Today we’d like to introduce you to Rachel Neill.
Hi Rachel, we’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
It all started for me when I found myself as a single teen mom with zero family support. The challenge made it clear if I wanted to find success it was solely up to me to make it happen. I did everything I could to juggle school, work, and care for my son (bringing him to work with me each day).
Years later I continued pushing, putting myself through college, graduating, and eventually working my way up as an executive at Nordic Consulting. There I gained a foundation for how the start-up space works, and yes I caught the entrepreneurial bug! Today I am a mom of six, and a co-founder and CEO of two companies, Carex Consulting Group, and The Figgy Play Couch. It’s funny how they say “necessity is the mother of invention,” because that is exactly how my latest venture, the Figgy (sustainable kids’ play couch) came to be.
When the pandemic hit I found myself at home with a house full of restless little ones who wanted to be entertained! With the world shut down, it was no easy feat, but then it hit me, if I’m struggling so are many other parents, there’s got to be a solution! That’s when I called my friend Chris Roepe (Co-founder of Figgy) and we hit the ground running!
Between Chris’ engineering experience and my vision for a new type of kids’ play couch and adventure/entertainment kit we felt like we had something unique, but we needed to test our idea. Believe it or not, we started on Kickstarter, put our pitch out into the world and within eight minutes we met our $40,000 fundraising goal! Since then we have continued to grow at an impressive rate, gotten positive reviews from huge outlets like USA Today, and Yahoo! We also just opened up our store on Amazon.com and started shipping products to Canada as well!
We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
Starting a business is tough and filled with many learning lessons. We started our play couch business during the pandemic and a big surprise/lesson, one that I will never forget is when we found out just how unpredictable the supply chains would be during that time.
It was not easy to find alternatives, however, you’ve got to be able to tap into creative strategies to find solutions, and weather the storm so to speak! After that, we can now say we are prepared for a variety of scenarios. Also, don’t be afraid to ask for help, the best business leaders can’t do it alone!
Appreciate you sharing that. What should we know about The Figgy Play Couch?
While there are dozens of play couches on the market, we at FiggyPlay.com pride ourselves on quality, safe, chemical-free, and sustainable products designed by parents with children in mind!
The Figgy Play Couch is different than the rest. Here’s why:
DESIGN AND DURABILITY – The Figgy has a soft, yet remarkably stable base, plus it’s the only play couch on the market with strong patented Velcro® connectors to make sure all your fort builds stick!
What’s more, our play couch is set up to handle the messiest spills. Our covers and optional water-proof layers are machine washable and dryer safe. And when it comes to transporting or lifting your adventure play kit we got it handled! All of our covers come with built-in handles, making it easy for parents and kiddos to move the Figgy around.
QUALITY PRODUCTS – The Figgy is designed and crafted in the U.S. with CertiPur-US Certified Foam! This means our product istop-notchh, and the foam we use must meet the highest standards for certification. Did you know? The Figgy is designed to withstand energetic all-day play, and is even sturdy enough for a ten-year-old to climb, and play on! You can rest easy knowing you are getting nothing but the best.
NON-TOXIC AND SAFE – The Figgy was designed with your child’s best interest and safety in mind. Many of our competitors use low-end goods filled with harmful substances, and yes, toxic materials. Our play couch is different, The Figgy Play Couch is 100% lead safe, BPA-BPS free, and does not contain harmful phthalates. The Figgy play couch is also free from pesky chemicals like formaldehyde, and cheap materials like PVC.
Even our fabric has gone through an OekoTex Certification process, which means it’s met standards that guarantee the fabric is harmless to humans and environmentally sustainable. How cool is that?
Contact Info:
- Website: Figgyplay.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/figgyplay/?hl=en
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/figgyplay1/
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/figgyplay1/
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@figgy7583
