It all began one autumn evening when we met at a Techstars/Google for Entrepreneurs Startup Weekend. Startup Weekends are 54-hour events that allow people to turn an idea into reality.

The event started on a Thursday evening when participants pitched ideas. Then participants formed teams around the top ideas and spent the next two days validating and building their idea, aided by local mentors. On Saturday, teams came together and pitched their newly-launched company to a panel of judges.

That Thursday, Joe stood up in front of room of about 75 people at the Eastern Idaho Technical College in Idaho Falls, Idaho, and pitched the idea for a bedside organizer. Bob was in the audience and he attended the event in search of engineers to help him with a wearable tech. It didn’t look like Bob was going to find MEs and EEs to work on his project, so he thought he would have fun and look for someone with an idea that was less complex to develop. A product he could design with the CAD software installed on his laptop and prototype with the 3D printers he had back home in Jackson, Wyoming. Joe’s idea was perfect.

The complete story is long, but the highlights are we formed a five member team, designed the first Night Caddy, 3D printed a prototype, collected market research by speaking with customers at Walmart, Bed Bath & Beyond as well as online using Survey Monkey, created a deck, and pitched The Night Caddy to win the Start-Up Weekend.

Joe went on to successfully pitch The Night Caddy at additional competitions and placed in the top three at each. This gave us the confidence to form ArmsReach Industries LLC and develop a Kickstarter campaign. Unfortunately we didn’t reach our crowdfunding goal.

Two original team members left the company. Dave joined ArmsReach Industries as a partner. Dave has a Bachelors in Mechanical Engineering and is graduating with a Masters in Aerospace Engineering from ASU in December. He took the existing Night Caddy bedside attachments/designs and created a new universal attachment system that fits most mattress, box spring and bed frame combinations. Dave also added smooth contours to the edges of the organizer and improved the design. We like to say The Night Caddy isn’t rocket science, but we had a rocket scientist redesign it for you.

We decided to launch another Kickstarter campaign with the improved Night Caddy. This time The Night Caddy was funded on Kickstarter within 39 hours. The 30 day campaign concluded in November of 2016 and we received close to 1400 Night Caddies orders. We were so excited!

Regrettably, we underestimated the cost to manufacture and ship that many Night Caddies. We were able to ship 2/3 of our Backers their rewards by the spring of 2017. However, it took us the rest of the year to find investors to help fulfill the remaining orders. We are very appreciative of the patience of our Backers who had to wait so long for their rewards.

ArmsReach Industries is committed to designing and manufacturing new products to organize the clutter that can make life stressful. The Night Caddy is just our first product. A deluxe organizer to keep bedside essentials within arm's reach. Its attachment fits most beds, and it ships with a docking dual USB charger and six foot power cord allowing two electronic devices to charge simultaneously. The Night Caddy is available here and at Amazon.com.

Please contact us with any comments or questions. Thank you for your support.