Candice and Michelle for Best Beginnings

Like most first-time moms, Candice Nocom-Tansipek and her best friend Michelle Wu-Quiec were excited about motherhood. As mom of 9-month old Sean, Candice is a hands-on mom who co-sleeps, breastfeeds, and practices attachment parenting. “I spend as much time as I can with my baby – I play, sing, talk to him everyday no matter how tired I may be!”

Michelle, who's mom to 2.5 year old Kai, is likewise a proactive, intentional mom. “I like to be there in every happening in my son's life. Even with simple things like picking him up from school, changing his diapers, giving him a bath, I don't want to miss anything,” she says. “I want to be able to say that I was there for my son in his entire childhood.”

Marrying parenting with functional style
As “attuned moms,” these two best friends were passionate about practices, services and products that made their parenting more efficient. Still, they felt that nothing in the local market really met their preferences in terms of quality, child-friendliness, function and style. Since both moms were creative with their style of parenting and homemaking, from their kids’ bath times to organizing their toys and books, they wanted home helps that married the characteristics of their parenting and homemaking style.

Candice, for her part, was a voracious curator of online finds while she was pregnant. “After I gave birth, I’ve been addicted to reading up on parenting websites and looking at online baby stores,” she says. It wasn't until one day, while curating the Web for ideas, that the two moms saw a feature on 3 Sprouts, a line of organic, eco-friendly organizing solutions. “We loved its adorable animal designs! They’re cute without being too cutesy so they appeal to both kids and adults,” says Candice.

But the best part for her was that the line was highly functional as well as eco-friendly. “We felt it was such a great mix and that there wasn’t anything quite like it available locally yet.” It was then that the idea to import the 3 Sprouts products came into play, and Candice and Michelle began their journey as mompreneurs.