Prodigi Kids Update: How Our Customers Inspired Us To Launch New Products

Karen Braveheart

•

Published: April 11th, 2022

save

Karen Braveheart

Founder, Prodigi Kids

$3.5K

revenue/mo

Founders

Employees

Prodigi Kids

prodigikids.com

from San Diego, California, USA

started April 2016

$3,500

revenue/mo

Founders

Employees

Discover what tools recommends to grow your business!

Discover what books Karen recommends to grow your business!

Want more updates on Prodigi Kids? Check out these stories:

1. How I Raised $400K To Design An Innovative Baby Plate That Stays Put (2020) ➜

2. Prodigi Kids Update: How We Used Customer Feedback To Expand Our Product Line (2023) ➜

This is a follow up story for Prodigi Kids. If you're interested in reading how they got started, published over 4 years ago, check it out here.

Hello again! Remind us who you are and what business you started.

Hi! I’m Karen Braveheart, and I’m the CEO/Founder of Prodigi Kids. A lot has happened since we launched our 1st product line, the Adi plate.

The Adi plate is a suction plate for little ones with cute penguin design and revolutionary suction technology that REALLY works to stay stuck to a table and high chair. We launched in Q4 of 2019 (probably the worst time to launch a new product right before a pandemic, but who knew !?!?!). We were selling great until COVID crushed us and 100% of our sales channels shut down.

We’re on our 3rd pivot since we launched. I’m a fighter, and we’ve come back bigger, better, and stronger than ever.

Tell us about what you’ve been up to! Has the business been growing?

It’s been quite the roller coaster ride for Prodigi Kids since the pandemic hit in 2020. We were off to a great start getting to know our customers generating solid revenues, and getting rave reviews on our newly launched product line, The Adi Plate.

In late 2019, our business model was to launch a digital marketing campaign selling direct to customers through the Prodigi Kids website. However, life had something else in mind when all of our funding options that I had worked on for months fell apart at the 11th hour.

Today, I look back with awe and see that the pivots that life took were a blessing. The outpouring of love from our customers inspired us to add community-built products into our offerings.

We were forced to immediately pivot to generate revenue and meet our monthly operational expenses. I hit the ground running setting up pop ups at markets throughout Southern California. I was a regular at the The Hollywood Artisans Market, La Jolla Open Aire Market, Santa Monica Sunday Main Street Farmer’s Market, Irvine Farmers Market on Saturdays, at holiday pop ups at Artists & Fleas in Venice, Unique Markets on the Pier in Santa Monica, The Rose Bowl Flea Market in Pasadena, and holiday set ups at local businesses. I also did the Little Italy Market in San Diego on Wednesdays, The Little Italy Holiday Market, the Oceanside Thursday Market, and The Rancho Santa Fe Market.

In February, 2020, we started a wholesale initiative. Every day, I’d spend a few hours going door to door pitching 10 baby boutiques. A good day was when I landed 3 new accounts. Often, the owner wasn’t in so I’d have to return. It was brutal, and I was willing to do anything for my dream of Prodigi Kids.

My efforts proved successful, and we landed in top baby boutiques in San Diego and LA. The most exciting thing to see was the momentum I was gaining. I was actively talking with 2 large national retailers who were very interested in having the Adi plate in their stores.

After our funding options fell through, I was in total survival mode fighting to build my business; fighting for my dreams, and support my family financially. I later realized that having all of our funding options fall through at the time we launched turned out to be the biggest blessing ever. Here’s why:

We enjoyed getting to know our first customers, face to face, from all over the world. We sold hundreds of Adi plates, and Prodigi Kids acquired its initial customer base and market validation of the product. I was selling out at most markets, and our customers loved their Adi plates. Then, the unexpected happened. My intention in bringing the Adi plate to market was to bring more peace and love to families. I never expected anything in return.
We started gaining a loyal following, and our customers became our biggest supporters. Every person who came by our pop up told me how much they loved our brand motto “A loving moment lasts a lifetime” which is engraved in each Adi plate. They wanted to learn more and, so I told them that Prodigi Kids’ mission is to help parents build core beliefs of self worth inside a child’s brain.

It resonated with everyone on a deep soul level. Their reaction was “Awww” with the sweetest, loving kind sound. Hundreds of people told me I need to get our mission out into the world in a much bigger way and share it with others.

Then, more love poured in. Our customers started telling me I needed pink Adi plates to sell in addition to our turquoise model. We had so many people ask what other products do you sell because we want to buy them.

They loved that every Prodigi Kids product has a deep purpose- to connect parents and their kids in more loving moments of emotional connection which are the building blocks of self worth. At the time, I had prototypes of other products ready to go to the next level in our product pipeline, but had to pause them because our funding fell through and then COVID hit.

Our customers inspired me to create new product lines of baby onesies, bibs, and matching adult-child bracelets for older kids- all engraved with the saying “A loving moment lasts a lifetime.” These were products that I could make at a low cost, manufacture quickly and start selling.

I created our line of matching adult-child bracelets that have engraved on them our brand motto as well. During quarantine, I started working on these designs and showed them to others for consumer focus group feedback. I received very favorable responses and moved forward once I had the funding in place.

Today, I’m proud to say that we currently sell pink Adi plates and will go live with more products this month selling from our website. We launched a new website last month, and rebranded Prodigi Kids to lead with our mission. Prodigi Kids is converting to a CA Benefit Corporation and we are creating a nonprofit to create a greater positive impact on our planet.

Our PR campaign kicks off this month so be sure to keep an eye out for me and all things Prodigi Kids. We expanded our team and hired our first digital marketing executive. Our blogs go live later this month. Our plans for 2022 include more amazing products for families and building out Prodigi Kids to the next level- we want to be the brand that people are talking about.

Today, I look back with awe and see that the pivots that life took me were a blessing. The outpouring of love from our customers inspired us to add community-built products into our offerings. The interactions that I had and insights I received were invaluable to Prodigi Kids.

What have been your biggest lessons learned in the last year?

There have been several big lessons learned in the past year. Perhaps the biggest lesson has been overcoming my fear of being seen on a large scale and of being completely vulnerable in sharing what’s inside my heart and soul which is the mission of Prodigi Kids.

Every entrepreneur struggles. It’s about getting back up time and time again and keep executing on your dreams.

The story behind helping kids is very personal to me and based upon my childhood experiences. This has been a process of inner growth and steadfastness to the big dream inside my heart, yet when I started rebuilding Prodigi Kids after COVID, I didn’t anticipate the fear that would grip me.

I persevered doing my inner healing work, listened to some great Brene Brown podcasts, and then the magic started happening. I started feeling comfortable sharing my story on a bigger level and our impact about building core beliefs of self worth in our children.

Another big lesson I learned this year is to #keepgoing. I have always persevered in my dream, but this year took it to a whole new level. I kept my faith and surrendered to doing the work and letting God take care of the rest. What resulted is our rebrand and relaunch with new products and putting myself out there as the face of Prodigi Kids. Before, I led with the products. Now, life taught me that I need to share my story and wisdom gained with the world. I cannot shrink or hide what’s inside of me.

What’s in the plans for the upcoming year, and the next 5 years?

We have a big 2022 ahead. Our plans are to scale operations and add in multiple products to our offerings. We have exciting content launches scheduled for late 2021 and into 2022.

Have you read any good books in the last year?

Actually- no. I live, eat, and breathe my startup, and everything I read pertains to the task I’m currently working on if I need to learn something in my role as CEO. For example, we’re in the process of forming a Prodigi Kids non profit now to expand our impact and help educate parents about neuroscience and how critical it is to raise our children with core beliefs of self worth inside their developing brain.

This is my first time forming a nonprofit, and although I’ve served on nonprofit boards before, I’m learning how to form and manage one from the ground up. So, the researcher in me is voraciously reading online the things I need to learn to make the best educated decisions moving Prodigi Kids forward.

Advice for other entrepreneurs who might be struggling to grow their business?

Two things come to mind. First, It’s normal to struggle. The key is to #keepgoing! The struggle is real, and if you aren’t struggling, then you’re not building something big enough into the world. You’re playing small. Every entrepreneur struggles. It’s about getting back up time and time again and keep executing on your dreams. You’re building resilience and fortitude inside which will carry you forward through the next round of challenges.

Second, when you are going through a challenging time as an entrepreneur, ask others who inspire you and have created what you doing how they would handle the situation. You’ll likely learn that they were in your shoes at one time, and they kept going. The other day, my son’s football coach, who built a successful financial business, was asking me how I was doing. I told him that the day felt like a roller coaster. He told me to #keepgoing- he said I’m going to look back at this time and realize that I did it and it was all worth it. Then, he added #keepgoing!