After Ellen Diamant had her first child, it soon became clear to here that there was a need not being filled. That need was quite obvious to anyone that has ever struggled with a diaper bag, while trying to maneuver a stroller or any other gear. That initial idea was to make an attachment for strollers that would make the bag’s content easy to reach. Over the next year, she began sketching and designing a bag that would fit those needs. She named it the Duo Diaper Bag. The product was a success.
Some innovators may stop once they’ve made it to market, but Ellen and her husband are not just anyone. Once they saw how successful her bag was, they decided it was time to take it a little further. Her unique diaper bag is still available for purchase, but parents can also fill a variety of other needs at her online baby gear shop, reports Bloomburg.
The product’s success persuaded Ellen and her husband, Michael, a serial entrepreneur who built his first successful Web design company in the early 1990s, to launch Skip Hop in the fall of 2003 to design, manufacture, and sell an expanded line of products for parents, from diaper bags to toys and nursery bedding.
The couple invested $50,000 to get the company started — despite having lost $500,000 on Michael’s second business venture, iClips, a year earlier. The failure of that company — an early video-sharing site — was difficult. “You feel like you don’t know what’s going to happen, you can’t pay your vendors, you’re laying people off,†Michael recalls. Along with their own investment, iClips lost more than $6.5 million in venture capital and money from friends and family. “It’s awkward at dinner, at least for a few years,†he says.
Today Skip Hop employs 31 and sells a range of product types to specialty, chain, and online retailers in the U.S. and overseas, including branded lines at Target and co- branded toys and bags at Pottery Barn Kids. Ellen says the New York City company had $20 million in revenue in 2010 and projects $25 million this year, a quarter from international sales.
Photo from Skip Hop