The word “never” used to be part of my vocabulary, as in “I’ve never done that.” There were so many
firsts in the last years, it’s hard to count them all, but they were all part of the process to bring the
“Negg” to market. All of it was necessary to make the Negg viable.
It was a Saturday night, and my friends had invited me over for a cocktail party. Without hesitating I
offered to bring a dozen deviled eggs. Easy enough, right? Apparently, I had forgotten why I had taken
deviled eggs off our menu… forever. The memory soon came rushing back as I reached for the sixth egg,
having mangled the first five in the peeling process.
The next day I was eager to get on the internet and order up an egg peeler. Surely there had to be
something that solved this horrible problem, but nothing there looked to be the solution, and the
internet kept sending me to the commercial peeler sites. I began noticing that those all had the same
functionality. They rolled the eggs on steel bars, shook the trays back and forth and hit the eggs with
water. I began to wonder if we could get the same functionality in a hand-held device.
As I look back on the process, I had, without realizing it, marched through the first steps of bringing a
product to market. 1. Find a problem 2. Make sure that the problem either has no existing solution or a
solution that can be improved upon. 3. Find the solution.
I was lucky enough to have a business partner, Sheila Torgan, who was able to work an art program that
would make a 3-D rendering of our egg peeler. We started with something that was very different from
the final version, and though we had the design in the computer, we weren’t sure where to find a 3-D
printer that would print this rendering out. As so often happened, lady luck was on our side, and the
local library had just what we needed. After a two-hour lesson with our 11-year-old instructor, we were
given the use of the 3-D printers. With much help from the volunteers at the library, we were able to
produce egg peelers, run up to my house, peel eggs, make adjustments and try again. This printer is an
invaluable tool for someone making and testing a product.
We then decided on a name for our egg peeler. The word Negg seemed to suit. It stands for naked egg
and we originally called it the Negg Maker, but our customers quickly shortened it to Negg. The word
was short and something people remembered. It was also something that Google gave instant rankings
to since there was no other “Negg” at the time we started this. We then applied for both a trademark on
the word Negg, and a utility patent. I cannot stress how important both of these are.
We then needed estimates and began our search across the country looking for an injection molding
company. Where the 3-D printer took 24 hours to print one Negg, an injection molding machine would
pump out many Neggs every minute. When we finally met with MPS Plastics in Marborough, CT, we
found someone who could figure out a work around for our design. BTW don’t put bumps on the inside
of a cylinder. Gives injection molders fits.
I remember the moment I decided that I would be willing to gamble part of my retirement money on
this venture. We had the prototype which worked really well. We had encouragement from family and
friends, which was expected, and we had the “Ah Ha” moment that everyone had when they first used
the Negg. Ok, OK, I was also guilty of stopping strangers on the street and showing them a short video
we had of the Negg in action. Those reactions were also positive, and those were from people who
didn’t have to be nice to me. I think you need those opinions.
The next step was to try a crowd funding campaign, so we could raise some money to defray the cost of
the molds. We didn’t quite get the hang of this when we ran the first campaign and it failed. That could
have been the end of it, but we decided we had learned from our mistakes, and we made another run at
it. This time we raised 5 times what we had set as our limit. Each donor was to receive a Negg or
multiple Neggs in exchange for their pledge. We promised the Neggs would be delivered by Christmas.
If you were to hear a sense of panic in my voice, you are correct.
There was much to do that we hadn’t begun to tackle. Yes, we had the manufacturing under control,
but had been so busy with that that we hadn’t paid attention too much of the nitty gritty such as retail
boxes, and branding, shipping boxes, and shipping labels, instructions – lions and tigers and bears, oh
my! All I can say is “Thank heaven for wonderful friends.” We received the product on December 6 th ,
and on the 7 th our fulfillment room was full of our friends busily putting stickers on flattened jewel boxes
and then coaxing tab “A” into slot “B” to make the finished box. Then the proper colored Negg placed in
the box closed and placed into the shipper box with a “Thank You” card. Then a shipping label was
applied, and all went into a large plastic bag that then had to be hauled to the post office. When they
say many hands make light work, they weren’t talking about this operation. There was no “light work”
with everyone working as hard and fast as humanly possible. Thanks to an incredible team some 3,000
Neggs were mailed on time.
It was a Sunday evening just after we completed the mailing and the date had passed for all guaranteed
Christmas deliveries. My phone rang. It’s our landlady. There had been a flood in our building. The hot
water heater in the men’s room had ruptured and no one had been in on Saturday to stop it, so the
water had run for two days before it was discovered. Did I mention our office is apparently ever so
slightly down hill from the men’s room and diagonally across the hall. What a mess. If it had happened
a week earlier, we would have been sunk, no pun intended.
The next big event was from TheGrommet.com. They decided they wanted to run a test with our
product to see how it would sell. We came up in the top ten ever. That was truly exciting. Then they
placed their order, and just as I was beginning to think I’d be selling Neggs out of the trunk of my car, it
started to happen.
Following that was the International Housewares Association show in Chicago where we could present
to a panel of judges and get some invaluable feedback. We were in the inventors’ corner and were just
getting settled into our booth when we found out we were scheduled to be the first presenters. Now
mind you, I had never been to a trade show before, and I had no idea what or how we were supposed to
present our product. We have no one to follow, so not even a hint as to how this was supposed to go.
We also had no idea who the judges were. We decided that Sheila would peel an egg and I would talk
about the development of the Negg and how easily it worked. We finished, and one of the judges
jumped off the stage, grabbed the Negg, put an egg in it and shook. The egg peeled perfectly, and she
returned to her seat on the stage. A few minutes later I found myself surrounded by the HSN ladies.
They wanted the Negg for their shopping channel. I was so delighted. After all the work, and all the
worry, I knew that we were going to make it. Not that I ever doubted it. Well, not that I ever doubted it
much. Dara Trujillo had been the one who jumped off the stage, and she was VP of Merchandise for
HSN.