Our son was born through surrogacy in early 2020. On the flight to meet him, I sat near a mum who spent ten hours picking her baby’s teether off the floor while he screamed. I remember thinking, there has to be a better way. I even sketched an idea for a teether that couldn’t be dropped — and then forgot about it.

A few weeks later, our son arrived safely but sick. We spent a week in the NICU, and as the world went into lockdown, we lost our jobs and found ourselves stuck away from home, with no savings (thanks, IVF) and a newborn in a global pandemic.

We moved into my mum’s living room, and when our son started teething at four months, that sketch from the flight came back to me. Every time his teether hit the floor, I thought, this is it.

So I started working on it — every night, sitting in his room in the dark while I nap-trained him, laptop under a blanket so the light wouldn’t wake him. Slowly, Toothi took shape.
Five years later, it’s surreal to see how far it’s come.

Toothi’s now used by thousands of families and loved by occupational therapists for how much it helps neurodivergent children, too. What started as a moment on a flight has turned into something much bigger than I ever expected.