 Interview By Elyse Ball “Dream Big. I am 60-year-old inventor who sold and launched a product in the middle of a pandemic,” says Jamie Peltz, Founder and CEO of Dirty Laundry. Perseverance and positivity are major themes for Jamie, whose startup that takes the hassle out of laundry with its patented Forget Me Spot® stain pretreatment patch. Jamie recently shared her story with UARF's Elyse Ball, highlighting how she fought through setbacks before and during 2021 to launch her product in Meijer stores across the Midwest. Tell me a little bit about your background. Jamie: I’m a problem solver. After 17 years of working for a corporation, I found myself unemployed in 2007. I saw this as an opportunity to follow my dream to become an entrepreneur. It was a simple vision: I wanted to create a company where I could work with my friends doing the things we like to do. Over the years this foundation evolved to creating opportunities for people I know and people I continue to meet. Forget Me Spot is the second product to launch after successfully launching SureSwatch Temporary Paint Swatches to The Home Depot and Ace Hardware.  How did you get the idea for Forget Me Spot? Jamie: I was doing laundry, sorting my children’s clothing, looking for stains when I realized that the person doing the laundry was not the one who made the stains. It was the simple “AHA” moment most entrepreneurs have when I realized there needed to be a better way to treat stains. Everyone knows doing laundry can be a hassle. Especially when you have a stain on your clothing, and you don’t have time to throw it in the wash right away. Forget Me Spot Stain Patch Spot Remover takes the hassle out of stain removal with our patented pretreatment patch. Just leave it on the stain until your laundry day, the stain remover and film will dissolve in the wash. Now it is OK to put off laundry day. Photo From: https://forgetmespot.com/product/forget-me-spot/ How did you get to where you are on the path to market? Jamie: Perseverance! This has been a 10-year journey so as you can imagine many ups and downs. We had deals fall through, and manufacturing fails, but I continued to keep chipping away to get to the finish line. In December 2021, we launched the product in Meijer. How has UARF helped you on your entrepreneurial journey? Jamie: UARF has helped me immensely in bringing Forget Me Spot to market. I participated in was the I-Corps program at the beginning of 2021. I-Corp was focused on talking to your end user and asking question, understanding their motivation and needs. Through the I-Corp process we gained valuable insights on our end user. From there, I applied for the STRIDE Accelerator which was an intensive program that helped identify additional resources and opportunities for Forget Me Spot. So, I guess I have spent most of 2021 working with the UARF team! The staff is extremely knowledgeable about the entrepreneurial journey, helping you think through many aspects of launching a product. Tell me about a mistake you made that you’d like other entrepreneurs to learn from. Jamie: I like to look at mistakes as learnings. The one thing I caution others about is to think carefully about is partnerships and what is really required for the longevity of the product. I now break this into three parts: development, launch and ongoing growth. Each of these areas require the same amount of work, so don’t be too quick to give up equity early on to partners who will not have a role through the whole process.  What are you most proud of? Jamie: Launching Forget Me Spot. It was a coordination of multiple resources to make a product that was never made before. Every step of the way, there were obstacles that we had to find a way through. We sourced our raw materials and committed to buying a drum of each raw material when the supplier came back to us and wanted us to buy 4 drums of each material. Somehow 1 drum turned up at an alternative supplier. In order to make our shipping deadline, we did not have enough time to get a die made to cut the patches, so we cut 66,000 patches by hand. My view was, after 10 years of trying to launch this product, we were not going to let this stop us.  How did you approach Meijer and what was the process for getting your product into their stores? Jamie: There is a platform called Range Me, which connects retailers and manufacturers. Many retailers have diversity days which I always apply to. Forget Me Spot was chosen to present to the Meijer’s buyers. Currently, we are in retail stores in the Midwest and online as well. What do you want to achieve with Forget Me Spot this year? Jamie: Success with Meijer and rolling out the product to additional retailers, while building a consumer brand. Here is Jamie with a Forget Me Spot shipment ready to hit the stores!
Do you have anything you would like to add? Jamie: Dream Big. I am 60-year-old inventor who sold and launched a product in the middle of a pandemic. If you want something bad enough, you can always figure out a way to achieve it. Check out the Forget Me Spot product at: ForgetMeSpot.com.
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