Today I celebrate the 1st birthday of my second business MumPod® Company Limited. I cannot quite believe how far we have come in a year. MumPod® and I were shortlisted as finalists in the SME MK & Buckinghamshire Awards for Business Chameleon and Entrepreneur of the Year, Entrepreneur of the Year in the Women Leaders Awards and New Start Up in the Medilink Midlands Awards last month. I am feeling pretty proud of that roll call.
After the soft launch of the prototype in my home town of Milton Keynes I secured the sale of the first two pods and accessories for an NHS trust. Since then MumPod® has had an outstanding response at the CIPD and Health & Wellbeing Events. We are looking forward to year two with interest from many more NHS trusts, airports, universities and large corporate businesses. If you are due to returning to work after maternity leave, or travelling without baby and not relishing the thought of expressing your milk in a cupboard, toilet or in a shared room perhaps you will get to use a MumPod®. The pod offers a comfortable secure place to rest, express or breastfeeding so you can sit back, relax and let the oxytocin flow.
I would like to take this opportunity to thank my very own ‘Dragons’ who I prefer to call “The Angels” Sarah Thorne and Richard Naylor. It was early 2020 and I had spent month putting together an Innovate UK grant application for £150,000. As lockdown was about to hit in March Sarah and Richard met with me (virtually) to offer investment to make just one MumPod®. I had met Sarah many years before when she needed support as a first mum and she had never forgotten. Its funny how things can come full circle and now Sarah is supporting me in my new venture.
I have successfully raised grant match funding to develop a fully functioning prototype and for networking opportunities. So thanks go to Teresa Smith and Melanie Davidson at Medilink East Midlands for their patience and support in securing £1000’s in funding from the European Union European Regional Development Fund.
In May we will be holding the national launch of the first installation of a MumPod®, the first lactation pod in the United Kingdom. We won’t let you miss the celebrations we will share every moment across our social media, TV and the press.
If you would like to find out more about the MumPod® we would love to book a discovery call. Email rosmcfadden@mum-pod.com kateaspinall@mum-pod.com or info@mum-pod.com
