South African inventor aims to have the most funded Indiegogo campaign of all time.

An ingenious home-grown invention that has already caught the attention of child development experts is now hoping to break crowd-funding records by appealing to busy parents worldwide with the smart new TodPod that simplifies life for toddlers-on-the-go.

“The NEW TodPod is one of the smartest and most practical products we’ve come across and as you know as a loyal Celebrity Baby Trends reader, we’ve seen a lot!” said Rachel Urso – Queen of the Parenting World on her website in the USA! Rachel is Founder, Editorial Director and Media Buzz Creator and is the CEO of Celebrity Baby Trends Public Relations (formerly Rachel Florio PR), a Television Producer and host of Scripps Networks/Ulive original series Rachel’s Haul, a mother of six (4 + 2) and lover of all things HAPPY!
She is well known in the maternity, baby, children and parenting industry. She has top-notch relationships with the media and A-list celebrities and their reps. You may recognize her from CNN, TODAY, The Early Show, People Magazine…

What investors didn’t know was this lad had already done his homework even while he was still only developing the concept. It is a proven fact that Investors not only look at the horse but more so the jockey. This horse is a stud but the Jockey in this case is a serious serial entrepreneur who always thought out of the box and had already started establishing connections in different parts of the world. In one instance he sold his car to pay for a trip to Europe to attend one of the larger trade shows for Toddlers and Teens in Germany.

Many years of challenges, obstacles, financial setbacks and hard work have not deterred this young man from pursuing his dreams, goals and ambitions with passion, grit and determination. Five years later his product was ready and after refusals from many investors he was featured on Dragons Den where three of the five Dragons expressed their interest to invest in his company. The wanted 60% of his company for a third of the investment amount he required. This was not enough money to cover the costs of the tooling and manufacture of his first consignment. Jared had already been to China and after visiting a few manufacturers chose a company called Nicer Holdings who had done all the research and development together with Jared and are on standby to start production.

The TodPod is a unique, multi-functional child’s bag that allows your child to easily carry books, toys, crayons and more and it also quickly transforms into a table and chair. Yep, a table and chair! It’s a portable activity station, where your child can eat, play, read or just relax. TodPod keeps your little one occupied any time anywhere so you can focus on what you need to.

As many of you know, Indiegogo is the Largest Global Crowdfunding & Fundraising Site Online. Jared has no doubt in his mind that he has accomplished something MONUMENTAL and is willing to stand up to shout it out from the mountaintops...or at least from the stage of the Indiegogo platform in front of millions of people!

“When the world sees my heart and know what we plan to do in the long term for children all over the world especially with SIT (Social Initiative TodPod to empower children worldwide they will support my mission. It’s not only because people LOVE brands that give back but we want to provide cost-effective TodPod’s in rural and poverty-stricken areas to help children learn, read, write and study in school and at home” said Pillai.

The TodPod is a fun and engaging product that promotes a love of learning in the child and helps parents to retain their personal style and simplify their lives in supporting their child’s developmental journey.

It’s great news that crowdfunding offers an alternative to bank loans or seed funding, especially for first-time entrepreneurs with a burning desire to get a product to market or even prove that a market exists. But how do you stand out in the noise? Jared Pillai started out by finishing a polished, visually interesting website and campaign plan and advises everyone to do the same as this is absolute essential when starting to reach out to the people out there.

Although his product is for toddlers he knew he had to reach out to moms and moms to be but generally to parents and grandparents and caregivers all over the world.

I love the Tod Pod!!! Says Elisabeth May Pontius from Quesnel, British Columbia.
“As a mom and also one who cares for other people's children, I learned early in life that little ones need a place to call their own. So much of their lives, especially in our modern society is spent being moved from space to space, agenda to agenda. I used blankets just to help them mark out a space of their own, ruler of their own corner of the world. It helped them to be flexible in their changing environment. I found their boredom was not usually because they could think of nothing to do, but because they felt pressure they did not know how to handle.
I often daydreamed of seeing pockets into their blankets to carry items to craft with, snacks, favourite small toys or books, but never found the time to do this.
The Todpod is a fantastic innovative response to these needs. Plus easy to throw in the car and keep clean and adaptable to a greater variety of situations. Love it!!”
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Strong points of the design in relation to children: Comments by (Occupational Therapist) Samantha Bester.
• An excellently thought through product and there is something very positive about children of this age taking ownership of their own space through a tool like this. The fact that they can carry it themselves aids in this sense of ownership and independence.
• The extra items (chalkboard and building blocks, etc.,) are excellent in that both activities encourage fine motor development, which is an area that is lacking in children’s development these days. There are easy activity ideas that could be added into a booklet with these products that would encourage other skills such as midline crossing, spatial awareness and coping skills.
“Overall, we conclude that our products will continue to be viable in the marketplace ad infinitum and that Million Baby's future planning and product-related activities will ensure a strong market presence,” continued Pillai
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The TodPod makes life easier
I don’t have kids of my own, but I am thinking that I’ll get my future kids a TodPod. It’s one of the most awesome inventions that has come out over the last few years. Best of all, it was invented by a fellow South African.
In case you were wondering, the TodPod is a first of it’s kind 3-1 multi-functional toddler bag. It converts into a table and chair for toddlers. It’s lightweight, portable and compact. It’s nothing like the conventional tables and chairs for toddlers that are available on the market today. There’s also packing space for toys, coloring books, pencil cases, and other accessories. If you have a toddler this might just be the product that will make your life and theirs a lot easier.
HENNO KRUGER- Running Wolf’s Rant (Winner African Blogger Awards 2015)
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At Million Baby we are passionate about innovation and making vibrant products that are exciting, trendy, creative, fun and up to date for your baby and toddler. We seriously do our best to provide entertaining and engaging products that complement your baby or toddler’s development and lifestyle as well as making parents lives simpler and easier. We love what we do and we do it with passion.

Donald Pillai
P.O. Box 43571
Theresa Park
Pretoria
0155
South Africa
Phone: +27 82 796 2871

This release was published on openPR.