Baby Proof An upstart maker of glass baby bottles gets the attention of green-friendly VCs.

Pam Marcus used to feed tiny babies--really tiny babies. The former feeding specialist and pediatric physical therapist spent 16 years working in neonatal intensive care units, and the plastic bottles the hospitals used bothered her.

"I started reading some articles about the dangers of plastics and felt there was too much disposable plastic in the hospitals," she says.

So in 2005, Marcus contacted architect and designer Daren Joy, who had remodeled her home near Berkeley, Calif., a few years earlier. The two agreed it was possible to improve on plastic baby bottles with a well-designed, environmentally friendly option. Joy designed a glass bottle in a silicone sleeve, free of toxins such as Bisphenol A (BPA), phthalates, polyvinyl chloride (PVC) and polycarbonates. In 2007, the two launched Lifefactoryin Sausalito, Calif., with $750,000 from family, friends and a "small investment" by Greenhouse Capital Partners of Sausalito to manufacture and market the bottles, as well as to develop new products.