Today we’d like to introduce you to Manasi Gangan.
Manasi, please share your story with us. How did you get to where you are today?
We had just welcomed our second son and like any typical new mother I was prepared for the frequent nighttime feeds and the sleep deprivation that came with the territory. However, there was nothing typical about our newborn’s sleep patterns. He only slept in my arms and would wake up as soon as he was put down.
If necessity is the mother of invention, then curiosity ought to be the father. The idea for Nested Bean’s flagship product, the Zen Swaddle®, was born out of my desperate need to find rest and my curiosity about whether the soothing comfort that that he felt in my arms could be mimicked.
As I looked for answers, I came across the work of Dr. Schanberg, a prominent touch researcher. His findings suggest that the calming and nurturing benefits of touch can be simulated to trigger the same soothing response as touch itself. Think how much you love relaxing under the weight of your favorite comforter at the end of a stressful day. That is because our skin receptors cannot tell the difference between a person hugging or an object imparting a similar pressure. The receptors trigger the same neurological response to soothe and reduce our stress levels (as long as the pressure to body weight ratio is maintained at or under 10%).
Many new parents have felt the lure of products that promise better sleep. New mothers who experience prolonged sleep-deprivation are likely to experience isolation and even postpartum depression. However despite all the products in the market, babies sleep best in our arms. Developing a product that extends the calming benefits of touch seemed the perfect bridge to soothe a baby, while promising some rest to parents coping with the demands of early parenthood.
Following physiotherapy guidelines, the product development team designed a beautiful and functional product, with the safety of the baby as the foremost priority. We worked with CPSC certified labs to test the construction and design to ensure that there was no risk to the baby. Test results were verified by pediatric pulmonologists and approved as 8X safer than their best benchmark. That is when I knew we had a product that could be taken to market.
Finding a quality and safety conscious manufacturing partner during the early phases wasn’t easy. I had heard horror stories of manufacturing companies from far-east who did not show consistency in quality or pricing when working with early stage companies. Developing in the USA was proving to be price prohibitive. South America was a good first option while we developed scale enough to work with a larger factory in Asia.
After spending almost a year in research, design, safety testing, consumer testing and perfecting the manufacturing details, the Zen Swaddle® was launched in a test market in late 2012. That year we even won the Juvenile Product Manufacturers Association Award for Innovation.
Trivia:
• Desperate to get some sleep, one day I intuitively placed a beanie baby on my baby’s chest instead of my palm. He could not tell the difference and slept a little longer without my presence, than what he normally would. That is what planted the seed of the product concept to mimic touch. Charlie the hippo beanie was that beanie.
• My son’s first word was Touch, after mama and papa of course. That was an uncanny coincidence.
Overall, has it been relatively smooth? If not, what were some of the struggles along the way?
If there were no challenges to be overcome in the quest for a higher goal, I doubt if many entrepreneurs would even begin the journey. You are so driven by the goal to make a difference that you never think of the daunting tasks and the challenges that lie ahead; you just take one day at a time
Our main struggle was finding the right sales channel and distribution strategy. Our strategy early on, to distribute the product through retail stores and chains failed miserably. The Zen Swaddle®’s differential needed customer education. The retailers created a degree of separation, which impeded our ability to educate our customers. To top it, the retail environment was changing and more and more customers were purchasing online. After 2 years focusing on retail, we moved our focus singularly to the online channel and created market awareness through online storytelling and digital marketing. This made all the difference. Today our products are distributed both online and through retail channels but market awareness and education is still done digitally.
One of our other challenges came just as we were planning scale; our factory raised our prices by 40%. That is enough to put any company out of business. However I looked at this challenge as an opportunity to move to Asia and use the downtime to strengthen our online strategy to prepare for scale. Our previous factory may not have been able to keep up with our growing business needs, so I have to thank them for forcing us to make the move.
Consumer goods is a capital-intensive business. As we scaled, we faced cash flow challenges. Banks were not ready to work with us during the early phases of our business. But we worked through those challenges without any investor funding until we reached the scale to make us bankable.
Early stage entrepreneurs should remember that every challenge is an opportunity to strengthen the business model. The only way to get out of challenges is to ‘grow’ out of them. There is always a solution, just believe in your business and find it.
Nested Bean Inc. – what should we know? What do you guys do best? What sets you apart from the competition?
Nested Bean helps new parents catch some sleep by mimicking their touch. Our patented baby sleep accessories, the Zen Swaddle® and Zen Sack™, are lightly weighted in areas where babies feel pressure when held in mom or dad’s arms. This concept of simulating touch, based on scientifically proven concepts, is what makes our products unique and effective. Most moms report better sleep for their baby within a week.
We believe in the crucial role that our touch plays in calming a newborn. Touch is also responsible for socio-emotional development of a baby and develops their sense of security. Yet many a times parents, desperate to get some rest, contemplate sleep-training methods that may be detrimental to a child’s long-term development. Our products offer an alternative in the occasional absence of a parent as they recuperate from the physical demands of early childhood. A parent’s touch is irreplaceable; we are a mere extension of it.
Our proudest moments are when struggling parents see immediate change in their baby’s sleep patterns. It is typical for moms to feel self-doubt when they are unable to calm their baby. We help her through this tough challenge.
One such mom contacted us while her baby was recovering from cranial surgery. It was especially trying because she could not hold her baby to calm him. She was so thankful for the care our products offered her little one, during such a stressful time. We have numerous such stories from parents of both well and unwell babies. Each story is special and really never gets old.
What is “success” or “successful” for you?
The reward of entrepreneurship is never reaching a specific mark, it’s really the whole journey.
My definition of success is an achievement that helps you reach a point that sets the stage for the next set of growth goals. Each year our success measures change. I never look down upon the successes of past years, in comparison to achievements of today. They served their specific purpose. I am proud of those measures, just as I am proud of targets of today even though they pale in comparison to ones we seek in the future.
Last year we achieved a 4X growth, this year our growth target is a multiple of last year as it sets the stage for few years to come.
Pricing:
- Zen Swaddle available in Cotton and Bamboo ranges from $29.99 – $39.99 MSRP
- Zen Sack available in Cotton, Bamboo and Winter ranges from $34.99 – $49.99 MSRP
- Beautiful Gift Bundles range from $50 – $100
Contact Info:
- Address: 131 Coolidge St. Suite 102, Hudson, MA 01749
- Website: www.nestedbean.com
- Phone: 978.212.3376
- Email: info@nestedbean.com
Image Credit:
Nested Bean owns the copyrights to all images uploaded.
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