Pump for Joy – MICRO Fall 2024
Published May 14, 2025
As part of our ‘Meet Our Founders’ series today, we introduce Erin Martin, Founder of Pump for Joy based in Davidson, NC. Pump For Joy is on a mission to make breast pumping moms’ lives just a little bit easier – by providing single-use biodegradable breastmilk collection kits that can be used once and thrown away, guilt-free.
Q: What problem are you trying to solve and what influenced you to start your company?
A: When I had my daughter in 2021, I quickly realized that I’d be in a multi-month relationship with my breast pump when she wouldn’t properly latch to my breast to breastfeed. I loathed pumping in general, but as a working mom it also added insult to injury that I was constantly cleaning and sterilizing my pump parts. I must have spent weeks of time in total just cleaning in that time period. As a result, I wanted to make that experience just a little bit easier for other moms like me. The material science and sustainability nerd in me was eager to push the boundaries to see how biodegradable I could make this thing so it could be a guilt-free convenience for these moms who already have a million things on their minds. It’s been a crazy journey ever since.
Q: What are you most excited about right now? What keeps you up at night?
A: The balancing act of balancing my unit costs against what moms would be willing to pay for the convenience. As a single-use product, that can be a fine line!
Q: What does the road ahead look like for your company?
A: I hope to start testing my prototypes with real lactating moms in the next couple of months. Once the design is confirmed to be both comfortable and effective (and biodegradable!) I will set out on my journey of finalizing manufacturing partnerships and getting FDA approval.
Q: What is one thing you wish you understood about entrepreneurship before you ever got started?
A: It can make you feel like you are legitimately going crazy every day. You question yourself constantly, and flip flop between days feeling really confident about your decisions followed by days where you want to pull your hair out and quit. 🙂 For the most part, I’ve loved it and it feels like a big science experiment and exercise in patience and determination.
Q: What other passions do you have besides your business?
A: I love being on and in the water. I love paddlesports, boating, and SCUBA diving.
While visiting Davidson, Erin recommends:
- Kindred is pretty renowned in Davidson, and for good reason – it’s incredible! My husband and I love to go there for special occasions. We also love Sri Balaji Indian restaurant and you can find us there nearly once a week!
Support Pump for Joy and Erin by:
- I’m actively seeking injection molding partners who are willing to work with novel biodegradable materials and experiment with founders like me on a small-scale iterative basis.
