Lindsay deOliveira’s entrepreneurial journey started with a drawing she did in Microsoft Paint.
An optician by training, deOliveira was at home with her newborn daughter in 2021 and 2022 when she experienced something that most new parents will understand: It was next to impossible to find a pacifier that her daughter actually liked.
“We were going through pacifiers left and right,” she told Hypepotamus. Hundreds of dollars worth of rejected ones getting tossed away. Instead of throwing out pacifiers all the time, she thought there had to be a way to design one that her daughter would actually like.
So she went to the drawing board…which for her meant opening up Microsoft Paint on her computer. She envisioned an interchangeable pacifier that could be easily replaced without creating a ton of excess waste. But as she worked on bringing the idea out of Paint and into the world, deOliveira learned that there were many pressing reasons to bring a better pacifier to the market.
CHANGING THE SAFETY GAME
“What started out as a concept for convenience ended up being a safety mission,” she said.
After working with a consultant in May of 2022 to discuss the original design, deOliveira said she was left “absolutely horrified” by the lack of safety measures around baby products in the United States. Popular latex pacifiers are produced all over the world and aren’t regularly tested for safety. Many models are suffocation and choking hazards. Others easily become “bacteria breeding grounds” that are next to impossible to clean.
She spent the early part of 2023 in the StartUp Columbus Incubator. She went on to develop her first prototype in April for her first product for Soothe Beginnings.
As Soothe Beginnings’ founder and CEO, deOliveira is preparing to launch officially this summer. What’s coming to market is an interchangeable pacifier that is dishwasher safe, made out of silicone, non-toxic, and plastic-free. The changeable nipples are designed to meet the specific needs of babies. Assembled or not, none of the pieces are choking hazards. On top of being a safer pacifier model, Soothe Beginnings offers an eco-friendly alternative for parents who are constantly buying new items for their young kids.
FROM PAINT TO PROTOTYPE
deOliveira, a first-time founder, has come a long way from her days of drawing out products on Paint. She was the BizPitch Columbus Finalist in November of 2023 and was accepted as an ATDC Accelerate Portfolio company in December, becoming only the second Columbus-based startup to join the state’s incubator program.
As a first-time consumer product company founder, deOliveira said the hardest part was securing funding to create the actual model.
“Lessons learned were to not take someone’s “yes, I can do it” as the truth. I felt such a sense of relief when someone said “yes” that I didn’t dig deeper and question them harder. It resulted in a mold that didn’t work, money lost, and switching factories altogether. Sometimes a “no” is actually a blessing,” she told Hypepotamus.
deOliveira navigated those early ups and downs of building her first startup, and started gaining traction in late 2023.
BUILDING WHAT’S NEXT
Along the way she has made a unique and memorable name for herself as “the lady with the nipples.” That has helped her build brand recognition on pitch competition stages…and in front of TV cameras.
deOliveira is a recent star of The Blox, an entrepreneurial-focused competition TV show that received 50,000 applicants. deOliveira said that it was at first “nerve racking” to be on camera, she said the experience of being on the show helped her hone in on her product messaging.
We won’t put any big spoilers, but she told Hypepotamus that she walked away from the show with a “six figure investor,” a manufacturer, and other businesses that are ready to collaborate.
While deOliveira is preparing for Soothe Beginnings’ official launch this summer, she is already thinking about the future. She said that she will be working on teething nipples and weaning nipples to help as a baby ages in the near future.
