John's talk was titled: "How I Made $475 Million from a Battery-Powered Toothbrush", which caught my eye. He was an extremely nice guy and even gave out Crest Spinbrushes to the audience. I had never used one (and had only vaguely heard of them), so it was a nice treat. He is a serial inventor and entrepreneur and has an interesting story, so I took a lot of notes:
Notes:
Must set price right
Spent 6 years after undergrad as a carpenter. He said he learned a lot about how things work.
Invented the Baby Gym and eventually sold it to Gerber and became VP of Nothing
Left Gerber to start a toy company.
At one point he got stuck with too much inventory and investors wanted out. He went through hell and ended up getting a divorce. After 6 months of being on his knees, things turned around. The company wasn't a huge success, but he wouldn't say it was a failure either.
With most of his companies, he had critical times that required hard decisions.
Created interactive candy.
Eventually sold the toy company to Hasbro and became VP of Nothing.
Left Hasbro and retired for a year.
Got together with a bunch of inventor friends and thought up things that people use every day. They came up with a list of 100 things.
As an entrepreneur, you have to keep things simple. What is your breakeven? How much do you have to sell to make a 15% profit? ALL entrepreneurs should know the basic financials inside out.
He has several more ideas in the pot and a few consumer products coming out soon (disposable electric razor?)
2 Comments:
Good notes, thanks for taking and posting them. I wanted to attend that talk but could not, so this is the next best thing.
I have known John for years. I even got married in his back yard. I wish John the best, a truly remarkable person. Paul "Skip" Lincoln
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