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Basement startup Oddiwear is truly a family venture
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Oddiwear was inspired by Cecilia and Joseph's son.
Many people use their family as an escape from the pressures of their working life, as long-suffering people in the background – or simply as an angel funding source. But what happens if your startup business partner is also your life partner? Joseph and Cecilia of Oddiwear are proving that a family relationship can work as a business relationship too – after all, their product’s inspiration came from chasing their own child, trying to dress him!
Oddiwear is a basement startup that has created a poncho suited to those wriggly younger children who simply won’t stand still long enough to dress. At that age, jackets and hoodies are just too hard – zippers, buttons and sleeves make everything too frustrating. Cecilia came up with the idea of an updated poncho, and it wasn’t long before the idea to create their own family business was crystallized.
The Swuzzy features kid-friendly graphics...
Joseph and Cecilia have found a great balance. If your relationship is strong to begin with, being able to recognize each others’ real strengths and being able to honestly work together have obvious benefits in co-founding a startup. “For a family business to work out, a support system is really needed. We are a husband and wife team, each have an area of expertise and responsibility, yet we rely and look to each other for feedback and support,” said Joseph. “My wife works really hard on the designing and production side, while I focus more on the web aspects. We both put our heads together on the business side.”
“We called the poncho the Swuzzy because it was soft, fuzzy and sweatshirty, said Joseph. “And the company name was Cecilia’s idea too. She’s the one to embrace the odds and oddity of life. I like it because it kind of identifies with us too – we’re a bit of an odd couple. Having given up our seaside home in California for a chance to go back to school in Colorado, I believe makes us a little odd. Also, being a little odd in the apparel business never hurts.”
...and parent-friendly design.
The Swuzzy identifies a problem all parents seem to have, and offers a simple product solution. However, as all startup founders know, those deceptively simple solutions aren’t the easiest to put together. “Having never opened a business we were not sure how to go about it at the federal and state level. Luckily, they both had great websites and we found that it was quite easy in the end,” said Joseph. “We also wanted to use contractors with ethically run businesses that would complement our values. It was a bit of a challenge to find vendors who catered to small business needs, and to get an eco-friendly solution for the screen print,” he added.
Complete product planning went into the creation of the product. Joseph and Cecilia wanted to ensure the Swuzzy was a practical, budget-friendly solution for families. For example, one benefit is that the Swuzzy’s design accommodates growing children. “We calculated every detail of our designs from production to distribution.”
But it’s not all beer and skittles, as the saying goes. As in any startup, there are demands on your time that redefine ‘normality’ for a family in this situation. “There are sacrifices involved, less free time, no television time at night when our child goes to bed, but we have a passion for this, and have had fun building our business together,” said Joseph. “It has worked out great!”
For more info: Oddiwear can be found online at www.oddiwear.com, or on Twitter @oddiwear.
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