Up for a challenge? Grab your favorite toddler, a piping hot cup of coffee, a stuffed animal, a stroller, a carry-on, and a big bottle of Advil. Set a timer for 37 minutes, and walk-run through the nearest international airport without making anyone cry.
If that doesn’t sound like a good time, you’re not alone. About a year ago, Ryan posted a video talking about 5 killer business ideas he wished someone would do. The first? Something – anything – to make traveling with kids easier. IYKYK (and no, scotch doesn’t count!)
Funny thing about great ideas - the simultaneous invention or multiple discovery phenomenon boils down to this: If you don’t act on your ideas, you can bet others who’ve gotten the same idea at the same time WILL.
Case in point: HoePing Lo and Tack Lee of The One Percent. Way back in 2018, this Brisbane, Australia-based husband and wife longed for an easier way to travel with their kids. As one does, they scoured the internet looking for products that would make flying with kids less… horrible.
What did they find? NOTHING. So, in true entrepreneurial style, they decided, "Screw it. Let’s do it," and made it themselves. What they made is perhaps the coolest piece of carryon luggage on the planet. Faster than you can blow on the binkie you swooped off the floor within the requisite 5 seconds before cooties get it, you can transform this sucker from carryon to travel stroller and be on your merry way.
If your jaw didn’t just drop, you clearly have never tried lugging a toddler through an airport. Sure, they’re small, but when you’ve got 47 gates to pass on your way to baggage claim, you feel it. But if you’re asking, "WHERE WAS THIS 26 YEARS AGO?" all shouty-like, you get it. Just keep it in mind for when you have grandbabies.
Tack and HoePing love to travel. They also love giving their kids the benefits that come from seeing the world. But first and foremost, they love family. All that love led them to quit their jobs (he was an engineer; she was a physio) about a year ago and go all-in on building their brand, TernX… just in time for the post-pandemic travel industry rebound.
When the world shut down, the travel industry had basically gotten canceled.
Manufacturers in the travel industry, likewise. But that didn’t stop this couple. They used the time to tweak their design, talk to parents, and hunt for a great manufacturer. They created a minimum viable product design and asked their people to help them iterate it to make it spectacular.
How’d it go? Well, so far, this patent-pending first product has won THREE prestigious design awards, including Red Dot, Time Magazine Best Inventions of 2022, and Good Design Award Gold Winner. But it’s not just a great design they’ve come up with - it’s one a manufacturer can actually make. (BTW, that’s a pretty good question to ask if you’ve just invented something cool - it’s got to be functional, marketable, and feasible to manufacture.)
Right now, you can preorder before the official launch. Ternx will ultimately be a global brand in a global market for luggage that’s valued at around $16B. Before long, you’ll find them on their own site, Amazon, and eventually also in brick and mortar locations.
Tack says less than 1% of that market is devoted to family-friendly bags. There’s a whole lotta pent-up demand for travel, and all the Netflix-and-chilling of the pandemic means lots of couples need family-friendly luggage. He says, "We wanted to create something new, something no one has really seen before, and then to put it out there. We’re here now."
While HoePing and Tack have self-funded so far, they’ve recently brought on an advisor and they’re working on bringing on some equity partners. Guess you could say that this brand is going places 🙂
If you’re going places with little kids and hope to arrive with your sanity intact, better grab the Founder’s Edition of this game-changing luggage. Your kids, your fellow passengers, and pretty much everyone else at the gate and on your flight will thank you.
Are YOU Next?
We'll keep following along with HoePing Lo and Tack Lee's story on the road to $1 million. We hope it'll inspire other entrepreneurs to build great businesses, too. Maybe you're next?
Here at Capitalism.com, we're on a mission to make one million millionaires by 2028. Looks like this dynamic duo is well on their way! They're building a brand that makes the world a better place - and it's one that can create generational wealth in the process.
If you'd like to be one of those million millionaires, we'd love to help you, too.
The first step is finding the business that's perfect for YOU to build. That's why we made this free video for you - watch it now and find your million-dollar business idea.
