Baby Bedding and Business
When Jake told us that we were going to have a woman who create a successful line of baby bedding as our guest speaker, I wasn’t very excited. At the time I had no idea what a mistake that was. Katy Mimari is an incredible personality, mother, and most of all founder of Caden Lane and owner of a local baby store Nursery Couture. She was such an inspiration, and made me realize I can never judge a guest presenter by their business idea.
When Katy arrived, she arrived with presence and importance, a type of confidence I aspire to exude. She went into telling her founder story and I realized the baby business was much more complicated than I realized. When she started her company there were not as many options, and she filled a need in the market for cuter baby items. What seemed so obvious to me was not at all at the time of Caden Lane’s founding. Her story reminded me that part of having a great startup idea is timing of the opportunity itself.
I also found her story impressive as she has never taken any outside funding. She was able to use her own funds, credit from banks, and family and friends to start and maintain her business. In class, we often talk about raising capital, how to estimate start up costs and funding needs, and other related topics. However her story differed from the typical path, and as such was refreshing.
Katy also was super passionate about coding. As I have written about in the past, as a computer science major I think it is important to study entrepreneurship so that I can sell what I create with code. Katy went a step further to say if you want to start a business, you should learn how to code. She emphasized that being able to understand code, how to build a website, and other related tasks are invaluable in the startup world today and advised everyone to take a course if they haven’t already. I have to say I agree with her!
When Katy arrived, she arrived with presence and importance, a type of confidence I aspire to exude. She went into telling her founder story and I realized the baby business was much more complicated than I realized. When she started her company there were not as many options, and she filled a need in the market for cuter baby items. What seemed so obvious to me was not at all at the time of Caden Lane’s founding. Her story reminded me that part of having a great startup idea is timing of the opportunity itself.
I also found her story impressive as she has never taken any outside funding. She was able to use her own funds, credit from banks, and family and friends to start and maintain her business. In class, we often talk about raising capital, how to estimate start up costs and funding needs, and other related topics. However her story differed from the typical path, and as such was refreshing.
Katy also was super passionate about coding. As I have written about in the past, as a computer science major I think it is important to study entrepreneurship so that I can sell what I create with code. Katy went a step further to say if you want to start a business, you should learn how to code. She emphasized that being able to understand code, how to build a website, and other related tasks are invaluable in the startup world today and advised everyone to take a course if they haven’t already. I have to say I agree with her!
Her talk also covered a lengthy discussion about how important branding and SEO, search engine optimization is. As it related to her brand, Caden Lane, having an updated blog, good links, and updated descriptions helps her business get to the top of Google search. She even did a mini tutorial on how she researches Google search term trends to decide what to use for advertising.
Overall, Katy Mimari left me inspired to run my own company. Her talk discussed multiple practical topics as well as her personal story and anecdotes. From her advice to stay away from physical products to her prediction that customer service will determine which businesses succeed in the future, Katy was on point. I am so glad to be in the entrepreneurship department where hearing from amazing guest speakers such as Katy is the norm.
-Kylie Moden
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