Having kids is an exciting time,
but it can also be very expensive
whether you are fit in your home for
your first child or maybe you're
about to embark on a summer vacation,
kids equal a lot of stuff.
That is true, but two recent graduates of
the Georgetown University McDonough School
of Business launched a new company where
you can actually rent premium baby gear.
Here is our chat with Ali
Cavacini no and Natalie Poston,
the founders of Joylette.
Ali and Natalie.
You all found a joylette.
What is joylette?
Of course, Joylette is a rental
company for premium baby gear,
so with joylette families can
rent gear that babies and
toddlers quickly age out of.
So think Bassinets, bouncers,
swings, specialty strollers,
toddler toys and more and families
can rent for as little as one
month or as long as they need.
It goes so fast. I have an 8 month
old right now and we have one of
the four moms swings like sitting
upstairs that we just need to take
to the basement because she grew out
of it like a couple of months in.
How is this helping parents like we get
all this gear and then it just sits around.
How does this help
us? Kind of stories all the time.
Yeah, and actually the four moms swing
is one of our most popular products.
Really, our aim with Joylette is to bring
parents more joy and less stress when it
comes to preparing for a new baby and
we're really going after some of those
key challenges that we see parents facing.
So first is baby gear is super expensive.
Second, it's hard to store
and as you mentioned,
it quickly takes over your home and you know,
I'm sure that resonates with a
lot of folks out there in the DMV
with our small footprints.
And third, you don't really know what's
going to work for your baby until you try it,
so we provide that flexibility.
And last, it's just unsustainable
to buy every piece of gear new.
I gotta say Ellen's over here
like Yep, and kind of crime.
Yes, there were things that cost
hundreds of dollars that she
didn't like and you don't know
that and you want to know, right?
That you're getting
one of my cousins, you know,
spent $300.00 on a swing.
Turns out, her baby would
only sleep while being held.
And we hear those stories all the time.
Maybe we'll only sleep in the car.
It only likes this product over that
and you just really don't know until
you try. Well, I love this and letting
parents know that there are options out
there besides spending a lot of money.
How did you all come up with this?
Because you you were a Business
School at Georgetown, right?
Yeah, so we met during our MBA program at
Georgetown McDonough School of Business
in this class called Lean Startup.
And on the very first day everyone
had to pitch a business idea like
nerve wracking, right? So my idea,
I won't even talk about it was not great,
but Ali came in with the idea of joy
left and I just thought it was so great.
Her background is perfect,
so Allie just spent five years
at United Rentals.
Which is the world's largest
equipment rental company and so she's
taking everything she knows about.
Printing bulldozers and backhoes and
applying it to bouncers and you know,
specialty strollers and things like that.
So we were just kind of able to work
on it throughout the NBA program
and do some pitch competitions
to get ourselves off the ground.
That's incredible. I mean,
what a great idea and just real quick.
Do you have any advice for other
young entrepreneurs out there?
That's a good question.
I mean, I think just go for it.
You know that's the thing we
found in Business School.
There was so many good ideas,
but you know it takes a leap of
faith to really get started.
So I think that's that's my advice.
Would you say
yeah, and you know,
start testing and try it out with
your customers before your you
feel that you're ready, right?
You don't need a perfect
product to take to market.
Great advice and a great company.
Thank you for helping us parents.
We appreciate it. Thanks ladies.
Thank you, thank you.
Some really smart ladies there.
You can learn more about
joylette at joylette.com.
What a great idea.
What if they'll buy some things for me?
She just never has you.
I wonder how?
Yeah, that's one thing.
I wonder how you turn your whatever
you've used or didn't use and
they'll buy it for probably yeah,
but it saves you so much money.
Yes it does.