A Safer and Healthier Way to Clean
- 1 day ago
- 3 min read
When Evody Tshimanga and her brother, Michee, needed a new way to support their family, they turned to cleaning, something their mother had taught them long before either of them thought about starting a business. The cleaning company they started became the foundation for Phera, a Cincinnati company that makes refillable cleaning products using powder-based formulas.
Their mother had found work cleaning hospitals, banks, and other buildings. Years later, after their logistics business failed, Tshimanga and Michee returned to what they already knew. They called the business Dust n’ Sweep.
Within weeks, they realized the products they were buying weren’t living up to their promises. The labels didn’t always make clear what was inside, and they began coming home from long days of cleaning with burned hands and rashes.
“My mother started losing her fingernails,” Tshimanga said.
“All the eco-friendly products we were using, which promised us really wonderful things, were actually letting us down,” she said.
“We were promising clients that these products were safe for their pets and their kids,” Tshimanga said. “But if they were already hurting us, what were they going to do to other people?”
They began looking for cleaning products they could trust and kept coming up empty.
“We started remembering how we cleaned back home,” Tshimanga said. She and her brother had grown up in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, where their family cleaned without commercial products. “Everything was natural,” she said. Her mother was the herbalist of the family, using herbs and natural ingredients for just about everything, reusing bottles and whatever she had instead of throwing them away.
They began researching natural ingredients and testing their own formulas. Over time, that work became Phera. The formulas they developed dissolve into a clear solution with a light, clean scent, without the harsh chemical smell they’d had to endure.
They also found natural alternatives people had relied on for generations, including a berry used for cleaning in parts of India and Nepal and a type of orange peel that could cut through grease while leaving behind a citrus scent.
One of their first large packaging orders came in the wrong size. It was an expensive mistake that forced them to start over.
“We were putting in all-nighters, trying to figure something out,” Tshimanga said. Michee moved in with her and slept on her couch while they tried to make it work.
As they refined the formulas, it occurred to them that if the "eco-friendly" products on the market had let them down, other people were probably being misled too. They decided to bring Phera to a pop-up in Cincinnati to see how people would respond. Customers came back after trying it, asking where they could get more and what else Phera could make, including shampoo, body wash, and lotion.
“People need this more than they actually need people to clean for them,” Tshimanga said.
They had a working product, but they still needed space, business structure, and a way to explain what they were making.
They connected with ECDI. Through its Women’s Business Center and other programs, ECDI helped them review their business plan and projections and work through questions they didn’t yet know how to answer. They had tried banks, grants, and other funding options but kept hearing no. ECDI was the first place willing to work with them.
ECDI also introduced them to Alloy, a Cincinnati-based startup incubator. There, they found workspace, a network of other founders, and help with marketing and messaging.
ECDI provided a loan that helped fund their first real production run, allowing them to source more reliable ingredients and move beyond trial batches. Alloy later encouraged them to launch a Kickstarter campaign to raise funds and get the product into people’s hands.
“We definitely didn’t do it by ourselves,” Tshimanga said. “I think it all started with meeting ECDI.”
Phera set a $5,000 Kickstarter goal and raised about $7,000. The campaign helped fund another production batch and gave more people a chance to try the products.
The model is simple: customers mix the powder with water at home and reuse the aluminum bottles, then order more powder when they need it. Phera is continuing to build out the line based on what people are asking for, from all-purpose cleaners to laundry products and hand soap.
Tshimanga no longer cleans houses, but she has been cleaning since she was a kid. “As soon as I was 10, old enough to hold a broom, mom was like, you’re gonna be cleaning the house,” she said.
"I know a lot of people don't say that they enjoy cleaning, but I love it," she said. "I just want people to be able to do it without it hurting them. That's why Phera is here.”
