Meet Rob + Sarah from do+dare undie co.
In the spirit of Valentine’s Day this month, we want to celebrate and recognize couples who work together in business everyday.
Meet Rob Bourbeau + Sarah Hemingway from do+dare undie co. !
1. How did you both meet?
We met at the Play Project parkour gym in Burlington. We were teamed up on our first day and we won a bunch of challenges together. Since that moment we’ve been an amazing team – now we’re life partners ♥, and business partners!
ps. Parkour is the art of moving, also called freerunning. Check it out on youtube and you’ll be amazed! 🏃♂️🏃♀️
pps. We are nowhere near that good… 😊
ppps. We’re both a little crazy and love to learn new things, stay active and push ourselves.
Also, the team at Play Project, headed by Trevor, are amazing! They run classes for kids of all ages. 😁
2. Why did you start working/open your business together?
We are dreamers and doers. It was on a roadtrip through Québec that we found ourselves once again dreaming about what our futures might be. We thought it would be great if we could build something that allowed us to make and do, to be creative; something that would make people happy and help them create special moments. A zillion discussions later do+dare undie co. was born! (perhaps unsurprisingly, it was one of our more ridiculous convos that led to the idea of personalized underwear!)
3. Tell us a little bit about yourselves and your business. (i.e. What is your unique offering?)
We make the world’s best personalized underwear. Not only are our amazing underwear super comfy, eco-friendly and ethically produced (here in the GTA!) – our undies are also the most fun underwear – we encourage our customers to personalize them with any art, any text, on any side of the undie.
Personalizing your underwear is an experience unique to each customer and that’s what we love so much about our biz. It doesn’t matter if it’s for yourself, your BFF, or your sweetheart (Valentines day is right around the corner! ♥), our undies make people smile and feel special. We love seeing what people dream up!
We also love telling people about our business, watching them for a few seconds as they realize what we do, then watching their surprise turn into a smile and then an “I know who to get these for!”
As for us personally:
Rob is a Professional Engineer – he loves to learn, solve problems and is constantly figuring out how to make things work better. He’s active, playful, positive and has a seemingly endless supply of energy…just imagine what would happen if he drank coffee!!
Sarah is an awesome teacher – she loves adventure, problem solving, and trying new things – just check out her hobby collection! She’s an avid reader, is full of great ideas and loves to keep her body moving – she even manages to keep Rob on his toes!
4. What other downtown businesses do you frequent and do business with?
Oddspot, Coop Wicked Chicken, La Crème de la Crème Creamery, Luganos Pizza, Kelly’s Bakeshop, Centro, Canada Post, No Frills, Corned Beef Hut, Buds Smoke + Pleasantrees 😲, Cinestars, Amaya, Pintoh, Burro, RBC, Pharmacy on Martha, Tim Hortons, Charcoal Pit, and probably a few more – there’s such awesome food downtown – we love it all!
5. If you had a piece of advice for other couples starting a business together, to help them succeed, what would it be?
You’ll be spending A LOT of time together! Plus, it can be hard to separate work from home life. So if possible, try to create separation between the two lives, like a different physical space. That helps to keep the romantic side of the relationship going strong.
We also find it important to celebrate the little things – monthly date days and going out days. We also have nights where we take breaks from the biz since we have an endless list of things to do and long term projects that will take up all of our time if we let them.
Lastly, we try to keep each other up to date on all the happenings in the business so that neither of us feels left out, even if we have different strengths and areas of focus.
6. Do you have any Valentine’s Day traditions?
We love to stay in and surprise each other with a collection of yummy cheeses, charcuterie meats, chocolates and other sweets and snacks. All the while enjoying a fun movie!