Carolyn Kepcher meets with Dapple finalist Dana Rubinstein
June 4th, 2008
I sat down with Dana Rubinstein and her partner Tamar Rosenthal of Dapple, to review their company to-date, and to share my ideas and insight for moving forward.
First things first: I believe they have a great story, a great product, and solid market potential. I can’t stress enough how important these things are to building something successful. All the money and mentoring in the world can’t save a failed concept.
But this concept appears to be quite strong. And the timing is right. “Organic” and “green” are hot topics. Dapple has few solid competitors. And the market of new moms is always sizeable, and always willing to spend money on products that are good for their children.
The real issues facing Dapple at this point are marketing and distribution: how to GET their product to that market, on a large scale.
Dana and Tamar shared with me that they were approached recently by a gentlemen who is connected to a distribution company. He offered to get their product distributed, (possibly nationwide) in exchange for a percentage of their company.
We discussed this, the three of us. One of the questions I posed to them is: “What percentage of your projected expenses are slated for distribution?” Without that number, it’s futile to consider the offer.
And this is a good point to stress for all entrepreneurs.
This is not unlike building a house. Without a budget, clearly defined, you have no idea whether or not you can afford full granite in the kitchen. Likewise, when you start and run your own business, it’s critical to have a solid handle on dollars: what you have, what you can expect, and what they are to be used for. Only then can you truly start making key decisions.
And so, Dana and Tamar are well on their way, currently tackling the tasks of marketing and distribution. My advice to them in the immediate is to take advantage of the Yahoo! services readily available to them, to incorporate ecommerce capabilities on their site, as well as to begin coordinating virally with other complementary companies, products and services.
From there, tackle the other options one at a time, with solid dollars in mind.
Carolyn Kepcher
June 8th, 2008 at 10:58 am
Great lesson to learn for starting a new business!