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FEATURED MOM INVENTORS > DEBORAH STEPHENS STAUFFER AND KATHLEEN WHITEHURST
Two years ago, friends Deborah Stephens Stauffer and Kathleen Whitehurst got together at Deborah's house to brainstorm new business ideas. Both wanted to start and run a business for different reasons - Deborah was new mom, and Kathleen was retiring from a career in retail. They were inspired when they least expected it: at lunchtime, Deborah asked Kathleen to feed her baby son. But Kathleen wasn't sure which of the half-eaten baby food jars in the fridge was fresh...and as it turned out, neither did Deborah. The
DaysAgo™ Digital Day Counter was born, a gadget that attaches to food jars and counts up the days since they were first opened. It takes away the guesswork about whether the baby food, salsa or pasta sauce is spoiled!
Describe your company and your product (or product line). Our company name is double u products, inc., and we're based in Cupertino, California. We launched our first product, the DaysAgo™ Digital Day Counter, in March of 2006, and there are three models in its current product line. The DaysAgo™ is the first digital day counter that easily answers the age-old question, "How many days ago did I open this?" By "counting up days," it can track food products that spoil quickly such as baby food, salsa, pasta sauce, leftovers, etc. With a digital screen and one-button operation, it easily affixes to containers via magnet for metal surfaces or suction for others. It can also be used to track repeated actions such as plant care, health regimens, pet medication, water filter replacements, etc. Why did you start this company and when? "How hard could it be?" we thought. Other moms were inventing products for babies and doing well. We could come up with something. That's how Kathleen and I got started with our invention quest. She was retiring from running a specialty gift retail store after 25 years, and I was a new mom of two children under age two. I was working part time as a training consultant, but it was too time intensive to balance with my role as the primary caregiver of my boys. I needed to start a business that wasn't about my time, but rather my ideas. Kathleen was a good friend who'd always had great ideas and an ability to get things done. Plus she was an experienced retail businesswoman who'd be able to offer critical guidance on our journey together. So we decided we would try our hand at becoming entrepreneurs. In the summer of 2005, we were at my home in the Silicon Valley working on ideas for our new business venture. During a break, I asked Kathleen to feed my younger son. Kathleen opened the fridge and saw several half-full baby food jars. She also saw a warning on the labels that the food should not be kept more than 3 days after opening. "So how do you know how long they've been open?" she asked. I replied, "Oh, I wish I knew - you can't believe how much food we have to throw away because we can't keep track." That was the Eureka! moment for us: if we could solve that problem, we'd have a product that would be valuable to people all over the world. So we pulled together a team of family, friends and experts...and that led to the creation of the DaysAgo, a digital day counter that attaches to food containers and other things that need smart tracking. 
What were your initial goals?
Initially, we wanted to be able to be successful with the basic product development and to introduce it to the marketplace through five main components: trade shows, direct sales, online sales, representatives and distributors, and reviews. My own personal goal is family financial security. I'd like to break even, fully fund our college savings and retirement accounts, find a meaningful thank you for everyone who has helped us, and set aside funds to do good things. Kathleen's goal was to invent something and have the heart and the guts to follow through with it. We'd also like to see the DaysAgo really help people with lifestyle management, whether it's tracking food freshness, keeping contact lenses clean or remembering to volunteer. We don't want to let down the retailers and the magazines like Good Housekeeping that endorsed us. We want our product to succeed for them. Describe yourself and your family. What is your background and how does it relate to your company? My background is in social entrepreneurship. I spent many years of my professional career creating programs and organizations for the public benefit in the social sector. I have been able to apply my skills in marketing, communications, media relations, organizational development, and fiscal management (a.k.a. shoestring budgeting) to this start-up. My family includes my husband and two sons ages two and three. And we are expecting our third son this summer! What process did you follow to develop a prototype? We worked with product and industrial designers to turn our concept into reality. We also solicited feedback from friends and colleagues and searched the marketplace for comparable solutions. What process did you follow to determine your product's marketability? Marketability evaluation is really an ongoing process for us. I consulted moms in my children's playgroups and gained enthusiastic support for the concept. Kathleen relied on her 25 years of experience buying and selling products, and consulted her network of friends and colleagues in the industry. After investigating the market we found few solutions for this type of food freshness tracking, and we discovered our approach was unique and without direct competition. At first, we focused on the baby market because the product was invented for that original customer. However, we quickly discovered that the product could apply to other food freshness needs and therefore it could be sold in the gourmet housewares and grocery markets. As our product hit the streets, we continue to receive feedback from customers on uses throughout the house, office, and backyard which opens up even more marketing possibilities. What process did you follow to find a manufacturer for your product? We hired our product designer as a consultant, and we sent him to a manufacturing conference in China to solicit bids from potential manufacturers. He also had existing relationships in the industry, so had some initial leads. He was able to meet with our manufacturer in person, negotiate an agreement, and then review the work environment to be sure it was exhibiting appropriate workplace standards. Were there any setbacks in product development that had to be overcome? Product development is never a perfect process. There were several instances when we had to re-think, re-invent, and re-create the product and packaging. In fact, we are still doing this. What drives the process is our product concept and sales philosophy. What was the biggest learning curve in terms of developing your product? Iteration is a natural way to make progress. Through what markets are you selling (retail, wholesale, internet, specialty sales)? We are selling retail (baby boutiques, gourmet housewares, home organization, and grocery stores); online through our own website and other preferred vendors; select catalogs for baby, home solutions, and housewares; and on television (QVC). Internationally, we have sales distribution in Canada, the United Kingdom and Scandinavia in both the baby and housewares markets. 
What secrets have you learned in terms of publicity and marketing your product?
Publicity is essential and it's an investment. Free media reviews are invaluable, but getting those reviews requires strategy, time and effort. I highly recommend engaging a publicist to get the word out to thousands of media outlets -traditional and online, major media and local newsletters, etc. Word of mouth is so important and you never know where someone will hear about it. Another potential secret is the power of blog marketing, which is really starting to become an incorporated method of outreach in PR and marketing firm practices. It is a powerful tool to get the word out to people interested in common things, and then immediately direct their attention to a buying opportunity for your product. What was your experience appearing on Oprah like? Did sales spike after that? Our experience as guests on The Oprah Show was an amazing opportunity that was made available through one of our publicists. Not only did we have a major sales spike after the appearance, but we also attracted attention from retailers and other news organizations, which gave an even bigger boost to our product sales. What was the biggest learning curve in terms of marketing your product? One important lesson has been staying focused. Since our product suits multiple markets, we could easily diffuse our efforts and resources by going wide instead of deep into a market. But it's important for a new product to really build sales traction in one arena first. How long did it take to get your product from idea to market (conception to product launch)? Our idea took shape in the summer of 2005 and we launched our product in 2006 at a trade show with four factory handmade prototypes. Our products were available in stores by August 2006. How have you managed to juggle the roles of business owner and mom? What falls by the wayside? My supportive husband is the secret to my success. He works as a full time financial advisor, but he also helps us with our business finances, bookkeeping and even sales at our last trade show. Around the house, he has also helped to shift tasks in managing the household affairs. In terms of mom time, I am still trying to be the primary caregiver for my children. I didn't get into this so the kids would have to go off to childcare full time; I do it so I have the flexibility to be with them. It's been tough to balance my time between kids and the business. I work through their naps and late at night, with a sitter a few days a week, and then as many evenings and weekends as I can. What kind of support system do you have in place personally and professionally? In addition to my husband, my father and his wife and my husband's family help with all kinds of projects...mailings, shipping, labeling products, and babysitting for emergency meetings and trips. These resources are invaluable to accomplishing tasks as well as moral support! I couldn't do this without them. Kathleen, as my business partner, is also critical support. She offers wisdom, experience, hard work, good taste, and even humor to the process. Her strength is building relationships with people, and it's amazing to watch her make friends (and even sales) on the airplane! We talk daily about our progress and decisions. Her family has also been amazing, and we are fortunate that her adult children are involved in the business now as well. We could not have come this far if we had not begun as partners. Professionally, I have also relied on business and local contacts, networks and colleagues for advice, referrals and other support. How did you finance your business? We have financed this business on our own through our own resources and loans. We joke that pretty soon we'll have to sell lemonade on the side to find more funding. How much money have you invested so far? How do you feel about that? In our first year, we invested about twice as much as we thought it would take, and we're now evaluating what is required to make this work for another year. In recent months, our direct and online sales have paid our bills, which has been great. So any cash investment this year will be put toward new inventory. Cash flow management is really important when starting a business. What is your company's current financial picture and what are your projections? We estimate that our break-even point will be within 3-4 years, which includes meeting profit goals as well as repaying our equity investment. 
What has been your greatest success or "high point" in the process?
For me, our success has been in actually making the product and getting it to the marketplace. Beyond that, we have celebrated other milestones like being bought by certain stores or being able to reach international markets. We were particularly honored to receive the Good Housekeeping Research Institute's Good Buy Award in January 2007, which recognized the most innovative problem-solving products of the year. The other eight winning products were from major manufacturers like Bissell, Black & Decker, and Samsung. To be honored by such a major organization and be on the stage with these companies was incredibly rewarding. Have you experienced a "low point" and if so, how did you rally yourself to get back on track? On the set-up day at our first trade show, I arrived at the blank square of carpet of our 10x10 booth and just sat down and cried. All around me were amazing, huge, glamorous booths of glitzy professional products. All we had for our booth fit into the roller suitcase we brought on the plane and a tube of pipes that snapped together for our table. The other booths required forklifts for hauling their displays; we just used a lot of Ziploc bags and bubble wrap. I was so intimidated. I called Kathleen, who was on her way, who is a veteran buyer at trade shows. She knew what I was feeling, and she helped to get me back on track to know that we would survive this. She arrived shortly after, and we put together our small but eye-catching display. On the morning of the show opening, the other sales teams were getting pep talks from their managers and wearing nicely pressed suits. But the amazing thing is that our booth looked simple and fun and people filled it up all day. There was an excellent buzz about our product. Even an HGTV production crew filmed us for their holiday program on Best Gadgets, which was so exciting. It proved to us that a small company could still have a great idea and get honest attention for it. Who has been your biggest source of inspiration? What keeps you going? Hearing a story about another mom inventor and thinking that it sounded possible. We could do it, too! It couldn't be that hard to make something and sell it. Being a mom inventor was a good solution for earning an income. As opposed to my selling my services as a consultant, selling a product would allow me to scale out - providing a way to generate income and maximize the limited time I had to give as a mom. My family keeps me going, and my goal is to someday have the financial independence to spend all of my time with them. Did anyone in particular help you along the way? My business partner, Kathleen, and my family receive top credits. Additionally, my partner's daughter, Jamie, and her friend, Jon Bruck - our consultant and product designer - have been invaluable players. What advice would you offer other moms developing their products/ideas? Believe in yourself, make principle-based decisions, be flexible, and believe that there are good people out there who you can trust. Also know that failure is a great opportunity for learning and that it's okay. We've made some wrong decisions, which have really helped us learn. Don't let the perfect get in the way of the good. You have to keep moving. Stay focused. We've had a lot of exciting offers from the get-go. If we had accepted them all, we would be broke and out of business. Is there a resource that proved to be invaluable that you would like to share with other moms? To be honest, I have gained a lot of value from the Mom Inventors website and Tamara's book. I consistently refer people to this book and one that Jon recommended, the Mouse Driver Chronicles. Other than that, our networking and business contacts from this venture have been great resources. Is there anything else you would like to add? I think our major lesson is that anyone can do this. There are enough resources available to learn how to turn ideas into businesses. Our best benefit is that we've done this as a partnership so that we can bounce ideas off of each daily and keep one another grounded and on board. It's easier to quit if you're alone. We're also the un-experts. Our learning curve has been straight up. We've learned how to be an expert on international imports, how to do a blog marketing campaign, how to be a salesperson, public relations person, customer service representative and more. One moment, we're creating ad copy for a major magazine with a 24-hour deadline and the next we're shipping boxes to customers in Des Moines and Seattle. In between, my kids are running through my legs with the tape gun. But so far, it's been worth the challenge, the risk and the reward. | ||||||
