The transition from the sippy cup to a regular cup may be a long and difficult road, so imagine my excitement when I learned about a sippy that can actually help you in this process. Invented by Allyson Phillips, a mom of two, Tilty is not only easy to use as your child’s everyday sippy, it’s also easy to clean (with no extra valves) and fun for kids. Allyson brought her marketing savvy to creating this business that by now already won both the iParenting media award and the Huggies MomInspired award – definite signs Tilty is a success. My almost 2-year-old tried Tilty for a few days and she immediately showed improvement drinking from a regular cup – the tilt design made a great contribution to this process. So I was happy to chat with this Mom Entrepreneur about what drives her business and the lessons she is learning from it.
Who were you before you started this business? A career mom? A stay at home mom? An entrepreneur?
Before I started Tilty Cup, I was fortunate enough to work as VP of Marketing for my family’s wealth management firm on a part-time basis and be home with my daughter and son the rest of the day. I switched to part-time hours when my daughter was born 7 years ago and my husband became an independent contractor in order to work from home. We both really wanted to be involved in the parenting decisions and we were able to launch Tilty Cup because of the flexibility our jobs allowed.
How did you first come up with the idea for Tilty Cup?
I was watching my daughter, Kiley, drink from a traditional sippy cup when she was about 8 months old and I noticed how she had to really tip her head back and it just looked so akward and unnatural. Then I started noticing that other babies were doing the same thing and thought there must be a better cup out there. There wasn’t so the Tilt was born.
How long did it take to get it off the ground? How much start-up capital and resources did it require upfront?
Well, the picture on our current packaging is a great example of how long it took to get Tilty off the ground. The little girl in the photo is Kiley, my now 7 [year old] and she was 2 at the time of the picture. It took us about 1 year of just development then another year of sorting out the little kinks and issues and developing a way to launch it. We have funded the cup on our own with a little help from family and have been fortunate enough that the money just seems to come along at the right time. It has been a huge commitment of our time and our resources, but it has been an amazing adventure too.
How did you work out the tilting design of the cup?
The tilt is the unique part of Tilty that makes it actually work better than a standard sippy cup. We knew what we wanted to achieve and drew up drawing and samples and made molds in our garage and then we took that to an engineer to create drawings to specifications that the factory could work with.
What are the advantages of having no valves in a sippy cup?
There are several advantages to having no valve – it is much easier to clean and there are less parts to worry about, the American Dental Association (ADA) also recommends no valved cups for proper dental development, and we also noticed that babies tend to use valved cups like chew toys because they don’t get the immediate gratification of the liquid coming out of the spout.
What did you weigh in when working out the pricing model for the Tilty Cup?
We considered what we would buy it for, we wanted it to be affordable, yet competitive, and we wanted parents to be willing to give it a try. We also considered our production costs and what retailers would need to be able to purchase it for.
Who do you consider your competition and what differentiates Tilty from them?
Our competitors are the other major manufactures of sippy cups, like Playtex, Gerber, and now Boon and Nuby. Tilty is unique because of the internal angle that makes learning to drink so much easier.
What is the patent process like and where are you at now?
The patent process is really difficult. We started the process ourselves and then had to hire a large DC based legal firm to help us navigate the process. We are still patent-pending which for now is a good place to be and we are working towards securing the final patent.
You offer many varieties of Tilty cups and lids. Anything new in the works?
We do have a new product that we are almost ready to release. We just filed the patent on it. It is amazing and will most likely be the next step in the Tilty drinking process. It’s unlike anything else that’s already out on the market.
What are some of the awards you’ve received for the Tilty cup and how did they help?
We received the iParenting media award, when we first launched Tilty and we recently recived the Huggies MomInspired award.
What effect has starting your own business had on your kids and on your family overall?
It has been really good for our family. We take our kids with us on all of our business trips (except Hong Kong) so they have gotten to do a lot of traveling. They also are getting a feel for how business is done and where things come from. Our little girl is always drawing drawings for prototypes. It also has given us some flexibility to do things that we wouldn’t do if we didn’t own our own business. It is also stressful at times when we have to stay up late into the night to get everything done.
Do you have a set schedule or a flexible one? How do you decide when to work?
I have a flexible schedule, but try to get most of my work done in the mornings and then in the evenings after the kids have gone to bed.
Did you enlist any help?
My husband is my business partner and we make a great team. We have hired temp help from time to time and our friends have helped us many times unload containers and put large orders together.
How do you measure the success of your business?
We measure success based on how many parents say they love the Tilty, how many cups have been sold, and how well it checks at our retailers.
What are some of your biggest lessons learned from starting this business?
To never give up on what you believe in and how many wonderful supportive people there are in the world.
If I asked your kids, what kind of mom you are, what would they say?
Wow, I don’t know. I hope my daughter would say that I love them and that I’m fun. And my little boy is into superheros and would probably tell you that I’m spidermom hahah.
Learn more about Allyson Phillips and Tilty Cup at tiltycup.com.
