Kelsey Larsen (1s):

It's essentially a plant-based plastic that is used to polyester polyesters naturally. Flame-retardant, it's pretty stain resistant. The film that we use it doesn't ever get clammy.

Katie Ferraro (13s):

Hey there I'm Katie Ferraro, registered dietitian, college nutrition professor and mom of seven specializing in baby led weaning. Here on the baby led weaning made easy podcast. I help you strip out all of the noise and nonsense about feeding, leaving you with the confidence and knowledge you need to give your baby a safe start to solid foods using baby led weaning. Well, hey guys, welcome back. So all month long, I'm interviewing the founders and leaders of some of my favorite female run feeding companies. We taken a look at the people behind the brands and the products that we use for feeding our babies every day.

Katie Ferraro (55s):

So today I'm really excited to be joined by Kelsey Larsen. She's the owner and president of Bapron baby and Bapron makes baby led weaning bibs. They're basically a hybrid between a bib and an apron, thus the name bapron. So Kelsey is going to be joining us today to talk about why she decided to build a better bib than what was out there. The whole process that she went through from literally sewing the bibs by hand by herself and selling them one by one on Etsy to running a much bigger operation these days, but she is still at the heart of it. She was actually like in the middle of her warehouse, we were doing this interview is really cool. So the Bapron product line includes the baprons, but also they have splash mats, which I think are essential.

Katie Ferraro (1m 34s):

They're these large mats made out of the same materials, the paper, and you put them underneath your baby's high chair for baby led weaning. They really help minimize food waste as well as the mess. So both the Baprons and the splash mats they're made out of this really unique waterproof material. Kelsey's going to describe a little bit about that. It's very unusual in the sense that there's no other bib made out of this type of material, but also so durable. I know we use baprons everyday in my house for my seven little kids I have, since I started baby led weaning some of the bibs, like the more favorite ones that they fight over. I know we've used like more than a thousand meals with one bib and they're still like holding up as good as the day we got him. So I really admire the work Kelsey and her team are doing to help promote independent feeding.

Katie Ferraro (2m 16s):

We'll be chatting a little bit about that. She's also going to share a few design features that were surprised to me. I didn't realize they were there. I think you might be surprised as well. If you want to check out any of the Bapron and baby products, my code Katie10 works for 10% off at bapeandbaby.com. I am an affiliate for Bapron and it's actually the only bib I use for my own children and in my feeding practice. And I think after hearing from Kelsey and learning about her business and her bib and the product design process, you'll also be a fan if you're not already. So with no further ado, I want to introduce you to Kelsey Larsen, the owner and president of Bapron baby. Well, hi, Kelsey, welcome to the podcast.

Kelsey Larsen (2m 54s):

Thanks for having me.

Katie Ferraro (2m 56s):

So all this month, we're doing a series on female led feeding companies. I had to you come on because I know you started Bapron baby out of like a need and a necessity. And I was just wondering if you could tell us your story about what inspired you to create your company Bapron baby

Kelsey Larsen (3m 12s):

Yeah. I love that you're doing that. First of all, just supporting moms, supporting women, supporting entrepreneurs. Basically we really started out of the necessity. I mean, how many companies are started that way? My little boy was about a year old and he was getting really active at the table at a high chair. And he did not like anything around his neck. I couldn't get into work by that church. He didn't want to wear a type ideal high neck shirt.

Katie Ferraro (3m 38s):

Oh, I can't believe a one-year-old didn't want to wear a tie and shirt.

Kelsey Larsen (3m 41s):

Right. Go figure. So I went on Facebook and it's asked my friend, Hey, what do you guys do? My kid won't wear bibs. I've tried literally everything. And then different people telling me, oh, we just fit with theater, kid naked. We just take his clothes off. I thought to myself, I mean, if you're home and you're whatever, like who've done it wear the pijama

Katie Ferraro (4m 0s):

But it is cold, that's also an issue

Kelsey Larsen (4m 2s):

Yeah. And we're, you know, we're going into red lobster or we're not that that's like the fanciest of restaurants, but you're in public and feel exactly as us. And I'm a little bit of sewing history. I don't know if they, like, I'm not a seamstress by any means, but I, my mom taught me how to make quilts in high school. And I had some extra fabric lying around and I thought could make something that ties around his body instead of his neck. It seems like I could figure that out. And Bapron baby was born.

Katie Ferraro (4m 29s):

Okay. What does Bapron mean?

Kelsey Larsen (4m 32s):

Okay, so it's so dorky. I thought about calling it a bib for the longest time.

Katie Ferraro (4m 35s):

No, but then you would just be another bib

Kelsey Larsen (4m 39s):

That's competing with all these bids and how many massive companies sell bibs everybody. So it's a big apron hybrid

Katie Ferraro (4m 48s):

I love it

Kelsey Larsen (4m 49s):

Bib style product designed for the same use that a bib is designed for, but it's a totally different, totally different gig.

Katie Ferraro (4m 55s):

It's totally different. Like I remember when I first got into infant feeding Dawn from EzPz who I do a lot of work with, turn me onto you. And she's like, no, like, you know, from a sensory experience for some kids, like I know personally I run, I don't like crew neck shirts up in my business. Like, and then can you imagine if you're trying to learn how to swallow and suck and breathe and swallow and sit at the same time and something's literally like choking you off this like hard piece of silicone or the ones that they tie so tight. So I remember being like, okay, I'll give this a go. And then it was like, this is genius. Like the whole design is genius. So for people who are listening, can you kind of describe what a Bapron bib looks like ?

Kelsey Larsen (5m 30s):

Yes. Okay. So a Bapron is designed for the infant for the child. Most bibs are designed for the parts, the caretakers, the shirt stays clean. The outfit stays tidy. The meals stays off their face. Things get wiped up clean. The Bapron is more designed for movement. There aren't sleeves. Their arms can move freely. They can reach together. They can open their arms wide. They can reach down, they can reach up. And there's nothing keeping their neck from looking down and around. It's, it's like a shirt on the front and then it ties around the back. So that there's nothing in the way. And they can't take it off if they wanted to. And, you know, quick,

Katie Ferraro (6m 7s):

That is the one feature for parents that I love. Like, I love that it doesn't tie around their necks, not all up in their neck, but it basically ties behind their shoulder blades. So younger babies can't rip it off, which is another problem that they do with the other bibs. So it's, it makes them feel kind of snug and secure, but you're not interfering literally with their swallowing mechanism.

Kelsey Larsen (6m 26s):

Yeah. And we will see the part of the Bapron that I'm the most proud of is the amount of work we found to really perfect the fabric. I did so much research getting just the perfect material that was both soft and breathable, but waterproof. I mean, I think I melted three different bibs in my dryer while trying to find, you know, just testing out fabric swatches. This is waterproof and feels kind of soft, wash it, dry. It that my inside of my dryer, because you can't machine wash. A lot of that waterproof stuff.

Katie Ferraro (6m 54s):

The fabric is, that was the thing. When I saw your bibs, I'm like, okay, these are cool, cool design. And you sent me a bunch of them when my quadruplets we're starting baby led weaning. And what was so different about them at that point, I had bought like all the cheapest from Amazon that are literally plastic and you can't put in the dryer and like, I'm so sorry, but three meals a day, times four babies. I'm not washing 12 bibs with like the inside of your dryer. Exactly. Because they were like sticking your right. But that material, what I love about it is that the paper materials, you can rinse them underneath the faucet, wring it out, put it on the drying rack and it's ready for the next meal. And I was like, I'm not doing 12 bibs every single day. I don't even have that much money to buy all those bibs, like to not have to launder them every single day, but, or every single meal rather, but yet to use a whole bid for the day.

Katie Ferraro (7m 37s):

Like, and the air dry. So nice. Like the material is, it's like magical. I was gonna ask you, is that like a proprietary blend? Or like what's even called because it's, I don't know how you describe it.

Kelsey Larsen (7m 47s):

Yes. It is a, it's essentially a plant-based plastic that is used to polyester, polyesters, naturally flame retardant. It's pretty stain resistant. And the film that we use it doesn't ever get clammy. One fun, little pro tip is that if you don't have natural drying rack, I know some people just don't do hair drying, get a, a command strip or a little command hook, take it to the back of your high chair and just hang it on the hook.

Katie Ferraro (8m 13s):

That's a good idea. All right. Just even with, if you guys are getting like the, a lot of our audience uses that the trip trap chairs or the Nomi chairs, I would just take the paper and shoulders and kind of wrap it around and air-dry them on each kid's chair. Just so could remember whose was whose, but they kind of have their favorite prints. And that's another thing I love about your company is that the prints are really like appealing. So for me as a parent, I don't want primary colored CRA all over the place all the time. Like I get sick of all that like baby stuff, but I love that you have just plain solid ones too. That's actually the first products they started ordering from you were just the plain colored bibs. Cause my kids are color coded, but I didn't like I wanted them to have like their own bibs, but not like obnoxious patterns. Your patterns are not obnoxious. They're beautiful.

Katie Ferraro (8m 53s):

But thank you for just having plain colored stuff.

Kelsey Larsen (8m 56s):

I have to give my credit for our minimum of flying. He is the most minimalist person I've ever met in my life. I don't think he has a shirt that has any writing or any designs on it. He just goes solid colors. And when we're designing a lot of these first patterns, he was like, why don't you do to people like black and gray blue? I was like, not a bad idea.

Katie Ferraro (9m 16s):

I think the patterns are really cool too. Like I liked some of the partnerships you guys have done. Maybe you could just tell us a little bit about like the patterns because clearly a lot of thought goes into them.

Kelsey Larsen (9m 23s):

Yeah. So one of my very first customers back when I was on Etsy hand selling with just the most basic of patterns, I'd be in a poster for a little boy wearing the favorite. And I was so excited. Someone had actually purchased something from me and then I looked on her feed and I saw all these amazing surfaces. I'm like these cute fish she had drawn in a fair. And I was like, hold on, do you make, I know nothing about surface design. And he actually threw out for me, I'm sure whatever it was that I paid her wasn't enough. But she drew out for me our first three or four custom patterns. And she's been with us.

Katie Ferraro (9m 58s):

Oh my gosh. What's your favorite pattern that you have?

Kelsey Larsen (10m 1s):

It's so hard. Cause I'm a boy mom. So

Katie Ferraro (10m 2s):

Yeah.

Kelsey Larsen (10m 3s):

I tend to like want the boyish stuff. But PG dreams.

Katie Ferraro (10m 7s):

PG Dreams is so cute. My little daughter, Claire wears that one. I love it.

Kelsey Larsen (10m 13s):

Oh, it's just, oh, it's just yummy. Love it.

Katie Ferraro (10m 15s):

I love the llamas. The Llamas are always out of stock. Cause they're so cute. But like I've like is my favorite one.

Kelsey Larsen (10m 21s):

They are discontinued

Katie Ferraro (10m 22s):

What, why ? Lamas are amazing.

Kelsey Larsen (10m 23s):

It is just one those things as we called them for so long and we have so many cute prints coming in.

Katie Ferraro (10m 28s):

I know, oh, I got it. You guys heard it here, stock up on your llamas. The Lama bib is so cute. But I also like, I appreciate that you have a lot of gender neutral products too. Like I know that's a direction that a lot of clothing and apparel companies are going for kids. I mean there's options of parents want floral pink and you know, monster trucks. But like my girls were the monster truck ones. My boys were the flower ones, like who cares? Okay. So explain the difference in the sizing because I know this is confusing for parents sometimes

Kelsey Larsen (10m 53s):

The toddler size. It's so funny how some people will call a six year old a toddler just because they're sick. They seem so little. They seem so cute to us.

Katie Ferraro (11m 0s):

I still call them babies, right?

Kelsey Larsen (11m 3s):

I know, right? The sizing really is possible for, you know. They start walking, they start being a little bit more independent when they're two or three. So the toddler size fits from as early as four or five, six months. We have six months on the package because that's usually what feeding therapists like yourself recommend. Baby led weaning begins at about that age up to size three T we don't say three years old because a three-year-old and a five-year-old can be the exact same size. The five-year-old could be smaller than a two year old. So we go by clothing size three teeth, the preschool size is more of the three to five-year-old range. The sizing is a little bit less restrictive. And honestly I have 18 month old babes that like the larger size, cause they're a little stockier and I have five-year-olds that are real slender and they still like the toddler size.

Kelsey Larsen (11m 48s):

So there's, there's quite a bit of overlap between the two sizes.

Katie Ferraro (11m 52s):

And my audience. I always just remind them because sometimes they're like, well, where's the baby. I don't buy these until they're older. No, the six month old one is the toddler one that you buy for when you're starting solid foods with baby led weaning. And I'm not a feeding therapist, but my friends who are in feeding therapy actually all use your products because of the design features that you mentioned that allow the child to have that free range of motion that they need because eating is not just about getting the food in their mouth and staying off of their shirt. It's about the gross and the fine motor skills and learning how to feed yourself. And I really have take issue with a lot of these new types of kind of tent style or canopy bibs that are coming out that are literally like putting your kid in the equivalent of a straight jacket to eat. They don't have the range of motion. And it's just the perfect example of those baby feeding products that are designed for parents and not designed for the baby.

Katie Ferraro (12m 36s):

So I really appreciate your design that you guys have stuck by it. I think it's tried and true. And I know you see feeding therapists all over the world using your products.

Kelsey Larsen (12m 46s):

Yeah. It really is a difficult conversation to repeatedly have. When people keep asking for sleep, they want sleeves, they want more coverage. They want pockets. And there isn't one teeny tiny little part of the vapor. And it hasn't been thought through how many kids do you work with that? All of their little goodies into their little pocket.

Katie Ferraro (13m 2s):

Thank you for not making more pockets. Like I don't need more pockets or places for kids to put stuff also it's gross because food gets caught there.

Kelsey Larsen (13m 9s):

It's so distracting. And that's the biggest thing. The same thing with the sleeves. I know there's some kids that are happy to asleep. I didn't care if it wrinkled at grackles, it doesn't matter. There's a lot of kids that, that is just enough of a distraction that they start looking at their sleeve. They're keep poking out sleeve and their crunchy fabric. Instead of just focusing on the work in front of them.

Katie Ferraro (13m 26s):

Okay. Let's talk about the splash mats because I was just looking at pictures. So at the time of recording this we're coming up on Easter. And so I remember when my quads were doing baby led weaning, we had an infant feeding table and I would look at splash mats and, and be like, oh, I'm not going to pay for that. Like, that's silly. I'll just use like reusable tablecloths. So the first one I used was this Easter egg one. And it was like, so colorful again, totally distracting to the kids. Cause they were always dropping the food and then looking down at it. But I remember like you put that thing in the dryer three times

Kelsey Larsen (13m 52s):

Game over.

Katie Ferraro (13m 53s):

Yes. Game over. It was just like shrink up. And then we tried, I'm not joking. I even ordered like restaurant grade mats from Amazon because it was like, the goal is not to prevent the mess with feeding. Right. But to minimize the mess and I'm like, this is like destroying me. I have to do this three plus times a day. It wasn't until I discovered your splash mats that I was like, oh, it's the same exact material as the Bapron. And they're huge. So I had twins after my quads. We always use one of your splash mats under two timeshares sold for twins at works. And then for the quads, I would just do two. So the best thing about those two is they're the same material. So they packed down so flat. So like if you're going to someone else's house and you're worried about the mess, I always just pack it in my diaper bag, spread it out, let the kids eat on that, fold it up.

Kelsey Larsen (14m 37s):

It's so nice how small they pack up to be.

Katie Ferraro (14m 39s):

They're like, they're so small. Exactly. Cause some of the other ones I'm like now I need a second diaper bag for my, you know, reusable tablecloth that doesn't even wash or dry. So I love this flashlights. I think they're an awesome size too. They're a really good value. Cause sometimes people are like, what are they? $30 or $40 like there.

Kelsey Larsen (14m 54s):

So our solid splash mats are $36.95. And we tried to go with this option. It's the easiest way for us to cut costs is to simplify the patterns, to just be solid. And then the prints still a great value there $39.95

Katie Ferraro (15m 5s):

And I know there's cheaper ones out there, but cheaper ones I've used. I tried every single brand obviously. And they, they all disintegrate or they're made out of plastic. So you can't put them in, in the dryer, which to me is key. I'm not going to hand wash my kid's splash mats

Kelsey Larsen (15m 18s):

Yeah, I don't hand wash much in my life. And that was a really important component was that it would be easy to wash and easy to use and easy to transport because every time we have this picnic, even in our backyard, we have AstroTurf. We here in Arizona. So nobody has real grass and we'll lay down a splash mat. We'll make a mess on our little picnics, hold it up, throw it in the washing machine. And there's no mess anywhere along the stage of eating the washing

Katie Ferraro (15m 41s):

And for the splash mats, we actually use them a lot in our photo shoots. I liked your solid color, splash math in the last, the time he will be like, you know, you're trying to explain a concept about feeding and I'm like, what's that thing underneath the high chair, I was like, this is the baby and baby splash mat. You absolutely have to have it, but it's something I recommend for everyone for starting solids, because you don't want the mess to be so overwhelming that parents give up. But also please just remember, it's not your job to prevent the mess, but you can't have the right tools to help minimize the mess. So I think your bib, which I used to call a full coverage bib, but we actually stopped calling it that because of these tent style contraption bibs. So I liked the Pinafore style. I think I'll start using that. And I always call it a baby led weaning bib

Kelsey Larsen (16m 18s):

It was designed for baby led weaning

Katie Ferraro (16m 20s):

Baby led weaning promotes independent feeding and your bib is designed to do that. So tell us a little bit more about like the design features. Cause you said every single feature of it has been really well thought out, but what are we missing when we just look at the bib?

Kelsey Larsen (16m 31s):

This leaves themselves. When people put it on, sometimes I'll have customers tell me that it's too tight across the chest, the angle of which the ties. Imagine it tied in the back by rotating back the S the shoulder area, the sleeves, if you will, it opens up the chest and you can tie it a little more loosely in the back for a kid with a bigger rib cage, a little bit thicker child, the really skinny, skinny. I don't know. I hate the word skinny, but a really petite infant running it completely tight and then pulling it flat. It gives them a little bit more of a narrow rib cage. We advertise it. It grows with your child. And that, that rotation is really how it's able to do that because as they grow and their rib cage, it gets bigger and wider and their body gets longer.

Kelsey Larsen (17m 15s):

It shifts forward or back. And then that whole area, if you will, that kind of lays down and they can take anything that they drop off.

Katie Ferraro (17m 21s):

I do like the ties I was thinking about it. So the favorite bib in our house, my favorite is the peachy dreams, but the cookies and milk one is like the one my kids fight over. So all seven of my kids wear Baprons; they are six and under, but like, if I'm doing breakfast by myself in the morning, like I need to get them dressed first and then feed them. So like, I'm not, they cannot get food all over their uniforms for school. So I'll make them wear a Bapron and people on Instagram, like, aren't your kids, a little old forbids. And I was like, do you want to come over my house and do the laundry? Exactly. So the preschooler one is awesome. Cause even my six year old will still use it. Cause she, and they just like kind of go for, they pick their own, but they fight over cookies and milk, which had for since a surprise sale last year. So I realized we've used it three times a day for over year, like literally a thousand wares for one bib. And it like looks as good as the day we got it. Whereas like my other bibs, when I used to use other ones, you just throw them out after like a month, you know, it's such a waste.

Kelsey Larsen (18m 7s):

Absolutely. One thing too, that I was just, as we were talking, thinking about is with the flash mats. I find that a lot of parents when something falls and here was my husband too, something falls, the parent looks down, it's a distraction to them. And mealtime kind of stops. They pick it up, they wipe off the mess. Talk about, oh, don't spill that. But by having the splash mat, even my self-proclaimed clean freak of a husband would just let it go. And he's staying eyes up interacting with our little boy. And it's not a distraction for something to fall on the splash mat because you just know you pick it up 30 seconds later.

Katie Ferraro (18m 39s):

So I mentioned the surprise sale, which was one of my favorite things that Bapron baby does. And I want to know more about the business because I feel like now, like when I'm interviewing you, I'm, you're in your warehouse, like I'm looking at your warehouse. And I just picture like the people that work in your warehouse, like closing their eyes and just like randomly picking stuff. Like how does this surprise you?

Kelsey Larsen (18m 55s):

So much more heart that goes into these surprised sales. It's so fun. The girls enjoy knocking the price sale. As much as our customers enjoy picking out which surprise they want. There's a lot of kinds of we'll notice that someone's from, I don't know someone who's from Arizona more often than not. We'll get a cactus print. There's little things that we see. They purchased three of the Eric Carle caterpillar prints, and then they wanted the surprise one. And we might just throw in the fourth one, just a little fun, things like that. But I find that the surprise sale gives people who maybe didn't want to take that initial jump into paint. I mean, that's a $20 bibs. Most people don't buy $20.

Katie Ferraro (19m 33s):

Yeah. They buy five, $10 bibs and throw them all out. So

Kelsey Larsen (19m 36s):

Exactly. So it's the good way. It's kind of like a, they call it our portal drug or, or a

Katie Ferraro (19m 43s):

Gateway

Kelsey Larsen (19m 44s):

Gateway drug. That's the word. And it's, it's enough to get people to try it out. You know, it's on sale for $14.95. How could we not? Let's just get one and I cannot tell you how often I get emails about people saying, okay, so I know the sale is over, but can I, can I maybe get a couple more surprise day friends? Because I really wish I had done six or seven or eight

Katie Ferraro (20m 2s):

So tell me Kelsey, how did you go from being like an Etsy operation to a full-blown like e-commerce business?

Kelsey Larsen (20m 8s):

Oh goodness. You know, when we started, I didn't know. What I see was I had a friend tell me, Hey, you should sell that online again, same story. We've heard so many times, but within 24 hours of me listing this on Etsy, it's sold right. Made it sold. It tried to make some sort of a packaging. And then the snowball effect hit where the next day I sold one. And then three days later I sold three in one day. And that Christmas I sold 15 in one day. And then all of a sudden I'm selling enough that I'm like, Hey, we could maybe have a standalone business and buy it in to Amazon. What if we build on Zulily? What if we, and we kind of diversified in that sense.

Katie Ferraro (20m 50s):

So you're of self-taught as far as the marketing goes

Kelsey Larsen (20m 54s):

Oh, absolutely. Two, I don't think there is anyone out there who just can't figure out how to do an online business.

Katie Ferraro (21m 1s):

That's good and bad, right?

Kelsey Larsen (21m 1s):

Yeah. Definitely.

Katie Ferraro (21m 2s):

But I think with like, especially for me, I know like my audience, primarily the majority of them come from Instagram and seeing really is believing every single kid I repost in my stories is, well, I only were repost babies who are shown feeding in a safe environment. So I don't actually don't repost naked babies. Cause I was just feels weird to repost someone's naked child, but that is, it can be a really negative sensory experience for a child. And again, that's the parents being concerned about the mess over maybe the baby's ability to be comfortable when they're eating. But I always share pictures of kids with bibs and it you're probably like stop tagging me. I tell you guys,

Kelsey Larsen (21m 34s):

I never, I love it.

Katie Ferraro (21m 35s):

I think seeing really is believing. She said, oh, that bib is kind of different. What's that called? I think naming it Bapron bib is like the best thing. Cause it's a different type of, if everything else kind of sounds the same, but you really have a unique product. That's really revolutionizing infant feeding because it is developmentally appropriate. And it is something that, you know, it is a little bit more on the expensive side. But I think in the long run, like you end up saving money. When you buy quality products, when you invest in things that your kid is going to do every day, they're going to eat three times a day. It's like parents complaining about a $300 highchair when they just bought a $1,200 stroller. I'm like, are you serious? This high chair, if you buy the right one, you will have until your child is 13 or 14 years old, three meals a day, do the math on that. It's like pennies over the, you know, but again, every family values different things, but I think as far as quality bibs go, like, you're definitely the only one out there.

Katie Ferraro (22m 21s):

So we love you.

Kelsey Larsen (22m 22s):

Hey, I love hearing that

Katie Ferraro (22m 24s):

And continue to support you. And I can imagine Instagram has been a fair amount of your marketing budget and efforts.

Kelsey Larsen (22m 31s):

Instagram is everything. I have a fun confession that you don't pay for marketing like ever. Instagram was my very first obvious, Hey, these people don't already know me. They're just coming up on me. I need to pay more attention to Instagram. And it was early. Obviously algorithms are always changing. But I think that may have been the reason now that I'm thinking about it, why I switched away from Etsy, I was looking over some like numbers and some statistics on Etsy. And I was finding that almost none of my traffic came from Etsy. So I was just paying them for the privilege of bringing my own customers to them.

Katie Ferraro (23m 7s):

Yeah. I'm doing free a brand awareness for Etsy.

Kelsey Larsen (23m 8s):

Right. Right. It was one of those, like you said, it's genius to call it a Bapron. It wasn't initially, initially it was really hard to have this made up word and I'd go to these markets and they'd be like, Hey, this is Bapron baby, they'd go. What?

Katie Ferraro (23m 21s):

But then, but now you're talking to them like, right, like now you're explaining it. You're telling your story

Kelsey Larsen (23m 26s):

Oh it's a bib?

Katie Ferraro (23m 27s):

And an apron, it's a hybrid bib. Okay. So in on your website you have the Bapron bibs in the toddler and the preschool size. You have the splash mat, everything comes in solid colors or the amazing prints. What other products do you carry on your site and how did you come to partner with those brands?

Kelsey Larsen (23m 42s):

So there's a few collaboration has always been really big for me, whether it was collaborating with another handmade shop early on to teach me how to, I don't know how to do a story on Instagram, there was some really basic things that I needed to learn. And then when it came to growing and expanding and having a warehouse and employees, it was a really awesome experience for me. I actually reached out to Lindsay Lorraine from EzPz she's the founder of that

Katie Ferraro (24m 7s):

As well. Yeah.

Kelsey Larsen (24m 8s):

I love Lindsay. I can't say enough good things about her, but I sent her an email on Christmas Eve asking her a few questions about her experience on shark tank.

Katie Ferraro (24m 17s):

Oh she shares very openly about her experience on shark tank. She did our interview. Yeah.

Kelsey Larsen (24m 22s):

Oh, I need to watch that one. Honestly, it was, it was so shocking to me that someone with so much important in this category would even take the time to listen or read and then respond so quickly on Christmas Eve day. So from that moment we started talking about, well, what if we brought in these brands? I'm not going to try and rip off. It means if she sells brilliant products

Katie Ferraro (24m 45s):

Which everybody tries to rip off.

Kelsey Larsen (24m 47s):

Yeah. Like products I use in my own home. I want to sell those products and I don't want to compete with them. I want to support them. And it started turning into a back and forth. You know, they sell our products on their website. We sell ours and everybody wins. And there's a few other brands that we've done that. Honestly, the mealtime favorites category in our website is full of products that I use in my own home right now.

Katie Ferraro (25m 7s):

That's what I love. I'm like, I like your bibs. Like I never had heard of the kitty cutter training knives. And I've tried literally every knife under the sun. It's the only one that cuts food and not your finger. And like it's available on the Bapron baby website

Kelsey Larsen (25m 25s):

We actually are just, they are in the middle of renovating their blade. So the $12.95 price point that we've got on our knives, it's almost to be no more. The price is going to have to go up a little. They're still, I mean, they're going to be great blades either way.

Katie Ferraro (25m 36s):

So if you go to the Bapron baby website, there's the mealtime favorites, which I was like, I love your bibs and your splash mat. So anything else you like, it's like, I've been listening all that stuff about like influence versus influencers. And it's like the, your influence of you make a quality product. So there's not going to be not quality products that you're recommending. And I was like, gosh, I've never seen a knife like that. So I kind of really got into the knives because I found them on your website and everything on her website. If you guys are interested in bapronbaby.com, you can get 10% off with the code, Katie10. So obviously check out the bacon products. But the mealtime favorites is really cool and that the gift pack of the mini-mat from EzPz with a Bapron baby bib is like my go-to. I always do a first food set from EzPz plus the mini mat with Bapron baby bundled.

Katie Ferraro (26m 19s):

That's if there's a sale, it's around $50. It's a great baby shower gift for parents that are expecting. Cause they don't need another onesie. Like they are going to want feeding gear when their baby turns six months and you're turning them onto like quality products that are affordable attainable, but like made with a lot of thoughtful design in them as well.

Kelsey Larsen (26m 36s):

Definitely.

Katie Ferraro (26m 36s):

Do you have any advice for other parents who are interested in starting their own business based on a need from a problem that they see in parenting? Like what would you advise to them?

Kelsey Larsen (26m 46s):

You know, I think there's a big difference between a hobby and a business. Bapron baby was a hobby for me for a long time. And it was a hobby that saved me emotionally from the depression that I was starting to get into by being the whole mom, it can be hard. And when we decided that we were going to make this a business and we were really going to do something with it, I found that by putting both feet in that was everything to me, like having a side gig and just thinking about this little bits here and there, you don't have a competitive advantage on another mom. Who's trained to innovate whatever. And so I think finding something that you really can get on board with and be passionate about and think about full-time and last night, getting ready for a little promotion that we're doing on Instagram.

Kelsey Larsen (27m 31s):

I probably spent, I don't know, two and a half hours sleeping about seven hours. Thinking about this fun event, I do think really heavily committing to what you want is everything.

Katie Ferraro (27m 40s):

Can I ask how COVID has affected your business? Cause I know you guys all used to go to different trade shows in baby events. And yet, I mean, here you are still in business, which is amazing, but how has that been?

Kelsey Larsen (27m 53s):

What a miracle. So when COVID hit, we, all of our eggs were in one basket, metaphorically. I suppose we had a team in New York. It was wonderful to work with. And New York got shut down for two and a half solid months. We had nothing going in, nothing coming out. They couldn't even step foot in the warehouse. I was running out of product. So out of pure desperation, we found honestly, thankfully some of the states didn't have as high of restrictions as New York, we found a factory that was able to work with us. And now we have two factories having that diversity or diversification, I suppose, being able to produce things in two places. I feel like COVID gave us a little bit of an insurance policy in that way.

Kelsey Larsen (28m 33s):

And then because the online shopping across the world just spiked right up. We were able to split like kind of divide and conquer. And it's been really good for us.

Katie Ferraro (28m 40s):

It's kinda crazy. Like babies are still born and babies still have to learn how to eat. And like life does go on, even though all this crazy stuff is happening. And like so glad you were able to stay going because like you said, it gets scary for sure.

Kelsey Larsen (28m 52s):

The vision makes more sense now because a lot of the customers are they're home more now. They get that. It's about making the experience of you and your baby together. Eating comfortable for mom, comfortable for baby. Little bit less mess, a little bit less time cleaning up and scrubbing and a little bit more time laughing and playing.

Katie Ferraro (29m 9s):

What would you say is the hardest thing about running paper and baby? Like what keeps you up at night for seven and a half hours when you're only sleeping for two and a half hours?

Kelsey Larsen (29m 16s):

The fun stuff keeps me up at night.

Katie Ferraro (29m 18s):

Okay.

Kelsey Larsen (29m 18s):

Very rarely do I lose sleep over the stress of Bapron baby. Cause it really is something I'm passionate about. But I think the hardest part for me and us, my husband making decisions was turning down opportunities like PR patients restraint, not going full bore because when I started this, I was like, everyone's going to tell their best friend about their vaping. And it'll double them every week. Like thinking that I'll sell hand over fist by the end of the month. And then all of a sudden it was a slow burn. And I think sticking with it, not getting discouraged, having the patience and the fortitude to just keep pushing and doing new things and trying new things and learning new techniques on Instagram and just not giving up.

Kelsey Larsen (29m 59s):

So could you share a little bit about your collaboration with Eric Carl? Cause I was really surprised when I saw that come out. So if you guys are hungry, caterpillar fans, they have this like amazing line of hungry caterpillar products that bibs, the Bapron bibs the splash mats. How did that come about? Because was that your first license in deal? It is our first and likely one of our only ever. I mean, I don't see us doing a lot of licensing deals. It's just not something that I'm kind of like being able to be creatively free, but I have a sweet spot in my heart for Eric Carl. My son's first birthday party was Eric Carle theme, hungry caterpillar. We had all the different foods and all the different fun cap, like design work around. I just really, really loved that paper art.

Kelsey Larsen (30m 41s):

So we reached out knowing that we were very small, probably would never be able to catch their attention. And with the help of a few friends giving me a little nudges on like what the industry standard is. I was able to trick them into thinking I'm important enough to be a licensee. It's been a great partnership. I feel like we're, we're keeping them happy. They are for sure. Keeping us happy. And I just think those patterns are adorable.

Katie Ferraro (31m 2s):

When we were doing this interview, my twins just came in and interrupt us when we were talking about Eric Carle and was asking them what their favorite bibs are and Gussie, my son loves yellow and just like the yellow piping on the food parade. One is my favorite bib of all time, I love it.

Kelsey Larsen (31m 16s):

I do too. I think because I have so many fun foods or the parent you're trying to make mealtime fun and talking about cheese with a little peek of cheese and, and making everything a matching game. I've seen a lot of parents sharing stories on Instagram, about how these fun food connections. We have quite a few different patterns that feature food are able, they're able to say, I want to wear my, my vegetables because I'm having vegetables or taco party pattern. I probably sell more taco parties on Tuesday night after taco night than any other time of the week. Someone just finally is like, I'm done. We're doing

Katie Ferraro (31m 50s):

Whenever you get the wineglass one. I will be your biggest fan of the wine glass bib. If you're, you know, you make products for parents and for kids as well, but don't you make adult line?

Kelsey Larsen (32m 1s):

You know, we have run a few adult lines. What I'm finding though is that I'm not as passionate about it.

Katie Ferraro (32m 4s):

Dude, I don't like matching my kids. So I'm sorry. I never bought one. Dawn was always wearing one and I was like, I can't do it. Like, sorry

Kelsey Larsen (32m 9s):

There are a lot of people who tell me now that they can't get it. They wish they would've. I just really decided to stay in my niche. Adults are fun to dress, I guess, for some people just really love finding cute patterns for babies and infants and toddlers on cool unique products for preschoolers that parents maybe haven't seen before. And I have more than enough work on that categories. I don't need to mess with adults anymore.

Katie Ferraro (32m 33s):

So Kelsey, tell us where we can go to learn more about your company, Bapron baby?

Kelsey Larsen (32m 38s):

So Bapron are sold on Amazon. If you prefer Amazon shopping, it's just, if you type in Bapronbaby, all one word, Bapron baby, and you'll find a reflection there, but we also have a standalone website, which is the bread and butter of this business. So it's Baronbaby.com B as in bib apron, as in a kitchen apron, Bapronbaby, or if it's easier to just Google the word Bapron, you'll find it.

Katie Ferraro (33m 0s):

Well, Kelsey, thank you so much for your time. I really appreciate

Kelsey Larsen (33m 3s):

It. It was great to meet with you and to go over all of this, all of the things that I love about what we do here.

Katie Ferraro (33m 10s):

Well, I hope you guys enjoyed that interview with Kelsey Larsen from Bapron baby. I don't know about you. I just love talking to the people behind the products and the brands that I support and buy from in order to feed my family. So I just think Kelsey is so amazing. The paper and bibs are like essentials for starting solid foods. Don't forget to check out their splash mats too. They're huge for minimizing the mess and minimizing the waste. If you go to Bapronbaby.com. My code Katie 10 works for 10% off all of the products on her site. She's also got some other unique things under like her mealtime favorites to check out. And I'll also link up some more of the resources that Kelsey talked about on the show notes page for this episode@blwpodcast.com forward slash one, one eight. Thanks so much for listening and we'll see you next time.