Review Fix Exclusive: Stephen Fontana Talks The Lion’s Mane Goods And More

Review Fix chats with The Lion’s Mane Good CEO Stephen Fontana to find out all about the fun D&D-inspired fun.

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Review Fix: How did you get started?

Stephen Fontana: I think what makes this whole thing special is how it all started. We had just adopted a beautiful brown kitten and I had a picture of him on my phone. I was looking at him and I just said “man…he rolled a 20 for sure” (Being a huge D&D nerd I had it on the brain at the time) and I just had this idea: Make silly D&D related shirts, starring my own pets. So now it’s personal to me, which I think makes it special for sure. 

Review Fix: Why is your business special?

Fontana: After making the first design, I really didn’t have plans on selling anything. I just filed it away with the hundreds of other ideas I have and moved on. But then I kept coming across these “floating dice potions” on Etsy and thought they were so cool (and somewhat easy looking to make). Then my hyperfixation kicked in BIG TIME and I decided to make my own. But instead of copying other’s ideas, I was going to make mine really cute and tiny with custom made tiny dice. Now all of a sudden I had an actual product I could sell to people that I hand make to order. Thus the Etsy was born. 

Review Fix: What has the journey been like?

Fontana: The journey since throwing the potions on my Etsy shop has been really energizing to my creativity. It gave me a landing for all my crazy shirt ideas and now I add more and more every month. I now have non-cat related shirts, too! 

Review Fix: What are your goals for your business?

Fontana: My goals for this business is to keep my creative juices flowing and give people fun designs they can wear to their next D&D game, or awesome potions for them to make their friends jealous. I don’t have goals of being a millionaire with it, but I certainly would love it to become a solid avenue for a secondary income for my family. 

Review Fix: Any fun plans for the rest of the year with it?

Fontana: I hope to end 2023 with a huge catalogue of fun products and increase my social media presence to get the word out. 

Review Fix: Anything else you’d like to add?

Fontana: Folks, starting something like this can be scary and quite difficult. But once you do it…and you find your flow…it is the most rewarding thing. Start small. Any idea can be a business. Just give it a try!

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About Patrick Hickey Jr. 14262 Articles
Patrick Hickey Jr. is a full-time Assistant Professor of Communication & Performing Arts and Director of the Journalism program at Kingsborough Community College and is the chairman of the City University of New York Journalism Council. He is the Founder and Editor-In-Chief of ReviewFix.com. He's also a former News Editor at NBC Local Integrated Media and National Video Games Writer at Examiner.com where his work was mentioned in National Ad campaigns by Disney, Nintendo and EA Sports. Hickey was also the Editor-In-Chief of two College Newspapers before he received his BA in Journalism from Brooklyn College. Hickey's work has been published in The New York Daily News, The New York Times, Complex, The Hockey Writers, Yahoo!, Broadway World, Examiner, NYSportScene Magazine, ProHockeyNews.com, GothamBaseball.com, The Syracuse Post-Standard, Scout.com and the official sites of the Brooklyn Aces and New York Islanders. His first book, The Minds Behind the Games: Interviews With Cult And Classic Video Game Developers was released in April 2018 and is chock full of interviews with legendary developers. His second book in the series, The Minds Behind Adventures Games, was released in December 2019. His third book, The Minds Behind Sports Games, was released in September 2020. His fourth book, The Minds Behind Shooter Games, was released in March 2021. The Minds Behind Sega Genesis Games and The Minds Behind PlayStation Games were released in 2022 and The Minds Behind PlayStation 2 was published in January 2023. Hickey is also a contracted comic book writer, currently penning his original series, "Condrey," as well as "The Job," "Brooklyn Bleeds" "Dem Gulls" and "KROOM" for Legacy Comix, where he serves as founder, owner and Editor-in-Chief. Hickey Jr. is also a voice actor, having starred in the 2018 indie hit and 2019 Switch, PS4 and Xbox One release, The Padre (also serving as English language Story Editor), from Shotgun With Glitters. The sequel, The Padre: One Shell Straight to Hell was released in February 2021- Hickey also served as a Story Editor and Lead Voiceover performer. He has also done narration and trailers for several other titles including The Kaiju Offensive, Relentless Rex and Roniu’s Tale. Hickey is also the lead voiceover performer on Mega Cat Studios’ upcoming title WrestleQuest, responsible for nearly 90 characters in the game, as well as Skybound's Renfield: Bring Your Own Blood, where he voices both Dracula and Renfield, as well as several other characters. He also stars in Ziggurat Interactive’s World Championship Boxing Manager 2, where he performs the VO of nearly every male character in the game. He also worked on the Atari VCS’s BPM Boy.

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