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For sometime now, we’ve had a special project in the works. We wanted to give our listeners and readers a chance to hear a new Why Didn’t I Think of That?® feature every day, even if they’re away from the radio. And that’s exactly what we’ve done. Today marks the beginning phases of a plan [...]
Nobody thought about putting paint in an aerosol can until Ed Seymour. In 1949, Seymour was looking for a novel way to demonstrate a new aluminum paint. His wife suggested putting it in an aerosol can, like ones recently introduced for insecticides. To his surprise, the sprayer — not the paint — became the star of his demonstration.
While in Hawaii in the 1800′s, James Dole discovered a fruit most people had never seen or heard of before: The pineapple. He began importing the fruit to the mainland and introduced the country to this exotic, sweet treat. The pineapple became a national favorite, and the Dole Food Company became the largest supplier of fruits and vegetables in the world.
He started his first business in college. He sold his second business to Clear Channel. He came within four minutes of winning CBS’s the Amazing Race. He’s led an interesting life, but what Blake Mycoskie is best known for is starting TOMS Shoes, the company that has donated well over a million shoes to needy men, women, and children.
Today it’s as synonymous with sports as cheerleaders or sweatbands. But not too long ago, Gatorade was just a nameless concoction, cooked up to revitalize the University of Florida’s football team: the Gators. The Gators were losing. A lot. One reason for that was the hot Florida weather dehydrating the players. The “Gator-Aid” not only saved the team, but it has been hydrating and refreshing some of the world’s greatest athletes ever since.
Today’s Hall of Fame Spotlight: The Story of Gatorade.
What they do:
Fruit bouquets arranged to look like flowers.
Inspiration:
Florist Tariq Farid thought it would be original to blend two gift concepts: fruit boxes and flower bouquets.
About the business:
They take fruits and hand-sculpt them to look like beautiful flowers to give as gifts. There are now 870 franchise locations in six countries.
Jake Zien was a 17 year old with a quirky idea for a flexible power strip. Ben Kaufman was a 19 year with a start-up and a vision of harnessing ideas just like Jake’s.
Now, thanks to Kaufman’s invention crowdsourcing site Quirky, Zien and other inventors like him are seeing their products go from sketchpad to store shelf faster than they can say “perpetual royalties.”
Here’s a mom-turned-entrepreneur who solved a common frustration that most of us just take for granted: Matching Socks.
Bernie Marcus and Arthur Blank both worked for a Southern California home-improvement chain called “Handy Dan” in the 1970′s.
While there, they experimented with heavily discounting products in one of Handy Dan’s locations. The experiment was a success in every sense of the word, and it was their intention to expand it to more stores. But they never got the chance.
Today, skateboarding is a 4.8 billion dollar industry. But it wasn’t always that way. Back in Hawk’s high school years, relatively few people knew or cared about the sport. But there was definitely an underground scene, with competitions, and prize money available to those with enough skill. Needless to say, Hawk had enough skill. In fact, he won so many skateboarding competitions that, by the time he was a senior in high school, he bought his own house.
