Angela Malone of Incipience LLC
Meet Angela Malone, founder of Incipience LLC, an ideation company. She creates games, technology products and systems of creative donating geared for kids.
How did you start your business?
All of my products came from my real life. My mom passed away two years ago, and my brothers and I literally sold the farm. I started developing products, and they all came from my mother’s spirit. Because of life circumstances, she never got to do what she wanted to do. She died with a sigh of resignation, and that was powerful to me.
I learned, at that moment when she died, that I needed to make a difference in the world, and to use my strengths as a creative person to change my life. I started writing and I started receiving her gifts—these ideas. And I started acting on them.
How did you come up with the idea for your business?
I got four ideas that flooded my head, all in the same month. The first one was Dr. Scribbles, a medical exam table paper. Kids sit on it while they’re waiting for the doctor, and there are games on it.
Scribbles also has his friends, Nibbles and Kibbles, a doctor of nutrition and a vet. Nibbles is the tray paper used underneath plates in hospitals. Kibbles is holding a little puppy and she’s designed for veterinary offices.
Who’s on your team?
I have teamed up with toy designer Erik Vap, who’s like Willy Wonka; graphic designer Mark Kerley; Bruce Demske of
Ellanet; and Michael Fancher of
Cincinnati Prepress and Printing. These people created the perfect storm for us to be where we are today.
What resources here did you take advantage of and how did they help?
I remember when Michelle Beckham-Corbin of
C3 Consulting dragged me to my first networking event. I felt like an Amish woman in Las Vegas. It was painful. Then I realized that maybe these technology people were here to stay, and maybe they could help make my products more diversified.
I have also been fortunate to meet Dov Rosenberg of
Allos Ventures; Joshua Johnson of
Mindbox Studios, who’s helping us create creative donation machines that make giving fun; and Sunnie Southern of
Innov8 for Health, who has consistently believed in me and my team.
Finally, my trademark attorney Roger Bora has been a huge part of my success. He works for Thompson Hine in Dayton. He was one of the first professionals to show interest in my goal of helping children.
What inspires you?
My daughter, Annie, who inspired Mama Cluck, my favorite product. When she was three years old, her cousin liked a toy she had, a brand new Christmas toy, and she gave her cousin that toy. We always tell kids to do the right thing and be kind, but we don’t tell kids how to do it. Mama Cluck does that. I’m also inspired by my daughter Jane, who’s 10 today, and by seeing kids like her doing special things for other kids.
What’s next for you and your company?
So much: Dr. Scribbles' medical exam table paper is being considered for purchase by a medical sales company, we’re working on a new game called Parent Pigeon, and we’re going to apply for an
UpTech award. Also, MamaCluck was recently finished as a board game.
Overall, Erik, Mark and I believe in using technology, but we want our products to create that feeling you had as a kid when your grandma was making cookies and playing a board game with you, and you were the most important person in her life at that moment. She didn’t have a cell phone on.
Interview by Robin Donovan