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It takes a Village

We know it takes a village to raise a child and starting a business is no different. Since October of 2008, we have been hard at work trying to get Rhoost, our childproofing product company, ready for formal launch this September at the ABC Kids Expo.

It was a lofty goal to go from idea to product in 10 months and we are the first to acknowledge that this simply could not and would not have happened without a number of key people. As we spend our last moments preparing for the ABC Expo, we’d like to reflect for a moment on the past 10 months and the people who have helped get us here today.

Picture it: October 2008 – after 6 years of generating ideas without any moving past the conceptual stage, Vianka approached Tavinder with yet another one. The conversation went something like this:

> Vianka: Seriously T, can you believe this? Seriously? How am I gonna rock my fabulous cheese plate and that bottle of Chablis I’ve been saving with these ugly corner protectors on my table? Not a good look. > Tavinder: You still have that Chablis!? > Vianka: T, Focus! My table corners?! > Tavinder: Wow, those are bad. So you’re supposed to stick those on the table? With tape? So people can see them? I’m pretty sure my dad used to make medical molds out of that material.

Not long after that conversation we began testing our initial concept: design functional and stylish childproofing products that are easy to use and compliment home decor.

A critical person V shared the idea with early on was Jill Cartwright. Jill, entrepreneur and founder of Go Gaga, gave us our first resounding thumbs up. This was especially huge given Jill’s experience in the child industry. Since that first moment, Jill has helped us along every step of the way. Her generosity with time, advice, and her network has been critical for us and we are truly in awe of her as a human being.

­­­Once we had our concept down, we set out to find a design team to help us transform our concept into a reality. Enter Graeme Wagoner-Lynch. Graeme came to us through Ira Cummings, a designer who works with Vianka’s husband, and he was a perfect fit. Graeme’s laidback personality, wry whit, design aesthetic, and way with words had us at ‘hello’. Graeme took concepts that existed in our heads (and in very lame drawings) and created functional, innovative and stylish designs we knew had a lot of potential. Now our only problem was getting the designs prototyped.

Graeme was able to connect us with Victor Bruhn, our engineer, from Clear Skies Design. If you had to describe Victor in one word, it would have to be ‘thorough’. If you could add more words, you’d quickly add, ‘laidback (we like this quality), thoughtful, scientific, honest, patient,’ and just a ‘really good guy.’ Victor entered the process and immediately went above and beyond in taking designs that looked great on paper and ensuring they could be made into actual tangible products!

From there our next big task was branding. Here the decision was a no-brainer – Alphabet Arm Design was the only way to go. While it helped that the founder, Aaron, is also Vianka’s husband, we can honestly say we would have chosen the firm regardless. You only have to check out his work to see why.

Aaron has been our third eye throughout this process. He is a master at logo design and branding and through his work has also gained an amazing amount of insight into building a sustainable business with a consistent message. From name selection to logo design to informing us that we needed a tagline – Aaron’s genuine interest in the business and unyielding support has us basically indebted to him for life and possibly the afterlife. It’s that simple.

So by about June we had our product designs down and started prototyping, we had our brand identity and name – Rhoost. Now we needed a voice. We immediately turned to a voice we know well, a voice of reason, a phenomenally talented marketing strategy and SEO goddess and our good friend, Kristen Grossman.

T had gone to business school with Kristen and learned early on that anytime you say something to Kristen – know what you’re saying and why you’re saying it. So who else would we trust with helping us find our online voice? Kristen brought in Zack Bates to help us write our copy and by July, we felt like Rhoost actually had a personality and we really like her!

Ok – so at this point, our lives have turned into one long ‘Rhoost to do’ list and the entry ‘WEBSITE!!!!????’ had been bearing down on us for some time. We mentioned Ira Cummings before as the person who connected us with Graeme. Well, his impact on Rhoost didn’t stop there…Ira also single-handedly and on a very tight time-frame and budget, created an unbelievable website. We truly admire his patience with our many changes and less-than-ideal level of understanding about big versus small tweaks!

August 1st!!!! Six weeks until ABC Expo and the fun really got started – videos and photo-shoots!!!

To be honest, all we had to do was mention the idea of videos and Aaron and his best pal Alan Pearsall were all over creating clever, funny, and informative marketing videos. We’re not sure if Brooke, Al’s wife, was a willing or unwilling participant but she plays a great wife in real life AND on TV! For the photos, Tony Luong, friend of Alphabet Arm and a great photographer spent a day with us (and 5 kids) trashing Amy (V’s sister-in-law) Aina’s house to get the awesome shots on our website and marketing collateral.

Finally, we’d like to give a special thanks to our families and friends who have helped get us to this point. It means the world:

Nelson and Suyodana Perez, Parminder, Brijmohan and Hilo Phull, Audrey Perez and Asar Allen, Christopher and Michelle Perez-Grosvenor, Rattna and Ben Phull, Amy, Akin and Kayode Aina, Judy Belyea, Api, Narinder and Simran Ahluwalia, and John and Lillian Belyea…

…and the inspiration for Rhoost: Soledad Simran Belyea.

Disclaimer: We promise, not all of our blog entries will be this lengthy

Published on August 18th, 2009