With product names like Doggy Steps, PushUp Pro and the Fish Pen, product company Telebrands will never be mistaken for Alessi, but they are still a product design force to be reckoned with. Annual revenue: in excess of $100 million.
The New-Jersey-based company was started by entrepreneur AJ Khubani, the man responsible for the very first "As Seen on TV!" product: AmberVision sunglasses, which Khubani got the idea to sell after noticing that folks at shooting ranges wore tinted glasses to improve their vision.
The 24-year-old Telebrands sells millions of $10 to $20 products annually, with Khubani vetting submissions from inventors who exchange rights for royalties. "It's exciting to see your product, something you worked on in your garage when no one believed in it, and now it's in stores around the world," said David Kotkin, a Florida high school art teacher who invented the Go Duster, a rotating dusting device which has sold two million units in less than a year.
Khubani currently teaches would-be inventors at Princeton in addition to running the company. An Associated Press/Houston Chronicle profile on Khubani (from which the Kotkin quote above comes) can be found here, NY Mag has a profile on him here, and you can read more about how Khubani built the empire on Telebrands' own site.
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