ENTREPRENEURSHIP: BRANDS & PRODUCTS OVERVIEW
I co-invented GLOWPONG with my brother Jeremy in 2013. Using his patented Glowing Party Cup design as a centerpiece, we set out to create our glow-in-the-dark version of the popular Beer Pong party game. It took many months of brainstorming, designing, party-testing and refining to ensure that the game was 100% glow-in-the-dark and we invented & patented some innovative complimentary products along the way. Our patented GLOWPONG Glowing Game Table, with its glowing EL Wire edges, was the perfect playing surface for our game. Our patented GLOWPONG LED Ball Charging Unit was our unique invention to charge each UV-paint-infused GLOWPONG Game Ball and make every shot glow during game-play. Once our game was completed and ready for a larger audience, we launched our bootstrapped company, Fissell Bros, Inc. We put in countless hours on photography, copywriting, graphics & website design, packaging, logistics, social media, etc. We launched the game with some guerilla-style marketing, which included hosting free GLOWPONG tournaments at local bars (to shoot photos & videos for marketing) and purchasing/designing graphics for our official GLOWPONG Van. We drove our “over the top” marketing van to UC Santa Barbara and handed out free GLOWPONG Game Sets, which created quite a buzz on social media. After receiving a massive response at a Nightclub & Bar Trade show in Las Vegas, we connected with the nationwide retail chain, Spencer’s. We flew to their NJ headquarters and successfully pitched our entire GLOWPONG line… and the rest is history. GLOWPONG quickly became one of the top-selling product lines in all 650+ Spencer’s locations in the US and Canada. To date, the line has sold over $30 million in retail sales at Spencer’s & on Amazon. I’m extremely proud of my work on GLOWPONG as it involved wearing multiple hats, both creative and business-wise. Although we partnered with overseas factories for mass production, we never hired additional staff and literally did everything ourselves in this endeavor. Our hustle led to quite a wild ride.
PARTYSTAR is another fun and successful “wow” product collaboration with my brother and business partner, Jeremy. The idea was to create the world’s first portable, battery-powered party light; essentially a “pocket disco ball” that’s small enough to bring with you, yet powerful enough to project a large, moving, multi-color LED light show onto any surface with the flick of a switch. We designed PartyStar with built-in additional functionality to make it more versatile and add to the fun (e.g. hang it on your wall with a push-pin, wear it as the “ultimate party necklace,” set it on your nightstand using the kickstand, light up your garage door to let people know where the party is, etc.). Once our design was finalized and the production tooling created with our partner factory, we shifted gears to marketing with fun video productions, photography, copywriting, logo creation, website design, etc. Using our pre-established GLOWPONG connections at Spencer’s, we successfully pitched PartyStar to our buyer and it was quickly added to their store shelves at all 650+ US and Canada locations. To date, PartyStar’s retail sales top $3 million at Spencer’s and on Amazon. This is another “wow” product that I had a blast co-inventing/developing/marketing as it always gets big reactions and smiles when people see what it can do.
RetroPop Puzzles is my most recent endeavor, also a collaboration with my brother and biz partner, Jeremy. Over the years, Jeremy has become quite a collector of all things vintage/retro (he’s a bit of a “King of ebay”) so we decided to create some one-of-a-kind puzzles to sell on Amazon by photographing his various collections. We carefully curated and styled each of our puzzle layouts in our photo studio to get everything looking perfect, then completed several photography sessions to capture our final puzzle images. Next, we worked with a partner factory to finalize materials/layouts/production/logistics and dove into the graphic design, copywriting, packaging, marketing, etc. We recently launched our first puzzle, “BOOMshakalaka” - which features colorful boom boxes from the 70’s, 80’s and 90’s - on Amazon and it is currently enjoying strong sales. We hope to launch additional puzzles from this line soon as more of a fun “side hustle!”
Sunset Skateboard Co. was an incredibly fun and creatively satisfying brand that I worked on with my older brother, Jeremy. This brand and company were more “his baby,” but I was brought onboard as a Creative Consultant and Amazon Specialist. We had a total blast doing product photography and videography for Jeremy’s patented (and Smithsonian Institution award-winning) light-up LED Skateboard wheels, as well as his clear poly-carbonate skateboard decks. The wheels don’t require batteries to light up and are powered by the kinetic energy of the spinning motion, which led to some incredible night-skating photos and videos. I was heavily involved with creating the Amazon Registered Brand Storefront for this company and we worked together to create all of the dynamic product listings and bundles available on Amazon: www.Amazon.com/SunsetSkateboardCo
Sunset instantly created a huge buzz in the skateboarding industry, which lasted for several years as the wheels and decks enjoyed an amazing run in retail skateboard shops all over the USA - from mom & pop shops to Zumiez, Tilly’s, etc., as well as on Amazon. Unfortunately, Jeremy’s invention and patented products have now been illegally reproduced by countless manufacturers in China and mass-distributed via the Amazon platform. Any small biz who has had to deal with this can tell you how difficult it is to essentially play “whack-a-mole” to try to stop illegal patent and copyright infringement on Amazon. Regardless of the unfortunate ongoing battles, Sunset remains one of the most enjoyable brands I’ve ever worked with. The light-up skateboard wheel is one of those products that truly makes heads turn and gets people excited.