Inventor hopes Dragons sit up (straight) and take notice

Author: Belfer, Ilana

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Abstract: [...]it was while she was stuck in a tiny house in Windsor with her ailing grandfather and newborn son
that she came up with her big idea - the same idea that has landed her on standby for Dragon's Den. About a
year ago, Latouf, 27, wouldn't have dreamt she could make it onto the popular CBC reality show, which gives
entrepreneurs the chance to pitch their product to a panel of millionaire investors.
Full text: Maria Latouf has spent her life travelling.
But it was while she was stuck in a tiny house in Windsor with her ailing grandfather and newborn son that she
came up with her big idea - the same idea that has landed her on standby for Dragon's Den.
About a year ago, Latouf, 27, wouldn't have dreamt she could make it onto the popular CBC reality show, which
gives entrepreneurs the chance to pitch their product to a panel of millionaire investors.
"I just felt like there's no way they'll ever take me seriously. I'll just look like a fairy hippie, especially with the
dreadies. And I didn't have a business plan," she said.
But when she realized the full potential of Posture Beads, she cut off her beloved dreadlocks and got to work.
Latouf came up with the idea for Posture Beads in January of 2011. She'd just moved back to Windsor after
living nomadically since age 14.
"I was really wild," she said. "I didn't like my parents' rules. I was like, 'You know what? I'm going to learn this
my way.'"
Over the years, she hitchhiked her way between Alberta, British Columbia and Arizona. She picked fruit, worked
in vineyards crushing, harvesting and pruning the grapes and waited tables to get by.
Then, in 2008, her grandfather fell ill with dementia and couldn't live alone any more. Latouf said she was
extremely close to him as a child and didn't want to see him sent to a nursing home prematurely. She moved
home to care for him full-time, without pay. She was also five months pregnant.
One day, when she was nursing her newborn son Nestah, he pulled the chain off her pendant, causing the
necklace to break. She decided to restring it, and fill the extra string with more beads, which lay along her spine
when she put it on.
She said she noticed that whenever her posture wasn't proper - like when she bent down to pick up Nestah the beads would swing from her back onto the front of her shoulder. When she slouched on a chair, the feeling
of the beads served as a gentle reminder to sit up straight.
"It just seemed so obvious and simple," she said.
As someone with a clinical herbalist and iridologist diploma, and who had been practising yoga for several
years, Latouf knew the importance of good posture. Bad posture, she said, causes undue stress.
So she brought the idea to friends in Windsor's yoga community.
"They were telling her: 'This isn't just a cute thing you made for yourself with a neat trick, this is a million-dollar
product,'" said Latouf 's friend Sasha McLean.
Over the next few months, Latouf got a provisional patent and started doing market research. She joined
LinkedIn and other online accounts to track down the sales and marketing directors of multinational yoga
companies. Then, she started cold calling.
"Some of these massive companies were like 'Wow. Let us know when it's packaged and ready to go,'" she
said. She plans to wholesale the product to yoga, wellness and chiropractic companies.
Figuring out how to do business wasn't easy for Latouf - she'd never studied it before, let alone graduated high
school.
"When I was interested, I self-educated," said Latouf. And creating her business plan was no different.

Using friends and networks as resources, Latouf said she has Posture Beads ready to go, down to the company
logo. Except for the money.
Latouf and her husband split in October, and since the bills were always in his name, she said she never
thought to build up credit.
A bank told her there's no way she could get a loan.
"She basically told me to pack it up and call it a day," said Latouf. "It was really harsh. I just sat there crying for
hours because I was like, 'But I did all the work already.'"
Latouf said she's hoping to prove the bank wrong.
In February, she won a competition through the Downtown Windsor Business Accelerator, which gave her the
opportunity to practise her pitch in front of local investors before the Dragon's Den audition March 29.
Thousands of people across Canada auditioned and Latouf made it onto the standby list, which means that any
time between now and mid-May she could be called to Toronto to film a segment for the show, and possibly
gain an investor.
Credit: Ilana Belfer; The Windsor Star
Illustration
Jason Kryk, The Windsor Star / Maria Latouf, 27, displays a product she invented called Posture Beads.;;
Caption:
Subject: Business plans; Corporate profiles; Entrepreneurs; Yoga;
Publication title: The Windsor Star
First page: A.5
Publication year: 2012
Publication date: Apr 24, 2012
Year: 2012
Section: News
Publisher: Infomart, a division of Postmedia Network Inc.
Place of publication: Windsor, Ont.
Country of publication: Canada
Publication subject: Business And Economics--Banking And Finance
Source type: Newspapers
Language of publication: English
Document type: News
ProQuest document ID: 1009789268
Document URL:
http://biblioottawalibrary.ca/ezproxylogin?url=http://search.proquest.com/docview/1009789268?accountid=4652
6
Copyright: Copyright CanWest Digital Media Apr 24, 2012
Last updated: 2012-04-27
Database: Canadian Newsstand Major Dailies

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