Episode 70
052: The Perfect Partnership Formula with Carolyn Izzo and Laresa Tapia of Polyblox Totems
This is a really fun interview with Carolyn Izzo and Laresa Tapia, who are partners of the startup, Polyblox Totems, an educational toy for children to learn to spell and read faster. This was also my first interview with two partners at once and it was fantastic. Some highlights:
- Carolyn met her husband at work after he took Laresa’s entrepreneurship class
- How Carolyn and Laresa came together through a shared garage sale
- Taking a love to monetize passion and turn into a business
- The importance of doing research and studying the competition
- Competition is great - it’s healthy!
- You can have the greatest product in the world, but if you don’t have a good way to get the product out to customers, it is worthless
- Started with going to trade shows and conferences
- Getting into distributors and scaling sales online
- How Laresa used LinkedIn to get in front of retailers and distributors
- How to approach partnerships - treat them like a marriage
- “Carolyn is the perfect counterbalance to my crazy”
- You have to have grace. Prioritize and let the rest go
Links:
If you are interested in coaching or have feedback or questions on the podcast, feel free to send me an email: andy@andystorch.com
