouteArrows.com. He took a leap of faith and decided to switch careers at 58 years old, he wanted to help bicycling events “do a great job”. As a lifelong cyclist, and author of three books about the best and most beautiful roads in California to bike, he wanted to change the way things were done.
So many people told him that it wouldn’t work, that spray paint is cheaper, that chalk is good enough. But he knew they would come to see that that was not true, and many of them did. RouteArrows grew and grew, slowly and steadily. He didn’t make a lot, and he spent his retirement on trying to build this business. He invented and invested in products to make the task of marking a route easier and more efficient.
My dad prides himself on providing products that help event participants not get lost, so they can relax, enjoy the scenery, breathe the fresh air and unwind. He knows that nature helps people be themselves and find clarity and peace, like it does for him.
As a little girl I helped him make those first prototypes. I watched him sell to all 50 states, and then internationally. I watched as running events started using RouteArrows as much as cycling events. Then I went to college. Leaving home as an only child is hard, but I knew it was harder for him.
Between studying, I started helping with social media (millennial skills) and other little things so that he could show me the ropes. I slowly started wearing more hats, and now we work together almost everyday, or whenever I can, after my other jobs. Like our website says, it’s become a “father-daughter business”. We’re now partners, in helping memorial cancer fundraisers, small town running clubs, and meals-on-wheels, put on great events. Maybe I’ll become as selfless, brave, and inventive as him when I’m older. I know he would say I already am.
In 2016, because the business wasn’t “big” and his (9.25%) house payments were “large”, he took out a small business loan in hopes that hiring a marketing professional might help him boost sales. Because they didn’t understand his unique business, the return on investment was a total loss. This set back, along with the increasing cost of living in the Bay Area became a growing burden. He’d rent out my old room to help with bills, always feeling challenged by the threat of having to leave the place he’s called home his whole life. Our family came to California 6 generations before me. For him, the Silicon Valley is an evolved, yet familiar foundation. It isn’t the apricot orchards of his childhood, but the redwoods he rides his bike by haven’t changed.
At the end of 2019 our biggest sale came in, the fundraising arm of a major medical condition organization bought RouteArrows for every one of their chapter’s fundraising running events across the nation. At this point due to the high interest rate of loans on a mobile home, he had already “paid for the house twice” while in-park property values barely grew. Nonetheless, the future looked bright, and the potential for my dad to put something away for retirement grew.
Covid-19 hit us like a truck. Our sales dropped to zero within a week.
We pivoted. We got hopeful, emailing hundreds of farmers markets as we thought they could use RouteArrows for guiding people through socially distanced booths. They used chalk.
We reached out to Schools, some bought RouteArrows, as they thought they would go back in the fall. Remote learning continued.
Our reach - not big enough. Not enough sales.
Barely keeping his nose above water.
He got mortgage forbearance, a disaster relief loan, PPP, and we applied for a relief grant - “waitlisted”. Only temporary relief.
Unexpected car expenses, balloon payments due, “no refi options for mobile homes on rented land”, “self employed income doesn’t qualify as income”.
We’ve held our breath.
We’ve held onto hope.
2020 was on track to be our best year yet.
2021 began with the banks and mortgage company saying he didn’t have a lot of time left.
We’re running out of time.
This letter is asking for money.
It’s also asking you to be a RouteArrow.
A sign that says keep going,
you’re on the right path.
With this money, my dad will avoid foreclosure.
It will give him the opportunity to grow his business, invest in products he’s already invented and prototyped.
It will give him a chance to start saving for retirement, as long as events continue to come back in the next couple years. Which may then allow me to have a paid position, not just a volunteer.
This would be a life changing gift.
Thank you for reading, donating, and sharing.
Every dollar counts. Every share ripples out.
I appreciate each of you so much.
Love,
Roslyn Braun
This letter is not easy to write, but I feel it may be one of the most important in my life.
A RouteArrow is a sign. Well it’s technically a sticker. It’s a bright, colorful arrow, a signal to someone that they are on the “right path”. It says “keep going, this way”.
My dad, Randall Braun, invented RouteArrows to help events guide people. To give them easy directions, so they could enjoy a route, without constantly looking at their map.
My dad is a selfless man, not just for this, but for many other things. One of the most important to me in my life was his choice to live close-by after my parents divorce, when I was 2 years old.
He found a house as close as he could, that he could afford in the Bay Area, which ended up being a mobile home. He never showed embarrassment for this. He was doing what he needed to do to be in my life as much as he possibly could. When his father passed away, he could finally make a down payment on a new mobile home. Shortly after this, his leg went through the floor at a construction job. This injury and his aging body finally said “we’re done doing manual labor”.
Luckily, on the side he had been prototyping and building a small business called RouteArrows.com. He took a leap of faith and decided to switch careers at 58 years old, he wanted to help bicycling events “do a great job”. As a lifelong cyclist, and author of three books about the best and most beautiful roads in California to bike, he wanted to change the way things were done.
So many people told him that it wouldn’t work, that spray paint is cheaper, that chalk is good enough. But he knew they would come to see that that was not true, and many of them did. RouteArrows grew and grew, slowly and steadily. He didn’t make a lot, and he spent his retirement on trying to build this business. He invented and invested in products to make the task of marking a route easier and more efficient.
My dad prides himself on providing products that help event participants not get lost, so they can relax, enjoy the scenery, breathe the fresh air and unwind. He knows that nature helps people be themselves and find clarity and peace, like it does for him.
As a little girl I helped him make those first prototypes. I watched him sell to all 50 states, and then internationally. I watched as running events started using RouteArrows as much as cycling events. Then I went to college. Leaving home as an only child is hard, but I knew it was harder for him.
Between studying, I started helping with social media (millennial skills) and other little things so that he could show me the ropes. I slowly started wearing more hats, and now we work together almost everyday, or whenever I can, after my other jobs. Like our website says, it’s become a “father-daughter business”. We’re now partners, in helping memorial cancer fundraisers, small town running clubs, and meals-on-wheels, put on great events. Maybe I’ll become as selfless, brave, and inventive as him when I’m older. I know he would say I already am.
In 2016, because the business wasn’t “big” and his (9.25%) house payments were “large”, he took out a small business loan in hopes that hiring a marketing professional might help him boost sales. Because they didn’t understand his unique business, the return on investment was a total loss. This set back, along with the increasing cost of living in the Bay Area became a growing burden. He’d rent out my old room to help with bills, always feeling challenged by the threat of having to leave the place he’s called home his whole life. Our family came to California 6 generations before me. For him, the Silicon Valley is an evolved, yet familiar foundation. It isn’t the apricot orchards of his childhood, but the redwoods he rides his bike by haven’t changed.
At the end of 2019 our biggest sale came in, the fundraising arm of a major medical condition organization bought RouteArrows for every one of their chapter’s fundraising running events across the nation. At this point due to the high interest rate of loans on a mobile home, he had already “paid for the house twice” while in-park property values barely grew. Nonetheless, the future looked bright, and the potential for my dad to put something away for retirement grew.
Covid-19 hit us like a truck. Our sales dropped to zero within a week.
We pivoted. We got hopeful, emailing hundreds of farmers markets as we thought they could use RouteArrows for guiding people through socially distanced booths. They used chalk.
We reached out to Schools, some bought RouteArrows, as they thought they would go back in the fall. Remote learning continued.
Our reach - not big enough. Not enough sales.
Barely keeping his nose above water.
He got mortgage forbearance, a disaster relief loan, PPP, and we applied for a relief grant - “waitlisted”. Only temporary relief.
Unexpected car expenses, balloon payments due, “no refi options for mobile homes on rented land”, “self employed income doesn’t qualify as income”.
We’ve held our breath.
We’ve held onto hope.
2020 was on track to be our best year yet.
2021 began with the banks and mortgage company saying he didn’t have a lot of time left.
We’re running out of time.
This letter is asking for money.
It’s also asking you to be a RouteArrow.
A sign that says keep going,
you’re on the right path.
With this money, my dad will avoid foreclosure.
It will give him the opportunity to grow his business, invest in products he’s already invented and prototyped.
It will give him a chance to start saving for retirement, as long as events continue to come back in the next couple years. Which may then allow me to have a paid position, not just a volunteer.
This would be a life changing gift.
Thank you for reading, donating, and sharing.
Every dollar counts. Every share ripples out.
I appreciate each of you so much.
Love,
Roslyn Braun
Organizer and beneficiary
Randall Braun
Beneficiary