Vermont is deceivingly rich with investors. Angels, angel-like groups, venture capitalists, firms, equity shares – it all exists right here. I learned quickly that to gain their attention, a business or person needed to be much further along than I was. I kept hearing the term “traction” – in a nutshell, prove that people want, […]
Getting Comfortable with the Uncomfortable
These days I’m finding getting comfortable is difficult, in more ways than one. I’ve spent the better part of the last four years developing my product and now that it’s launched I find myself in a strange place. First of all, this was meant to be something that I created for other moms and dads, […]
Behind the Scenes – What We Are Up To
StrollRunner officially opened our sales on August 26th, the 14th birthday of Avery, my daughter (this is Heather writing – Founder & CEO!). She was quite proud to share the day. Since then, there has been a lot of learning around packaging, working together with family to pack and ship each order (total family affair […]
Decide – Discover – Deliver +1
Exactly one week later I was sitting in the basement office of the VtSBDC in Burlington. Steve Densham instantly gained my trust, as I couldn’t help but see astounding similarities between he and a good friend of mine from past Real Estate lending days across the pond in Plattsburgh, NY. A very father-like figure who […]
The Speakeasy of Co-working Spaces
The spring of 2018 would prove to be quite busy and super exciting; beginning to meet the people in our crazy rich entrepreneurial community of greater Burlington, Vermont. Once I opened these doors, I was HOOKED. I couldn’t soak up the info fast enough and I craved being in this space with these people. […]
Embracing the Suck
The down and back in the AutoShoppe parking lot was enough to build our excitement and prove the concept. I still needed to run further and test longer to see what was going to work well, and what needed more attention. Even if I had a child of stroller-needing age, it wouldn’t have been safe […]
The (first) Moment of Truth
*Make sure you put your sound on – my daughter is narrating!* How we chose to attach the StrollRunner to the stroller is just as important as having a product that works. Your little is on the other end – safety is a non-negotiable priority. To attach the tubes to the stroller handle we needed […]
Keep it Simple, Stupid
I’m about to share a little-known secret about my initial thoughts for this product, which counters the very thing I love the most about where it is today: my initial idea wasn’t hands-free at all. It was to have levers attached to the stroller that would swing with your movement, but still enable you to […]
Fear is a Four Letter Word
It has taken me over three years to get my product to a point where I would feel good offering it out into the world and be super excited for the first runners to be able to use it. All along I’ve known that StrollRunner didn’t have to be perfect, but it did have […]