The Mamalode Starter Series is an exciting opportunity for us to introduce you to some of the amazing people we get to meet. Starting something takes enormous amounts of work, faith, help and community. Every week we'll share another story of starting. So, community of Mamalode, read up, get inspired and check out these wonder-folk.
Interview with Jochem Hes, co-founder of NAÏF baby products.
Tell us a little bit about your business and how you started it.
NAÏF is a natural and premium Dutch baby care brand founded by myself and Sjoerd. After becoming dads ourselves we were triggered by the low quality of the current offering in baby care products. So we left our corporate jobs (Google, private equity) and set-out to develop the best baby care products in the market.
What do your kids think about your job?
Sjoerd has a 2-year-old son Klaas, and a second on the way. Jochem has two sons, Tycho, almost four and 2-year-old Tobias. At this moment they aren't that critical. Of course they love to go in bath or taking a shower with our products. The oldest, Tycho, is recognising the brand when we encounter our products (magazines, stores).
Tell us about a total dad + biz fail.
Now that we have started our own business and “Escaped the City”, we became better dads for sure! We are way more flexible and feel much better in terms of energy. Because of the “industry” we are in now, we always come back with relevant presents for our kids. Our biggest lesson is that nothing will happen automatically in the life of an entrepreneur! Never give up, no way back!
Share with us a total win (brag away!)
Our biggest win or achievement so far is launching our product range last November. For nine months, we have worked very intensively with a Swiss lab, experts, and most important, lots of moms. The quality of our products is still our key to the success so far. Everyday we receive very positive feedback from moms all over the world. This gives us all the confidence to go further with our adventure and building an international baby care brand.
What’s your relationship with Mamalode?
We have met one of the Mamalode team members, Dori Gilels. She told us about the Mamalode magazine. Dori has made us enthusiastic from the first moment we met and therefore we are very happy to tell all the readers of Mamalode a bit more about our brand.
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About the Author
October 2014's theme start something is brought to you by
Headwaters | Blackstone
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