The Product I Needed Didn't Exist. So I Made It.
By Katie Holter | Founder & CEO of August & Ivy™
I was sitting in a doctor's office with my newborn and two toddlers running circles around me, trying to breastfeed in a waiting room chair. Struggling to hold my screaming newborn, get her latched, keep her comfortable, all while two very wiggly kids had zero interest in listening to me.
That was over two years ago and I still remember exactly how it felt. This wave of inadequacy washing over me as I broke into a sweat. This little voice saying, why can't you just figure this out? What is wrong with you?
But then something shifted. I looked around and realized I wasn't failing. I just didn't have the right tools. The product I needed hadn't been invented yet. I had almost believed it was me simply failing as a mom.
At home, feeding my baby was comfortable. I had my nursing pillow, my routine, everything right where it needed to be. The second I walked out the door, all of that disappeared. My daughter didn't care that we were in a restaurant or an airport or a crowded waiting room. She was hungry. And I felt powerless every single time.
While I was sitting in that doctor's office, I looked down at the one thing every mom carries everywhere and thought, what if I could make this more useful?
That question became August & Ivy. And the answer became the IvyGo™.
Diaper bags haven't really changed in decades. The newest version touts bigger pockets and different fabrics, but at the end of the day it's still just a bag. I wanted to completely reimagine what it could do at its very core.
The IvyGo is a patented diaper bag with a retractable nursing cover for feeding on the go, comfortably and privately. It attaches to a stroller when hands are full, and when flipped on its side it becomes a stable surface that supports a mom while she feeds, recreating the comfort of home wherever life takes her. It is structured with thoughtful compartments so everything has a place. No more digging at the bottom of a bag. It's the first diaper bag designed to truly do more than just carry things.
Before I created the IvyGo, the fear of not knowing how I would feed my baby in public shrank my world and amplified my postpartum depression. When moms tell us the IvyGo gives them more confidence to leave the house, it means everything.
We have been featured on CBS and named Most Innovative Diaper Bag of the Year. My goal has always been simple. I want to help moms make their daily routines a little easier. And the moment that matters most is when a mom picks up the IvyGo for the first time, sees what it does, and says, I needed this. That is why I built it.
Connect With Katie
Instagram: august_and_ivy
Tiktok: august_and_ivy_co
Comments