Entrepreneur Mom Grows Company With Problem-Solving Products
Sara Crevin, CEO, BooginHead
Jane Kitchen -- Kids Today, 9/30/2011 7:01:11 AM
BooginHead’s new BPA-free pacifiers feature clever sayings and coordinate with the company’s popular PaciGrips.
An idea is born: In 2005, when Sari Crevin's son was just learning to use a sippy cup, he first had a hard time holding on to it. Then he mastered the holding on part but realized just how enjoyable it was to throw the cup from the high chair, stroller, or anywhere else.
Crevin, who had her own recruiting and human resources company at the time, thought there must be a product out there that addressed the issue. And, like many others in this industry, when she didn't find it, she set out to make it herself.
"I went to Target and bought an $80 sewing machine," said Crevin. "I didn't know how to thread a bobbin - I didn't even know what a bobbin was!"
After creating the original protypes of what is today the SippiGrip for her son, she soon had other mothers from her playgroup asking her to make them one as well.
She thought she must have a good idea on her hands, but suddenly found herself being recruited by Microsoft as the HR manager for the Xbox group, overseeing about 600 people, so she put off exploring it - for a time.
Launching a company: In 2007, she decided to make a concerted effort to focus on the SippiGrip, and worked for the better part of the year getting ready to launch her product at the ABC Expo. That year, the show was offering quarter booths for new exhibitors, and Crevin jumped on the opportunity.
"I happened to get an unbelievable location, right at the front of the show," she said.
It was at that show that buyers from Target noticed the SippiGrip, which they wound up selecting as one of 16 parent-invented products to showcase in a six-month promotion at Targets across the country.
"At that time, I was 15 weeks pregnant, and still working full time at Microsoft," said Crevin. "I had just picked up my first retailer a few weeks before, but I knew it was an opportunity I wasn't going to let go of."
Crevin learned on the go, with lots of help from the Target team.
"It was literally like getting my MBA of how to operate in this industry," said Crevin. "They held my hand, and helped me with EDI, setting up an external warehouse, safety testing and new packaging...I had absolutely zero knowledge not only of the industry, but of bringing a product to market."
Growth: In 2008, Crevin launched the PaciGrip, a universal pacifier leash which has turned into BooginHead's bread and butter.
"I sell a ridiculous amount of these things," said Crevin.
From a publicity standpoint, it turned out to be a very high-profile product, with celebrity babies photographed using the PaciGrip. "It secured my space on the BRU shelf," said Crevin.
And that secured BooginHead's position as a company here to stay. In December 2010, Crevin finally left her full time job at Microsoft.
"I wanted the company to hit the million dollar mark before I left," she explained. "Up until that point I did everything myself...Now I have other people...So I can look at the bigger picture."
Today, BooginHead's line includes SplatMats, PaciBeds and PaciPouches, and in March of this year, Crevin acquired Lots to Say Baby, a line of pacifiers with funny sayings ("Pull to sound alarm," "No comment") that will be branded as BooginHead BPA-free pacifiers.
"Now I have a line," said Crevin. "...Now we've really started to build the brand."
Building the brand means that all of BooginHead's products work to form a cohesive unit.
"They all fulfill the same criteria," said Crevin. "It has to solve a problem, it has to be super-affordable, and it has to look like it's not super-affordable."
Future Growth: Crevin, not surprisingly, is not sitting still for long.
"I'm very, very focused on expanding our distribution channels," she said. And she's got multiple products in development that she hopes to launch for ABC 2012 - products that require a patent and special tooling.
"We grew a lot faster than I had anticipated in the past year," said Crevin. "We've hit our milestones, and we have a good picture of what the next three years look like in terms of growth."
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