Momboss Medley: Founders of Lovevery, State Bags, & Aden + Anais
#237 -While listening to entrepreneur podcasts like How I Built This, I can’t help but wonder about the guest’s personal lives. I want to ask crazy questions like: When building an empire, does your husband ever feel needy or jealous of your success? Or did your withholding mother drive you to prove yourself to the world? You know, questions people don’t typically ask unless they’re your close girlfriend. And while I don’t know these wildly successful founders personally, Atomic Moms podcast felt like the perfect opportunity to do that. In this compilation episode, we share highlights with three trailblazing founders: Jessica Rolph, Jacq Tatelman, and Raegan Moya-Jones. I can’t wait for you to listen.
First up, Multi-million dollar company founding social entrepreneur, and super interesting/fun mom of three JESSICA ROLPH geeks out with us over baby brain development and start up family life. Jessica co-founded and sold the #1 organic baby food company Happy Family - selling it for hundreds of millions of dollars - and is now putting her heart and soul into Lovevery, play products designed by child development experts.
Then we catch up with Jacq Tatelman, Brooklyn-based social impact entrepreneur and mom of two is co-founder and creative director of the wildly popular STATE bags and the co-creator of the non-profit foundation Country Roads Foundation, est. in 2009.
And finally, we're talking to the creative entrepreneur who put baby swaddle blankets on the map and, eh hem, in Prince George’s “coming home from the hospital” photos, Australian mother of four RAEGAN MOYA-JONES. She shares with Atomic Moms what she learned building a $100 million company Aden + Anais from her kitchen table while raising four daughters. Enjoy! And as always: subscribe, rate, and review HERE! Your support for this independent pod never goes unnoticed!
X Ellie Knaus
Special thanks to our sound engineer Owen O’Neill, production assistant Olivia Hastie, and Jeremy Turner for our original theme composition.
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Crib Notes (AKA Episode Research)
Maker Monkey Workshop, founded by Sarah Wilson - Instagram
STATE Bags Co-founder Jacq Tatelman: “Why it’s so important for a business leader to let go of ego” - Medium
The Boss: How STATE's Jacq Tatelman Is Helping Children Around America - TIME
Aden + Anais Founder Raegan Moya-Jones is Swaddled in Success - Working Mother
How mom of four Raegan Moya-Jones built aden + anais into a global empire - Mother.ly
Successful Social Entrepreneur Jessica Rolph Launches New Venture Selling Toys With A Purpose - Forbes
About Our Guests:
Jessica Rolph, Jacq Tatelman + Raegan Moya-Jones
Jessica Rolph recently cofounded her second entrepreneurial venture, Lovevery. Lovevery play products are designed by child development experts and distilled to their simplest, purest purpose: to be exactly what children need at each stage. Previously, Jessica cofounded #1 organic baby food company Happy Family, which was acquired by Groupe Danone. Lovevery's mission is to help every parent feel confident that they are giving their baby the best learning experience through play. The idea behind Lovevery began after Jessica read a doctoral dissertation titled Current Research Findings on the Neurological Development of Infants. She began crafting her own toys at home and taking notes on what the science said was best for her baby. After many years of research and development, Lovevery launched its first product, The Play Gym in 2017, winning parenting awards, a Red Dot design award, and accolades from press and influencers. This year, Lovevery launched a groundbreaking subscription service called The Play Kits, including stage-based developmental toys made from sustainable materials and including easily digestible advice on what the science says your baby is hungry to learn in a given stage. Jessicaresides in Idaho with her 3 adorable children Bea, Leland and Thacher as well as her husband Decker.
Jacqueline Tatelman’s fashion roots span from when she was a toddler in her mother’s clothing boutique to working as the Manager of Product Development at Saks Fifth Avenue. Along with being a mother of two, Jacqueline is the Co-Founder of STATE Bags with her husband Scot, where the pair create thoughtfully designed bags and backpacks with a giveback mission.
For every STATE bag purchased, STATE supports American children and families in need ... in the way they need it most - whether it be donating fully-stocked backpacks, funding special projects through partner charities, or shedding light around social inequalities on our #WhatDoWeTellTheKids platform.
Raegan Moya-Jones is the founder and CEO of Saint Luna, a premium moonshine company, and the founder and former CEO of aden + anais, an award-winning lifestyle brand for babies and children. She is the winner of the EY Entrepreneur of the Year award and a board member of Hopeland, a charity dedicated to making sure all children have a family. Her previous book is Swaddle Love, a short history of the ancient practice of swaddling. She lives in Brooklyn with her husband and their four daughters.
Retail Therapy Available at our Atomic Moms Shop!
Atomic Moms Podcast Pairing:
Ultimate Mom Boss! Happy Family Organics + Lovevery Co-Founder Jessica Rolph
Multi-million dollar company founding social entrepreneur, and super interesting/fun mom of three JESSICA ROLPH geeks out with us over baby brain development (loved this!) and start up #momlife. Jessica co-founded and sold the #1 organic baby food company Happy Family and is now putting her heart and soul into Lovevery, play products designed by child development experts. We discuss: the greatest parenting lesson she learned from business school, overcoming the fear of starting something new, why the Idaho life is the best life, and how to keep marital love alive while immersing yourself in a start up.
xx Ellie
How She Does It | STATE bags Jacq Tatelman, co-founder, creative director
#205: Our chat with Jacq Tatelman is more energizing than a full night’s rest, not that we’d remember what that’s like. This Brooklyn-based social impact entrepreneur and mom of two is co-founder and creative director of the wildly popular STATE bags and the co-creator of the non-profit foundation Country Roads Foundation, est. in 2009. Her brain-child STATE bags has donated hundreds of thousands of backpacks to kids in need in the United States through their buy-one, give-one model. It also happens to be the bag I carry with me, and share with my 18 month-old Eliza, every single day.
In this episode, we get an inside look at the wife/husband team behind State Bags, including the darkest hour in the creation of their company and how they pushed through. We chat about what entrepreneurial lessons Tatelman gleamed from her childhood and what snacks she buys for the office. And we also share the origin story behind the Tatelman family’s passion project “Camp Power”, celebrating its 11th year giving underprivileged NYC kids the chance to experience the wonders of summer camp.
Listen up! x Ellie Knaus
$100M "Aden + Anais" Baby Swaddle Co. Founder + Mom of 4: Raegan Moya-Jones on "What It Takes" and What She's Learned Getting There
#217: We're talking to the creative entrepreneur who put baby swaddle blankets on the map and, eh hem, in Prince George’s “coming home from the hospital” photos! Australian mother of four RAEGAN MOYA-JONES shares with Atomic Moms what she learned building a $100 million company Aden + Anais from her kitchen table while raising four daughters. In this friendly and vulnerable conversation, we learn what Moya-Jones’s difficult relationship with her mother taught her about parenting and how she shared the invisible labor on the home front with her spouse. We also get this ultimate #momboss’s #1 hiring tip, what mother entrepreneurs need to keep in mind when launching their passion project, and important things to consider when scaling a business. Check out Raegan’s What It Takes: How I Built a $100 Million Business Against the Odds (May 7, 2019). Happy Mother’s Day!
Love, Ellie Knaus