Spotlight on Mompreneur: Iris Shamus, founder of AllerMates

If you have kids with food allergies, you know how much more you worry once they start school or go to camp. Even a simple play date at a friend’s house or a birthday party can’t start without a few important precautions. There’s no substitute for allergy awareness and teaching your kids what they can and can not eat, as well as carrying an epi-pen, but there is now a helpful product to help alleviate your fears. Founded by a mom of a child with severe food allergies, Iris Shamus, created AllerMates to get others instantly aware about the child’s allergy. AllerMates allergy wristbands and other products serve to alert the others and keep kids safe. Iris turned this successful idea and is expanding into other health related products. I asked this busy mom a few questions about the big idea, the process and plans for the future.

What inspired you to start AllerMates?

My inspiration for AllerMates comes from my sweet middle child Benjamin. We discovered that he had severe food allergies when he was just a toddler. It was easy enough to monitor everything he ate when he was under my care at all times but once he went off to pre-school, it was a whole different world. I was determined to come up with a kid friendly way of protecting him and communicating to his teachers and caregivers about his allergies.

How do you deal with your son’s allergy?

A parent of a child with a food allergy has to be constantly aware and teach their child to do the same. That means taking a moment to verify that anything they put into their mouths is safe for them. They have to read every food label, teach their kids to not accept snacks from their friends, make sure that their emergency medicine (i.e. epinephrine injector) is always nearby. They should make sure their child wears an accessory to alert others of their health concern.

Was there anything on the market similar to AllerMates when you launched?

Not that I could find. I searched and searched and couldn’t find anything. I believe that I am the pioneer of the “kid-friendly” health alert. Obviously medic alert traditional jewelry has been around for a long time but I guess I associated those type of accessories with something elderly people wore and it didn’t even dawn on me to consider one.

Who are your competitors now?

We don’t have many and the few that we have don’t offer the same quality, selection or depth of products. A year ago we were approached by a distributor we met at a kids trade show. They said that they had a relationship with Target and were enlisted by that retailer to look for ‘parent created’ products that they would display in their stores in a special program. Just as we were about to sign a distribution agreement they suddenly pulled away. 6 months later we started getting emails from retail buyers telling us that have been approached by a company and that they were upset that someone was so blatantly knocking us off. We found out it was the same distributor! We checked out their products and the band sort of fell apart at the touch, the ink immediately rubbed off. We were relieved to see how poorly they were produced.

Do you have a patent? What’s the patent process like?

We don’t have patents on any of our current products but we do have a couple of products in development that may be patentable. We do have copyrights of our characters and have one substantial character licensing agreement with a global company and two more agreements in the works.

How long and how much capital did it take you from concept to first sale?

It took about $30,000 in capital to get me started. I had to hire a graphic design firm, pay for legal work, pay for manufacturing tooling costs and purchase inventory. Then I had to build a website, attend trade shows …. As always with business, the list goes on and on.

How do you reinvest your profits?

We have experienced 300% compounded growth in the past year and I have reinvested every penny back into the company. I have expanded the line, hired some more seasoned and talented employees, attended more trade shows. We continued to develop the website. Again, the list goes on and on.

If you were to sum up the mission of AllerMates in a sentence, what would it be?

That’s easy. Our mission is to safeguard kids with allergies, asthma, diabetes, food intolerance, and other health issues, while offering tools to help support the education and awareness of those health concerns.

Are you expanding into areas beyond allergies? Which?

Yes we have expanded into asthma products and education – which is a very natural expansion to us as about 30% of all kids with allergies have asthma (including my own son). We also now offer diabetes, asthma & epilepsy products. CVS, who is currently our most substantial retail partner, will start carrying our asthma wristband and asthma inhaler cases this spring in over 4600 stores.

Your site offers a wealth of information on allergies. Do you have allergists on board?

Yes we have a couple of allergists on board. One of them is Dr. Jennifer Sherman of Saddle River Associates. She is the most in demand pediatric allergist in my community.

Did you ever start a new business before? How does your previous experience help you with AllerMates?

No, I never started a business before or ever had an inkling of a desire to do so in my 20’s and early 30’s. My husband comes from a large family of pretty successful, die-hard entrepreneurs so I guess years of spending countless family gatherings hearing business being discussed must have rubbed off on me. I also helped my husband run his business for the first two years that we were married and saw it grow and prosper quickly. We did the impossible – worked together and still remained happily married.

Which marketing strategies are you pursuing? Which have been most effective to-date?

I really believe that integrated marketing is key. Yes we do a ton of social media and see great results with that but we also do a lot of PR as well as marketing directly to the allergists and pediatricians. The physicians are our best allies – they love our product and are always eager to promote them. In 2014 we plan on ramping up our marketing even more so and have some really great partners to help us do so.

Are there any companies that you’re collaborating with? Any you would like to partner with?

We have many wonderful companies that we collaborate with. We have a great partnership with a top-tier pharmaceutical company that involves allergy awareness and education as well as providing the with premiums (items they use to support their customer relationships). We are in discussions with significant food companies about doing the same. We also collaborate with many support groups and are hoping to do much more of that as we grow. Other substantial partnerships are in the works but we are currently under NDA.

If I asked your son, what kind of mom you are, what would he say?

He would say that I am always very busy but at the same time he is very proud and honored that I started my business because of him! About a week ago I picked him from school and he was upset with me because I was late, as usual. When he got into my car I pulled out a copy of a local newspaper that I had just received from our mailbox – which had a photo of he and I on the cover along with an article about AllerMates. His sulk quickly turned into a huge smile and I was totally forgiven.