Since their early teens Em and Mads’ entrepreneurial streak has been in full swing with a laundry list of side hustles. In adulthood, both Em and Mads forged their own successful career paths but when the opportunity to create The Babybee Group eventually came knocking they knew they could make some serious magic together once again.

The Babybee Group started with the inception of Babybee in 2015. Its vision, to shake up the industry with an online, direct to consumer brand, cutting out the middlemen to deliver exactly what Aussie parents were asking for: high quality, stylish prams, and incredible value. Today, The Babybee Group also spans Milly + Coup and The Baby Edit, operating across three international markets and seven websites.

Since 2015, Em and Mads have made big strides in Australia’s baby industry with a long list of awards under their belt. In 2022 they were four-time recipients of Australia’s prestigious Good Design Awards. But more importantly, it’s not just the industry experts who love what they do, their customers do too. They’ve won ProductReview.com.au’s Best Pram Award for four years running and Em and Mads were beyond thrilled when they were nominated in 2022 for the ORIAS People’s Choice category alongside Kogan and The Iconic.

We recently sat down with Em and Mads to find out how their mantra of ‘focus on the parent’ has led to their success and how you can mix family and business with a side of fun.

Tell us about The Babybee Group’s vision?

From day one the business has been customer led and today ‘We Listen To Our Parents’ is still one of our most important team values. Our vision is to make #ParentLife better and when you genuinely incorporate that into every aspect of the business, the result is award winning products that parents actually love to use.

How do you genuinely connect with your customers and design products that make a difference?

Selling exclusively through our own websites we talk to our customers daily and disseminate this live feedback throughout the business. But it’s the regular surveys, typically providing thousands of detailed responses from our loyal customers as well as the broader market that are truly invaluable to us. These insights are what ultimately drive our business, from improving existing products to new product development that’s putting the customer at the very core of the design process. The larger, international pram brands simply don’t have access to these real time, unique insights and aren’t able to adapt as quickly as we can with our agile, local team.

Em, what was it about Mads that made you to invite her to run the business with you?

We’d worked together multiple times in the past, so I knew she was exactly what both I and the business needed. There aren’t many unicorns like Mads out there! As a marketer she’s run complex Facebook Ad accounts, built websites, filmed and edited videos as well as developing and implementing brand and marketing strategies. Over the years she’s also gained titles such as “IT support desk” and “Chief Firefighter”, you could pretty much throw her any task and she’d figure it out and soon excel at it – it really is incredible. Luckily for her, she’s now built a highly efficient and capable marketing team to support her and together they continue to kick goal after goal.

Mads, what’s it like working alongside your sister and how do you think your complimentary skillset has led to the success of The Babybee Group?

We have strong respect for each other’s strengths, and whilst we bounce off each other really well, we have very clear and separate roles. Surprisingly enough we haven’t fought since we were teens! We’re also both immensely passionate and committed to what we do and we’ve shared the same innate drive to create something really incredible since we were young. Both having worked in large corporates as well as start-ups, I think we’ve taken what we believe is the best of both to create a highly efficient, profitable operation that’s equally a really enjoyable place to work – yes, we have an office labradoodle aka our Head of Security!

Em, can you tell us a little bit about your extremely hands-on approach to your products?

I knew that if I wanted to truly have success, I would also need to develop outside of my own areas of expertise, and become a committed product expert in order to develop and manufacture the highest and safest quality baby products. In the early days, this equated to spending years learning the ins and outs of pram development from touring manufacturing facilities, working on our production lines, and visiting key suppliers and trade fairs all around the world to understand everything from how raw materials were turned into parts to the engineering process and assembly of a complete stroller. And while we of course have an amazing team who specialise in these areas, this early experience has definitely made me a better operator having had that foundation and understanding of how things work. It’s where my passion for quality baby products began and my commitment to being an industry expert has only deepened since then.

What’s next for The Babybee Group?

We’re only getting started and this is where the fun begins! We’ve got an amazing team working alongside us, we've got a huge amount already in the pipeline for each business and on top of that are actively looking for acquisition opportunities to expand the group’s portfolio. Watch this space!