The Bag For Moms On-The-Go: Kibou Founders Nell Shapiro & Stephanie Merks

Beauty and Fashion

Jan 25

**Introduce yourself. How did you get started? What’s your story?**

Hi! We’re Nell Shapiro and Stephanie Merks, the Co-Founders of *Kibou*. We first met as moms in our Brooklyn neighborhood of Park Slope, when our first-born boys (coincidentally Theo and Théo) were six months old. Between toddler music classes and weekly lunch dates with a small group of mom-friends, we bonded over many things.

When Nell’s son was only a few months old, her traditional diaper bag became the bane of her existence. Always on the go, Nell found that this bag was too heavy, constantly in the way, and frustrating to dig through. She dreamed of a fanny-pack diaper bag that had with all the functions of a full-size diaper bag without the bulk. There was not one single fanny pack with a built-in changing pad or a waterproof pocket for wipes in existence. Nell wanted a bag intended for short trips out to the playground or to music class rather than one designed to hold every single thing that she could possibly need. Meanwhile, Stephanie was running her own graphic design studio, regularly bringing life and personality to brands through logo creation and design. She was exactly the partner Nell needed to bring her vision of the bag to life. They hit the ground running and spent the next two years designing, surveying, and testing to find the perfect balance between fashion and function.

The result was *Kibou,* a bag created to help parents spend less time organizing, double checking, and reorganizing after the process; less time feeling frustrated and weighed down by *stuff*. And, at the same time, to enjoy more time simply enjoying our little ones. At Kibou, we believe that less is more when minimized deliberately. To us, “less” includes only what you love and what you need; what brings value and serves a purpose. We believe that, when you have the *right stuff,* you can enjoy where you are and who you are with, all while having the confidence and peace of mind that you have everything you need right by your side.

Without the funds to put behind our initial inventory, and with a cautious approach to testing the market, we decided to launch Kibou on Kickstarter. In fall of 2019, we pre-sold $30,000 in our four-week campaign, which we put right into funding our production. By January 2020, sales were live on our own website (which Stephanie had built) and, just two months later, COVID threatened to put a halt to our slow but steady success. Fortunately, we were able to bring together a very lean team of brilliant people to help us get the word out about Kibou, and we kept chugging along, ever more grateful for the jumpstart that we got from the Kickstarter funds. Now, over two years after launching, we’ve learned and grown so much.

We continue to bootstrap our business and remain a small team; nearly all moms.

**How would you define success?**

Success for *Kibou* has meant different things at different times. We started our company with zero experience in fashion or product design. So, our first huge win was the ability to hold our dream product - that was both functional *and* beautiful - right in our own hands. Then, when we pre-sold hundreds of *Kibous* through our *Kickstarte*r campaign, success was actually bringing our bag to market. Now that we’re up and running, we think of success in much larger terms: our goal is to make parents’ lives easier. Each and every time we see a parent wearing their *Kibou* or get feedback from a happy customer, we know that we have succeeded. Now, more than two years into the pandemic, being able to lighten a parent’s load – literally and figuratively – feels like the best kind of achievement. To know that we have had an impact on so many parents' daily lives, even in a small way, is success.

**Tell us three quotes that have impacted your life.**

“Be so good they can’t ignore you.” – Steve Martin
“The reason we struggle with insecurity is because we compare our behind-the-scenes with everyone else’s highlight reel.”-Steven Furtick
“As I look back on my life, I realize that every time I thought I was being rejected from something good, I was actually being redirected to something better.” -Dr. Steve Maraboli

**Who are your heroes?**

We’ve talked about this one a lot! Neither one of us actually has a hero, per-se. So, instead, the question that we had to ask ourselves was, *why*?
There’s a quote “never meet your heroes,” and that seems to encapsulate one part of our thinking: no one person is going to be everything we want them to be, and if we come to idolize someone, chances are good that we will be let down in some way. Maybe that’s kinda bleak? Haha.
The other part is a bit more optimistic. We discovered that we both feel like we are constantly inspired by those around us. We are always finding motivation, wisdom, beauty and ingenuity in so many different facets of our lives. From our own parents (and the adversity they overcame), to journalists like Ta-Nahisi Coates, to other female entrepreneurs that we have been lucky enough to get to know and learn from, we tend to find a little bit of heroism in everyone.

If you could have dinner with anyone in the world, dead or alive, who would it be and why?

From a business angle, we would both love to sit down with Sara Blakely. Her story of vision, tenacity, and success is incredible. She built Spanx brick-by-brick and has turned it into a household name that gives women comfort and confidence in their day-to-day lives. She is truly an inspiration.

On a personal level, we’d love to get a chance to sit down with our grandparents and great-grandparents whom we never got to know. To hear their life stories, to see our lineage come to life, to hug them and tell them all that came of our families since they began paving the path.