We’ve all heard of the “aha moment.”
For entrepreneur Laura Saitta, it was more of a MacGyver moment.
She was remodeling the kitchen in her Roswell, Georgia, home when she ran into a frustrating problem: she couldn’t easily cut backsplash tile into the small pieces she needed around a window.
She wasn’t a tile expert. She wasn’t a product designer. She wasn’t thinking about patents, manufacturing or starting a company.
She simply thought:
There has to be a better way.
So she improvised.
Using an old 3½-inch floppy disk and clamps she found around the house, Saitta created a makeshift device that held the tile in place while she worked.
It solved her immediate problem.
Then another thought arrived:
Could this solve the same problem for other people?
That question eventually led to TileSizer—and launched Saitta into a world she knew almost nothing about.
Start Before You Know Everything
Saitta had spent two decades in corporate America, including experience in systems development, finance, marketing, billing, collections and contract negotiations.
What she didn’t have was experience with tile manufacturing, patents, CAD drawings, molds or product development.
She learned.
That’s one of the realities of entrepreneurship that gets lost in polished founder stories. Very few people begin knowing everything required to build the business they envision.
Often, the more important skill is being willing to figure out what comes next.
Saitta’s corporate experience gave her a foundation, but building a physical product required an entirely new education.
She sought out manufacturers, learned the development process and began pitching the idea.
Be Prepared for Doors Not to Open
Her path wasn’t always welcoming.
Early in the process, Saitta says she sometimes introduced herself using the name “L. Saitta.” Interest would follow—until people learned that “L” stood for Laura.
Was gender the reason some conversations disappeared?
She can’t know for certain.
But the experience reinforced something many women entrepreneurs recognize: having a good idea doesn’t mean everyone will immediately recognize its potential—or yours.
The lesson wasn’t to spend all of her energy wondering why someone didn’t respond.
It was to keep moving.
Your Existing Skills Still Count
Starting something new doesn’t mean starting from zero.
Saitta may have been inexperienced in manufacturing, but she wasn’t inexperienced in business.
Years of negotiating contracts, understanding systems, managing finances and navigating corporate environments became useful in ways she couldn’t have anticipated.
That’s an important lesson for women considering entrepreneurship or career reinvention.
The experience you’ve accumulated doesn’t disappear because you’re entering a different industry.
Ask instead:
Which of my existing skills transfer?
Negotiation transfers.
Relationship building transfers.
Financial discipline transfers.
Problem-solving transfers.
Leadership transfers.
And sometimes the person entering an industry from the outside sees a problem differently precisely because she hasn’t been taught to accept the way it’s always been done.
Understand the Financial Reality
Eventually, Saitta invested nearly $10,000 of her own savings into bringing the idea to market.
Her advice for would-be entrepreneurs is straightforward: understand that building something often takes far longer than expected.
Large companies may move slowly. Manufacturers have minimums. Product development costs money. Sales cycles can stretch.
Entrepreneurship requires enthusiasm—but enthusiasm isn’t a financial plan.
Before taking the leap, understand what you’re willing to invest, what you can afford to lose and how long you can sustain the business before it produces meaningful income.
Persistence Matters—but So Does Adaptability
Saitta’s biggest lesson isn’t simply “never quit.”
It’s more nuanced than that.
You have to keep going and be willing to change.
The original idea may need modification.
The first manufacturer may not work.
The first sales strategy may fail.
A promising conversation may go nowhere.
The entrepreneur who succeeds isn’t necessarily the one with the perfect original plan.
It’s often the one willing to keep learning and adjusting without losing sight of the problem she set out to solve.
Saitta puts it simply:
Don’t be afraid to follow your dream—but be flexible, resourceful and adaptable.
That’s useful advice whether you’re launching a product, starting a company or simply considering something you’ve never done before.
Sometimes innovation doesn’t begin in a laboratory or boardroom.
Sometimes it begins in your kitchen, holding a piece of tile and thinking:
There has to be a better way.
Pink POV
The most interesting thing about Laura Saitta’s story isn’t the floppy disk.
It’s that she didn’t wait until she knew how to become an inventor before trying to solve the problem in front of her.
Expertise matters. Preparation matters. Money matters.
But so do curiosity and the willingness to ask a deceptively powerful question:
Why does it have to be done this way?
That question has launched more than a few businesses.
And sometimes the person most capable of seeing the solution is the one who hasn’t yet been told why it supposedly can’t be done.
