Connections: CADDi

Today our featured Connection is about someone I very recently met. Barbara Hranilovich plopped down next to me at the recent Ladies Who Launch LIVE event (which I spoke about a few weeks ago) here in Chicago. It is because of Barbara's motivating words on that day that I signed up for LWL incubator intensive (which leads into a whole new topic and series of posts). Here's what Barbara has to share with us about her beverage CADDI.

1. Describe your product/service?
The CADDi is a personal beverage carrier. It fits most standard tapered cups for hot or cold beverages. It's a convenience accessory, letting people carry beverages with a single finger.
This leaves hands free for the phone, keys, door handles, suitcases, strollers and umbrellas. Swinging a beverage is a lot more relaxing than maintaining that familiar crooked-writs pose.

2. Why did you create it?
I woke up with the idea. I thought it was either really dumb or really smart. A survey gave me the confidence to pursue it. For some time I've wanted to take a mass-production idea from concept to the street and it's been a great and fascinating learning experience. Since I'm a make-one-sell-one artist, I've looked for something that could bring in another stream of income that can continue whether I'm at the drawing board or not.

3. Why do you produce locally (made in the USA)?
Unfortunately, I don't. My contact is in Atlanta, but the product is made in China. I have pursued manufacture here, but have not even managed to get people to call back. I've had a couple of false starts, but no follow-through. I decided that if I can get the item to take off I may have more credibility and the ability to get the CADDis made here. My wish is to have organic ones made in Michigan some day.

4. What are you most proud of?
I'm proud that I've stuck with it. I have a short attention span and this has required several years of development and early marketing and more patience than I thought I had. I've also faced a lot of unknowns and it hasn't killed me yet.

5. What is your big thought (next bit step) for your company?
Simply - sales. It's a very unfamiliar and uncomfortable arena for me. Sales may seem simple, but to me it's VERY big. I'm trying to introduce a whole new concept, so there's the chicken-egg thing. People won't buy them if they don't know what they are. They won't know what they are till people use them. For many reasons I'm concluding my current market is marketing and events...sports, trade shows, conferences, concerts etc. This was where I started a couple of years ago, but it took be awhile to come back around to that as a focus market.

Thanks for sharing Barbara! And thanks for inventing a product to help those of us who frequently have coffee plus much more in hand.