Living the American Dream - The Beco Baby Story

Gabby Caperon’s personal journey is one of hope, adventure, love, ambition and surprises. Along the way, she created Beco Baby Carriers. She turned $5 into more than a million! The Giggle Guide™ is pleased to spotlight Gabby’s success story as our first profile in our “Road To Success” series. Hope. Love. Success. Isn’t that what our children’s business is all about?

A Crooked Path … Beginning in Prague

Owner and founder of Beco Baby Carriers, Gabby Caperon is living the American Dream on the sunny beaches of Orange County, CA only 7 years after first traveling to the United States. Born in Prague, Czech Republic she was among the first generation to emerge after the Velvet Revolution in 1989. The new generation was pushed into education and Gabby did everything to stay ahead of the pack, learning English and attending business school. Her English skills found her work in Prague with magazine publishers, in movie production, and an advertising agency.

Worldly Travels

In her early 20’s she would work for a year, then spend 6 months traveling the world. She traveled to Canada where she graduated from massage therapy school. Arriving back in Prague, Gabby opened her own massage therapy practice in a hotel. She knew one day she would want a child and a family, but felt conflicted about how to reconcile her love of the single life with the commitments of a child. Gabby admits it’s a feeling she expects most 20-somethings experience.

While in Canada, Gabby had a strong desire to travel to the United States. It was 5 years later, while working as a massage therapist in a hotel in Prague, that a client offered her the chance to work for 6 months in California. Living the American Dream was far from her mind; this trip was planned as another one of Gabby’s many adventures around the world.

A Love Story — Smooth Sailing!

The planned 6 month excursion evolved into something much more permanent. Gabby laughs as she describes how she came to stay in the United States: “I was on the beach checking out the surfers… and I actually… started talking to one of them… and I ended up marrying him…that kind of ended the plan of going back to Prague!” Gabby was swept off her feet by a boat captain she met on the beaches of Orange County, and never looked back. It was not her plan to stay, but love has a funny way of changing plans.

Gabby had found her next adventure; she joined her new husband as a crew member on his boat and they sailed together on the high seas. Life was like a romantic novel or fairy tale come true.

Gabby worked as a crew member and restored the boat while aboard. A year and a half later, Gabby found out she was pregnant with her son. At 7 months pregnant, the ship’s owner required her to return home to California.

Stumbling Upon the American Dream

Being home and pregnant was not something Gabby would take lightly. She quickly became bored and began thinking of ways to occupy her time and bring in some money for the family. Her many jobs and eclectic educational background included design school, which led her to start Beco Baby, three weeks before the birth of her son. She started by sewing cloth diaper covers for her son, hoping eventually to sell them. As she says with a laugh, the cloth diapers “didn’t work out.”

When her son was a week old she wore her newborn for the first time. She describes always having an image of wearing her son. The reality was something different than the vision, however. The carrier was uncomfortable and hard on her back. She immediately decided to design a carrier that was comfortable and functional. She planned to produce carriers for herself and friends. She had no idea how the idea would take off.

Gabby had stumbled upon her American Dream.

$5 Becomes $1.5 Million

Beco Baby Carriers was started with $5 that Gabby earned by selling items on eBay. With no savings and little money to build a business, she started with what she had. The website www.becobabycarrier.com was launched in the summer of 2005. With the help of a fellow seamstress, Gabby made carriers at home that were sold on the Internet while she continued to tweak the design that would become the Beco carrier. She researched traditional Asian-style carriers to develop the perfect design. In December of 2005 the Beco design was complete.

The first official Beco Baby Carrier debuted in January 2006.

Quickly the business grew and Gabby moved the business out of her house and into an office and warehouse. Multiple seamstresses were hired and slowly Gabby went from seamstress to business owner and operator. The American dream became complete in 2008 when Beco Baby generated $1.5 million in revenue. Gabby describes the growing enterprise as an extended family business and has a genuine appreciation for the people that have helped her along the way.

“I Had a Cause”

Looking back at her success, Gabby says that living in the U.S. and building a business here was “not in her plan at all,” and “it just sort of happened.” She credits everything to her son. The old dilemma about how to balance a family with a career she says had a “very surprising solution.” She describes her secret to success as the birth of her son, “I had a cause. I had a reason to dedicate myself to something and somebody”.

The American Dream is not about making millions, although Gabby has done that, it is about the opportunity to build something from nothing but your own ambition. Gabby is living proof that, when given a cause, the right amount of dedication can catapult you to successes beyond expectation.

The American Dream is still alive and well. Do you know someone who has navigated the “Road To Success” in the children’s business? Someone who is on their way? Let us know! .