As reported by the Buffalo News, former mental health counselor Reginald Douglas was considering giving up gardening due to scoliosis and a bad back. After sketching an apparatus to make gardening easier, he created a prototype garden cart.
The first version needed some work, but once Douglas met Merry Constantino, founder of consumer product company ProductLogic LLC, the two worked together to perfect it. Now in its third iteration, the Big Daddy Garden Caddy allows people with back issues to sit while gardening, and has a slew of tools built within the cart to make gardening easier.
It took a "leap of faith for Douglas to get to this point." Following his patent acceptance and second prototype, he sat on the idea of months. When an opportunity came up with the University at Buffalo to participate in its Cultivator program, Constantino agreed to take part with Douglas.
Through Cultivator, Douglas and Constantino gained mentorship, as well as help with customer discovery and product development. UB also provided Big Daddy Garden Company "with $100,000 in pre-seed funding, money critical to a growing startup. Besides some funding from family, it was the first significant money ingested into the company."
With this help, Big Daddy Garden Company's patented garden caddy hit the market in February. By April, the caddy was sold out. Now the company is tweaking its product before continuing sales, considering additional help and fundraising. Douglas has plans to introduce new products and look to retail opportunities.
Read the full story here.