We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Tanya Bryant a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Tanya, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. We’d love to have you retell us the story behind how you came up with the idea for your business, I think our audience would really enjoy hearing the backstory.

We’re a family that has always talked about practical things that should be invented to make life’s little problems a little easier! In Jan ‘17, we were sitting at dinner and the question came up: “If you could invent anything what would it be?” The winning answer was: “Something that would stop what I put in my passenger seat (a purse, laptop, coffee, lunch bag, or whatever) from falling to the floor when I step on the brakes!! That HAS TO drive everybody crazy!” We immediately got busy with concepts and by February ‘17 we were making prototypes in our basement on mother’s 60-year old Singer sewing machine. While we were developing, trialing, and redesigning, we discovered an added benefit: driver safety! The National Highway and Transportation Safety Administration (NHTSA) reports that loose items in cars can become projectile (and sometimes deadly) during an accident and contribute to over 13,000 injuries per year!) That’s when we knew we were not only solving a common problem but could also influence safer driving habits! The Netcessity Seat Caddy not only keeps items from toppling from the passenger seat, but also reduces distracted driving, which results from taking your eyes off the road or your hand off the wheel to prevent them from falling (the “Mom Reflex”)!
We knew we had a unique product because of its expandability, flexibility, and versatility to accommodate items of multiple sizes without being rigid or compartmentalized, not to mention the convenience of having what you need at your fingertips without concern of any of it becoming projectile (and injurious in the event of a sudden stop),
We trialed, tweaked and made improvements and started selling in Feb ’18 across the U.S. We filed for a patent, received it in January 2021, and pleased to add that credential to our brand!! U.S. Patent No. 11,001,203. We became fully registered with a trademark for Netcessity in July 2022!
We market via our website: www.itsanetcessity.com and on Amazon. We have received rave reviews. Our customers love them! Please see Customer Raves on our website: www.itsanetcessity.com, Recommendations on Facebook: www.facebook.com/netcessity, and on Reviews on Amazon: Netcessity Seat Caddy.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers

We are three women: mom and two daughters, who invented the Netcessity Seat Caddy, a unique car organizer accessory, with an added benefit of driver safety. Born of a daily aggravation of everything in the passenger seat falling to the floor whenever you hit the brakes, we were sure there had to be a smart way to prevent this from happening. We knew EVERYBODY experienced this! So, we invented the perfect solution: a cargo net for the passenger seat. Now everything you put there stays there!
After conducting an extensive search for any other product that offered the versatility, convenience and functionality we were seeking with our design, we found items that were limiting, structured, intrusive, and compartmentalized. We believe we had the design that offered everything we were looking for and did not require an awkward reach to access what was in the caddy.

Can you share a story from your journey that illustrates your resilience?

As soon as we had determined we had a solid product, unlike any other, and something that would contribute to a mitigating a safety issue, we knew it would be essential to get it patented. So, we began researching the US patent process. Not having the funds available to engage a patent attorney, we decided to investigate what, if anything, in this filing process could be done on our own without an attorney. What we discovered was incredible. The USPTO offers a program for entrepreneurs to file for patents and trademarks “pro se” (without an attorney)! That was perfect for us, so we researched the USPTO program requirements, followed the instructions to the absolute letter, and filed our Provisional Patent application (PPA). That gave us 12 months of protection to file for the official patent. Shortly after getting the PPA filed, we discovered there are multiple law clinics at universities across the USA who offer assistance to pro se filers. So, we applied to Marshall Law clinic in Chicago for assistance with the Patent application. We were turned down, unfortunately, due to a search they conducted citing similar product, and they didn’t think our application would be approved. We disagreed!! We knew we had a great solution to an everyday problem! It did not exist in any other form. So, we set out to file for the Patent ourselves! Following the USPTO requirements for patent applications to the absolute letter, we completed it and submitted it. It got rejected for incomplete Claims (which we learned was normal!). At that point, we recontacted Marshall Law to demonstrate how far we had gotten on our own and requested their assistance guiding us through correcting the claims for greater success. They accepted our request!! Our modified application was resubmitted to the USPTO and our Patent was granted!! We were thrilled, relieved and grateful we didn’t give up after the initial rejection!

We’d love to hear your thoughts about selling platforms like Amazon/Etsy vs selling on your own site.

There is no better time than now to be an eCommerce business! There are so many avenues – social platforms and websites available that help with exposure and success. It takes a lot of patience and trial marketing in different places. But, it’s worth making sure you aren’t spending money ineffectively. We chose GoDaddy for our website build because at the time it offered exactly what we needed, at the most reasonable price. Lucky for us, the GoDaddy support team is incredibly talented and willing to help at every point along the way including advice on building the website to setting up our store. We also have a store on Amazon. Amazon is the hot place to sell and having a presence there makes a lot of customers more comfortable they can trust purchasing from a small business. And for small businesses, Amazon makes shipping, sales tax calculation/collection, and returns super simple, So, our customers have the choice to buy directly through our website or Amazon.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.itsanetcessity.com
• Instagram: @netcessityllc
• Facebook: netcessity
• Linkedin: netcessity llc
• Youtube: netcessity

Image Credits
Photos by: Brandon Mueller, St. Louis, MO