On this page Hustle Spotlight questions and answers are founders of her husband and wife in New York, Lee Kojanis, 37 years old, and Daniele Orellana, 34-year-old Kojanis is a certified oral and jaw surgeon, and Orellana is a pediatric dentist certified by the management board. Learn more about how they began and bred their side hustle and bustle, MittsThe brand standing behind an ergonomic sponge designed for cleansing delicate glass. The answers were edited in terms of length and clarity.
Image loan: Courtesy of Mitts. Lee Kojanis and Daniele Orellana.
When did you start your side hustle and bustle and where did you discover inspiration for it?
Orellana: The idea for Mitts was born during a pandemic when Lee was preparing for Wine & Spirit Education Trust (WSET) exams. With suspended operators, he used additional downtime to deepen his knowledge about wine-one of his many years of passions. The tasting a part of the certificate required a ton of wine sampling at home, which in turn meant a lot of wine tasting and a growing collection of delicate, high -class software that require careful cleansing.
Kojanis: Daniele often undertook the task of washing these brittle glasses, but their thin, hand-inflatable design made it difficult to clean without a crack-by breaking up a whole bunch of dollars. Truly, the lack of cleansing tool, which provided each precision and protection, we began brainstorming over a bottle of wine in one weekend. This conversation caused the concept of gloves: a sponge specially designed for cleansing delicate software, offering higher control and ergonomic operation.
Orellana: We also wanted to make sure it is practical and aesthetic. Many products sold towards glasses of wine and wine were impractical in terms of use or bulky and looked terrible on our kitchen counter, so we designed something that we would love to display on our counter, which served greater than one use – that is why the base is the key to every starting kit.
Image loan: Courtesy of Mitts
What were some of the first steps you took to collect your site from the ground?
Kojanis: The morning after our idea we got here up with gloves, we immediately began to conduct market research. Initially, we contacted many engineering firms, in total over five. After many E -Mailes and Zoom meetings, we finally decided on Creative Engineering, a specialist company based in New York.
The prototyping process lasted several months and required many iterations to improve the project. After finalizing the version that matches our vision, we submitted a patent for utility in PEPTTO. From there, we focused on branding, cooperation with Make Super Good, a creative agency that helped us develop our name, visual identity and packaging design.
Are there any free or paid resources that were particularly helpful for you to start and run this business?
Orellana: Believe or not, one of the most invaluable resources was chatgpt. Carting from healthcare, we had a small or any experience in moving around the CPG space. Chatgpt has turn out to be a helpful tool in developing strategy for the market and simply answering very basic business questions. In addition to supported AI, our partners of engineering, branding and production played a big role in leading us through unknown territory. They were extremely helpful and available to us when we were preparing for the premiere.
Additionally Startupcpg The community was an amazing resource. Everyone supported there, offering the possibilities of constructing contacts and practical advice. His loose group has turn out to be one of the key places I turn to when I’m undecided or got stuck.
If you might return to your online business trip and change one process or approach, what would it not be and how do you regret that you’ll not do it otherwise?
Kojanis: If we could come back and change one aspect of our launch strategy, it will be time and management of our product edition. We officially launched in November 2024, immediately during a holiday rush, without full stocks in our facility 3pl. Production estimates were too optimistic, and unexpected shipping delays meant that a significant a part of our product didn’t arrive on time for the holiday season.
In retrospect, we must always either plan much more conservative for logistics in the peak season, or we have delayed our premiere until the holidays, when the deadlines of success could be more predictable. Better emergency planning – reminiscent of building a buffer for production and shipping in an additional time – would save us significant stress and provide smooth implementation. It was a difficult but invaluable lesson in the importance of time and readiness of the supply chain.
As for this specific business, what you think is particularly difficult and/or surprising that individuals who enter this sort of work needs to be prepared, but probably are not?
Kojanis: Rejection is constant. Customers will reject you, influential people will reject you, firms will reject you, and investors will reject you. You have to criticize and throw it well. It helped us learn to separate emotions from feedback – each rejection is data. If someone says “no”, we ask why and we use this insight to improve our height, product or approach. The key is not to avoid rejection; He uses it to be higher.
Do you remember a specific case when something went very unsuitable? How did you fix it?
Kojanis: We weren’t able to complete a large a part of holiday orders due to production delays and shipping. Many customers bought gloves in the hope of handing them over to a friend and family, and we failed. To do this, we personally sent the e -ail of all customers whose orders we weren’t able to complete on time and offered discount codes for future orders.
How long did it take you with a coherent monthly revenues? How much did the lateral hustle and bustle earn?
Kojanis: We are only three months after our premiere, and monthly revenues range. Only recently we began a consistent marketing campaign and we hope that more coherent sales are developing forward. At the moment, Hustle brought just over $ 15,000. This yr, we forecast the sale of roughly USD 75,000.
What does growth and revenues appear to be now?
Orellana: Growth and revenues for us perfectly get our current revenues by the end of the yr, and we are to be in our first retail space this spring with a pop-up food market. We hope to add a handful of small retail stores by the end of the yr. There is no private capital or glove investments – all this and we commit ourselves to slow ecological growth.
Image loan: Courtesy of Mitts
How much time do you spend at work in your organization every day, every day or every month? How do you structure this time? What does a typical day or week of labor appear to be for you?
Orellana: As doctors, we each have a full -time job, so we almost all the time work in private practice or on towels. Work related to gloves takes place during the day of labor and evenings; This happens between patients, during lunch, on the way to work and work. We answer e -mail or jump on connections for enlargement throughout the day – everyone who worked with us met with us in our thickets.
Our weekends are also allocated to greater duties related to gloves (reminiscent of photo sessions, video, etc.). We are also really good in allocating and sharing the essential tasks between us two. At the starting of our relationship, we learned that communication is the key to a strong and healthy marriage. We use the same mentality with our common business: it communicates early and often.
What do you want best about running this business?
Kojanis: Mitts allowed us to cooperate in a way that otherwise would never be possible in our regular profession. The better part of this startup is that we will spend time together, working on common goals, while promoting a tangible product that we created from scratch.
What is your best, useful business advice?
Orellana: Before you sink a significant time and money for product development, branding or supplies, perform thorough market research. Get involved in direct reach-sew samples to the goal recipients, collect feedback and improve your idea based on real data. Be also strategic about the premiere and make sure you build a buzz before starting; It makes a huge difference.
Kojanis: For us, this meant the creation of an early prototype of our STEMWARE sponge, introducing it into the hands of wine enthusiasts and bartenders, and using their feedback to improve the project before committing to large -scale production. This iterative process gave us proof of the concept and a vibrant path forward.