The Edge of Entrepreneurship--Jibbitz

As part of my sabbatical research project, I had the pleasure of interviewing Rich Schmelzer of Jibbitz. Check out Episode 5 from The Edge of Entrepreneurship video series.

Famous Inventor Brothers...who are they?

Okay, let's see...there's the Wright Brothers (airplane), the Duryea Brothers (gasoline car), and the Jacuzzi Brothers (whirlpool spas). But, have you heard of the Tomasetti Brothers? They're the innovators of the ShaveMate, an all-in-one razor that combines a 6-bladed razor with shaving cream.

I highlight these brothers' "invention" not because of the novelty of the concept, nor the boldness with which they are trying to conquer a very well-protected market space. Instead, I choose to highlight them for how they use one of the SIDEs of Innovation to bring a new product to the marketplace.

If you were a student in my Creativity, Innovation, and Entrepreneurship class, you'd remember the SIDEs of Innovation as: synthesis, invention, duplication, and extension. Students--and many would-be entrepreneurs--get hung up on the "I'm not an inventor, so therefore I can't create a new product" mind block. I try to coax them out of this by reminding them that innovation need not always come from invention, but instead can come from synthesizing, duplicating, or extending ideas.

The Tomasetti brothers--Lou and Pete--have done just that by integrating real lanolin-enriched shaving cream inside the handle of a disposable razor. And, they've managed to do it in a fantastically interesting way.

While you're not likely to see Super Bowl ads for the product anytime soon, you may come across a fan of the product who uses the ShaveMate Diva or Titan while traveling. The ShaveMate is perfectly suited for that application. However, it need not remain stowed in your travel case. It works well as a daily replacement to the offerings found on the personal grooming aisle at your local grocery store or big box retailer.

The design of the packaging is very well done and looks like something you'd see from Gillette, a Procter & Gamble brand. As you may know, Gillette and their mach3, Fusion, and Venus lines occupy 70% of the manual blades and razors market. I guess it's fair to refer to Gillette as the ShaveMate's big, hairy gorilla of a competitor. Yes, pun intended.

I applaud these brothers for their tenacity and willingness to challenge the status quo. Go, brothers, go!

Bheestie...strange name, good idea

Have you ever dropped your cell phone in the toilet? No? Neither have I.

How about an iPod in a stream while salmon fishing? You haven't? Hmm, well, neither have I.

But, I know others who have. In fact, even close family members of mine have been known to drop my cell phone in the river at the boat dock. No, I'm not bitter if it sounds like I am.

In our family, when misfortune like this strikes, we just open up a gallon sized zipper-locking food storage bag and fill it with a cup or two of uncooked rice. Then, we gently lay to rest our water-sogged electronic device and leave overnight. Voila! It often does the trick.

Well, here's a product that perhaps better solves the pain of the "water in my expensive, yet delicate electronic gadget" problem. As the story goes, two sisters have created Bheestie Bag, a new product that has, in a few short months, already gained the strong recommendation from some early adopters. Karen Wildman and Lisa Holmes created this product in 2009 after experiencing a few too many "accidents" involving liquid and electronics.

According to their marketing materials, the Bheestie uses "powerful water absorbing beads that physically bond with the water, holding it inside of them" to dry out all sorts of electronic devices. The smallish bag is large enough to hold mp3 devices, cell phones, digital cameras, but is not likely to stand up to the dimensions of the recently-announced Apple iPad.

I applaud the sisters for their tenacity as evidenced by their timeline from initial product idea in 2003 to market penetration via REI and online outlets in 2009. Well done, sisters!

"Free Shipping Day" creators Luke & Maisie Knowles

"Why are they charging me $15 to ship my order? That's crazy! I wonder if there's a way that I can get free shipping for this order?"

If you've shopped online, you've likely experienced the pain of unreasonable shipping costs. In fact, it was this pain that led Luke and Maisie Knowles--ardent online shoppers in their own right--to create freeshipping.org, a shipping-saving resource for online shoppers.

The Knowles started the business in December of 2007 and were stunned when it experienced continuous month-over-month growth in site traffic. While they thought it would be a great resource for the cost-conscious online shopper, they had no idea that after a year the site would be attracting 300,000 visitors per month with more than 500,000 during the holiday shopping season.

As Luke shared with me, the creation of this business was not accidental, but neither was it the result of a multi-year investigation or a hundred page business plan. The business came from a pain or as Luke stated, "We were just trying to solve a problem." It was a pain that they had experienced and that they figured might be somewhat universally experienced by other online shoppers.

Prior to the launch of freeshipping.org, the Knowles had a web design and development company (kinoli.com) that they built together. This experience of working alongside one another is clearly not for all couples. According to Luke, "95% of couples couldn't do this. It works for us as my wife and I are very compatible. She's a great communicator and organizer, and I'm not. Our natural giftings complement each other well."

While the concept of "entrepreneurial spouses" is not uncommon, the Knowles offer this advice to couples interested in starting a business together: "there's real value in taking time away from the business--together or alone--so that you don't tire of it or each other."

When asked what he'd share with my entrepreneurially-minded students, Luke offered the following advice from his experience in launching freeshipping.org:

• Hard work pays off. "We had no real capital. All we had were our skills, our computers, and the sweat on our backs to do this new venture."
• Do what you know. "We were already in this line of business [i.e., web development and design]. We're just doing maybe 10 degrees different than what we were already doing."
• You don't need the Perfect Storm, but it helps. "High gas prices made it so the media liked our story. We're the online shopping answer to high gas prices."
• Novel ideas help...so does a little luck. "We saw some stats that said that online shopping peaked at December 10. We thought that was because people didn't want to risk not receiving their orders in time for Christmas. We thought that was much too early and wondered if we could create a Free Shipping Day site that would provide not only free shipping but also a guarantee that it would arrive in time for Christmas. It was the result of a simple brainstorm and we had no idea that it would result in 250,000 site visitors on that day."
• Have confidence in your ideas. "Even if someone else thinks your idea won't work, go with it anyway. It was in November 2007, at our dinner table, that I shared the freeshopping.org concept with my wife who was many months pregnant at the time. I said, 'I've got this idea, should we do it?' She said, 'Yeah, let's do it.' We didn't know what to expect, but we figured we gotta try it." [aside: they launched less than a month later]
• Be well rounded. "As an entrepreneur, it's important to have a big bubble of skillsets. If you have many skillsets, you won't need to hire multiple people. You can just do it yourself. If someone tried to start this same business and didn't have diverse skillsets, they'd end up hiring five people to do what we can do with just the two of us."

I've had a number of students in the past tell me that they could never be entrepreneurs because they don't have enough money to start a business. Luke related that his dad used to tell him, "it takes money to make money." Luke attests that while he didn't "grow up with lots of money", he now views it like this: "it takes money to have lots of chances to make money." The important action is taking chances and trying.

Since launching freeshopping.org and freeshoppingday.com, the Knowles have ventured into two new lines of business with couponsherpa.com and an iPhone app of the same name. They appear to be on the right track with these extended concepts.

Interestingly, Luke's parting comment was that they determined they'd be "the very best at something, even if it was to the smallest market." Instead of taking on the huge online coupon code market space, the Knowles identified what appeared to be a very small niche--free shipping--and promptly dominated it. "We're the purple cow* of the online shopping market space." So far, it's working out very well for them.

*for more info on Purple Cows, check out Seth Godin's writing on the topic.

Fair Dinkum...a nice idea, for sure

I learned about gDiapers today and spent some time dinking [yes, pun intended] around on their website. In my dinking, I came across their Fair Dinkum page . Now, I must say that I've never heard of this Australian term before, but I really like it. Here's an excerpt from their page:

Fair Dinkum is an Australian expression that means being genuine and real with everyone you encounter. Well put. That is our philosophy toward our business, our people and the planet.

We've been talking about the concept of Cradle to Cradle and creating products that last a lifetime in our Creativity, Innovation, and Entrepreneurship course at Cal State San Marcos. It was certainly encouraging to read about gDiapers and discover that they've recently secured more funding in an effort to further build their business.

Congrats to the husband and wife team of Jason and Kim Graham-Nye, founders of gDiapers. What a great success story.

Really something fantastic about this...

Autonomous vehicles = yawn, ho hum, BORing. Oh, autonomous vehicle racing, you say? Now, that's really something else entirely. Oh, this really is so cool!

Check out the "Boss"...

Boss is equipped with more than a dozen lasers, cameras and radars to view the world. High-level route planning determines the best path through a road network. Motion planning requires consideration of the static and dynamic obstacles detected by perception, as well as lane and road boundary information, parking lot boundaries, stop lines, speed limits, and similar requirements. Boss handles surprises such as other vehicles running a stop sign or making sudden stops or turns. Defensive driving skills allow Boss to avoid crashes.

Just one of 11 finalists in the $3.5 million Urban Challenge put on by DARPA (aka R&D for DoD), Boss will face his (her?) toughest challenge yet. Beginning tomorrow morning at 8:00 PDT, Boss and the other 10 vehicles will "launch" on a 60 mile race through the boroughs and 'hoods' of thriving Victorville, California. First one to the finish line, gets $2 million dollars.

In case you can't make the trek to V-ville, check out the live video feeds and photos.

Should be a very entertaining show, with a lot of money on the line (not to mention the long-term implications of robot-controlled transportation). Happy viewing!

photo courtesy of Carnegie Mellon Tartan Racing

Another father/son innovation team?

There's news out about another Father and Son team creating breakthroughs; this time the innovation is treating viruses using lasers. If you've been following my blog, you'll note that not long ago, I posted about the father and son team who are working on a lunar lander in the $2 million X Prize challenge.

So, what is it about these father and son teams that create these breakthoughs? No doubt, each of these two dyads are composed of very bright individuals. I would also guess that each of the father-son combos share similar interests, but not exactly similar skillsets.

Perhaps something can be learned by reading what Alexis Madrigal, the author of the Wired article, says about how the genesis of the duo's innovation:

Tsen and his son Shaw-Wei Tsen, a pathology student at Johns Hopkins University, came up with the idea while strolling in the park and discussing the need for antiviral treatments that go beyond vaccinations. Tsen senior has long experimented with ultrashort-pulse lasers (USPs), devices increasingly used outside of physics.

My guess is that the real conversation went something like this.

son: So, dad, I've got this midterm coming up wherein I'll be asked to describe all the various ways to destroy viruses.

dad: Well, son, I don't know anything about that there stuff. What are the different ways to destroy viruses? All I know about is how to destroy stuff with lasers. Sorry, I can't be much help to you.

son: Dad, what can your lasers destroy?

dad: Oh, lots of stuff sonny-boy.

son: Really? What if we...

The joining of two seemingly-unrelated topics--physics and pathology--is the start of something wonderful. All it takes is for a little sharing, a little brainpower, and mixed with a little game of "What if...?"

I think I'm starting to get misty-eyed...

The power of [very] small entrepreneurial teams

In case you haven't heard...there's a new race for space. In fact, the race for space has a variety of prizes for those first to:

• suborbital flight -- $10 million Ansari X Prize awarded in 2004 to Mojave Aerospace Ventures for their flight of Space Ship One.
  
• similated lunar landing -- $2 million NASA/Northrop Grumman challenge ongoing, but likely that it will occur this weekend (Oct 27-28, 2007) or next year at the latest
  
• robotic lunar landing -- $30 million Google Lunar X Prize
  

If any of this appeals to you, you may find interest in reading about this father and son team who are trying to win the Lunar Lander Challenge. A really fantastic story of perseverance written by Jason Silverman, posted on Wired. Here's just a snippet of the father's comments regarding their entry:

I wanted to prove a couple of guys in a garage could do something significant that didn't require a $100 billion from NASA.