THE YACHT CLUB
Everyone has big ideas, but not everyone puts in the work to make them real. These are a few projects that I invested my evenings, weekends and a little bit of money into with hopes of striking it rich. None of them paid off. I don’t have a yacht, but I did recently buy a used canoe.
FELT PUSH PIN CLOCKS
This product was designed to be simply constructed at home using standard, easy to find parts. About 100 clocks were sold through regional independent home goods stores.
Learning: Even if easy to assemble, labor quickly added up and was a barrier to scale. (AKA: My fingers got sore.)
PILL POD PRODUCTS
Designed in partnership with a friend who suffered from cystic fibrosis, the Pill Pod was designed to allow discreet pill organization and consumption. We secured a provisional patent, manufactured the product in China and a successfully test marketed 300 units in 10 different stores. Then we went big and worked with agents to get into CVS and Walgreens. Unfortunately, the buyers passed.
Learning: Asymmetry between a small producer and large retailer. (I think they smelled my lack of infrastructure.)
PARUVA KALAAM
We worked with a grassroots organization in India to take a biodiesel by-product and make a fair-trade soap. We developed manufacturing, branding and initial test markets. Hired a 16 year old to do sales calls. Moved 1600 units.
Learning: The fair-trade soap market is pretty saturated.
COVID MASK CLIPS
Purchased a bulk order of dentist bib-clips and repackaged them as COVID mask clips. Felt strange about the idea of potentially profiting off of a global pandemic and never promoted the product. Ended up giving these away to friends, coworkers and random front-line workers.
Learning: Money ain’t worth your soul.