Looking Back at 2016’s Launch of Milton
Now that the flood of 2016 recaps has passed, we here at Sixty LLC thought it would be a good time to look back at the year that we launched our first product, Milton the Mealtime Companion. Before we do, we need to start with a giant THANK YOU to all of the parents, therapists, store owners, and others who have purchased Milton. Whether you had a picky eater at home or were looking to use Milton in your therapy practice, we are incredibly grateful to all of our early customers.
At the beginning of 2016, Milton did not yet exist outside of our minds and our computer screens and some early prototypes. The molding tool that would eventually produce Milton was started but not yet complete. The Meet Milton children’s book that comes with every Milton was far from finished and we were considering what seemed like hundreds of variations for packaging.
On June 22, we launched Milton to the world and officially started selling via our website. One of the many highlights of the year was receiving our first order from a non family member or friend (although we are forever grateful for the support from those close to us!). Knowing that a parent who we had never even met decided to spend some of their hard earned money to buy a Milton and help a picky eater in their house was an incredible feeling.
Another early high point was when we received feedback from a feeding/speech therapist who saw Milton on Instagram and wanted to incorporate Milton as tool to use during therapy. Early on in our development, we had welcomed pediatric feeding specialist Catherine Callahan from ChiKids Feeding and Speech to the Milton team to help us ensure that Milton truly was a helpful tool for encouraging kids to try new foods. Catherine has been an integral part of Milton’s success and seeing fellow therapists (SLPs, OTs and others) incorporate Milton into their tool set has been very rewarding for all of us.
Seeing Milton shared on social media by parents and therapists was another humbling experience for us. The same goes for seeing the positive reviews and articles on our first product. A random of handful of these were:
As the year went on, we were fortunate to see Milton getting picked up by retailers throughout the USA and beyond. We’d like to thank all of the early retailers who took a chance with a startup like us and carried Milton in their own stores. Our retail partners are a huge part of helping us to achieve our mission of helping parents with picky eaters as well as supporting Feed My Starving Children and their important work through our “$1 donated for every Milton made” pledge.
2016 also saw the addition of baby Liam to Team Milton!!!
We are looking forward to so much in 2017 and can not say thank you enough to everyone who helped us get to this point. We also owe a special thanks to our wives for their support and patience with all the late nights (and early mornings). Thanks for letting us take a chance and putting up with our shenanigans!
-Dan & Justin