Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Natalie Poston. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Natalie , looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Alright, so you had your idea and then what happened? Can you walk us through the story of how you went from just an idea to executing on the idea

My co-founder, Alli, and I built the initial business plan for JoyLet in an MBA class called “Lean Startup” while at Georgetown McDonough. Everyone had to pitch an idea on the first day of class. Alli pitched a baby gear rental business–an idea she’d wanted to explore at business school. With so many friends of mine becoming parents, I loved the idea, joined her, and JoyLeft was born. JoyLet is a monthly subscription platform for baby and toddler gear and toy rentals, which helps parents gain flexibility, while saving time, money, space, waste, and stress.

In this course we used the Lean Canvas framework to build the business plan, had the opportunity to interview and survey over 100 parents and pitch our idea to local venture capitalists. We got positive feedback, but it took a few months for us to decide to take the idea out of the classroom and into the real world.

As we were both in the MBA program we took advantage of pitch competitions, which are a perfect way to secure non-dilutive funding to get student ventures off the ground. While at McDonough we pitched our business and secured over $40,000 of funding from the Georgetown Entrepreneurship Challenge and the Bark Tank pitch competition. After securing the initial capital from the Entrepreneurship Challenge we incorporated JoyLet, and spent months building our MVP website. After the website was ready, we used organic and paid Instagram content to acquire our very first customers. From there, we tested the viability of the business model – we wanted to make sure that the gear would hold up over multiple rentals. Over the next six months, we validated its viability and continued to acquire customers along the way, which allowed us to be in the position to formally launch the business.

Natalie , before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

The way parents acquire baby gear is overwhelming and wasteful. Premium baby gear is expensive and the increased use of technology is increasing prices, making the best gear out of reach for many. Babies also rapidly age out of this pricey gear. Furthermore, it takes trial and error for most parents to find gear that works. Even second-time parents find that what worked for the first baby just doesn’t work for the second. That’s why 61% of parents buy multiples of baby and kids items. Modern parenthood demands flexibility that the traditional model of acquiring gear doesn’t provide.

When a child ages out of their gear, parents are faced with the challenge of storing the gear or disposing of it. Busy parents find storage space limited and find resale to be unpredictable, time consuming, and inconvenient. Because most gear isn’t eligible for donation due to safety concerns, parents end up tossing perfectly good gear into the trash. That’s why, over a ten-year period, 23.7 million pieces of functional used baby and kids gear will be thrown away, according to OfferUP.

JoyLet offers parents the ultimate swap system to rent and return durable gear and toys from birth until kindergarten. We offer parents savings, flexibility, and top-notch quality, without clutter, waste, and stress. We’re on a mission to make early parenthood easier and more sustainable.

JoyLet is disrupting the traditional model of baby gear ownership by offering parents the ability to rent thoughtfully selected gear that babies and toddlers quickly age out of like bassinets, swings, specialty strollers, developmental toys and more. JoyLet offers a white glove delivery experience providing gear package-free and fully assembled. JoyLet professionally maintains, cleans, and sanitizes its gear, extending its useful life, making JoyLet the more sustainable choice. We eliminate packaging waste and reduce Co2 emissions by more than 86% versus buying new.

JoyLet has delivered a 5-star rental experience to families in the Mid-Atlantic and beyond. Parents can rent individual gear on demand, create a bundle to save more, or become a member for the ultimate flexibility to swap gear and toys in and out.

We are proud to help families access the high end gear and toys they need for their little ones. Often, parents come to us in an exhausted state because their baby isn’t sleeping – we love being able to quickly and easily meet their needs by renting them a new bassinet, for example. JoyLet primarily serves moms of kids under 5, many of whom may be going through one of the hardest stages of life, with feelings of loneliness and judgment from both loved ones and strangers (on the internet) alike. We’re focused on building a business that has compassion and empathy for our customers, while solving their most pressing problems.

Learning and unlearning are both critical parts of growth – can you share a story of a time when you had to unlearn a lesson?

As someone who has always been a pretty high achiever, I internalized the lesson that I can do anything (even a unrealistic amount of work), as long as I put my mind to it. You might call this white knuckling through life. While this has been true in the past, entrepreneurship rightly challenges this way of thinking. In my opinion, there comes a time in an entrepreneur’s journey when they realize they need to outsource or hire to scale. I also had to learn that lesson – sometimes you can become the bottleneck. While there are a variety of reasons that entrepreneurs hold off on outsourcing or offloading responsibilities including capital constraints, lack of trust and time investment to train, the investment will pay off by increasing your company’s productivity and growth.

How about pivoting – can you share the story of a time you’ve had to pivot?

I’ve pivoted many times throughout my life and my only regret is that I didn’t pivot earlier. My first major pivot came when I decided to apply for business school. I had a successful career in Public Relations and Integrated Marketing consulting for Fortune 500 companies in Chicago. I was living out the dream career I had identified in undergrad, but wanted more. I felt that I could make more of a positive impact if I could get closer to the business operations, instead of being a marketing consultant on the outside of these large organizations.

That’s what led me to business school at Georgetown where I pivoted into the competitive Venture Capital industry. While I was insecure about my skills at first, I quickly learned that my prior experience was hugely valuable in terms of network building, leadership, research, marketing, and trend spotting. I was also gaining the financial skills I needed through the program – soon I was an attractive candidate and secured a prestigious Venture Fellowship while in school. From there, I got a full-time offer to a multi-billion dollar VC fund which I excelled at. However, JoyLet was calling me. I liked being involved with multiple startups on the VC side, but I was eager to get deeper into a startup of my own.

When Alli and I were ready to go full-time with JoyLet, I knew it was the right time to pivot again. This time into one of the most exciting experiences of my life. If you’re thinking about starting a business my advice is to go for it – you will always learn from the experience and grow in ways that will surprise yourself.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.joylet.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/rentjoylet/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/RentJoylet
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/joylet

Image Credits
Images are all credited to JoyLet