We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Lisa Doroba. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Lisa below.
Lisa , appreciate you joining us today. Naming anything – including a business – is so hard. Right? What’s the story behind how you came up with the name of your brand?
The name for Ducktion Cups came about the day after I came up with the idea for the product. At first, my idea started as a “shelf” to keep your ducks in place but I wasn’t quite sure how I would be attaching the ducks to the shelf until the next day when I was on a long drive to the SPCA with my boss. I was explaining my idea to her, along with how Jeepers get “ducked” when I said “I just need to figure out a way to attach them to the shelf. Like with a suction cup or something. Wait! A “Ducktion cup”! And the idea was not only taking on a life but now it was already named! The design of the Ducktion Cup came immediately to me after that and I started on my prototype that weekend.
Lisa , 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?
My name is Lisa Doroba and I invented Ducktion Cups as a way to keep the rubber ducks that Jeep drivers give each other securely on their dashboards in a removable and temporary way. I’ve been a Jeep driver for decades and love being part of the Jeep community. When the DuckDuckJeep trend started a few years ago, I immediately loved the concept and soon found my collection of ducks growing and no longer fitting in the “Duck Pond”on my dashboard. ‘Duck Pond’ is how people refer to the tray on most Jeep dashboards. I thought there needed to be a way to secure them better while still looking nice and not using messy adhesives that will damage the factory dashboard. Ducktion Cups were created along with the DuckDuckDash Board and together they solve all of these ducking problems! The DuckDuckDash Board looks great whether you have one duck or more than 20 displayed. Alongside your ducks, you can also secure other suction cup based items such as a phone holder or even a GoPro. It’s even on hinges which turns the Duck Pond into usable and hidden storage space!
Ducktion Cups is a small company consisting of a couple friends who want to have fun while working! We’re animal lovers and have a desire to help the world’s furry and feathered friends whenever we can. We’re looking to have fun interacting with other Jeep owners at Jeep events and even doing a full build on a Jeep together one day.
Okay – so how did you figure out the manufacturing part? Did you have prior experience?
When I had the idea for Ducktion Cups, I had no idea about manufacturing anything but started with some google searches which led me to an engineering firm for startups. It seems they would walk me through the process of creating a prototype all the way up to production. This felt like a great way to go until I saw the price tag but started thinking about how I was going to pay for it anyway. I applied for business loans but at this early stage, I didn’t have the proper credentials to qualify. So as I was brainstorming with my business partner AJ, he said “we just need a CNC machine”. This is how I first learned what a CNC machine was and how it can cut the materials to make our product. One of my first thoughts was that my sister in law works for a local boat parts manufacturing company so I sent her a text asking if they have these. She replied that they sure did and I arranged to meet up with a sales person there. They were able to produce my prototype after 3D scanning my dashboard and listening to what I wanted its functions to be.
In order to produce the product at a lower cost, I learned how to assemble it myself including many, many, many trips to ACE Hardware. Knowing next to nothing about screws and other hardware, I would stare at the two full aisles of random nuts and bolts and think to myself “I bet this is how guys would feel at Sephora if they were tasked to find a specific lipstick to work with their project”. But after many frustrating trips, I now know the difference between a machine screw and a wood screw, countersink vs. pan head and that there’s metric and standard sizes and that screws come in more different finishes than I could have ever imagined and what a well nut even is. But the universe wanted me to know my product from start to finish and be able to take it apart and reassemble it. This knowledge is helping me so much more with my current projects and I get to see things from a whole different way now.
We’d love to hear about how you met your business partner.
AJ and I worked together back in 2007 at a private jet charter company where I was in sales and he was our IT guru. We got along immediately, bonding over our love of all animals, and I was super impressed with AJ’s ability to make anything happen on the computer. He could fix anything I could break and trust me, I have a special gift for breaking computer systems. That company eventually sold and AJ and I went our separate work directions but remained close friends. I always admired his brilliance and would say “somebody is going to latch onto AJ with an idea one day and become a millionaire”. So when I had my idea for Ducktion Cups, he was my first call. While he isn’t a “Jeeper” himself, he understands the fun community camaraderie that Jeep drivers have. So while at a gas station a few days after I explained my idea to him, he saw a group of Jeeps all getting ready to go off-roading. None of them had ducks on the dash so he walked over and asked them if they were familiar with “Duck Duck Jeep” where Jeepers give each other ducks and they said that they sure were, but couldn’t keep their ducks in place while off-roading. So AJ said “check the internet soon” and walked away realizing that my idea wasn’t so crazy after all!
Contact Info:
- Website: Ducktioncups.com
- Instagram: @Ducktioncups
- Facebook: facebook.com/ducktioncups
- Linkedin: Ducktioncups
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@ducktioncups3499