Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Dolly Casper. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.
Dolly, 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 am a mom of 5 boys working in sales. I was always using my AirPods, but then randomly setting them down when my kids needed something. I often didn’t have pockets so I spent as much as an hour a day looking for them after I set them or my case down. I wanted something to stow my AirPods independent of a pocket. My first iteration was to order two giant magnets and place one behind my shirt and the other on the outside of my shirt. My Airpods would stick to these magnets, but not very securely. I then used a paperclip to make holsters for the stems of my AirPods, which worked better. I used the help of several 3D designers and hundreds of iterations later, I finalized my STOHZ device that securely attaches to my shirt and attaches my AirPods. I haven’t lost my AirPods since using STOHZ, and I don’t have to carry the bulky case, even if I have pockets.
Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.
I have a PhD in Bioengineering and have always loved to problem-solve. I have filed several patents in many different areas including Bioengineering, health and consumer technology. STOHZ is a unique solution to a problem many of us face, but may not have realized it. I think we all have said, “where did I put my AirPods”? STOHZ is the only device that allows you to safely stow your device unrestrained and most easily accessible.
Let’s talk about resilience next – do you have a story you can share with us?
What may illustrate my greatest resilience is that my husband and I entered a Master’s of Business Creation Program at the University of Utah, which gave us all the tools we needed to start our business, and we were so gratful for the opportunity. However, our time was severely constrained. We had 5 boys: 6 months, 3, 5, 12, and 14. We had class 18 hours a week, with 10 hours of homework. We were starting a business with all the time that entailed and to top it off, we still had to provide for our family. During this time, we had to be perfectly efficient. We couldn’t squander our time on social media or napping. We prayed a lot for help to be efficient, energetic, inspired and for our children to feel sufficient love in our absence. We were gone from 8-6 pm every day. When we got home, we made dinner and flooded our kids with as much love and attention as we could until thier bedtime at 8. We played hide-and-go seek after dinner, wrestled, read and did everything we could to fill thier love tanks for the next long day ahead. Once our kids were in bed we worked on our homework and business until 1 am, and then we’d wake up at 7:30 A.M. to start back over. We would take care of our other obligations during our lunch hour, the commute to and from school, and days without class. We prioritized going to the gym on days we didn’t have class and somehow fit in snow sports of skiing and snowbiking on a couple Saturdays a month. It was certainly stressful, but a testiment to how much you can get done when you are focused and seek divine assistance.
Can you open up about how you funded your business?
My husband and I are very frugle. We were able to entirely fund our start-up using our savings. We give 1/10 of our income to our church and save the remaining 1/3 of our income every year and after 8 years had enough saved to embark on this journey. We buy only what is practical and adds to our enjoyment of life like gym memberships, gear and functional clothing. We also do a lot of our work on patents and designs to alleviate some costs and use Upwork and Fiverr for our website and design work. By living this practice, we have always had enough for everything we needed and many things we’ve wanted to do.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.stohz.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/stohz_/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100090081113274
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/stohz/about/?viewAsMember=true
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/STOHZ_
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UClEp0y7Nm8setvNfPPVZbtA
- Other: https://www.tiktok.com/@stohz_?lang=en