WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. – In the end, after Nickey Ramsey pitched her invention on Friday's "Shark Tank," there was no crying over spilled milk.
Her invention, eco-friendly and reusable breastmilk storage bags, didn't get a deal from "Mr. Wonderful" Kevin O'Leary, but her demonstration for her company, Junobie, did generate one of his jokes. When Ramsey showed how other bags would leak that precious commodity, liquid squirted from the plastic.
Ramsey, of West Lafayette, did get a deal, though, from guest judge Emma Grede, an opportunity the Purdue graduate and mother of two sees as transformational.
More:'Shark Tank' to debut breastmilk storage bags created by West Lafayette entrepreneur
“Airing on 'Shark Tank' is the American dream for us," Ramsey told the Journal & Courier, "especially since I experienced homelessness as a teenager."
Ramsey described to the judges how her high school counselor discovered she had no place to call home, found her a spot in a homeless shelter and set her on a more hopeful path that led to bachelor of Applied Sciences in Audiology and Speech-Language Pathology from Purdue. She also has master of arts degree in Communication Sciences and Disorders from the University of Cincinnati.
While the other judges passed on investing in Junobie, Grede, a British businesswoman based in Los Angeles, matched Ramsey's financial pitch but for more share of the company.
"We are so very thankful for the opportunity," Ramsey said. "We needed a strategic partner that not only cared about Junobie’s mission as a breastfeeding brand, but we needed someone who also had a passion for helping women of color in the startup stage of their business … like ourselves. We found that in our partnership with Emma G.”
Junobie offers reusable FDA-approved silicon breastmilk storage bags that are safe in the freezer, microwave and dishwasher.
Ramsey had scoured Amazon for anything that remotely resembled the product she needed. She found silicon products that were geared toward sandwich bags and sous-vide – French for "under vacuum" – bags, but nothing that she could use to store breastmilk.
“There was no reusable breastmilk bag," Ramsey told the Journal & Courier before Friday's episode aired, describing her unsuccessful search through Google. "A specifically made for the size of breastmilk and I was, like, ‘OK, this is weird to me. Like, surely this should be a thing, but it wasn’t!”
Ramsey took the matter in her own hands, creating the bags and a career that landed her a deal on "Shark Tank."
Deanna Watson is the executive editor at the Journal & Courier. Contact her at dwatson@gannett.com. Follow her on Twitter at @deannawatson66.