{"id":1027,"date":"2020-02-06T18:49:15","date_gmt":"2020-02-06T18:49:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/studpops.com\/?page_id=1027"},"modified":"2023-08-14T13:02:52","modified_gmt":"2023-08-14T13:02:52","slug":"about-me","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/studpop.com\/index.php\/about-me\/","title":{"rendered":"About me"},"content":{"rendered":"\t\t
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This is a video that I made in March 2014<\/strong> for ABC who asked me to audition for Shark Tank.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

About me\u2026<\/h2>\n

In <\/span>2003<\/strong><\/em>, after 25 years, I left the world of hardware and software engineering to become a landlord over 13 apartments in Leominster, Massachusetts.  I then started a <\/span>handyman<\/strong> business to make up for all those unpaid rents : (<\/span><\/p>\n

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As a handyman, I often needed to use stud finders\u2026most of which drove me crazy because none of them worked as advertised.<\/h2>\n<\/div>\n

In February 2008<\/strong><\/em>, I put on my engineering hat and designed a crude but effective stud finder that was easy to use and actually worked<\/a><\/span><\/em><\/span>. Unfortunately, my tenants were falling further and further behind in their rent payments.  This left me with very little spare capital so I had no choice but to look for someone with the funding and experience to take my idea to market.<\/p>\n

In January 2010<\/strong><\/em>, I was offered a licensing deal with Gorilla Glue.  It would have paid me 2% of net sales.  After several months of contract negotiations, I decided to walk away with the hope that something better was out there.<\/p>\n

In September 2010<\/strong><\/em>, I ended up partnering with a local company with access to Chinese manufacturers.  I really thought that I had hit it big with this 25% licensing deal.  But after 2 years of trying to get my invention manufactured overseas, it was obvious that these people didn\u2019t know what they were doing. Not a clue.<\/i><\/p>\n

Since they were literally butchering my invention, I wanted OUT. Unfortunately my contract with them stated that they owned all rights to my invention until I paid them back for their expenses.<\/p>\n

There was no way I could afford to buy back MY<\/b> rights.<\/p>\n

Instead, I negotiated a deal where they bought out my 25% share for a fair price.<\/p>\n

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Now I was able to <\/em>reinvent my invention on my own dime\u2026<\/em><\/h2>\n<\/div>\n

In December 2013<\/em><\/strong>, I started selling my renamed and improved invention, the “StudPoP”<\/strong> on Amazon.  I\u2019ve sold hundreds of thousands of units.  I have accrued thousands of reviews with an average of 4.5 out of 5 star rating.<\/p>\n

And I am manufacturing it in the USA.<\/strong><\/p>\n

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As it should be.<\/h2>\n<\/div>\n

The moral of this story is that necessity really is the mother of invention.  The StudPoP has been featured on DIY\u2019s \u201cCool Tools\u201d and \u201cI Want That!\u201d TV shows. It has appeared in \u201cThis Old House\u201d and \u201cMen\u2019s Journal\u201d magazines. Mr. \u201cACE hardware\u201d, Lou Manfredini loves StudPoPs and has featured both products on his syndicated radio and TV shows.<\/p>\n

It is a top selling product on The Grommet, Zulily, Touch of Modern, Home Depot and Amazon.<\/p>\n

It took me 6 years to get from garage prototype to selling on Amazon.  Although I wanted to give up several times,<\/strong><\/p>\n

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I DID NOT QUIT.<\/h2>\n<\/div>\n

So if you have an idea for a better mousetrap, do some research. Find out if there really is a market for it and make sure that no one else has already thought of it\u2026<\/p>\n

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…then go for it.  Don\u2019t give up and GOOD LUCK!<\/em><\/strong><\/h2>\n<\/div>\n

Thanks for reading.<\/b><\/i><\/p>\n

-John Blake<\/p>\n

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This is a video that I made in March 2014 for ABC who asked me to audition for Shark Tank. About me\u2026 In 2003, after 25 years, I left the world of hardware and software engineering to become a landlord over 13 apartments in Leominster, Massachusetts.  I then started a handyman business to make up for all those unpaid […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-1027","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/studpop.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1027","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/studpop.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/studpop.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/studpop.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/studpop.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1027"}],"version-history":[{"count":62,"href":"https:\/\/studpop.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1027\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3267,"href":"https:\/\/studpop.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1027\/revisions\/3267"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/studpop.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1027"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}