Star Preview #6 - Spuni

A few months ago, I attended the Biggest Baby Shower in New York (courtesy of my great friends at Dr. Smith's) and I met a fabulous gal Jessica Bingham Dean. That's one of the great things about being in social media -- getting to be social! I love meeting women who are excited about what they do and Jessica is excited about Spuni.

Your baby's first spoon.

Spuni's ergonomic design makes meals less messy for babies and parents.

Spuni Baby

Spuni is not your average baby spoon. Check this out:It is BPA, BPS, Phthalates and PVC free, as well as non-toxic and hypoallergenic.

Woo Hoo!

But it gets better, it's dishwasher safe! Now you may be saying that's great but tell me why it's special. It's special because it really helps Moms and Dads get more food in their little one than on them. I am all for that. Now you may be thinking, "Traci, you don't have a baby anymore?" Well, you're right. Which is why the first Spuni I got was confiscated by Little Diva. Yep! Two days after I brought it home, my daughter confiscated it for her babies. So it never made it to my SIL for her infant. Jessica was sweet enough to send me a new one, actually two. Look at nice these are!

Spuni

They are sturdy and I so wish I had them when I had little bit ties! And for those of you who don't like plastic at all, they have WOODEN spoons!

But that isn't the only reason I am sharing this with you. I think you should know their story. This is about a few people coming together to try to make a better product for parents. That's important to me!

A little word about Jessica and the designer, Marcel:

Jessica is an innovator and entrepreneur. She is the Chief Operating Officer at Spuni, Infant Ventures LLC. She joined the Spuni team as the Director of Business Development. Prior Spuni, Jessica worked in iPhone and Android app development concurrently with her role in Alternative Investments at Aldwych Capital Partners. Previously, Jessica was an Associate at Tishman Speyer in Equity Capital Markets, where she focused on product development and investor services. Prior to working in ECM, Jessica worked in Portfolio Management, and in the Corporate Finance and Global Leasing groups. Jessica earned a BA in Economics and Mathematics from Columbia University.

Marcel Botha is an entrepreneur, engineer, architect and investor. He experiments with simple hardware ideas on the edge between consumer and medical products. Relevant experiments are commercialized. Marcel is specialized in guiding product development teams from concept to viable product and is currently locked in a wave of parallel experimentation, feeding off his passion for product acceleration, and digital manufacturing. In 2012 he co-founded Infant Ventures LLC (Spuni), a company innovating at the stress-points between infants and parents, and was one of the inventors behind the much acclaimed Spuni feeding product.

In 2010 Marcel co-founded Patients Pending Ltd where he developed a groundbreaking diabetes product named Timesulin that helps Diabetics manage their Insulin compliance. Through his consulting firm 10xBETA, he has helped numerous medical professionals test, develop and commercialize products ranging from electronic stethoscopes, colposcopes, to surgical instruments. From 2006 -2009 Marcel was COO and Director of Design at SNIF Labs (now General Sensing), a MIT Media Lab inspired company developing mesh-networked sensing products for commercial and health care applications. In 2005 Marcel was awarded an NSF fellowship; Affiliations included MIT Smart Cities, MIT Mobile Experience Lab, MIT Digital Design and Fabrication Group, MIT Center for Bits and Atoms and MIT Council for the Arts.

Spuni

Sounds pretty awesome, right? Like I said, "where were you when I needed you?" Haha! But they will be there when my precious little niece is ready!  Until then, please check them out. This Star is a believer!