When Megan Cooper and Jim Walsh’s first daughter, Betty, was born, they were gifted a second-hand cot. It was plain and looked like every other cot on the market, which was entirely not their style.
“Jim decided to customise it a bit,” Megan, 51, from Hawke’s Bay, New Zealand, tells WHO. “He removed the ends and drew a daytime mural on one and a night-time one on the other. It was gorgeous and fun and colourful.”
As their daughter grew into a toddler, the cot idea kept bubbling up between the new parents. Surely other families would like a bright, creative space for their new baby?
“We talked about how different-coloured panels could be changed as the baby grew to toddler stage or just when the room needed a refresh,” Megan says. “You spend a lot of time in the nursery and just a little thing like a room change-up would make it feel less like groundhog day.”
They kept talking and, given they’d always wanted to work on something creative together, decided this was the thing. Jim worked in advertising and Megan in TV production, but between their day jobs and looking after Betty they started researching and discovered their idea was completely original.
“We got the first drawings briefed to a furniture maker in 2013, but it really took until COVID lockdowns in 2020 to kick it all off and find a manufacturer,” Megan says. “We went through three before we found the one who understood our vision. We spent time and money on it but we learnt a lot, and sometimes you have to go down the wrong roads before you find the right one.”
One of their major challenges was getting the design right so the cot was simple for new parents to put together. The idea was that there were interchangeable, colourful panels that could slide into each end allowing the cot to be customisable.
“The prototype arrived in 2022. We were all very excited as Jim put it together. We had a cot and now it was a case of, ‘Let’s do this,’” Megan says. “We were still quite time-poor. We now had three children and we were both working. But we did it bit by bit with a website and we drew on all our skills to get it up and running.”
Bold Baby launched in October 2024 and the reaction was immediately positive. “Whether it was friends, strangers, people in the industry – people were visibly excited about something so new in the cot space,” Megan says.
They picked up baby-store stockists in Melbourne and Sydney, but the bulk of their business was online, with orders coming in quickly.
“Shorter mums gave us feedback about the height of the cot and we made some changes so there are now three height settings, and we started off without the traditional pink and blue colours but people were asking for them, so it’s not something we could ignore,” Megan says. “It’s always a question of how we can improve and attract different customers. We have a bunch of new colour combinations launching and we are collaborating with artists for an art series later this year.
“It’s not been a bed of roses,” she adds, “but we have an unwavering belief in the product and that’s what keeps you going. Our kids have grown up with it now, too, and we’re doing it for them – to show what is possible.”
