We were lucky to catch up with Elizabeth Hunt recently and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Elizabeth , thanks for joining us today. What was it like going from idea to execution? Can you share some of the backstory and some of the major steps or milestones?

At 25 years old, I founded OptoOrg to solve the lack of storage in the daily contact lens world. I had recently bought my first house and the master bathroom was teeny tiny — the least counter space I had ever had. I wanted the master bathroom to look “fancy” like the bathrooms you see on HGTV and such but with my contact lens boxes taking up what little countertop room existed, it just looked like a mess. I live near the Container Store so I was certain there was probably something I could buy to help. I searched all over the internet and could not find what I wanted, namely, something that doesn’t require me to tear apart the contact rows to load and was under $40. I found a few defunct Etsy stores that were close to the right idea, but they didn’t store very many lenses, were no longer shipping, and were at least $50. I found another from a company in France but it was also over $50, relied on easily breakable hinges, and had a giant glasses container at the top I knew I would never use. Incensed that there were so few options I began sketching out my ideal design. Having known folks with 3D printers in the past, I knew I could prototype it. Once I had a final sketch and dimensions I hired a freelancer on Upwork to turn the architectural drawing into a 3D printable CAD file. The first print proved my middle storage dimension was off. The second was great but I realized I needed to add a hanging mechanism, The CAD designer I used for the final version suggested a lid as well and I agreed. Armed with a working prototype, I began googling potential company names, choosing one that was unique enough there would be no SEO competition for the brand name: OptoOrg. I became the owner of the domain name and all associated social media accounts and turned my attention to finding a manufacturer. It became quickly apparent that in order to put the product into mass production I would need a lot more funding. An injection mold alone cost 10K! Armed with my designs, I began seeking out funding sources via grants, investors, friends, and family. In the end, we funded half with friends and family and half on credit cards. I was hitting a roadblock with grants and investors having no actual sales data to prove our idea would sell. It was a very circular problem. But I believed in my product and took the risk to put the funding on credit praying that we could sell enough to pay it off before the year of no interest was over. Being an entrepreneur can be quite a gamble. Once we knew the product was on its way, we began pushing pre-orders via organic growth (since we had no marketing budget). We started to get some traction. The biggest increase in tractions we saw was about six months later when we hired the SEO Queen and got our product onto Amazon. Because both happened at the same time it’s hard to say which helped more or if they fed off of each other but between the two, we started seeing real, tangible growth that is still ongoing. I am always looking for new ways to tell the world about our product and how it can make a difference in the lives of the 7 million American adults that wear daily contact lenses as their primary form of vision correction. To learn more visit www.optoorg.com

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

OptoOrg is the go-to place for the DailyLens Contact Lens Dispenser, a new way to organize daily contact lenses. The DailyLens features three compartments, one for storage, and two for dispensing (one for each eye) for a minimalistic, innocuous addition to your bathroom. Prefer to jazz it up? Magnetic photo frames and stick-on whiteboards from Thinkboard are available to customize the dispensers and take them from sleek and modern to interactive and fun. This new solution to contact lens storage offers a new way for daily contact lens users to turn their chaotic countertop into a zen landscape. Keep your bathroom clean and your contact lenses safe while keeping them readily available and accessible. These patent-pending dispensers were designed and launched by a 26 year-old young woman who’s been wearing contacts since she was 11. Driven by her own frustrations with storing her daily lenses, and acknowledging that even she wouldn’t use it if it wasn’t incredibly easy, she designed the unit to be: • Easy to Hang – two tracks on the back allow easy mounting via thumbtack or sticky strip
• Easy to Load – transfer lenses directly from manufacturer box to the dispenser
• Easy to Tear – Grab and lens and it tears one right off
OptoOrg will keep expanding until all feasible contact lens accessories have been invented and delivered to those who need them.
OptoOrg donates 5% of all profits to the following organizations: OneSight and Giving Sight, non-profit organizations dedicated to increasing vision care accessibility, and SightSavers America, a non-profit organization dedicated to ensuring children get the eye care they need.

Can you tell us about a time you’ve had to pivot?

During the first six months of the company, I was convinced that while I could sell direct to customers, if I could sell to eye doctors to sell to their patients, I would make more money faster. Because of this, I spent a significant amount of time trying to talk to eye doctors and get to know eye doctors, cold calling, dropping off coupons, attending events, etc. And it didn’t *not* work, my product is now carried in 5 different practices around the country. But that wasn’t the outcome I was expecting. In talking to the doctors and learning about their jobs and practices in more detail than I ever had as a patient myself, I learned that most people don’t look for eye accessories at their eye doctor’s office and that the industry in general was extremely slow to adopt new technologies that weren’t immediately relevant to diagnosis. And so I pivoted the company. We started focusing significantly more on finding daily contact lens wearers and taking the product to them since bringing them to the product was hitting dead end after dead end after dead end. We began playing more with video tutorials on youtube, our website, and tiktok — we pursued becoming a branded store on Amazon to sell through there as a secondary channel — we hired out our social media image creation and our SEO work. And now, we’re finding our customers. Out in the world (and mostly on Amazon) searching the internet, just like I did the first time the concept occurred to me, for a “daily contact lens organizer”.

Okay – so how did you figure out the manufacturing part? Did you have prior experience?

When I was first starting out, I knew that I would have to outsource manufacturing (though our goal is to grow big enough that we can move to in-house production). So I did what anyone my age would and I googled “how to manufacture plastic” and “local plastic manufacturing”. And I started gathering quotes. Quotes for 3D printing were much too expensive to be feasible for re-selling ($50-$100 to produce!) so I began researching other methods of plastic object creation finally deciding that injection molding would be the best fit. New google search: “injection molding manufacturers” and more inquiries. Eventually (I honestly forget how) I stumbled across a site that mentioned Alibaba as an online platform for acquiring manufactured products in bulk. So I began researching that platform. A lot of things appealed to me. The ease with which I could compare multiple manufacturers, the guarantees the platform offered to protect the purchases, and the designations helped me choose the right partner. I narrowed down my options to injection molding companies that had been in business for at least 5 years, were “Gold” members (meaning they paid money for more features, I figured a scammer wouldn’t do that), and were verified by 3rd party inspectors that they were real, did what they said they did, and at the quality, they said they did. I also looked for ISO certifications to ensure there were quality assurance practices in place. Having narrowed down a list, I sent an RFQ to each with the patent-pending design to get a sense of 1) the cost of the mold, 2) the cost per item once the mold was made 3) lead time, and 4) the ability to put the finished product in a retail-ready-box. Based on the answers I narrowed down my selection to my top 3 choices. The company I went with was the one that took my design, showed it to their engineers, and wrote me back with changes they would have to make to guarantee a quality product every time. I took that as a sign that they were both communicative and knew what they were doing. The only downside is it is a company based in China and so shipping the products here to the US can be delayed due to world events outside either company’s control. This can make restocking stressful if we start selling more than we bargained for (a blessing and a curse!). As we grow we hope to have manufacturing partners in multiple countries to avoid this uncertainty and eventually move to in-house production so we have complete control.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.optoorg.com
• Instagram: instagram.com/optoorg
• Facebook: facebook.com/optoorg
• Linkedin: linkedin.com/company/optoorg
• Twitter: twitter.com/optoorg
• Youtube: youtube.com/@optoorg
• Other: tiktok.com/@optoorg https://www.bbb.org/us/nc/raleigh/profile/optical-supplies/opto-org-llc-0593-90337317