We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Kate Reimann. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Kate below.
Hi Kate, thanks for joining us today. What’s the backstory behind how you came up with the idea for your business?
Inspiration for Rogue Wave hit when I was at the beach with my kids and my husband about eight years ago. We were living just outside of DC at the time, but drove down to Virginia Beach for a long weekend — one of our favorite things to do. We stopped at a beach store and grabbed some things we had forgotten – a towel or boogie boards, I think – and saw some cheap beach toys in those plastic net bags by the checkout. Cheap, easy impulse buy, right?
Once we’re at the beach, my boys are building in the sand with their new beach toys and wave sweeps up past the shoreline and pulls their beach toys out into the ocean. I was aware of the plastic pollution issue in our oceans, and had read about the Pacific Garbage Patch…so seeing these toys drifting out into the sea made me spring into action, and I jumped into the ocean and snagged all the toys, dumping them back on the beach. And I’m sitting on the sand, looking up and down the beach as I’m drying off and realizing, “we’re doing this to ourselves.” We’re just bringing garbage right to the ocean. And in that moment I knew I needed to part of a solution. And that’s really how the idea for the business was born.
We got back to our home after our trip and I remember opening my computer and staying up after everyone else went to bed; I was researching all kinds of materials, trying to learn anything I could about alternative materials to conventional plastic. I wasn’t sure this was going to work, but I felt so convinced that we needed an alternative to conventional plastic and I knew I needed to at least see what was out there.
I think the most exciting part about starting this journey into the world of alternative materials is that no one had done what I hoped to do, but the players were all there to make it happen. And, I got a lot of support from people. I would email people I didn’t know, called certification organizations to make sure product information was legit; everyone was really helpful, really supportive, and really encouraging. It helped me keep moving forward in the early days when all I really had was an idea and motivation.
Kate, 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?
Before starting Rogue Wave, I was a writer for politicians and non-profits in the DC area, and I taught spin classes (I still do that!). Starting a business in the biopolymer space to try to change the materials economy was nowhere on my radar. But once I had the idea, I couldn’t shake it.
The beach toys made with our compostable, mostly plant-based material are really the product of many years of determination to bring a better alternative to market when none existed. In fact, in the early days of the business when I was still doing research and development, the material didn’t exist! But after another year of searching, a 3D print filament came to market and we worked with that formulation to create an injection-mold viable option for our beach toys. I think the other elements of my life, these previous and concurrent careers I’ve had, all helped me to see this through. When I was writing, my job was to tell a story, to show an alternative viewpoint and persuade the reader. And I’m still doing that today with Rogue Wave — but this time with a product instead of an op ed.
The same can be said with my passion project, my spin classes. If you’re ever taken a spin class, you know it’s a physically demanding workout. But what’s physically demanding is first mentally demanding. And I have learned over the years that, to really enjoy spin and make the most of it, I have to be mentally tough. That doesn’t mean berating myself into completing the workout; it means reminding myself that I am strong enough, that I have what it takes to complete the ride. When I design my rides, it’s always with that in mind: that we are capable, that we can do hard things if we just sit in the discomfort and look it in the eye. I think over a decade of teaching spin classes helped build the mental stamina required to build a business, especially one that didn’t exist before now. Because, as entrepreneurs know, building a business is uncomfortable! But learning to sit with that discomfort allows us to find ways forward when the path is unclear. It’s about stamina.
And maybe that’s what I’m most proud of…that I have stayed with this business in spite of everything I’ve faced. Everything from the old guard in the plastics manufacturing industry telling me it couldn’t be done and that no one would ever buy this, to the pandemic absolutely destroying our runway when we were tooling our molds and compounding our material. This business has really seen it all. And, the final straw – and what I thought would be the end of the business – was losing my mom to covid in early 2022. I was facing another hiccup in my manufacturing process (I think this time it was a colorant mix-up and more lost time before our initial run of product), and I had preorder holders who’d been waiting patiently for almost 3 years for their beach toys at that point; meanwhile, my mom was dying.
After my mom passed, I emailed our customers and told them I wanted to refund their money, that I was sorry but I wasn’t sure this was ever going to happen. I was grieving, depleted, and I wasn’t sure I could actually get this product, this big idea of compostable, durable plastic, over the finish line. But instead of asking for refunds, my customers emailed me notes of encouragement – they told me they didn’t care if they never got a toy, they wanted me to keep going. That they were proud of me, that they believed in me. It was…breathtaking, especially because I was living the darkest moment of my life. My customers are the reason the business is still here. And, they reminded me of the crux of the business, which is really this idea that we can make plastic better. That we can make it – and buy it – responsibly, in a way that reduces or eliminates microplastics altogether, that reduces the carbon footprint both in extraction and production. They reminded me that innovation can really create change and that consumer culture is vital to the longevity of a business. I’m forever grateful for that moment with my customers.
We’d really appreciate if you could talk to us about how you figured out the manufacturing process.
We do manufacture our products, right here in the US actually. And, it was… a journey!
When I first started, I had no experience in product manufacturing. I had 3D printed our prototypes in my house, taken them to the beach with our product testers (aka my kids and all their friends), reworked our design and felt ready to take this to a manufacturer. But, I didn’t know what to do to find one. So, I did what every entrepreneur does…and googled it! I think my brother was actually helping me try to find a manufacturer and sent me a place that had listed they worked with bio-resins on their website. I sent an email and we had a few phone calls and decided we’d make a go of it. In hind sight, there were some red flags that I should have heeded, but when you’re new to the industry and relying on the expertise of others, it’s easy to override your gut.
They were very wary of any bio-based materials, which should have been clue number one for me to find another manufacturer, since our material is over 50% bio-base. But I had built a good relationship with the team and felt like I should see it through.
Another big issue I ran into with manufacturing is that, in the world of plastics, the way it’s been done is the way it’s been done for a long time…meaning, it’s hard to introduce something new into this space. And, both the plastics industry and manufacturing space are male-dominated; being a young mom, I often had to fight for space – to speak, to be understood, and to get some things done. And, I was asking them to do something that had never been done. And they weren’t entirely convinced it could be.
What my manufacturing team really wanted was something I couldn’t give them, which was the processing guidelines for our new material. Processing guidelines are basically parameters for the manufacturer – they tell the team the temperatures and pressures required to successfully manufacture the product. But because our material had never been used with injection mold manufacturing before, it required some experimentation. And that made my manufacturer nervous.
This manufacturer tried but wasn’t willing to really work with the material to determine temperatures and pressure settings, and they weren’t really willing to work with me. I was an ocean away (them in the midwest, me in Hawaii), so I couldn’t get eyes-on and troubleshoot or just have presence there. But, even though I felt in my gut it wasn’t the right fit, I stuck it out because we’d been working on bringing this to life (and waiting for molds, and material) throughout the pandemic. Heartbreakingly, after two years of struggling to get our molds made, and material, my manufacturing team reached out at a really bad time (ie: when my new batch of material was already en route to their location to finally manufacture our beach toys) to let me know they wanted to cut ties. They didn’t believe the product would sell, and didn’t see a future in working with me. It was terrible timing, and soul-crushing after everything I had already gone through in the business to that point, right on the precipice of production. Ultimately, it was for the best, and something I should have predicted.
Finding a new manufacturer, though, became a totally different ballgame game. This time, I had experience behind me. I knew what I needed, and I knew what a manufacturer needed to know right off the bat: that I was bringing them a brand new material, that I would need them to determine the processing guidelines, and that I needed a partner – a manufacturer who would figure this out with me. I knew, this time, location mattered to me, so I concentrated my search, sent dozens of emails, and within 48 hours had a new manufacturer. And this time, they did actually manufacture our compostable beach toys!
Learning about manufacturing, selecting a manufacturer, and understanding all the moving pieces that go into actually manufacturing a product is no different than any other aspect of starting a business. There’s a steep learning curve, and a “language” of sorts. It takes a little courage to throw yourself into it, but if you keep trying, suddenly, you’re fluent.
My biggest lesson learned from my first experience in the world of manufacturing is to listen to my instincts sooner instead of feeling obligated to stay with manufacturer – or any other service or part of the team – simply because we’d built a working relationship. It’s business. And, most importantly, it’s my business. I needed to do what was best for the business a lot sooner.
What do you think helped you build your reputation within your market?
Rogue Wave gained a lot of visibility and support during our initial Kickstarter back in 2019, and I think it was because everyone was so excited and inspired to see me, a mom, trying to do something about a problem that, let’s face it, most of the time feels too big to fix. I was really open and honest throughout the process, which I think drew people to the company. Making a beach toy with a compostable plastic hadn’t been done before, and I think people wanted to cheer me on…and that feeling is what persists in our customers and supporters today.
My customers have had a front row seat to all of it; from fundraising in the very beginning to experiencing all of the pandemic setbacks with me, to watching me unbox our first successfully manufactured products. I’ve shared everything the business had gone through with them – they felt invested. I think they still do! There’s trust there because they’ve been part of this journey and have seen it go from idea to actual product. And they’ve seen all the mishaps and setbacks along the way. They were on the journey with me.
But it wasn’t just customers that were watching the journey – I was working with my suppliers and manufacturers who were all watching this happen for the first time…in real time! Seeing something like this through does a lot to build up credibility and help people take notice. And we’re selling a product that, only a few years ago, I was told couldn’t be made, and that no one would ever buy. I’ve created a product that could change an industry, and my team and my suppliers have been able to watch it go from idea to 3D printed prototype to a real product that kids are playing with on the beach back to compost when we’re done with it. And I’m really proud of that.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.roguewavetoys.com
- Instagram: @roguewavetoys
- Facebook: @RogueWaveToys
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kate-reimann/
- Other: TikTok: @roguewavetoys
Image Credits
Peter Vanosdall
Kate Dolbier
Heather Marshman