THE CHALLENGE: PUMPING & WORKING

Breastfeeding for the first time as a new mama. the Founder, Lara, struggles with the hardships of returning to work, pumping in the office and international work travel. "At the time, I suffered in silence thinking, it's only me and my problem."

The inspiration

An opportunity to help 180,000 working moms on a UNICEF project, in the largest shoe factory in the world, to maintain their breastfeeding goals fell short of success due to the lack of cold storage for breast milk without refrigeration.

Finding a cooler and storage solution for this problem marked the beginning of our journey with Mila's Keeper, as we realized the cold storage challenge is of massive scale and importance.

AN IDEA TO A PITCH TO A PROTOTYPE

We turn our idea into a pitch for the WeWork Business Venture Pitch Competition! A daunting but confidence-building experience, we are a finalist among professional startup ventures and are flown to San Francisco to pitch for the regional finals! We win a year of free office space at WeWork, our new home for the next year.

We start product development and prototype after prototype, we keep iterating on our idea for years until we confidently reach our goal of at least 20 hours cold.

PANDEMIC & SUPPLY CHAIN SHUTDOWNS

With the unprecedented supply chain shutdowns from manufacturing to shipping, Mila's Keeper's progress is severely delayed. We weather the storm however, and proudly continue to raise our own seed capital from our social impact consulting work to support world crises relating to COVID, the Ukraine war and the refugee emergencies.

LAUNCH

Our products are ready for the world! We are excited and hopeful that Mila's Keeper will empower mamas to pump ANYWHERE they need with the peace of mind knowing their breast milk is safe.