INTERNATIONAL WOMEN'S DAY 2020: sticklett founder Michaela Schicho takes center stage!

On International Women's Day, we introduce you to our founder and managing director. 5 questions and answers with entrepreneur and mother of two, Michaela Schicho.

You founded a startup as a mother of two. How do you manage your work and family life?

My greatest source of motivation is my joy in my work. However, I openly admit that it requires a fair amount of courage, perseverance, and determination. As a mom and entrepreneur, I think you have to accept a bit of chaos. For example, I regularly leave the office at a run to pick up my daughters from school on time. I don't know lunch breaks or coffee breaks, but I do know night shifts ;-).
Of course, none of this would be possible without a close-knit family. My children love what we do with sticklett and enjoy being actively involved. My husband has supported me since the very beginning of the business idea. We stick together as a family and support each other, especially in difficult situations. I believe these are the best prerequisites you can have when running a business. Whether as a man, a woman, or a mother.

How did the sticklett idea come about?

The basic idea for sticklett came from a banal, everyday situation in our family: I was having a discussion with my daughter about how she couldn't wear her favorite bunny-print shirt every day because it needed to be washed every now and then. The time pressure grew, my nerves grew, and at some point I asked myself: " Why can't you just remove the motif and put it on another shirt...?!"

I decided to take this "problem" into my own hands and developed a clothing line that allows for the flexible application and removal of appliqués as the mood takes me. Now, with "sticklett," as the name suggests, there are stickers with hook-and-loop fasteners. These are fashion appliqués that adhere to clothing like stickers using a specially developed, soft and comfortable hook-and-loop-like process. My daughters became the first test subjects and, like many other children, immediately fell in love with the idea and the designs.

What is special about your products?

Our clothing line features intelligent additional features. It's not only comfortable and fun to wear, but also supports parents and children. During development, we collaborate with pediatricians and medical research institutions close to our customers. We work with European textile suppliers who can demonstrate demanding certifications such as GOTS and OEKO-TEX, and our products are manufactured in the Alps-Adriatic region.

With MARY by sticklett, you've developed a unique product for babies and toddlers. What makes it so unique?

MARY is sticklett's first technology-supported fashion app. Shaped like a ladybug, it adheres to clothing and reliably measures vital signs. MARY is, so to speak, a "baby monitor with an additional function." The accompanying, free app provides an at-a-glance view of the child's most important vital signs: breathing, temperature, and movement behavior. Parents can also be notified via the app via a beep if the child's breathing suddenly stops, their body temperature rises or falls sharply, or if the child is active. This way, mom doesn't have to sit next to their child's crib; she can also check from a distance whether breathing is okay (especially valuable for preventing Sudden Infant Death Syndrome), whether the temperature is within the normal range (especially helpful for checking whether the child is too hot or too cold, or if they have a fever), or whether the child is active (thanks to this feature, MARY can also be used as a baby monitor with unlimited range!).

What values ​​are particularly important to you as an entrepreneur, mother and woman?

At sticklett, we, and I, are committed to the responsible use of people, resources, and materials. Our value chain is locally sourced. We want to pass this philosophy on to all children and parents who wear our clothing or use our products.
As a mother of two children, the quality of the fabrics worn on sensitive children's skin is very important to me. We use only high-quality, certified components for our technology-supported products. Furthermore, we develop and produce in Austria using the latest technology and have our products consistently tested and inspected.