We love it when women launch their new businesses and introduce themselves as a “Startup Princess”, requesting to be considered for a featured on our site and participate as a member of our “Kingdom.” We also love it when they introduce themselves and tell us they are planning a business too!!
Today we’re featuring Startup Princess Jennic Law and her newly launched toy shopping site, KangarooBoo. “Tiaras off” to Jennic and her talented husband, Justin who self-funded their 2 week-old company 100% and designed their creative store from scratch (used Ruby on Rails) just in time for the holiday season.
Amazing facts about Jennic: She came to America at age 12 and learned English, she’s a mother of two little ones, a Hodgkins cancer survivor (diagnosed at 24), former engineer turned internet business owner and now she’s also a philanthropist– giving a percent of ALL sales ALL the time to charities, including ones that help cancer patients.
Here’s some great things about her site, (1) very unique product offering, (there’s a lot of toy sites already to compete with on the web, but with a strong name and carefully selected high-quality brands and products-check out the wonderful mobiles! I’m convinced she’ll do fine if her SEO and internet marketing effort is aggressive) (2) clean design, easy navigation, fresh and appealing color palette (3) It’s a business that will involve her family…her husband is already committed and her kids, well–they’re likely loving the opportunities to be “testers”, I hope they can help her select the product offering as they get older (now they can point to the toys they like in catalogs, I’m sure!) and attend the NYC Toy Fair with her someday.
Quick Magic Wand Tips: I’d put a family photo on their About Us page. Moms like knowing they are buying from moms! You might even put one on your homepage? And here’s a million dollar new tagline, “From Our Pouch to Yours…” clever, huh? 
Also I suggest “we support the following charities” with their logos on the homepage somewhere, at the bottom? I’d also like to see a Kangaroo illustration…it’s such a cute name, ‘jump’ with it!
Enjoy meeting Startup Princess, Jennic Law!
Hometown: Davenport, Iowa
Current Residence (City, State): West Des Moines, Iowa
Education: Bachelor of Science in Chemical Engineering
Professional Background (brief, please): I worked as a Process Engineer in a semiconductor company immediately after college graduation. I was there for almost 5 years when a mass layoff occurred. I took the opportunity and stayed home with our then 1.5 years old son as I was a few months pregnant with our daughter already.
What you wanted to be when you grew up: I wanted to be a mom with a big family, just like my mother and my grandmother’s families. I aspired to be an architect professionally because I love beautiful and practical things.
What you are: A mom to two kids (and possibly more in the future!). An entrepreneur. A cancer survivor and advocate.
Brief Summary of your start up:
We are an online store that offers unique, quality wooden toys, handmade and handcrafted toys and smart children’s products. We enhance the shopping experience by giving the customers tools to connect and communicate with other parents. KangarooBoo also donates a percentage of all sales to children related charities (the customers make the final decision on which charity the money goes to, choosing from a pre-approved list).
Company Website? www.KangarooBoo.com
What inspired you? My husband and our two children.
How long have you been in business? The website launched mid October this year. We are less than 2 weeks old!
How did you fund it? We sold our house and moved to a smaller metro area (in another state!) with equally good public schools.
Do you have a Fairy Godmother (or Mentor)? No. I’d love to have one (or a few!)
Do you belong to any Business Organization or Networking Groups? Not yet.
Current Business Challenge? There’s not enough time in the day to get everything accomplished.
What are you doing about it? Prioritizing. We figure out what we want to accomplish each week, and list them on a board. Then each day I write down what I need to get done for the day and I try to focus on that.
Favorite motivational quote:
Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn’t do than by the ones you did. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover.
-Mark Twain
Family? Husband, and two children (4-yr-old son and 2-yr-old daughter)
If so, how do you balance family and business? Keeping a healthy balance between work and family life is never easy. It is especially challenging because we are husband/wife as well as business partners. We take one day off every week where we don’t discuss any work-related issues at all. It is solely a Family Day.
Favorite book? I’m one of those people who aren’t able to put a book down until I get to the last page all in one sitting, which is absolutely impractical for a mommy. So I don’t read books very often. I do have strong feelings for a book that I own called “There Is No Place Like Hope” by Vickie Girard. It literally kept me sane during my cancer treatments and beyond.
What do you do to relax?I like to be alone when I need to wind down. Take a bath, surf/read or go window shopping!
What do you want to change most about your world? There are many things I would change about the world. However in my own world, although there’s always going to be things to improve upon, overall, I’m very happy. If I can find more hours in the day to get some sleep in, that would be a wonderful bonus!
What are you most proud of? Too many to list and so hard to pick just one! I am a cancer survivor in my 6th year of remission, I am very proud and thankful. I am very proud of my two children who are truly miracles born after I had all the toxic treatments and therapy. I’m equally proud to have adapted to this culture/country so well. My family immigrated here to reunite with my grandparents when I was 12 years old. I didn’t know any English and had to start with ABC’s.
What advice would you like to offer other Startup Princesses? You have to believe in what you do and be passionate about it, with that you will have the strength and faith needed to overcome obstacles along the way.
Favorite Magic Wand (tool/resource)? My Mac!!!
If you could design a tiara, what precious stones would you use? I’d make it with diamonds and pearls.
I checked out the site and it is wonderful. It fills a niche that has been empty since the brick and mortar store Zany Brainy closed.
Thanks for all the great magic wand tips Kelly. I’d love to hear what suggestions or comments others have as well!
I’m adding new inventory daily. And Justin is adding new features and tools for the website and for users quite frequently.
Come see our great toy selection and product offerings. High quality, lacquered, and or handmade, all the products have been chosen by me. As a parent myself, I only select and offer products to you that I feel are safe for my own children to play with and have.
I am very impressed with the site. I could tell it offers high quality products just by looking at it. I made my first purchase a couple weeks ago and am very happy with what I bought.
Congratulations Jenn and Justin. I am so proud of what the two of you have accomplished together. The toys are wonderful and the site is clean and easy to browse. I’m sending the site to everyone I know with young children. I met Jenn through a cancer support group online while she battled hodgkins. I knew she had the true spirit of a survivor and she proves that by living her life to its fullest potential. Reach for your dreams Jenn! You have the winning attitude and the wonderful support from your partner and husband and partner Justin to do it. I look forward to each and every success you share together as a family.
There is great stuff on the website. Nice website design. Easy to navigate. Great job Jennic and Justin.