aden + anais

“We had full containers of product that, when they arrived in the US, like, the fabric had turned yellow.”

“That particular design Had been on the market for eight years when the royal baby came out in it.”

“They bought the whole company. What I did was bought back in as a major shareholder in the company.”

“We closed 2009 at just over four million, so as soon as I focused on it, you know, a hundred percent, it changed the game, and then we more than doubled every year for the five years after that.”

“So three other people came into the business and bought 49% of the business for like 500,000 dollars.”

“And Target took all six. And rolled it out into all Target stores from day one.”

“I was Out the door, bar one booth, and they ended up becoming my manufacturer for 10 years.”

“Adam Sandler and his wife, who just had their baby, were photographed on Malibu Beach with their baby in a carrier with an Aiden and Anae blanket draped over the front of the baby, and it was a full-page picture in Us Weekly. So we had celebrity press from a w…”

“So you had the idea in 2003 when Anae was born, and it took to 2006 to actually work out how to make it and get it to market.”

“It might be good for the business to bring in somebody who has run a business of this size and has scaled from a hundred to 300, because I really believe that that's where this brand is going.”

“And it just got to the point where, you know, I got a demand of, you've got 30 days to come up with this to buy us out. If you can't do that, we have the right to pay you the same, and if we can't come to an agreement, we're going to dissolve it.”

“Our website crashed twice, we sold out of that around the world, people were coveting it to the point where they were paying three times the value of the, it was insane.”

“Three other people came into the business and bought 49% of the business for like 500,000 dollars.”

“And rolled it out into all Target stores from day one.”

“Now that we're over a hundred million dollars, it's just very different.”

“I think we'd borrowed a 100,000 off Claudia and Mark, and then we borrowed another 250,000 off Mark's Dad, and very long story short, it was more Mark, I think, that was just not comfortable with the fact that in his mind they were funding the business, and it…”

“Well, we started, we both started just putting 15,000 dollars in for our first inventory, and that we did the minimum.”

“They left the hospital in an Aidan and Danae blanket, which blew my mind having been raised in Australia, because that I would have bet every penny I had on the fact that was never going to happen, because there's royal protocol, and no royal baby has ever com…”

“We closed 2009 at just over four million, so as soon as I focused on it, you know, a hundred percent, it Change the game. And then we more than doubled every year for the five years after that.”

“I was out the door, bar one booth, and they ended up becoming my manufacturer for 10 years.”

“They bought the whole company. What I did was bought back in as a major shareholder in the company.”

“Well plain and simple, I got fired from my own business, which was pretty heartbreaking. The investors and I just didn't see eye to eye and They didn't think that I was capable of continuing to run the business, and it just became extremely cantankerous and un…”

“I took on my first private equity firm in 2010.”

“One week after we went on the market, and when I say went on the market, me walking the product to the stores and handing it to the store owners in LA, Adam Sandler and his wife, who just had their baby, were photographed on Malibu Beach with their baby in a c…”

“We had full containers of product that, when they arrived in the U.S., like, the fabric had turned yellow.”