How to reinvent an essential, nearly century-old product
Wife and husband Samantha Rudolph and Jared Miller of Babyation, a firm born in Branford, Connecticut, now headquartered in St. Louis, had the sort of brainstorm serial entrepreneurs have while vacationing in Vermont. She was reading a New York Times blog about a clunky, noisy, inelegant but absolutely necessary product essentially unchanged for nearly a century.
Somewhere between three to more than five million, depending on the source, of these items are sold annually in the U.S. alone. And users, many highly productive members of the workforce, need this item so badly they will pay up to $400 for a higher-end model.
She is an experienced business development and strategic planning expert who worked for ESPN for more than eight years, he an electronics wizard who can and has built almost anything, even supervising the commentary center for the Olympics for 14 years. They asked themselves, “Why can’t this truly essential product be as smart and functional as a smartphone, quiet as a luxury car? Wouldn’t that sell? Why can’t women have an improved version of something so badly needed to juggle work and family?” (more…)
Zeigler Brothers Wins National, State and Regional Export Awards
The District of Columbia Small Business Development Center (DCSBDC) Network at the at Howard University School of Business has worked with Katy Chang for the past three years on her community food incubator, EatsPlace – from its inception to a thriving business. Katy is a leader in the local business community, as evidenced by her selection as one of 40 CEOs participating in the SBA Emerging Leaders Program along with her other awards and accolades.
Moreover, EatsPlace has contributed to local economic development of the Georgia Avenue/Petworth area in Washington, DC, thru the countless patrons arriving from all over the region to experience EatsPlace as a destination of new and diverse cuisines. This demand to experience EatsPlace has spawned numerous businesses out of EatsPlace, and created jobs (indirectly) by businesses born out of EatsPlace and (directly) by EatsPlace itself.