Austin entrepreneur, Richard Trocino had a great product idea. And, like thousands of other innovative inventors with a new product concept, bringing that idea into a marketplace dominated by long established brands with deep links and dominance in the retail outlets is challenging. In these days of mega corporations and Walmarts, VCs and small business defined by the government in the land of opportunity, one entrepreneur with a grand idea or product may be considered by any of those groups as irrelevant and insignificant. Another challenge faced by small businesses in today’s marketplace, like in Trocino’s case, is getting an idea produced and generating sales.
In spite of impossible odds, Trocino’s invention sells almost faster today than his factories can produce and distribute all over the world. The established companies that were given the opportunity to brand and produce it, now may be wishing they had not dismissed the popular product so readily. Not when the blogosphere is broadcasting around the globe faster and with more range than a speeding bullet; comments appearing include; “OHSO gets my nod for the most stylish and futuristic toothbrush/toothpaste contraption on the market today”, “The Coolest Toothbrush Ever”, and “World’s Most Elegant Travel Toothbrush”.
Trocino received micro level funding to get the prototypes built and into limited manufacturing through friends and family after attempts to license the product to both toothpaste and toothbrush companies fell on deaf ears. Similarly, Trocino found his innovation locked out of normal channels of retailing without the benefits of an established proven brand in the marketplace.
Discouraged, but undaunted Trocino abandoned efforts to take the product to market using traditional marketing methods. Instead, like entrepreneurs who have met with unexpected success throughout business history he proceeded by seat of the pants and gut instinct. Acting on a hunch, he put it out there exclusively in the world of the internet and ignored the traditional “wisdom” of standard marketing techniques