"Eureka moment in the shower creates more space for everybody"

– Patrick, Curvi

I'm Patrick the Inventor. I'm a 6'3" guy taking a normal shower and rather annoyed by the shower curtain. Why hasn't this been solved, I wondered?

Naturally, my Eureka moment came while standing in the shower. Curtain folds! I dried off and started cutting and folding sheets of thin plastic. I self-taught myself some of the ancient techniques of Origami. From my small apartment in Manhattan's Lower East Side, I agonized over an endless number of folding methods, materials, and designs. All failures! But I didn't give up. Eventually -- two years, actually -- I found the perfectly balanced shape. I taped six of them to a shower liner. They worked! The simple force of gravity creates a soft natural curve.

Curvi was accepted by giant online retailers Amazon Launchpad, Wayfair, and Houzz. But they require all my inventory to be produced, insured, and warehoused (ready-to-ship) before they issue purchase orders. They also only pay on a "net 30" or "net 60" basis. So between the time I order from and pay my factory and the time the units arrive here in the USA, are in a qualified warehouse ready to ship, get sold, and I collect revenue ... up to 180 days can go by. I need help financing a few hundred units for this initial inventory.

My advice to potential borrowers is: Never give up! People would laugh when I'd tell them I was working on making a better shower curtain.


--


Kiva U.S. Stories is a space to share and enjoy the moving, the funny, the inspiring, stories that come from every corner of the Kiva U.S. community.

Share your story here.