Growing up with Vancouver’s Puj

Company: Puj (pronounced: “Pudge”) specializes in well-designed baby products for the bathroom and kitchen.

Where: 301 W. 11th St., Vancouver.

Owners: Ben and Katie Richardson.

Employees: 11.

Web: puj.com

Vancouver entrepreneurs Ben and Katie Richardson met at Brigham Young University’s industrial design program, where both graduated in 2002, and from early in their courtship they knew they wanted a life infused with the same thoughtfulness that goes into designing a well-made product.

Before they married, they agreed Katie would stay home when they had kids and Ben would work outside the home. And when they designed their debut product together, the Puj Tub, a stylish soft-foam infant bath, they also developed a business plan infused with their values as members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. The family would live simply to self-fund their startup, so they would not have to seek outside money to pursue their dreams.

Today, Puj looks like a fast-growing success story with a funny name — it’s pronounced “pudge.” But this business, with a new Vancouver warehouse, strong sales, and more products coming out soon, is guided by values that go beyond profit margins, Katie Richardson says of the company she and her husband co-founded a little more than six years ago.

“Simplicity, family, independence — those are our values,” she says.

Scraping by for a dream

The family had moved to Vancouver — where Ben grew up — after they both finished college.

“I love Vancouver because you feel like you’re out of the city,” Katie says. “It’s a great place to grow a family, with great schools. We both like road riding bicycles, and there are lots of great routes from our home in east Vancouver.”

They were also aware of tax benefits as they developed their fledgling business, she says.

Katie Richardson first appeared in The Columbian in 2008, when she was profiled for running a home-based business that sold baby carrier slings at retailers around the area. Looking back on that early interview, she laughs. The sling did not generate big profits, but it gave her an opportunity to meet retailers and develop a professional network, she says.

“While I sold the sling, we were secretly developing and funding the patented design for the Puj Tub,” she says. “For those two years, we poured everything we had into the tub. We were living off very little income. We have food storage, so we were eating rice and beans and canned peaches from storage. That was pretty much our steady diet. Our kids were young, they didn’t know (any) different, so it was normal for them. We decided to go all-in with the tub.”

Finally, in 2009, the Puj Tub was ready to make its debut: soft-sided, made of medical-grade material, the $45 tub is designed to fit in most kitchen and bathroom sinks, and to allow parents to safely bathe their infants. As mother Jett Jones wrote on her WordPress-hosted baby products review blog after testing the tub, it solved several problems that parents may face, making it easy for one person to bathe an infant and limiting splashes.

“It worked better than I could have imagined,” Jones said. “You won’t find anything else out there that gets the job done so well.”

Convinced they had a winning product, the Richardsons purchased a booth at a children’s products expo in Las Vegas in 2009.

“In the days leading up to the expo, I was doubting myself,” Katie Richardson says. “But everybody who walked into the booth placed an order. The minimum was for 25 tubs. That helped Puj explode. The first year, we went from zero to $1 million in sales.”

Life-business balance

Their success made for a busy life. “For the first two years, it was just about the tub,” Katie Richardson says. “You can imagine how overwhelming it was — two designers who are also parents, who sold a million dollars’ worth of their idea.”

She still wanted to be an at-home mom and worked to craft a schedule that would let her continue to design for Puj, while putting her children first.

The Richardsons’ sons are 10, 8 and 6 years old, and their daughter is 19 months.

Though Ben and Katie both own the company, Ben took charge as CEO.

“I love industrial design, but I’m passionate about being a mom,” Katie says. “I do interact with the team, but he’s the one who goes into the office every day to lead.”

Still, she was there every step of the way as Puj grew beyond its initial tub. First, the company introduced a travel-version of the tub. Then it expanded to offer an array of other bath-related products, such as towels and a faucet cover for children big enough to use the full-sized bathtub. Later, as the Richardsons’ own tub began to appear in Target stores and children’s boutiques, the company started selling other businesses’ “Puj-approved” products on its website.

The company does not disclose current revenue, but Katie Richardson says sales have grown between 10 percent and 30 percent each year since 2009. And improvements to the manufacturing process have boosted profit margins along the way.

Evolving business

This year, Puj is preparing for two more evolutions. The business is expanding beyond bath products with the help of a Kickstarter campaign, and it’s preparing to open a downtown Vancouver showroom.

The new product, the PhillUp, is a children’s cup that can hang from a hook on the fridge. To fund production of the product, Puj sought $30,000 on Kickstarter back in January. The company beat that goal in a day and a half, and ultimately raised more than $56,000. Currently in production, PhillUp cups can be preordered for $8 online.

“We built out our story in the bathroom, and now we are moving into the heart of the home, the kitchen,” Katie Richardson says, hinting that more kitchen-related products are in development.

Though Puj largely sells through third-party retailers and online — including through Amazon.com — Clark County residents will soon have an opportunity to get a hands-on look at the company’s lineup. The business is building a showroom inside its 20,000-square-foot warehouse, at 301 W. 11th St., Vancouver, scheduled to open later this year.

“It will offer a retail shop and a community space where we can have things like birthing and community classes,” Richardson says. “We like the sense of community we’ve found in Vancouver, and we want to stay a part of that.”