Here are the answers to the most common questions people ask us. If you have a burning question I didn’t answer about Gigglicious, feel free to ask it here or on our Facebook page. (@anniegigglicious)
How do you keep people from stealing your ideas?
A Mutual Non-Disclosure Agreement (NDA). It it an agreement stating that both parties agree to keep ideas confidential.
Is an NDA fail-proof?
No, but it is a measure of protection that most people honor. It’s an easy equation: Inventor-friendly companies want inventors to show them ideas. If they steal an idea, no one will present to them anymore. In our experience, the inventor community will gladly share a story with each other about a company that is difficult to work with or dishonest. Ultimately, we take the risk to reap the rewards of working with good people and getting our products on store shelves for people to enjoy.
Have you had an idea stolen?
Yes. We saw one of our products on a vendor’s wall at New York Toy Fair. We’d presented the idea to them the year before. That was a stomach sinking moment. Needless to say, we don’t show to that company anymore and won’t recommend them to other inventors.
Did you sue the people that stole your idea?
No. The amount of money it would cost to take it to litigation would probably not have equaled the amount of royalties we might have gotten from the item.
Do you manufacture the ideas you come up with?
No, we sell the idea/concept and someone else manufactures it and sells it. We get a percentage of what they sell. Generally, royalty reports come quarterly. (Yes, we only get paid four times a year.)
Don’t you ever want to make your own ideas?
Yes, we think about it. In fact, we tried once. It was time consuming and didn’t make us any money. There is liability, risk, and much more time and effort to sell your own stuff. We would need a staff of people to help run the company in sales, distribution, warehousing, customer service, etc. Right now, we are streamlined and efficient with just two people to run Gigglicious and plenty of freelancers. Maybe someday we may try again, but not now.
Do you have an office?
Yes, Gigglicious World Headquarters is in a 199 sq.ft. building we built together in our backyard a couple of years ago. The studio space is complete with office space, a workshop for building prototypes, and storage.
How many ideas do you come up with in a year?
We’ve never kept track, but my guess is several hundred in all types of categories.
How do you come up with your ideas?
This is a good time for you to check out the archive (over to your upper left) for April, May, and June 2014. I wrote a particularly riveting seven part series about toy invention and the first three blogs cover ideating that you may want to binge-read.
How do you work together full-time and stay married?
It’s pretty easy now that we’ve been working together for so long. Sure, some days are harder than others, but we are a team. We go out to lunch a lot for meetings. Ryan’s a pretty patient co-worker. I once fell asleep in his office during one of our meetings because the chair I was sitting in was in a cozy patch of sunshine. He let me nap. (*This is an upside to owning your own company. I wouldn’t advise doing this with most bosses) We know we are better together both professionally and personally and that we are lucky to get to do what we do!