We recently connected with Rachel Reichenbach and have shared our conversation below.

Rachel, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. We’d love to have you retell us the story behind how you came up with the idea for your business, I think our audience would really enjoy hearing the backstory.

I came up with the core of my business entirely on accident. For a school project, I had to code and create art for a small game. I chose to make a game where you catch falling objects, since it was the easiest to code. I decided the objects would be raindrops, and you would be a frog trying to catch them. I attempted to draw a frog without really knowing what one looks like. The resulting frog was so silly looking that he became an inside joke between my friends and I, and I began drawing him in all my artworks from then on. That silly looking frog became my mascot character, Son the Frog!

A few months later, I began experiencing chronic pain in my arms, and made it too painful for me to even hold a stylus to draw. I was devastated. My condition couldn’t be cured, but art was my life. I was majoring in digital art at the time, and this pain was going to throw my entire life off course.

Determined to make art anyways, I started drawing Son the Frog using my mouse. I gave him some other froggy friends, and it snowballed from there. People online loved my frog drawings, and I began selling merchandise on Etsy, and eventually my own online store. It’s hard to believe that it all started with one poorly drawn frog.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

Hi there! My name is Rachel Reichenbach, and I’m the artist and owner of Rainylune, a shop dedicated to creating froggy themed products that are bright, fun, and just a little bit weird. My cute froggy characters Son, Friend, and Sprout love causing chaos. Their cute, unsuspecting appearances combined with their love of light criminal activity has endeared them to fans across the globe.

Rainylune products can be found in stores across the globe, and we’ve had collaborations with stores like Hot Topic and Attic Salt.

What else should we know about how you took your side hustle and scaled it up into what it is today?

My business was just a little side hobby at first. I was juggling being a full time student, working part time, and running my little business at the same time! I eventually got to the point where I was making more money from selling stickers each month than I was at my part time job, so I decided to quit my job to focus just on my business and school. My parents were really wary at first! My business really took off in the summer of 2020, when I launched a Kickstarter for a frog bag I designed. It went viral on social media, and became one of the most funded ita bag campaigns on the platform! That’s when I realized my little side hustle could become a full time career.
Unfortunately, that’s also when I realized that I couldn’t do everything myself. 6,000 frog bags showed up at our house, and we were living floor to ceiling with boxes of frogs. My entire family was helping me fill all the orders, but it still wasn’t enough. It was at this point that I got a warehouse to start fulfilling all orders for me!
Running my rapidly growing business on top of being a full time student was rough, but I graduated with a 4.0 GPA, and have been working on Rainylune full time ever since!

Can you open up about how you funded your business?

I funded my business entirely myself! I used to work part time at a greeting card store while I was going to school. I lived at home with my parents, so I was lucky that I could spend my job income on my business! My parents were worried at first about how much I was spending on sticker paper and supplies, but it really worked out in the end!

Contact Info:

• Website: https://rainylune.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/rainylune
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/rainylune
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/rainylune
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@rainylune
• Other: https://www.tiktok.com/@rainylune