The Bubblefast Story

Mark and Robin Le Vine

The Bubblefast Story
August 26, 2010

About Bubblefast

Many people have asked or wondered, “How did Bubblefast get its start?”

Read on as we tell our story . . . .

Robin’s late husband, Alan Mann, was a computer consultant. One day in 1999 he found himself at the warehouse of a client who sold bubble wrap. Alan had some computer parts up for sale on eBay. He bought a small roll of bubble to use to pack his sold items. When he got home with the bubble he had a light bulb moment. If he needed an inexpensive source for bubble wrap, there were probably lots of other people out there in the eBay community who needed it as well. He went back to the warehouse and bought a few more rolls specifically to list on eBay. They sold almost immediately — and Bubblefast was born. Robin started driving to the supplier 1-2 times a week to pick up vanloads of product. Alan, Robin and their daughters packaged the bubble and stood in line at the post office with their gigantic packages to ship. And the checks started pouring in. When the semi-trucks started trying to back into the driveway it was time for the business to move out of the home. Within a few short months, Bubblefast moved into the office/warehouse space in our neighborhood that we still occupy.

Tragedy struck Bubblefast in 2001. Alan, who was 43 years old at the time, was running in community marathon when he suffered what turned out to be a fatal heart attack. Robin and her 2 daughters were devastated. The story of how Bubblefast survived the tragedy is incredible. While Robin and her daughters were at Alan’s bedside for 17 days, a community of angels came to her aid. Robin’s brother David, a CPA, was serving in the Peace Corps in Kazakhstan. He somehow wrangled an emergency leave to come home. He and Alan’s sister Janet, an insurance executive (who was 9 months pregnant at the time) took it upon themselves to practically move into the Bubblefast office to try to figure out how to keep the business afloat. Unfortunately there was very little in the way of documentation to guide them. Somehow they figured out how to respond to customers, order product, process orders and keep the creditors at bay.

On the shipping and receiving end, they were assisted by an amazing team. Alan, at the time, was president of the local school board. School administrators organized a volunteer squadron involving the whole community to unload trucks, package and ship product, and transport shipments to the post office and UPS. Robin says it was like something you would see on TV. She still can’t believe that it actually happened. Eventually, when Robin came back to work she still needed a significant amount of help. Robin’s teen-aged daughter Jenny helped her figure out how to use Mister Lister, an eBay-listing program. Brother-in-law, Larry figured out how to get into the website server to make changes. Other friends stepped in to help teach Robin how to use the temperamental forklift, how to make changes to the database and how to straighten out the confused accounting mess.

How did Mark come into the picture? One of Robin’s knights in shining armor was Mark. Mark had known Robin and Alan for a couple of years. At one point Alan had asked Mark to help organize Bubblefast’s financial records. Robin started relying on Mark’s help. He spent more and more time at Bubblefast. In April of 2002 Mark officially became a full time Bubblefast employee. Robin and Mark became an inseparable team. They were married in 2003. And the rest is history.