We're Claiming First Hat

A few years back we were working on our first designs, framing up our concept, and had put together a pretty cool PowerPoint with color palettes and overall game plan. Of course, being not just a small business but a microscopic business, we needed to develop relationships with the fashion industry in New York. Specifically, we needed to source and vet potential partners in the supply chain.

For those of you, in more fluid times, accustomed to traveling in/out of New York, an easy mode were the trains.

Of course, we had the normal "get beaten up" story as we made the rounds. Really is tough getting attention when you're a speck of a start-up.

Feeling a little defeated, but proudly wearing our Madda Fella caps, we nursed our "wounds" on the Amtrak train from NYC to DC, debriefed the sessions amongst ourselves, and worked on revising our "launch" plans.

If you are familiar with the seating arrangements on an Amtrak, we got lucky and snagged a four-person table at the rear of one of the cars.

The train pulls into Philadelphia, as it always does on the N/S route. Although this time, it's taking a bit longer to get rolling again.

A few moments later a pretty tough-looking fella comes into our car from the car behind us and just stays put. We could see that VP Biden had entered the car right behind us. So clearly, this fella was "not so secret" service. A few others joined him and sat directly across from us. 

As you might expect, curiosity got the better of us and we struck up a conversation with our neighbors. They were interested in our story or at least pretended to be. They explained the VP was a big supporter of small businesses and they would share with him. For a moment we thought maybe we'd get the intro, but that didn't happen. Maybe we should have shaved that day, but clearly, the "not so secret" service guy had no interest in us moving anywhere. 

However...you just can't let an opportunity like this just pass. We thanked our new "besties" (yep, we worked it), and asked them to give to the VP one of our very few Madda Fella "Launch" hats. Which they profusely promised to do...and I'll just believe that they indeed did do that.

So, while we now have a rescue as a First pet, we're gonna claim that in one of those boxes going into the White House is an original Madda Fella cap. 

Yep...we're sticking to that.