Sales are starting to gain traction for a breathable mattress for infants that a Detroit-based company is marketing to help prevent Sudden Infant Death Syndrome.
Secure Beginnings, which calls Detroit's east riverfront district home, makes a baby mattress that is more like a trampoline than a normal mattress. It is made of a porous frame and bedding material that allows greater air circulation for both infants and toddlers. It contains no fiber-fill. The fabric the child sleeps on enables airflow to prevent harmful levels of carbon dioxide from building up near a baby’s head, even if the child is on its stomach.
"It's basically the same type of fabric you see on tennis shoes," says Julie Andreae, executive vice president of Secure Beginnings.
Andreae is one of the three co-founders who all had family or friends go through the traumatic experience of losing a child to SIDS.
"One is an industrial designer for Ford," Andreae says. "He basically designed it for his own children. We decided to redesign and make it more user-friendly."
Secure Beginnings now has three product lines, two of which were launched over the last year. The expansion has allowed annual sales to grow to $500,000. The company also expanded its core team to six people after adding two more employees. It is looking to hire two people now and add interns in January. The newly expanded team -- along with some new investors -- is aiming to help the company gain even more market traction in 2015.
"We hope to increase sales a lot more this year," Andreae says.
Source: Julie Andreae, executive vice president of Secure Beginnings
Writer: Jon Zemke
Read more about Metro Detroit's growing entrepreneurial ecosystem at SEMichiganStartup.com.
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