Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to May Borras. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

May , thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us 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.

A few years ago, my oldest daughter woke up screaming in the middle of the night. We rushed into her room and it was immediately apparent what had happened – she’d yakked. Everywhere. Sheets, blanket, side of bed, the rug – nothing was spared. My husband brought her into the bathroom to get her calmed down and cleaned up and I got to work on her room – yikes. Nasty stuff, ya know? I got a new set of sheets onto the bed and cleaned everything else the best I could. There was a big bad load of laundry to start in the light of day. She went back to sleep, we went back to sleep, and then 2 hours later, the exact same thing happened. Everything I’d just cleaned or replaced had been hit again. As I was changing her sheets for the second time, I realized I didn’t have more sheets to go to if she nailed them again. I wondered to myself, “why isn’t there something I can just cover her whole bed with so I don’t have to do this at all?” The next morning as we got her settled onto the couch, I had the same thought… why isn’t there something to cover the couch with? Something waterproof.. absorbent.. soft to lay on.. big for a big coverage zone. A protective cover for furniture… a vomit mat… a Vommat! I named it immediately. And I wrote it in my notebook with all the other little ideas I’ve come up with over the years. But this one was different, my mind kept drifting back to it – I could see it. And as two more kids came along, each time the need presented itself, I kicked myself for not having done anything about it yet. So at some point during Covid I decided I was going to see this idea through and see how far I can take it. It has been a long and twisty road but now I’m selling Vommats from a DIY Shopify website and fulfilling orders from a pallet in my garage. It’s pretty wild!

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

I studied marketing in college and landed in advertising agencies for several years after graduation. Eventually I left agency life and began freelancing as a marketing specialist for small businesses and startups. I did a lot of social media work and participated in a startup accelerator program with one of my clients. I learned a lot in those years and began to realize that at some point I wanted to pursue one of my own ideas. I have a little notebook that I’ve written my ideas in for years, no matter how big or small. It is really amusing to revisit, many of them I don’t even remember thinking of. When I had my oldest daughter I was freelancing and thought I’d continue to do that and quickly realized that having a newborn was not conducive to getting much done and I became a stay at home mom for a few years. I had two more kids and as the three of them started getting older I began thinking about what I wanted to do once I got back to work and kept drifting back to the idea that maybe it would be a good time to start pursuing one of my own ideas. Vommat kept coming to the the forefront on that, I could SEE it in the world. I started working on little projects, things like I’d done at agencies – getting information about the potential market, competitors, how often kids get stomach bugs and compiling it into a deck. Why? I don’t know, it felt fun. Work, fun? Yeah, weird – so I kept going.

I bought a used copy of The Mom Inventor’s Handbook by Tamara Monosoff and as I read through it, I was really pleased because it felt like all of the questions within it, I had an answer for. It started to feel like a legitimate concept or at least something worth continuing to explore. I mapped out a plan and estimated costs and raised some money to get started from friends and family.

So what is a Vommat? It is a 4 foot by 4 foot ecofriendly disposable sheet that protects furniture, bedding, rugs, or anything else it covers from vomit for a fast and easy cleanup. They’re highly absorbent, super soft, quiet to lay on, watertight, and made from sustainable materials. They are sweet!

How did you put together the initial capital you needed to start your business?

I started by trying to estimate what my startup costs would be and it was a pretty big number. I changed how I looked at it and broke it into two phases. Ideally, the assets created in Phase 1 would be used to get more money for Phase 2. The goal for the end of Phase 1 was to have a brand and a product and be ready to place an initial order. I was able to get a bit beyond that goal as I was able to place an initial order and begin selling within Phase 1 and I’m currently preparing to raise some more money to optimize and scale in Phase 2.

I raised the money for Phase 1 by contacting friends, family, former coworkers and clients – anyone I could think of really who I thought may be interested in helping me pursue what I called an entrepreneurial journey. I didn’t ask for money outright but gave a bit of detail and asked if anyone wanted to hear about what I was working on or if they had any connections in the industry and lastly that financial support would be awesome too. I was able to reach my goal from a little group of all stars – some I’d known my whole life, others who I’d met professionally as an adult, and one who I had a call with for an unrelated reason and he wanted in. That felt really, really good.

That was all a really weird road and sometimes when I think about what it entailed, I can’t believe that I did it.

Are there any books, videos, essays or other resources that have significantly impacted your management and entrepreneurial thinking and philosophy?

I can’t name any one specific resource but over the years I’ve followed so many startup/entrepreneurial people on Twitter (RIP) and elsewhere that I think some stuff just became hardwired or at least I knew that some of the things I feel or experience are normal. All the self doubt is normal. Making mistakes is normal. Not knowing all the answers is normal. Things take longer than you want them to. Things don’t go to plan. You’ll pivot. There’s no such thing as an overnight success. Perfect is the enemy of done. There are lots of these little learnings that I’ve found myself leaning on and sometimes I feel like WTF am I doing but every time I feel that way, eventually I get back to being fired up and taking it all on again. This whole thing, still, is really a test – is this something parents are willing to spend money on? But that’s the best way of figuring it out – just doing it. I knew that if I didn’t do this, I’d always wonder what would have happened if I’d had.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.vommat.com
• Instagram: https://instagram.com/getvommat
• Facebook: https://facebook.com/vommat
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/vommat/
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/getvommat
• Other: https://www.tiktok.com/@getvommat