About Us

Setting up and creating Papayakids.com has been a fun and a challenging endeavor. All the years I worked in the corporate world, I had a persistent interest in running my own little business one day. I hadn’t quite thought of what exactly I wanted to do, except that it had to have something to do with handicrafts and handmade products. I myself am an avid knitter and among other crafts, enjoy making bead jewelry and other personalized gifts for friends and relatives.  

The idea of Papayakids.com really came just after I moved to Thailand to join my husband and after I had my daughter. I began exchanging parenting tips with my friends who had become moms recently, and had quit their high-flying careers. However, somehow we ended up discussing gifts we would like to send to other new moms to celebrate the birth of a new baby. Most of my friends complained that it was hard to find really unique and high quality gifts that they wanted to give, let alone receive themselves. Many had ideas about what would be a great unique gift, but had never seen them sold anywhere. 

Living in Chiang Mai, in northern Thailand, I had already been scouting out good handicrafts, just out of personal interest, and buying gifts for friends and relatives. After having decided that I wanted to start an e-business, I began asking my new mom friends exactly what kind of gifts they would like to buy. I got an overwhelming response with lots of ideas, all starting with “it would be great, if you could get….”. So, basically, all the products I have developed for Papayakids.com have been originated by a fellow mom and friend. I have attributed each product to the person who was the initial brainchild of the product.

Before I could begin developing the products, I needed to find a catchy name for my venture. Again, I used my network of friends and family to solicit ideas and I got many, many good ideas. In the end I settled on Papayakids.com, basically because my daughter loves eating papaya and we subsequently planted many papaya trees – every day she gets to pick the papaya she wants to eat! My friends agreed that the name had a good ring, was easy to remember – for speakers of all languages – and the colors, orange and green, were really catchy.

Getting product ideas was the easy part. I recruited a good Thai friend of mine, Wattana, to be my business partner and product development manager. We narrowed down the list of product ideas to a select few that were really unique. Then we had to find the right artisan and designer for each product. Design and quality were our primarily concern and just as important, liking the person who would be designing and making our products. A lot of time was spent talking to designers and crafts people about our ideas and products and had lots of samples products made. Finally we whittled down the list to a select few that we really enjoyed talking to and working with and who also became passionate about Papayakids.com. My partner and I are sticklers for detail and quality and personally check each product before shipping them out. We also want to stimulate and help the local community as well. So, wherever possible, we tried to work with local start-ups and cooperatives, whose livelihoods depend on selling their handmade products. We hope that we can impart know-how about design and quality and what types of products sell well overseas. As we expand our product line-up we hope to expand this network as well.

My idea was not to create a company on my own, but to involve my friends who are new moms, scattered all over the world and are interested in part-time work as well. Papayakids.com therefore relies heavily on a network of mom’s for product ideas, testing and marketing. I am in the process of recruiting more moms to market Papayakids.com products locally, where they live. This way we do not solely rely on the Internet, but do not have to spend any money on general marketing activities and can rely on word of mouth. I currently have representatives in Canada, Germany, Japan and the US. I hope to have many, many more representatives in the future!

We are always looking to improve our services and welcome new ideas, so feel free to share comments with us about anything you see on the web-site. We hope that you enjoy our products and spread the word about Papayakids.com to other moms and friends!

Enjoy Papayakids.com!
Isabella Badenoch