NYC mom makes $1.7 million selling diaper bags from apartment

Alexandra Rutkay was working as a personal makeup artist for a TV star when she noticed a problem. She was heading to dinner with her family in New York City and realized her cute small bag could not fit a sippy cup and diapers. She wanted a bag that looked normal but worked for parents. In 2022, she spent $8,500 of her own savings to start citymouse, a company that sells minimalist crossbody diaper bags. She sketched the design and found a supplier on Alibaba, a global online marketplace for manufacturers. Then she posted the product on TikTok. The video went viral and she sold $50,000 worth of bags in one single weekend. "If your product works, assume someone will copy it within a year," Rutkay says. She saw Target and Amazon sellers make knockoffs of her design almost immediately. Despite the copies, her total sales surpassed $1.7 million in under two years. Her husband even quit his career to run the operations full time. For you, this means a small investment in a specific problem can turn into a million-dollar business if you find the right social media crowd. Just make sure you have a way to ship the boxes before you go viral, or you will be packing orders in your living room like she did. It is a lot of work, but it beats carrying a giant plastic tub to dinner.