Tate Hancock joined Groover Labs in April 2021 on the recommendation of one of our members. His startup, TMW Family Company, designs and manufactures the Wall Nanny, a patented baby gate wall protector. But that’s not his only project. We talked with Tate about his journey from chiropractor to entrepreneur, how he researched markets, how he almost didn’t go through with it, and how a pitch at Walmart’s Open Call landed the Wall Nanny into big box retailers.

The Wall Nanny has more than 20,000 reviews on Amazon.com. That’s a lot of reviews. How did you get started?

Back in 2016, I took some classes on how to conduct product research. I wanted to introduce new products into markets with high demand. That eliminates spending all your time and money on products that nobody wants.

At the time, you were a chiropractor, correct?

Yes. I had my own practice here in Wichita. I studied finance in college, but I also come from a family of chiropractors, so after I graduated (and with a little prodding from my family), I earned my Doctor of Chiropractic degree, and opened my practice.

So you were already an entrepreneur with a successful business, but you decided you wanted to start a new business line?

It’s more complicated than that. I played football at the University of Montana, and along the way, I injured my shoulder. I even took a medical redshirt for a year. But after several years as a chiropractor, I started to feel some pain in my shoulder.

And this affected how you treated your patients?

Exactly. Everything was fine for a while. Then, slowly, I started to notice some pain now and then. Over time, I started to feel it in every adjustment, so I looked into it. I was supposed to have surgery, but I couldn’t just close my business down for 3 to 4 months. 

Instead, I just pushed through the pain until I started to see a loss of strength emanating from the shoulder, and I didn’t know how long I could sustain the high quality of care I gave my patients. 

You know, I could’ve changed some of the techniques I used, but if I had done that, I wouldn’t have lived up to my high standard of care. Overall, as my condition worsened, I started looking for secondary sources of income in case I needed to make a change.

So, you took classes on product research, and, based on what you learned, you chose the child safety industry as your market. Why?

It makes a great deal of sense. The child safety market is, obviously, a passionate market. But there’s another level. The Wall Nanny functions bi-categorically because it works for parents with small children, but it also works for pet owners. If I can develop a product that’s safe enough for a baby, then it’s likely safe enough for people’s pets. This increased my total addressable market.  

You studied finance and have a Doctor of Chiropractic degree. Do you also have manufacturing experience?

I’m not a manufacturer. In the product research classes I took, I learned how to research and source information. I also knew I needed something simple, something small that was injection molded or plastic or maybe even rubber. 

When the data came back, and I saw the sale of baby gates, I wagered that if I could bring an accessory to this market that pairs well with the gates, I’d have a massive target market. All that said, I had no idea how big it would be.

So you came up with the Wall Nanny. What does it do?

It protects your walls, stabilizes your baby gates, and the extender feature makes the gate compatible with a variety of different widths of doorways and hallways. The first version extended the gate reach by up to four inches. Our most recent models go up to six inches or half a foot. 

How did you come up with the design?

It’s funny now that I think about it. I sketched the first draft on the back of a yellow sticky note. But I didn’t know anything about design or manufacturing or injection molding. In fact, I almost didn’t do it.

Why?

Not only did I not know anything about design, but I also didn’t know anyone with a background in design. Someone recommended an expert on the injection molding process, so I drove out to see him. He looked at my sketch and told me not to do it. He thought it would have a high tooling cost, and based on that, he didn’t see how I could make any money. 

I left the meeting so dejected. I was so frustrated that I almost scrapped the project.

But you didn’t.

No, I didn’t. My dad reminded me that my brother-in-law specialized in CAD (computer-aided design), so I sent it to him and asked what he thought. A week later, he comes back to me and says not only should I go forward with the product but that I should also call it the Wall Nanny. I put the design online and asked for manufacturing bids in the U.S. I wanted it made in the United States.

What a great story. So now you have a product design and a manufacturer. But the first person you spoke with - the one who said you wouldn’t make any money on it - his concern had to do with manufacturing cost, too. How did you overcome that hurdle?

I took out a loan to pay for the injection molding. Here’s the thing: My research, my data–it all said the product would sell, so I thought it was worth the risk. I didn’t know much about injection molding, but I knew enough about business and finance to know the product had a lot of potential.

Idea, design, financing - next, you needed sales channels. 

Yes. Enter Amazon. One of the product research classes I took taught how to do private label. Honestly, I thought there were a lot of flaws with the idea. So I took what I learned from the other classes and then sort of did the exact opposite of what the private label concept recommended. I just felt I could do a better job. 

How long did it take after you put the Wall Nanny on Amazon did you realize you had a hot product on the market?

I had a few days with no reviews, and with Amazon, reviews are everything–sales grow as reviews grow. But as soon as a few reviews came in, and I issued a few press releases, it started selling right away. Things happened fast. Fast. We’ve grown steadily at least 50 percent over the past four years.

But not long after I had the Wall Nanny on the market, I started to design the next version, the Mini. I knew I’d have to improve on the original product–probably something smaller and with as low of a profile as I could make it. I worried someone might beat me to it, so I got out ahead of them and patented a new design.

The Wall Nanny is now available on Amazon.com, Walmart, Target, and BuyBuyBaby. How did you land the big box retailers?

I have a colleague who lives in Bentonville, Ark., and he suggested I come down to Walmart Open Call for products made in the United States. There are several things you need to do to qualify, but the product has to be made in the U.S.

[Note to readers: Walmart Open Call is the company’s largest sourcing event for Walmart and Sam’s Club. Applicants pitch their product to Walmart sourcing agents and merchants.]

The first time I applied for Walmart Open Call, I was denied. But the second year, I was invited. I had higher sales to show in my pitch–it’s another one of those Shark Tank-style pitch events. 

We went down and they gave us 20 minutes with a buyer. Apparently, we did well because they gave us a golden ticket (and not a proverbial golden ticket, the ticket was actually gold colored). That golden ticket opened up so many conversations. Before I knew it, we were in 1,500 stores. 

Amazing. Having a product in Walmart must do wonders for the brand.

It builds trust, and trust creates value. If someone sees or hears about the product and then searches for it, they’ll see that it’s sold in the big box retailers, and that lends us credibility.

And now you have a new product that’s about to hit the market.

Yes, that’s right. It’s another child safety device called the BlockItSocket. Most outlet covers are single units, meaning in a package, you get several units for each independent plug. But when you need to use an outlet that has a protective cover over it, and you remove the cover, anything can happen to it. 

I’ve heard stories where people have forgotten to put them back on, or their children pick them up and put them in their mouths – essentially, the stories I’ve heard are single-unit socket cover failure stories. We can do better.

The BlockItSocket is an outlet panel whose covers stay connected to the panel even when you unplug them from the socket. So, if you want to charge your phone, you unplug the socket cover and fold it up or down (depending on which outlet you use), but it stays attached to the outlet panel. You don’t lose them. 

We’ve made it incredibly difficult for you to forget to plug the covers back into their respective sockets. Your kids aren’t going to roam around the house with them in their mouths. The BlockItSocket solves a problem that parents want solved for the safety of their children and families. 

When will the BlockItSocket be available?

Soon. Very soon. We just got our first batch back. It’s working really well. We’re excited for it to go to market.

What else are you working on?

I’ve put together a new brand called Pivott. The Wall Nanny and BlockItSocket are distinct for the child safety market. Pivott has a wider range of product opportunities. We’re working on products for bathrooms, kitchens, the garage–useful everyday household items. That’s one category. There are a lot of options for us.

And that’s it?

Okay, one more. Some business partners and I are working on a coffee replacement drink called Monkey Brew. It’s a delicate mushroom-coffee blend that’s full of health benefits. There’s hardly any caffeine. And studies have shown incredible benefits for memory and immunity. We’re in the early stages, but it’s a great product.

One more thing: You’ve obviously spent a lot of time learning how to market and sell products on Amazon. Will you give a lunchtime talk at Groover Labs about that sometime soon?

Name the date.