Keelin O’Keefe, founder of KiKi Moon, talks about her startup journey, the bumps along the way and how her products are now getting noticed in America.
Keelin O’Keefe, already a mother of one, got quite a surprise when she found out she was expecting her second baby, due on the same month she had planned to launch her first business.
“I had put so much work into research, planning and design that I couldn’t just quit. I decided to go on and launch the company. I just had to make it work.”
O’Keefe says there is no “perfect time” to launch a company, and most of her new business had been built before its inception.
“I had a beautiful baby girl in March and in August of that year I launched the Kiki Moon online store.”
Kiki Moon is a platform that sells organic baby blankets in vibrant, fresh colours.
“I had a strong vision of what I wanted to design, make and sell,” says O’Keefe. “That’s the most important thing, getting the products right. After that, it’s sheer hard work, organisation and determination.”
Quality of life
O’Keefe manufactures the Kiki Moon blankets in Portugal. “Everyone said I should go to the Far East to make the blankets, but that just wouldn’t work for me. I have two small children. I need to be able to hop on a plane and meet my suppliers within a few hours. I didn’t launch my business to detract from my quality of life. I want it to enhance my life and travelling all over the world won’t do that.”
Setting up the online store wasn’t the hardest part of O’Keefe’s startup journey. “I had to learn very quickly that social media, especially Facebook and Instagram, would play a huge part in our marketing strategy,” she says.
“Setting up the online store wasn’t too difficult because we had
