CoCaLo Inc.
Company description: Infant bedding manufacturer
Founder: Renee Pepys Lowe, 38
Year started: 1998
Location: Costa Mesa, California
2003 sales projections: $10 million
If a company as big as OshKosh B'Gosh offers you their
license, you have only one option: Take it. Fortunately for Renee
Pepys Lowe, whose sales and marketing skills had contributed to
much of the success of her mother's infant bedding business,
entrepreneurship was already in the blood when OshKosh B'Gosh
called in August 1998. Knowing that Pepys Lowe's mom was
selling her business, which left her daughter (by then well-known
in the industry) open to new possibilities, OshKosh B'Gosh left
this voice-mail message for her: "We hear you're starting
your own company. Are you interested in the OshKosh
license?"
"I didn't know I was starting my own company,"
Pepys Lowe says half-jokingly from behind an understated desk at
CoCaLo Inc., her $5.3 million Costa Mesa, California, manufacturer
and distributor of children's bedding and accessories.
Nonetheless, it didn't take long for Pepys Lowe to get cozy
with the idea. In January 1999, she started selling a
CoCaLo-designed line of OshKosh B'Gosh products in Babies
"R" Us; Burlington Coat Factory; Buy, Buy Baby; and small
specialty stores nationwide.
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Word of the successful OshKosh B'Gosh placements spread to
the makers of Baby Martex and Eurobaby (which CoCaLo no longer
sells), and soon Pepys Lowe and her team were cranking out designs
for the three brands. The acquisition of infant bedding company
Kimberly Grant & Co. in 2002-combined with placements of
Expectations, an exclusive line in Target stores created by Baby
Martex, and the introduction of a CoCaLo line-have left Pepys Lowe
confident that the 18-employee company will bring in $10 million
this year.
And though she gets calls "every day" from potential
licensors, as with everything Pepys Lowe does, it's about
quality, not quantity: "When I do something, I do it the best
I can." -K.E.S.
Success
Stories
Entrepreneur: What did you learn going from being an
employee to being the boss?
Renee Pepys-Lowe: I always had my mother to lean on [while
working for her]-that was a big change. A lot of people say it was
the best thing that ever happened to me. At the end of every day, I
guess the scariest part for me is that I'm responsible for
every single person here, [along with] finances, loans... You
really have to take a lot of risks. Like when I got these phone
calls [from licensors]-I did a lot of soul-searching, and I
thought, "Let's just go for it."
Entrepreneur: Will you ever reach a point when
you'll want to stop growing?
Pepys-Lowe: I want to have a five-year plan. I don't
want to feel like I'm going to pass this on to my
children-that's too far down the road. Last year when the
Target opportunity came about, I thought, "This is the perfect
segue [to the] next step for us." My philosophy is, if I wake
up every single morning and I want to go to work, then I'm
going to keep doing it. If I get to the point where I'm feeling
burnt out, then I'll need to really look at what I'm
doing.
Jenzabar Inc.
Company description: Web-based software products and
services for colleges
Founder: Ling Chai, 37
Year started: 1998
Location: Cambridge, Massachusetts
2002 sales: $50 million
Ling Chai has no qualms about going against the flow. Take, for
example, her leadership role in the Tiananmen Square democracy
movement, which landed her on the Chinese government's most
wanted list; or perhaps her escape from China to freedom, hidden
inside a cargo crate; or her two Nobel Peace Prize nominations.
All things considered, you might find it surprising that Chai
got her entrepreneurial inspiration as an MBA student at Harvard.
After listening to Chai, it's apparent that her spirit and
resolve are not so much learned as they are core elements of her
very being.
This drive has enabled her to conquer both the political and
entrepreneurial fronts with remarkable results. Chai attended
Beijing University for her undergraduate degree and Princeton for
her master's degree, but it was being a guinea pig of the
e-learning system at Harvard Business School that sparked her
entrepreneurial flame. "It transformed my educational
experience," says Chai. "I became convinced that every
student in the world deserved to have this e-learning
environment."
Wanting to provide Web-based software products and services for
colleges, Chai founded Jenzabar-loosely meaning "the best and
brightest" in Chinese-in 1998, entering an already competitive
marketplace. Now, five years later, the Cambridge,
Massachusetts-based venture has weathered the dotcom storm,
watching numerous contenders fall by the wayside.
Jenzabar's products and services are used in one out of five
universities in the United States, with some penetration of the
international market. Despite 2002 sales of $50 million, Jenzabar
is not all about the money, Chai says. "Every day, we're
supporting millions of students, faculty and administrators on
campuses to connect and improve their productivity, learning
experiences and communication with each other," she says.
"That gives us a great deal of satisfaction; that's what
brings us back to work."
The rigors of running a successful company have not weakened
Chai's political endeavors, however. Says Chai, "I hope by
further learning leadership skills, I can someday contribute to
rebuilding China." -April Y. Pennington
Success
Secrets
Entrepreneur: How did you go from being a political
activist to becoming an entrepreneur? And are there any
similarities?
Ling Chai: I have never changed. I was writing a business
plan in China before the Revolution broke out. I was dreaming of
starting the biggest child education center in China. I came over
to this country to get an education at a teachers' college and
go back. China's democracy movement disrupted our life and our
plans; it was calling for us to do something for us for the
country. The calling changed my life for ten years. Once I was able
to escape China and come to this country, I was fortunate to be
able to fulfill my duty for the democracy movement and get
education and live my dream of entrepreneurship through
Jenzabar.
Entrepreneur: You fled China in a crate through
Hong Kong and France and ended up in Harvard Business School? Tell
me about that experience. What was your goal at that point?
Chai: My hiding was 10 months, a horrendous journey, and the
last hundred five hours was in a cargo crate, with a cold piece of
bread and a bottle of water. Our goal was to live. It was five days
and four nights, and finally I came to America, the land of
freedom, and started to rebuild a life here-going to school, having
job experiences, and eventually landed in Harvard Business School.
After that I started Jenzabar.
A lot of people dream to live the true American dream. Sometimes
Americans don't appreciate that. But it's such a true
inspiration for people around the world to be able to come to
America and live in a democratic system with free entrepreneurship.
I'm fortunate to live in this dream. In many ways,
Jenzabar's success today had a lot to do with that
inspiration.
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