Seed for Success | Empowering Women Entreprenuers

http://www.ny1.com:80/ny1/content/index.jsp?stid=21&aid=81336

Hi:

It’s Tamar — Dana’s business partner and co-founder of Dapple.

Starting a business can be tough. There are unanticipated obstacles around every corner and all too often many closed doors.

But then there are also plenty unexpected moments of delight. And those moments overshadow and outshine everything else.

One such moment came a couple of days ago when we received an email from Lynette Damir Founder and CEO of Swaddle Designs (http://www.swaddledesigns.com). Making and selling stylish and amazing blankets (Dana and I are huge fans), Lynette has turned her idea into a multimillion dollar business in just a couple of years.

Lynette had read about Dapple on the Seeds for Success site and she liked our idea. So, in addition to posting an encouraging comment on our blog, she sent us an email full of tips on how to build a successful business in the baby world.

Carolyn Kepcher makes the case for a mentor in her blog and concludes by saying “And then someday, become a mentor yourself, and pay it forward.”

Entrepreneurs like Lynette, have made the experience of starting a business so much more rewarding for us and Dana and I hope that one day we will be able to advise a fledgling business and pay it forward .

Tamar

First off, thanks for the wonderful comments.
Dawn you are absolutely right. Our website is www.dapplebaby.com.
Everyone: please visit and sign up for our mailing list.
Max Singford: Congratulations on your triplets! You must be even busier than we are now. Send us your address to info@dapplebaby.com and we will send you some Dapple for your many bottles.

Now here’s what we’ve been up to:

This week had been a real whirlwind for us.

We officially launched Dapple in several baby stores in Manhattan. Check out our dapple locator http://www.dapplebaby.com/index.php?locator
We are hitting the other boroughs in the next days and will be updating the locator daily. So please stay tuned.

Thanks to the great PR team working with Yahoo!, we had an interview with Reuters yesterday and will be filmed for a segment on NY1 next week. We were also approached with some exciting national press opportunities and will let you know what happens.

Yahoo! has paired us up with an incredible web agency. We started working with Scott Smigler and his team from Exclusive Concepts on building a comprehensive and completely original web strategy for Dapple. Scott has amazing energy and we can’t wait to see where he takes Dapple online.

On the new product development front, we are choosing packaging for our toy-cleaner spray and wipes. We will post the different options that we have narrowed down on this site shortly so you all can let us know which you prefer. We’d love your input.

Back to work,
Dana

It is 3:30 am. It’s been a crazy day and I just realized that I am out of clean bottles. Judging by the noises coming from the crib, Maya is in no mood to wait for her milk. As I am standing at the sink, rinsing and re-rinsing bottles, I am thinking to myself: “There’s gotta be a better way to wash baby bottles, without having to worry about the soap left behind, the lingering odor and the persistent milk residue.” The problem is: There isn’t.

The next morning over triple shot lattes (a girl who cleans bottles at 3:30 am needs her caffeine) my friend Tamar and I discuss the matter. Tamar has two small kids and her oldest is highly allergic. We wonder why there are so many products for babies, from special laundry detergents to hair shampoos, but there is nothing specific to wash the very items that go into their mouth; we discuss the persistent breast milk film that simply does not come off the bottles with conventional dish soap; we lament the lingering milk odor….and then we decide to do something about it.

That was two years ago. Since then we have worked with a group of dedicated professionals, chemists and pediatricians, testers and designers, who all shared our passion. We have enjoyed the unwavering backing of our friends and families. And finally we have reached our goal: today we are coming out with Dapple, a line of natural-based, baby-specific cleaners. The first two products are a hand dish liquid and an automatic dish detergent. Besides being natural-based, free of parabens, phthalates, SLES, dyes, and artificial fragrances, Dapple dish detergents work great, smell delicious, look amazing on any sink, and are earth-friendly.

As we are now reaching out to retailers, spreading the word about Dapple to parents, and continuing to solve baby cleaning problems with additional, exciting products, such as a toy cleaner spray and wipes, we just received the news that we won the Seeds for Success grant. It could not come at a better time for us.

The cash component will certainly come in handy. More importantly, the advice of proven women entrepreneurs will help us navigate the challenges of introducing a new brand to the market. They can provide valuable marketing, retail, technology and financing advice, and we can’t wait to be working with them. Needless to say: having the support and recognition of Yahoo! and fwm is a tremendous boost to us.

We will use this blog to keep you posted on Dapple’s progress. At the same time, we urge you to keep us posted. Please try Dapple on your baby dishes, and let us know what you think, how you use it and what other cleaners you wish were available for your household. And don’t forget: If you don’t use bottles anymore - no problem: After all, Dapple works for baby and works for you.

Happy washing.
Blog you soon.

Dana