MESA, AZ — A Mesa couple found a solution for nursing in hot Arizona summers and now, the idea is making it big.
Jacqueline and Jeremy Samuelson started the company Lady Alpha after Jaqueline struggled to get comfortable while breastfeeding in the summer heat.
“It was challenging for me to hold a baby and hold a fan and hold a cover-up away from her face,” Jacqueline said. “It kind of just gave me this idea that I thought that if I could use it, so could 1,000 other moms.”
A thousand mothers did find it useful, launching the business into early success.
“Me, with my husband, with the help of my entire family, have been able to build a company literally from the garage of our home,” Jacqueline said.
Selling out orders fast, they took the idea to ABC’s Shark Tank, where they struck a deal for $100,000 in exchange for 10% with Barbara Corcoran.
“I wanted her initially, I feel like a lot of the things that she’s been through in her life I’ve been through,” Jacqueline said.
Jacqueline is a self-taught businesswoman and first-generation American who has held multiple jobs, including being a stay-at-home mother and house cleaner with her mom.
“If I, the daughter of an immigrant, single mother with no college education can go from cleaning houses, scrubbing toilets to building a successful business and being on Shark Tank, they can do it too,” Jacqueline said.
Jacqueline said the business has surpassed 3,500 covers sold with thousands more on the way to meet demand.