After years in advertising,Nicki Radzelywas ready for a change.
An industrial designer, Badger had been planning to take a break herself to raise a family. “But designers have a hard time accepting the world at face value, and I can’t pick up a spatula without finding a problem that could be solved,” she jokes to PEOPLE. “Getting pregnant exposed me to a world that was ripe for smart innovation.”
Becky Kimball
Their initial “meeting” was via Skype in 2015. “The first time we talked, there was this instant bond and trust between us,” says Badger, who is now 31 and lives in Salt Lake City. “Nicki’s passion for the product, for what this could be, was electric. I really felt that from the very beginning.”
Radzely, 38, couldn’t help but get on board right away. “I loved the POP idea so much that I wanted in,” she says. “I wanted to sell it, Iwanted to build a brand aroundit.”
She began a Kickstarter campaign for the POP pacifier and went onShark Tankin January 2018 to raise more funds. The company has since reached $1 million in sales, and now makes teethers as well.
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Looking back, the two moms — who now have five young kids between them — can hardly believe their success.
“We had the right amount of naivete to say, ‘Let’s just go, one foot in front of the other,’ ” says Radzely. “Today, we’re still taking that approach.”
For more stories of women who reinvented themselves, pick up the latest issue ofPEOPLE, on newsstands Friday.
source: people.com
