Our Story
Lil Helper was founded by university buddies Uncle Mo and Nader in 2011 and are based in Toronto, Canada. Both have a bachelors and masters in aerospace engineering but only one is an aspiring CK model (yes it’s Uncle Mo) while the other has a face for radio (no names necessary).
Lil Helper is an experiment. Maybe even an accident.
Technically, on paper, we shouldn’t exist. We should have folded years ago. We persisted, somehow survived. When Nader and I started LH, it was to produce cloth diapers. Yes, we wanted to make a dent on society. Yes, we wanted to do more than just move products for a profit. But the impetus was to start a business so I could eventually quit being miserable at my day job as an Aircraft Performance Engineering Analyst (wake up!!) at Bombardier Aerospace.
In the course of running Lil Helper, we realised that business doesn’t have to be just transactional. As a business we need to turn a profit, but we can do it in a way that is good in the long run for both you and me. So we treat our patrons like individuals. Like human beings. That means we listen, we talk, and we empathise.
Making quality products, selling them at a reasonable price and then providing customer service like you bought a small aircraft, is part of the business model that treats each customer as a patron, not an order number. We make things better by making better things, a phrase that I have lifted from Seth Godin.
I think of this business model as Kind Capitalism
Kind to your colleagues. Kind to your patrons. Kind to your suppliers. Kind to every person who happens to cross your path.
The Capitalism part is where we are afforded the privilege to have these interactions through the process of conducting a business for profit. LH allows folks like us to make a living doing what we love by serving folks like you.
The fact that we make reusable products that help reduce a growing family’s carbon footprint is an incredible bonus to the mission of our business.
Our Team
Uncle Mo
If you happened to call us and heard an accent on the other line – rest assured, we haven’t outsourced our customer service to India – it’s just me. Apart from manning the phone at Lil Helper, I also care for my lovely daughter, Zara, and upon gentle persuasion carefully critique the wonderful cooking of Sophia, my beautiful and talented wife.
You can reach me at: unclemo@lilhelper.ca
Nader
I’m an aerospace engineer by profession, and have worked most of life after high school solving major technical issues for some of Canada’s most influential companies. What drives me more than anything, though, is finding ways to tie business together with a worthy cause. Away from work, I love travelling, and one goal of mine is to visit every country on the planet.
You can reach me at: nader@lilhelper.ca
Amanda
Amanda is a teacher and mom of two from a small town in Ontario. When she isn’t struggling to keep up with her boys, you can find her reading, crocheting, or writing poop-jokes for our website, emails, and blog.
Caitlin
Caitlin is a social worker and preschool teacher turned cloth diaper fanatic. As she grew into her role as a stay-at-home mom she also grew her role at Lil Helper from customer to ambassador to blog writer. Now she spends her time managing the Lil Helper blog, coordinating outreach, supporting Ambassadors, and chasing her girls around.
Heather
Heather is a mom of two who began cloth diapering in 2018. She dabbles in social media and marketing, writing for the blog and rallies fellow ambassadors to help spread the word about Lil Helper in her role as Chief Evangelist.
Jay
Jay is a licensed teacher. He turned out to be a Social Media coordinator for nearly 5 years, then joined Lil Helper in July 2021. He is responsible for social media engagement, warehouse coordination, and as the bubbly delight support representative.
Josh
Josh is Lil Helper’s chief “Everything Else” officer. He supports in realizing Uncle Mo’s goals, dreams, and aspirations for Lil Helper through fluidity in the day-to-day business operations.
Junice
Junice is an Illustrator and basically lives in the world of pixels. She helps fill the Lil Helper world with her creative prints and designs. She takes pleasure in seeing her fun illustrations turn into fun experiences.
Lubna
With 3 beautiful teenage daughters, Lubna was blessed with a son after 10 years. Feeling like a new mom all over again, she connected with the community of new mothers on Facebook and discovered Lil Helper. She joined the Lil Helper family in 2020 and has been a Warehouse Ninja ever since. So if you ever wonder how so many Lil Helper items can fit in small boxes perfectly, she’s probably the Tetris master that packed your order.
Najmi
Najmi joined Lil Helper in 2020 and works at the warehouse. She has three beautiful kids, ages 18, 16, 14 and is married to a great husband.
Our Mission - Fun
We are cheerful folks. Everything we do has an underlying element of fun attached to it, with a sprinkle of joy added in. A cheeky little detail on our cloth diapers might make you forget that you are cleaning a 3 Alarm Poonami, or a beautiful quote on our HyPs might make your PMS cramps a bit more bearable. Our packaging might have words that lighten up your day. Our website is designed to talk to you like an old friend. Our FB and IG news feeds don’t pontificate on politics or world events, except maybe to poke fun at it. We want to be a little corner of the internet where you come to cheer up.
Our Mission – Functionality
Everything we design is made with the specific purpose of making your life a tad bit simpler. All our products can be used for multiple things. And for you to use our stuff everyday, they have to be durable. The materials that we use, the way we construct our products, the added functionality, all scream one thing - HIGH QUALITY. There are people who are still using things we made a decade ago. While others have resold their investments and recouped more than half of their money.
Since we intend for you to use our products for years and pass it on to others after you are done, our prints and colours are designed to be evergreen. No licensed characters and no fads. And almost everything we make is gender neutral.
Our Mission – Family
We strive to be excellent to our patrons (YOU!), our co-workers, and the environment in general. When we introduced HyPs, our menstrual wear - we made it for all people who menstruate, as there are folks who are transitioning that have a need for these products. Our Baby Do Better program subsidizes essentials for families who are going through a rough time. Almost the entire LH team consists of current LH patrons, actual paying customers who choose to work with us, so they can serve our new patrons exactly the same way they were served. We are continuously trying to reduce the packaging of our products and ship our orders in the smallest box possible to cut out waste. We have products made from scraps destined for the landfill- like our T-shirt wipes and the PUL on Tank Inserts.