We recently connected with Jules Weldon & Stacey Pierce and have shared our conversation below.
Jules & Stacey, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. What’s the backstory behind how you came up with the idea for your business?
Twenty-three years ago, Paul and Jerie Weldon (Jules’ parents) were sitting on the boardwalk of Bethany Beach, DE people watching at the end of the beach day. A single mom caught their attention as she was trying to pack up her three hot and tired little kiddos, and all their “stuff” – blankets, towels, shovels, pails, chairs – with lots of frustration.
So, my Mom and Dad went back to their condo and napkin-sketched a 2in1 concept of a lounger and dolly. They got it patented but couldn’t figure out how to take it to market.
Fast forward 12 years later, I was working for a large consulting firm and got tired of working 80 hours/week for someone else. So I called up my Dad and asked him if I could try my hand at taking his product to market. Through tears, he agreed and said “honey that would be a dream come true.”
It was in that moment that I knew my three-fold purpose of: 1) reviving my parents dream, 2) starting my own path to making something a reality, and 3) encouraging people to get outdoors more.
In 2012, I partnered with a dear friend, colleague, and mentor and together, we redesigned my parents product. We partnered with a US manufacturer to take it to market but we ended up walking away from that partnership due to a difference in values with the manufacturer.
In 2017, knowing this idea hadn’t died, me and my wife, Stacey, picked it back up. We officially became OME Gear in 2018 and spent countless hours on re-designing the flagship product into the 5in1 product that it is now and called it The Wanderr.
From conducting research, to building prototypes, to applying for patents, to partnering with friends – our trek to make this dream come true has come with its fair share of mountains and valleys, but we wouldn’t have it any other way.
Jules & Stacey, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?
Stace and I are two 50 year old women who left established careers to pursue a dream. Stace has a background in the medical world and entrepreneurship, having been a part of 9 startups, and I grew up in an entrepreneurial family all my life. I’ve been involved in the non-profit world, worked for 3 consulting firms, then started my own business. Neither one of us have ever looked back.
Our company, OME Gear, produces innovative, transformable products for the outdoors. We want to help people enjoy the process of getting all their stuff to their adventures and activities. Our flagship product, The Wanderr, is 5 products in 1 – a cart that hauls up to 150 lbs of gear, to a low beach chair, a higher camping chair, a fully reclinable lounger and a camping cot. It has the only wheels that don’t require air and roll easily on any terrain, including soft sand. We have 3 patents and are working on a 4th. We are female founders in a male dominated space of manufacturing and the outdoor space and are thrilled to be shaking things up by inventing and taking a complex product to market.
We are most proud of digging deep to find more grit and determination when we didn’t think there was any left. Building a multi-million dollar business is one of the hardest things we’e ever done, but it has tested and strengthened our abilities, our resolve, and our commitment to seeing a dream through.
Through OME Gear, we want to inspire other entrepreneurs, especially females, to start walking the path of their dreams and not give up. Anything is attainable if we surround ourselves with the right people and set our mind to seeing it through.
We’d love to hear a story of resilience from your journey.
During Covid, we tried hard to find investment funding, but to no avail. The statistics show that only 2.7% of all funding goes to women founders. And, of that 2.7%, 1.7% of that goes to women in tech. which leaves only 1% of all funding to go to women in the product space (https://hbr.org/2021/02/women-led-startups-received-just-2-3-of-vc-funding-in-2020; https://www.cnbc.com/2021/03/17/vc-funding-to-women-led-companies-falls-during-the-pandemic.html). After hundred’s of pitches, we got to a point where our overseas manufacturer shipped our first container loads to the US and we didn’t have money to pay him the balance. When he found this out, he rerouted our containers to a warehouse in Utah and hid our product from us.
It was then that Stace and I looked at each other and said, “how much do we believe in OME Gear?” When we both agreed that the answer was 100%, we knew we had one last asset. So we sold our house, invested the equity from the sale into paying our manufacturer to get our product back, and bought an RV. We wrapped the RV in our branding and are now traveling the US for 18 months building our brand.
While there have been moments that have been more challenging than we could’ve imagined, being on the road has been the absolute best thing for the growth of OME Gear, and for that matter, our own personal growth.
How about pivoting – can you share the story of a time you’ve had to pivot?
Whether we like it or not, as entrepreneurs, we have had to get really good at pivoting. The three main areas where we have had to pivot are: 1) with our manufacturers, 2) with our marketing efforts and 3) with our financing, Our first manufacturer switched to PPE during Covid and went radio silent on us, still owing us $17,000 of which we will never see.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://omegear.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ome_gear/
- Tiktok: https://www.tiktok.com/@doitinnature
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/omegearco/
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/julieweldon123/
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCAbQ_VaD3pLqlde1UwtK9iA
- Other: TikTok – https://www.tiktok.com/@ome_gear
Image Credits
@thelittlepalmsstudio – Mary Beth Dennis @usanetwork – America’s Big Deal