Treinta y Siete Grados: The Ideal Temperature Delivered to Your Hands
Estimated reading time: 8 Min
Bogotá is cold, sometimes rainy, and always unpredictable. The weather here is alive—it shifts, plays with Bogotanos, and more than once catches them off guard. That is why Pablo Buenahora, Juan José Buenahora, Luisa Navarro, Pablo Restrepo, and Daniel Montoya created Treinta y Siete Grados, a 100% Colombian venture that wants every resident of this magical city to stay warm at the ideal temperature for the human body.
The story of Treinta y Siete Grados is that of five young entrepreneurs who identified a market niche, offered a solution, and are also building a brand that is environmentally responsible, socially committed, and backed by flawless logistics. To do that, they sought support from Cubbo. This is their story!
Frank: How was Treinta y Siete Grados born, and why?
Pablo Buenahora: Treinta y Siete Grados was born for two reasons: first, we wanted to put into practice what we were learning at university, because we founded it while we were still studying our respective degrees and we wanted a way to apply what we were learning.
And second, we saw a market opportunity to give people something that had no solution and that could give us a niche. The product was originally born as a solution for people in Bogotá, by giving them a garment that is easy to carry, very versatile and dynamic, but that also helps them handle the extreme and ever-changing weather we have here. Because you can have a very sunny morning and, within minutes, end up in torrential rain.
That was originally what we wanted with our jackets, and today we have been able to expand our portfolio much further. In addition to windbreakers, we now have rain jackets, coats, and we will soon launch T-shirts.
We also wanted to differentiate ourselves in some way by adding a very special characteristic: we gave our clothing a lot of color because we want Treinta y Siete Grados garments to convey that color and that passion, to brighten the lives of all our customers.
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Frank: What year was Treinta y Siete Grados founded?
Pablo Buenahora: It was founded in February 2019. Here in Colombia there is a very large music festival called Estéreo Picnic, and what we wanted was to launch the jackets in time for that festival because, given the protection against all kinds of weather and the color of the garments, it was the perfect setting for that famous "Hello World" moment to introduce ourselves.
That is why it was born around those dates, with a very small investment—a student budget—with which we had about 100 jackets made and sold them in three days. And from February 2019 to today, it has been three years of a lot of effort and a lot of learning.
Frank: Did you start before the Covid crisis?
Pablo Buenahora: Yes, a year and a half before Covid. During Covid, in the first two months sales came to a complete halt, but surprisingly they recovered much faster than we expected, and by June/July we were already reaching sales levels that left us in a fairly good position, considering everything that was happening.
Frank: Did you start as an ecommerce business or with a physical store first?
Pablo Buenahora: We have always been an ecommerce business. In fact, our vision has always been to stay in ecommerce. We have done very well online. What we do to show our products in person is attend well-known, large trade shows to display the product physically. But for now, we have done very well as an ecommerce business.
Frank: How has logistics worked out? Because I understand you already sell throughout Colombia.
Pablo Buenahora: That's right. And I want to take this opportunity to thank Cubbo and say that it has been precisely with Cubbo that we have been able to bring our product to all of Colombia. But yes, we started in Bogotá in a very hands-on way: we delivered the jackets ourselves and handled local deliveries. We were wearing every hat. Doing every job and covering every area of the business.
Then, as we saw that the product was well received and could adapt to the needs of other regions—because this is a product that was originally designed for Bogotá—we started to expand. We began giving customers in other regions of Colombia the opportunity to buy our products. And today, thanks to Cubbo, we know that a customer anywhere in Colombia can go to the website, buy whatever products they want, and Cubbo will deliver them.
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Frank: Pablo, how many of you are there at Treinta y Siete Grados? Because from what you're telling me, it's a small team.
Pablo Buenahora: We are a small company in headcount, but not in business terms. Fortunately, we have been able to grow a lot since our early days at the business level. In terms of people, we are four founders and six other people who work with us. We are few in people, but we have grown tremendously at the business level.
Frank: Where does the name Treinta y Siete Grados come from?
Pablo Buenahora: Treinta y Siete Grados is the ideal temperature of the human body. So we built the entire brand concept around that figure—37 degrees Celsius. That is why our products are designed so the body is always at that temperature, at the ideal temperature.
Now, since we started with the first windbreakers, we have moved toward more complete products that keep the same goal but add extra comfort features. For example, we have developed jackets for much colder environments, with waterproof inner linings; we have made coats and rain jackets, hoodies, and we will launch T-shirts. Everything under the concept of treinta y siete grados.
Efficiency and clarity to protect profitability
One of the words Pablo repeats is "efficiency." The concept is a fundamental part of how Treinta y Siete Grados operates—something absolutely necessary for a company so small in staff but so big in concept.
And that efficiency comes from knowing what you can control, what you need to learn to control, and what is better left in the hands of professionals.
Logistics was precisely one of the things Treinta y Siete Grados correctly calculated should be placed in expert hands. That is why they turned to Cubbo.
Frank: How did you find Cubbo?
Pablo Buenahora: It happened for several reasons. First, Cubbo offered a model we had been looking for for a while. Because we are so few, we need to be very efficient with our resources. In that sense, the time we dedicate to the company has to generate the greatest impact and the greatest positive change possible.
So transportation and logistics was something we wanted to outsource, and we thought that by doing so it would give us more opportunities to maximize business efficiency, improve, and grow as a company.
That is why Cubbo was something we were looking for. The truth is that a competitor in Colombia had offered us a similar model, but when we saw that Cubbo had arrived in Colombia on LinkedIn, we reached out. And the truth is that it was love at first sight, and we have been very happy to this day.
Frank: Was there anything you asked Cubbo for as a condition to work with them?
Pablo Buenahora: No. But I do think we were among their first clients here in Colombia, and what we really liked was that they helped us from the very beginning of the process. And we appreciate that a lot. Because we are a brand that is growing and we are still learning everything, and that guidance from Cubbo, that support, is something we value. I think that accompaniment they gave us was the best part: they never left us alone or made us feel alone at any point.
Frank: What are your business goals right now?
Pablo Buenahora: First, we want to consolidate sales and company management a bit so it allows us to expand the team. Not because things are going badly, but because that way we can increase the company's development capacity and invest in products that are more innovative in features that go beyond design, which remains our strong point.
Second, and probably one of the most important things we are looking for, is to expand our presence outside Colombia—in particular, in Mexico. And third, I think it would be to focus on implementing manufacturing processes and material use that are much more sustainable, because one of the most important issues we have at Treinta y Siete Grados is that we understand the wear and damage our culture and our way of consuming cause the planet.
Frank: What advice would you give a Colombian entrepreneur who wants to launch their own business?
Pablo Buenahora: Several things: first, thinking precisely about the Cubbo case and how it helped us, I would say not to focus on what you don't know how to do. And especially today, when it is so easy to find professional solutions for the things you don't know how to do—as we did with Cubbo—so you can free yourself to focus on what you do know how to do well. I would say that is where you should start.
And second, entrepreneurship is a matter of sacrifice, but in the medium and long term it has many, many positive effects. That is why I recommend not letting your guard down, not giving up, and finding something you are passionate about so you can put all your energy into day-to-day work and eventually see your business not as a job, but as a passion. And when you are passionate about something, you transmit that happiness to other people—and that is a sign of success.
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During 2021 at Cubbo:
* Our clients recorded 21% savings in operating costs
* 97.1% of products received were processed and ready to sell within 24 hours.
* We achieved a 99.7% shipping fulfillment rate
* We recorded 99.9875% order preparation accuracy—that is, 1 error every 8,000 shipments.
* 60% of our deliveries in Mexico City were made the same day
* We completed nationwide deliveries in an average of 1.3 days
