We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Erica Mede McVeigh. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Erica below.

Erica, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today So, naming is such a challenge. How did you come up with the name of your brand?

This is a phenomenal adventure! My husband, Ryan, is the Co-Owner of VivTech Products, but when he first started talking about naming our company – it was anything but smooth sailing. We had pages of papers. We had Thesaurus.com open and were writing down every word we could that had to do with the word “reptile”, “life”, “enclosure”, “technology”, “innovation”, etc. Our white boards, yes, we have two 3 foot white boards in our house, were filled with random phrases and words as we walked by. We would cross them off as we walked by. My favorite moments were when we would cross off words that clearly wouldn’t work, then rewrite them, only cross them off again. VivTech was the combination of Vivarium with Technology. Ultimately it’s Life and Technology. We found a name, that when we said it didn’t feel cold, it felt warm and curious, which was ideal for supporting reptile and amphibian husbandry advancements and innovations!

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

Our goal is to introduce products into the world of herpetoculture that will disrupt old ways of thinking in regards to the care of reptiles, amphibians, and other exotic animals. We are working to reduce consumer waste with longer lasting products, such as our SurSun UVA/UVB LED bulb which lasts for 4 years with a 2 year warranty as opposed to the average 6 month life span of fluorescent based UVB bulbs.

We continue to work on improving our products, making them rechargeable, repairable, etc to support increased product longevity. We are the most proud that our LED UV bulbs reduce electricity consumption and do not contribute to mercury in the environment. They can also be recycled through most technology recycling programs as can all of our Smart Monitor Technology!

As we continue to grow and expand, we will continue to provide products that exceed industry standards and set new Gold Standards!

One thing we will always do, no matter what size we are, and as a family run business it’s very easy to do now, is give back to our community through various organizations, some that aren’t even reptile or animal related. Without community, we’d be lost. We always make sure to be a Gold Member of the United States Association of Reptile Keepers which continues to fight for our ability to keep reptiles and exotics locally, state wide, and nationally (you can join USARK at USARK.org) and encourage everyone to maintain a membership with USARK Florida as well, a separate group dedicated specifically to supporting legislation issues targeting Florida.

Have any books or other resources had a big impact on you?

This is my favorite question because the answer is not what you’d expect I guarantee it! The book that changed my approach significantly on how I approach VivTech was, “The Tao of Poo” by Benjamin Hoff. It pairs incredibly well with my love of anything by John Cleese and Rory Sutherland. They both encourage creative thinking and silliness because numbers and historical data are starting points, not a full story. To grow, you have to change. Sometimes, you have to dramatically change, what worked before isn’t going to work any longer. Creativity is going to be key and these are the reminders that fun, silliness, and creativity DO have a place in business, marketing, and science. Shoot, I needed that reminder just now.

How’d you meet your business partner?

I met him while we were vending separately at a reptile show over a decade ago when I nailed him with a rubber band in the head accidentally. Our organizations we ran ended up working and vending together a lot as the years passed and the rest was history!

Contact Info:

• Website: www.vivtechproducts.com
• Instagram: www.instagram.com/vivtechproducts
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/VivTechProducts
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/vivtech-products
• Other: TikTok: VivTech.Products

Image Credits
Erica Mede McVeigh