What started as a vacation mishap spurred Lindsey Shores, founder and owner of Baby a GoGo, to start her own company in less than 24 hours.
When Lindsey’s youngest child was one, their family went to an all-inclusive, family-friendly resort in Cancun. Lindsey had packed enough diapers for travel, but when she arrived at the resort, she was shocked to find that no diapers were available — and the nearest store was only reachable by an hour-long Uber ride.
Luckily, she was able to get some diapers from a mom who was leaving the resort, but Lindsey’s inner fire couldn’t see a need like that go unmet. “I was with my husband on the way back, angrily joking, ‘I’m going to solve this problem and start a company to fix this situation. … It’s shocking that everyone has overlooked babies in trouble.’”
By the next morning, however, that idea was no longer a joke. Before the day was over, Lindsey had thought of the company name and had purchased the website.
“She’s one of those people who gets an idea, and it’s pretty cool to see how it comes together,” Lindsey’s husband, Jared Shores, says. “And so many people call it luck. It’s really not. She’s so dedicated.”
After several prototypes and searching, Lindsey finalized her game-changing products: a diaper kit and “magic wipes.” The Diaper Kit is small enough to fit in a back pocket but big enough to contain a diaper, five wipes and an odor-free barrier bag that doubles as a changing surface. The Magic Wipe dispenses from a recyclable plastic container small enough to fit in the palm of your hand.
Getting to that point was no easy journey. Lindsey worked with both China and Canada to source products, develop packaging and determine size, quality and fit.
“It’s been way more technical to figure out this product than putting out 10 or 12 women’s pieces — all the way down to the zipper and the buttons and everything — because it’s something new,” Lindsey says.
Introducing a brand new product to the baby care market has been a huge leap, but Lindsey has never been one to shy away from big jumps.
Fearless from the start
As a child, Lindsey was taught to “have the confidence to be whoever you want, go for your dreams and push and work hard,” she says. She took that to heart. She was the captain of her drill team and choreographed dances for her company. When she was 18, she became software company Fishbowl’s fifth hire while attending classes at Utah Valley University. At Fishbowl, she handled marketing, sales, company retreats and events. Through these experiences, she had a front-row seat to what it took to build a company from the ground up.
Determined to fulfill her childhood dream of working in fashion, Lindsey turned in a new direction in her early 20s. While continuing to work for Fishbowl remotely, she packed her bags and headed for Los Angeles with nothing more concrete than a dream.
As it turns out, dreams were enough of a foundation for Lindsey to stand on. She worked tirelessly in LA to build connections until she landed a job working for red-carpet celebrity stylist Penny Lovell. Lindsey still takes on styling projects today, but what aids her most from her fashion experience are her people skills and her ability to build connections. After learning how to make people “really comfortable in their most vulnerable moments,” Lindsey grew in her ability to create trust, guide clients and “bring down some barriers.”
In 2011, Lindsey returned to Utah and decided to finish school. By the time she graduated with her bachelor’s degree in public relations, she had married her husband, Jared, and was pregnant with their first child.
Lindsey’s first official business venture was setting out on her own as a style consultant and personal shopper. During that time, she also decided to create her own pieces. “I got my hands really invested in this process and learned how to create and develop a product,” she says. She even flew to China to work with the production factory in person despite not knowing how to speak Mandarin. Armed with Google Translate and her people skills, Lindsey had Loubello, her full women’s fashion line, produced and on the market just a short six months after initial sketches.
Lindsey has always been a force to be reckoned with. When she wanted to get her fashion line into Nordstrom, she walked right up and knocked on the doors of the Nordstrom headquarters while she and her husband were in Seattle.
“When she has her sights set on something, there’s no obstacle in her way. It’s just an opportunity,” Jared says.
Lindsey channels that same drive into her family. She had her third child during the COVID-19 pandemic and is a devoted mother. “She’s always been somebody to look up to,” says Laura Holt, Lindsey’s friend for over 20 years. “Her family comes first always, and you can tell that her family is hugely important to her success.” So it’s little wonder that Lindsey’s next business venture was a family affair.
Mom-tested, baby-approved
When developing Baby a GoGo, Lindsey reached out to fellow moms to give her feedback on packaging, pricing and use cases. Her friends would update her on how they used the products, including easily changing a diaper in an airplane bathroom and cleaning dog vomit out of a car with the Magic Wipes.
Lindsey knew she was onto something. When sourcing her materials, she found a company in Canada that was willing to work with a smaller minimum order quantity of diapers because they had some excess product. Lindsey excitedly gave them her home address for the shipment, but their truck was too big to deliver to a residential neighborhood. Undeterred, Lindsey set up the shipment to be delivered to a Walmart parking lot where there would be enough space for the 18-wheeler. She and her husband met the truck there with a rented U-Haul and loaded up the diapers.
Lindsey’s efforts continued with refining her logo and designing packaging and promotional materials. She hired Tara Stephens, a graphic designer and friend. Together, they created a look for the product that fit the baby world but could also stand next to adult and family products — because, as Lindsey’s friends had proved, everyone needs wipes.
“I have constantly felt passionate about putting these [products] in places where I feel like there’s the biggest need,” Lindsey says. So she focused on the travel space. When Lindsey saw a post looking for “mom purse travel essentials for babies” from a large hospitality travel company called Areas, Lindsey knew she had to lock in a meeting.
She submitted her products, and Areas accepted a meeting with her. Without much time to prepare, she flew to Florida after piecing together childcare while her husband was out of town. She pitched her product, even though it was still in a working phase. Within 10 minutes, the buyer announced a plan to roll Lindsey’s products out in multiple stores.
“I left on cloud nine,” Lindsey says. Baby a GoGo products are now sold in five airports and over 20 stores, with new deals being made all the time.
A daring approach
Lindsey’s hustle continued when she sent a pitch to Guy Raz, the host of the “How I Built This” podcast, and got invited to speak on an episode alongside Marc Lore, the founder of Diapers.com.
Lindsey’s initiative and belief in her products also took her to an aviation travel expo in Washington, DC in February. Daymond John of Shark Tank surprised attendees by showing up to present his new vending machines. After his presentation, Lindsey saw people lining up to take pictures with him. She was on the phone with her husband and said, “He’s going to love these products.” So she gathered some from her booth and joined the line.
“When it was my time in line, I said, ‘I’m actually going to pitch you my products.’ And [John] was like, ‘Okay, go for it,’” Lindsey says. After her pitch, John looked into his cameras and said, “That will be in the Shark World [vending machines].”
“That was definitely one of the top moments,” Lindsey says. Her audacity and courage earned her not only an audience but also potential future collaboration with a shark.
Another career high: Delta reached out to Lindsey in May via a form on her website. When Lindsey read the company’s name, her first thought was, “Yeah, right!” But sure enough, Lindsey’s No. 1 dream company had reached out to her, and her products are now included in Delta’s recovery service program as gifts to help families deal with layovers and delays.
In June, Lindsey got her products in her first Hudson store — one of the biggest concessionaire companies in the world. She also has products placed in Intermountain Health locations and is currently filling thousands of orders.
Mom power on display
Today, Lindsey runs Baby a GoGo and her styling projects out of a studio office in her backyard while raising her three kids, a blend that every working parent will admit is no easy feat. “She’s a really great mom,” says Hannah Jones, one of Lindsey’s good friends. “She is so good at being present with her kids. When she’s with her kids, she is fully there.”
While Lindsey has had her wrestles with “mom guilt,” she has found strength in being open with her kids. “I finally feel like this is a great example to them — starting something from nothing and working super hard to make success out of it,” Lindsey says. “It’s a really positive thing for them to see me work and see the challenges of it, and the slowness of it, and the speed of it and sometimes, the overwhelm of it.”
And Lindsey is just getting started. With her sights set on expanding to car rentals, train stations, movie theaters, Disneyland and even new products, Lindsey hopes to flood the world with Baby a GoGo in order to “make travel life easier for parents and families.” Serving is at the heart of what she does, and someday, Lindsey hopes to be able to fund a one-for-one program where she can donate products to refugees. She also would love to create a foundation to inspire female entrepreneurs. After all, Baby a GoGo is proudly 100 percent women-owned.
“She has big aspirations to help people from her own experience,” Jared says. “It just really excites and lights her up.”