How old were you when you started and where did your idea come from?
We were 11 years old when our journey started. We were forever switching between pencils and highlighters when annotating textbooks. One day we came up with a simple hack to combine them, by taping a highlighter to a pencil. Soon we noticed our friends started doing the same thing. When we showed our parents, they went to get us a real product that would do the same thing. But they quickly found that none existed. So we decided to design one ourselves. The Annotator was born.
What was the biggest mistake you made and what did you learn from it?
One of our challenges was refining the prototype, as we had to do it 10 times to get it right. Also, the pandemic made it very difficult to manufacture/get products made. We were just patient till we got it right and didn't give up, even if that meant that our new metallic line launched 1 year late.
What are your future plans for the business?
We would love more students and retailers to carry our products. We also hope to launch 1 new, unique product each year to help students. This year, we launched: The Study Candle.
Any advice for other girls starting a business?
Make sure you think about your product from the customer's perspective. Meaning, how will your product help customers? How will they use it? What role will it play in their life? How will it be different and improve their lives?
