A room full of executives told a female innovator the problem her idea would solve was too small to matter, a "women's issue" kind of niche, which in the '40s meant it wasn't worth their time or their money. She went around them entirely and built her first prototype in her kitchen, using a sewing machine and a shower curtain. Saks Fifth Avenue saw the vision and started carrying it in 1949.
Two years later, her company and patents sold for a million dollars, worth about $9 million today.
That woman was Marion Donovan and that company wasn't even a baby products company. It was a children's clothing manufacturer that saw exactly what those executives had dismissed.
She went on to hold twenty patents in her lifetime. The idea that changed infant care almost didn't survive its first pitch meeting.
"Too niche" to matter? Sometimes niche just means the right person hasn't been asked yet.
