Fran Maier isn't new to this. Starting a company, that is.
The Stanford University graduate got her start in entrepreneurship with Match.com in the mid-1990s. The website was an early pioneer of online matchmaking, a concept that has become ubiquitous with popular apps like Tinder and Bumble now drawing millions of users.
Maier, who grew up in Santa Fe, left that company in 1998. Three years later she helped found TrustArc, a privacy software firm previously known as TRUSTe. She stayed there for over a decade, serving in different leadership roles from executive director to CEO to president and board chair.
Then, a couple years after leaving TrustArc in 2014, she launched her third venture, a Santa Fe-based baby gear rental company called BabyQuip.
After spending three decades in the California Bay Area, it was an intentional decision to start BabyQuip in New Mexico, Maier told Albuquerque Business First. She saw a market need in Santa Fe to deliver baby gear to visiting families.
Since its founding, BabyQuip has raised over $3 million and, last year, launched a dedicated app. That app now accounts for over a quarter of BabyQuip's business. The company is also close to rolling out a new party-focused category of business, Maier said.
And that all comes after BabyQuip appeared on Shark Tank in March 2020 — right around the time the Covid-19 pandemic shut down much of the world.
Business First recently caught up with Maier to hear her thoughts on how entrepreneurship in New Mexico compares to the Bay Area and what her startup's financial plans are after the failures of Silicon Valley Bank and Signature Bank.
This interview was edited for brevity and clarity.
Albuquerque Business First: As somebody who has experience in Silicon Valley as a serial entrepreneur with different startups, what have you found different about operating a startup in New Mexico?
Fran Maier: The Bay Area is very much a very sophisticated and advanced startup economy — almost so advanced that you had what happened with [Silicon Valley Bank]. I still kind of count on Silicon Valley, even though I'm in New Mexico, for introductions to investors and things like that.
New Mexico is certainly a wonderful place to work out of. I have yet to really get deeply involved with the overall ecosystem, but I do think there are some exciting companies like Meow Wolf and others who have done really well. I think New Mexico companies have a great opportunity to tap into some sectors like design and art and recreation, where New Mexico has some great advantages.
With the fallout from Silicon Valley Bank's failure, do you have plans to change how you do business with BabyQuip? From banking and financing, I was one of the few companies that actually had money outside of Silicon Valley Bank, and I was happy about that. Like many other startups, we're opening accounts with much bigger banks and thinking more about our treasury function.
I do find it intriguing that the new Silicon Valley Bank is offering a very nice interest rate on deposits. So, I may still yet be tempted.
In five years, where do you want to see BabyQuip? In five years I want to see BabyQuip everywhere.
We now have 1,500 quality providers with over 100 outside the United States, primarily in Canada, Mexico and Australia and a few other places. We think we've proven that the product works, that customers love it, that there's a way to logistically meet the demand, so we're really excited to expand into Europe and beyond.
And we're already starting to expand into some other adjacent categories. We're looking forward to launching a party category, or PartyQuip, next quarter. There are some other categories that I don't really want to share, but we think we'll be able to leverage our network of quality providers and our technology to really succeed in.
