French Mom Trades Used Car for 6,000 Baby Books, Garage Now Full Warehouse
KEY POINTS
- ā¢Carinne Meyrignac founded Cali's Books during her maternity leave by printing American nursery rhyme books lacking in France.
- ā¢She invested money saved for a used car to meet Chinese manufacturers meeting their minimum print run of 3,000 copies per title.
- ā¢After quitting her corporate banking job following a mediation settlement, Meyrignac scaled the company to $4.8 million revenue by 2023.
Carinne Meyrignac, a French expat in LA obsessed with nursery rhymes, ditched saving for a used car in November 2016 to shell out manufacturing minimums in Chinaā3,000 copies each for Twinkle Twinkle and Patty Cake. By March 2017, her garage shrank to a storage unit overflowing with 6,000 Americanized musical books after shunning French tobacco-loving rhymes. She quit her corporate banking gig post-mediation settlement, poured that cash into Caliās Books, and by 2023, had paid herself amidst $4.8 million revenue and over 50 titlesāplus she hired her husband at a demotion. Family business, fractured bridges, and questionable nursery rhyme ethics included.
Share the Story
Spent maternity leave in Paris comparing narcotic French rhymes to cheerful American ones then bet the family car savings on mass-produced baby books. Surely this is what corporate banking prepared you for.
Nothing says entrepreneurship like crashing your used car fund for a garage full of sing-along toddlers' books made in China.
She fled French tobacco nursery rhymes and returned to LA corporate banking only to bail and hire her husband at a pay cut. Family business or marital hostage situation?
Source: Businessinsider | Published: 12/10/2025 | Author: Kelly Burch
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