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128 Birch Street
Boston, MA, 02131
United States

(617) 390-4076

Invent Boston designs and develops original products to add science + whimsy to  every day tasks at home.   Our first product is a Two Minute timer, Two Minute Turtle, a visual timer. The Two Minute Turtle helps children and adults focus on two minute tasks such as brushing teeth, physical therapy, taking a shower and speaking (practicing a presentation or learning a language).

2019 Invent Boston Annual Report

Invent Boston™, Home of the Two Minute Turtle Timer™

Invent Boston™ blog offers tips and stories by parents, for parents of children ages 4-12 to make toothbrushing and other healthy habits at home, more fun. We write about simple tactics to help kids do what they like to do-touch, seeing, play games and strive for independence. We recommend products to help stay healthy while being kids. We share stories to transform daily healthy habits from something kids resist (for example, toothbrushing, handwashing, toilet training, organizing, taking time-out or pausing, yoga, and taking turns) into something children are motivated to do independently, without parents’ reminders. The original physical product Invent Boston has designed for families is the new light-up Two Minute Turtle Timer, an analog, interval toothbrush timer to make brushing teeth fun for kids. Kids like to press the button, follow the flippers and brush until all the lights blink—the Victory Lap signals to brush the tongue.

2019 Invent Boston Annual Report

Virginia Berman

Dear Friends of Invent Boston,

Invent Boston is growing like a turtle, slow and steady. 2019 was the year we decided to scale up. Sales of the Two Minute Turtle Timer shifted from wholesale to direct to consumer. We sold to 12 wholesale customers including gift shops, natural foods, toy and pharmacy from Jan - May. We began testing sales to Amazon in May. We sold directly to about 180 consumers over the year, online and at events: The single biggest distribution (21% of units) was Amazon. We sold a total of 370 units. Sincerely, Virginia Berman Executive Director, Invent Boston 2 Invent Boston

Sales

Two Minute Turtle, Kids 2 Minute Toothbrushing Timer

Sales Channels--

1. Online : Etsy, Inventboston.com, Amazon

2. Retail shops: The top store was Birch Street House and Garden gift shop. Reasons? Location in the store-at check-out. Relationship of owner to her customers. Other shops include: Magpie Kids, Cambridge Natural Foods, Acton Pharmacy, Eureka Toys, One Eyed Turtle, Sanibel Gift Shop, Curious George Store, Pemberton Market, Black Ink Cambridge, Black Ink Beacon Hill.

3. In-person Events: Event sales included Roslindale Farmers Market, Boston Public Schools Special Education Resource Fair, Mass Challenge Receptions, Old South Church holiday fair, Jamaica Plain Spring Fest 2019 was a year of learning and building systems

Total Revenue: $3950 (20% of units, 38% revenue from Amazon)

Invent Boston Marketing Trends

● Invent Boston was a finalist in 2 start-up programs: Mass Challenge and E for All, accelerator programs. We had to choose one, so we selected the larger accelerator, Mass Challenge, June-Nov 2019.

● Monthly email list grew 70% to 320 emails Online Customer Reviews-5 stars.

● Partnerships: Boston University Dental School asked to develop a test of the Two Minute Turtle Timer with pediatric patients. Delayed due to Covid19. Tested product at Spaulding rehab center.

● Bi-weekly Blog www.inventboston.com topics; series on oral health, healthy kids, healthy habits, new product development.

● Had 2 promotional videos produced (free of charge) thanks to Mass Challenge, now on www.inventboston.com Invent Boston Annual Report 2019 3

● Social Media: We expanded social media following and added social media channels. Facebook has been the social media that has the most interaction for us. Invent Boston Facebook grew by 40% to 140 followers

● Enthusiastic customer reviews-5 stars. No returns. Seeing more repeat buyers. Etsy Customer Review Carol, May 2019: “It sounds a bit silly to "love" a timer, but this one does exactly what I wanted and that was hard to find. It is excellent as a timer for a game in which each turn is at most 2 minutes. If a player finishes before the 2 minutes is up, it is easy to stop the timer and immediately re-start it at 2 minutes for the next player.There are no delays waiting for the timer to finish the full 2 minutes or waiting while the timer is reset to 2 minutes maximum.” Customer Review by Emma on Amazon, Dec 2019

We had so much stress over teeth-brushing with our 8 year old. He hated brushing his teeth and wouldn’t do a good job of it himself. If we helped him we all ended up stressed out. We tried using a regular kitchen timer, or my phone timer but both had their drawbacks. He might keep the brush in his mouth for 2 mins but he might neglect to brush all the areas of his mouth. My phone was a big distraction as he just fiddled with all the alarm sounds. I searched Amazon for a tooth brushing timer and found a lot of 2-min timers but most had nothing that would help remind him to switch to a different area of his mouth. They didn’t seem to offer anything different from a regular timer. Then I found the turtle timer! We’ve had it now for about a week and it has really helped! For one thing, I no longer have to say ‘time to brush your teeth’, which was always met with resistance. Instead I now say ‘let’s play the turtle game!’, which sounds way more fun! He enjoys not knowing where it’s going to start. And it’s SOOOOOO helpful that it tells him where to brush. Without this I am sure he would miss rows of teeth.I highly recommend this product and my son wants to give it 5 stars!

Investment

We designed a test to see if we should invest, grow and sell in volume. Our test was to sell the Two Minute Turtle Timer one per day (on Amazon Handmade). If we could, that was a signal that we could sell the minimum purchase order, 3000, and beyond. We’d invest in the tool necessary to mass produce the Two Minute Turtle Timer overseas. We met the threshold. Invent Boston Annual Report 2019 4 Thanks to gifts from friends and family we had the capital to have the tool made plus the 3000 Two Minute Turtle Timers. Expected arrival of the new Two Minute Turtle: July, 2020. Original Two Minute Turtle Timer (below, left). New version, made with a custom tool, overseas, coming soon…primary benefits: Costs 57% less. (below right)

Production and Product Development Team

● Made 500 Two Minute Turtle Timers in USA

Sold out of the original 1500 produced in 2018. Stopped selling to wholesale accounts in April when inventory of Two Minute Turtle Timer was low. The Invent Boston production team produced another 500 October 2019, $9.25/unit, up from $7.50 so we sold those directly to consumers only to protect our margins. ● Decided to hire the manufacturing group Starlight in Hong Kong and invest in the tool to produce NEW Two Minute Turtle Timer model. Features: lower cost, replaceable batteries, more kid-friendly/ toy-like, more water-resistant.

● Tested the Time-Out Turtle package in stores with the Two Minute Turtle Timer. Learned: marketing the Turtle Timer for tooth brushing sells much better than selling for time-outs. Invent Boston Annual Report 2019