Co-founder Adventures & Finding Solutions for Moms Everywhere (Season 2 Ep. 5)

Mar 27

Welcome to our first double date! This episode is very serendipitous on many levels. Mari and Jess chat with Nell and Stephanie, co-founders of Kibou, a fanny pack designed to be the deliberately minimal diaper bag. Hear from two co-founders living on different continents having not been in business together before, creating products specifically designed with their unique problems of their customers in mind. In this episode, Nell and Stephanie share their story of why they started Kibou and the challenges that Nell personally faced when wearing her baby and managing all of the things you need when you have a little kids.

We talk a lot about simply not knowing what you don't know and how being open and honest with your knowledge gaps are truly the best way to grow forward. We also get into how they surpassed their crowdfunding goal and some tactics that they use to successfully fund their campaign, which in turn solidify their product market fit and viability for their bag.

We talk about being afraid to not share your idea so that others don't steal it out from underneath you, something we know many of our founders here at HB&C struggle with. Don't worry, if you're not a mom to a human child, but have a fur baby, this episode is for you too. Tune in and come along on our female founder double date!

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What can you expect from this episode:

[4:04 - 8:29] Nell shares how Kibou came to be with Stephanie and that it all started from a problem she personally had and wanted to solve! Nell tells us how the whole process became real to them when building their prototype and making more decisions to get their product out there to the universe.
[9:29- 13:19] Nell explains what she didn’t like about the typical diaper bags and how she used that knowledge to develop the first iteration of the Kibou product. Stephanie brings up how versatile their products are as children grow up too and how seamless it is being hands-free.
[14:15- 19:38] Nell shares how she stopped keeping her product a secret and what helped her get out of that mindset and finally be able to get other people involved. This is something so relatable that a lot of early-stage female founders face when bringing their solutions out to the world. Stephanie speaks out about how important it is to have an authentic brand and how people can tell if it’s a business coming from the heart or not.
[20:08-27:45] Nell and Stephanie talk about their first prototype and collaborating as co-founders. Nell shares how much of a learning curve it was and that building their business has been the best education experience. We also get to hear the early challenges that Nell and Stephanie faced when lifting their product off the ground.
[30:02 -34:40] Stephanie and Nell dive into how Kibou launched on Kickstarter and the whole process they experienced with crowdfunding. They break down how they met their goal, the daily effort it took, and how exhilarating it was for their brand.
[35:27 - 44:10] We get to hear about the newest additions to Kibou, one of which is how they are tapping into another target audience of theirs, dog moms. They speak to how customer feedback led them to creating their Fur-baby Bundle.