ABOUT KIM

In 2002, after her husband lost his job, Green Daisy President and Founder Kim Lavine, took her kitchen table idea, the Wuvit®--a designer spa therapy pillow you heat in the microwave--to $225,000 in sales in just 8 weeks. She followed up by designing a kid’s Wuvit, called Sleepy-Head Fred, recognized by the Atlanta Journal Constitution as a “Top 5 Gift Pick,” and a partnership with Waverly®, the nation’s premiere manufacturer of home décor fabrics, designing the nation’s first fabric featuring a pink ribbon motif celebrating breast cancer awareness, titled “Faith, Hope & Love.” In 2004, she rolled her Wuvit line out to 250 Saks Inc stores in just 4 months, quickly followed by Macy’s, Gottschalks, Von Maur, Bed Bath & Beyond, Whole Foods, and even Tabi International, a 90-store chain in Canada, taking her kitchen-table idea to millions in sales. Along the way she’s earned a nomination as an Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year, saw her Wuvit product recognized as a “Best New Product in Show” at its debut in NY in 2002 at the Javits, and watched her kids’ Wuvit, Sleepy-Head Fred, placed in celebrity gift baskets for the Critic’s Choice Awards along with iPods and Ugg boots. In 2004, she was granted a license by the Collegiate Licensing Company to apply collegiate logs to her Wuvits, marking Green Daisy’s entry into the $3 billion a year collegiate market. Lavine accomplished these feats of design, sales, manufacturing and distribution with little more than determination, the equity in her home and personal savings.

In 2006, Lavine realized that if she was going to take her successful product lines into greater distribution, she was going to need to raise serious capital. Without any former business experience and no business degree, Lavine penetrated the exclusive world of private equity, successfully raising angel capital and recruiting senior management to work for her company, having no idea at the time that what she was doing was groundbreaking as a woman business owner—let alone a woman who sold Wuvits. Among the new team that made up her board of directors was a former Senior VP with Kidder Peabody, founding investor in Google, Inktomi, PayPal, Napster and Warehouse Club and one of America’s experts on private equity, and the retired President of Precious Moments, who had helped take that company from start-up to over $700,000,000 annually in sales.

That same year, Kim researched, sourced and oversaw the design and overseas manufacturing of Green Daisy’s line of designer pajamas, which debuted at Saks, Inc and Gottschalks, racking up record sell-throughs at Saks Inc and earning a prestigious spot in their sales circular, featured next to premiere brands like Chanel, Oscar De La Renta, and Betsey Johnson. With another winning product line in the marketplace and the opportunity to transition Wuvits from upscale retail into mass-market channels of distribution, Green Daisy’s board of directors gave Kim and her creative team a mandate to expand the company from its beginning as a manufacturer of a single product into a true lifestyle brand, focused on balancing life with love™. Within a year, Green Daisy had designed, developed and launched a home décor line in New York’s premiere showplace for home textiles on Fifth Avenue, offering consumers bedding collections featuring a youthful modern aesthetic, with a mission to bring extraordinary design within reach of the everyday consumer. Just months after beginning the transition of her company from her kitchen table to the boardroom, Green Daisy was valued by an expert in the private equity market at just under $9 million. ”I've gained invaluable experience and insight the last year and a half working with investors and a board of directors,” says Lavine, “experience I intend to share with other women.”

In 2007, Kim posted another bestseller with the release of her book Mommy Millionaire: How I Turned My Kitchen Table Idea Into a Million Dollars and How You Can Too (St. Martins Press—Feb ’07), Kim’s book has been called by Publisher’s Weekly in a Starred Review: A top-notch, how-to guide on launching a business. Lavine’s human and authoritative story make this one of the most engaging and useful resources available for readers hoping to convert their passion into a healthy company…a rare gem.” USA Todaysays “Mommy Millionaire is loaded with resources for a fledgling business person…armed with a good idea and boundless energy.” Barbara De Angelis, PH.D.—#1 New York Times Bestselling Author says, “Mommy Millionaire is an inspiring gift and road map to success for anyone who’s ever had a dream.”

Strategy and Business Magazine chose Mommy Millionaire as one of the best business books of 2007: “Kim Lavine’s memoir-cum-business-primer breaks new ground in the crowded field of startup sagas. By seamlessly blending the epiphanies that she gained through launching a business with practical lessons, Lavine has packaged a core set of new-venture tenets into something fresh and relevant….Lavine’s book is worth reading.”

The best-selling success of Kim's book identified her as the nation's expert on inspirational business advice, earning her appearances on The Today Show, Rachel Ray, NBC & ABC news, CNN, CNBC's "The Big Idea" with Donny Deutsch, NPR, Oprah & Friends Radio Network, LifetimeTV.com, and features in USA Today, Country Living, Guideposts, Women's World, Family Circle and American Baby to name a few. Kim's new mission was to empower people to follow their dreams, inspiring them with hope, honesty and faith.

Putting the brakes on the momentum long enough to change direction, Lavine is focusing the resources of her team on developing her own online retail channel of distribution, along with the publishing and media component of her lifestyle brand. “As a creative person, working with a creative team, we’re never short of ideas and always have products in Research and Development.” We discovered,” says Lavine, “that all of our product ideas were successful in the marketplace, each with its own potential to anchor a successful business with a singular dedication of time, talent and money. Our real strength lies in developing innovative new ideas. We're moving into the role of a think tank, focusing our attention onto our unique intellectual property.

This new direction is being driven by an influential emerging trend of entrepreneurship, for which Lavine has been identified as the leader. In 2006, a record number of Americans started companies, including women, college students, seniors, corporate refugees, and recent immigrants. There are 11 million women entrepreneurs in America and women are starting businesses at two times the rate of men. In addition, according to a recent poll by Oprah, two-thirds of the nation's 38 million women with children are looking for a way to successfully blend personal and career aspirations with their need to be a great mom...a mission Lavine is passionate about.

“It’s time for me to direct my talents to what I really love—helping others realize their dreams without compromising their family life,” says Lavine.

Nobody could be happier about this change than Lavine, who still continues to work out of her home in-between making peanut butter and jelly sandwiches for her boys, aged 10 and 8, while her Creative Director does the same for a daughter 6 and son 10. "This last year has brought us so many exciting offers that we couldn’t have even imagined a year ago; these are the kind of cutting-edge opportunities presented by a rapidly changing marketplace that we can’t ignore. All change brings with it new challenges, but responding to opportunity is what business is all about."

Kim resides in Michigan.