LET IMAGINATION SOAR.
LET THE PLAY BEGIN.
LET NATURE PREVAIL.
Let oranges, reds, greens, yellows, blues fill our children’s’ days.
Let them make triangles from circles and spaceships from squiggles.
Let our children dream with their eyes open.
And express all of it. Let us let our kids be the best of who they are.
That’s our biggest wish at Dabble. And we made it our Mission.
“ENCOURAGING FREE PLAY IN CHILDREN, ENSURING HEALTHY GROWTH.”
We emphasize on natural and safe ingredients. Because we do not want to hold our children back because, rightly, as parents we do worry about chemicals, toxins and additives.
And so our mission started with a question.
“Where are the child-friendly products for art and play?”
RESEARCH & INVENTION
Once upon a time, not so long ago, Karen and Neha, could not find enough brands every time they searched for safe art products for their kids. Being moms they were a bit disappointed. Being trained art therapists they knew something was missing. So they decided to take a shot at it themselves.
Small experiments in their kitchens were followed by long hours in a rented workplace. Crayons, paints, bath art, all kinds of products were made by hand. All kinds of organic and natural materials were tried.
RIGOROUS TESTING
Every batch of products they made were turned over to the most vigorous of testers – their own kids and their kids’ friends – to play, colour and use any which way they wanted. We commissioned an industry-reputed Cosmetologist with specialised skills in developing child products. At every stage of development, art teachers and occupational therapists were brought in, their views sought and changes made. Products were shared with parents in closed focus groups and their feedback was also taken. Till everyone was happy with the final results.
MANUFACTURING & QUALITY CONTROL
But then having the product is only half the story right. After extensive searches and discussions we found the right quality conscious manufacturers to produce them and right vendors to supply the raw materials. A team of Food Specialists and Technologists certify every batch we make. So we are here now speaking to you with our first set of offerings – crayons and finger-paints. They are totally natural and non-toxic. Everything is just right, because nothing less will do for our kids.
And that’s why we are so excited to say “Kids just wanna Dabble!”.
WHAT MAKES DABBLE BE DABBLE
Love, lots of love. Caring. Sharing personal touch. Whatever we do, we do it with a love for what we are doing, a sense of caring for everyone involved – the kids who use our products, the parents who buy our products and the teams who work with us. And we want to share our efforts with everyone. We hope our efforts make a big difference for kids to grow up in a world that’s truly free.
WHEN YOU DABBLE, 2 BECOMES MANY
What started as a conversation between Neha and Karen had turned into a family of Dabblers. Technologists, entrepreneurial pros and marketing experts are all part of the development work at Dabble. Pooling our ideas together helped give a better shape to our products. And there was no looking back, we incorporated our company under the name Dabble Playart Private Limited
CORE TEAM
NEHA BAJAJ
Founder, Chief Dabbler
“It’s not enough to do things right. It’s got to be PERFECT.”
Neha is a passionate, perfectionist who started off her career as a photographer.
With publications in – Lonely planet, Travel & Leisure, Better Homes & Gardens & Food Lovers Magazine, she is recognised for her work in Food & Architecture Photography.
Wonder struck about the workings of the mind, and her love for children encouraged her to pursue her studies in Psychology to become a trained art therapist. She uses art as a medium to communicate with children and decipher their inner emotions.
With her deep-dive into Dabble she hopes to enable children discover true artistic expression.
KAREN SALDANHA
Founder, Chief Dabbler
Karen is a Corporate Trainer by profession and a trained Expressive Arts therapist by passion. She brings her business insights and life experience together to her first love of creating happiness for children.
Her training in Waldorf education has helped bring concepts of early learning to Dabble’s product design table. She has a degree in marketing management and a Women’s Entrepreneurship certification from IIM, Bangalore.
She is also Certified Professional Coach (CPC) from Leadership that works, USA. She has worked with leading corporates like ICICI Prudential and Platinum One and has her own training company. If you find her humming at work or driving, don’t be surprised, it’s just her love for music and her choir group.
MR. GOPAL RAO
Mentor
Mr. Gopal Rao has had a long career of over 30 years of International experience working in California in USA, Singapore, Lagos in Nigeria and in India. His experience covers, Corporate & Project Finance, M&A, and Business Development and Business Strategy. He was involved in setting up a petrochemicals based project in Malaysia, Business Development in S.E.Asia, and in Business Acquisitions in USA. He worked in various CXO positions in USA, Singapore and Nigeria.
An alumnus of IIM Bangalore, he holds PGDM (MBA) in Finance from IIM Bangalore and Chemical Engineering degree from Annamalai University Tamilnadu.
Gopal Rao Addanki is a Mentor at NSRCEL in IIM Bangalore and is involved in the start-up ecosystem and Mentoring and providing advisory services to Start-ups. He is also involved in various programs of NSRCEL as Mentor, evaluator and Jury for various programs like Mobility, Women Start-up Program, 10K Women program, New Star-ups…etc. He is also freelancing as a “Venture Catalyst” and a mentor for SME businesses.
Our deepest gratitude to our children – Our inspiration! And to our husbands for accepting our insanity 🙂
Cheers to our friends and associates for helping us shape Dabble from a simple idea to a passionate company….
Team Purplemango, Ravi D’Abreo, Achuthan Kannan, Sheryl Neema Tauro Shubira Dsa, Raji Thomas, Seema Mullick, Sakena Begg, Hiral Divyansh Mishra, Sonal Sequeira, Debashree Pal, Smriti Rastogi, Shital Deshmukh, NSRCEL, IIM Bangalore team and mentors – Mr. Suryanarayanan and Mr. Gopal Addanki. If you loved the pictures of our Dabbler families as much as we did, credit to Amogh Thakur.