Three Women Create Stylish Products for the Aged

Many people experiment with fashion during their prime years. As they age, their sense of fashion also evolves – from experimental to conservative, flashy to conventional. Consequently, there are less wardrobe options for older people than younger generations.

Entrepreneurs Rie Nørregaard, Susy Korb and Susan Towers believe that the golden years don’t have to be so boring. They therefore decided to create a company that sells fashionable canes, walkers and other living aids to senior citizens. Ohmu seeks to reinvent aging and change the way people think about it with colorful and whimsical living aids.

The three women behind Ohmu began their business in 2008. Korb and Towers set up a business partnership that year, and later on became friends with Nørregaard, who was pregnant at the time. As Nørregaard shopped for items for her newborn baby she realized that there was nothing good to buy for an elderly parent.

Nørregaard pitched this gem of an idea to Korb and Towers, and it was well received. It just so happened that all three have seen how their parents’ health deteriorated throughout the years, with an increasing dependency on these living aids. They decided to reinvent the old, stale industry of these aids and created Ohmu.

The trio did an enormous amount of research into the market, originally targeting older women.   But with the company’s assorted and appealing product designs, their initial plan of bringing style to senior citizens expanded to include a diverse audience. The company now has a customer base from ages 15-92, proving that canes aren’t just for old people.

Nørregaard, Korb and Towers share the same sentiment about their business. The trio strongly believes in the idea of creating a product to make people happy, and seeing seniors get back on their feet again – with flair – has given them a feeling of satisfaction and sense of purpose.

Omar Hamoui: Google’s Coveted Jewel

Tech entrepreneur and innovator Omar Hamoui has successfully merged two great ideas with AdMob. This ad network melded together of the benefits of internet-connected smartphones with Google’s operating system to create a new industry: advertising on mobile devices. With the increasing dependency of people on mobile devices and the rapid demand for new ways of marketing, AdMob potential to become an industry giant is evident.

photo: Eirik Solheim

Because of this, Apple and Google got into a bidding war over AdMob in 2009. The latter won and brought $750 million to Hamoui’s company. Since then, AdMob has placed nearly 200 billion ads in mobile phones and applications downloaded by users of Google’s Android devices. In reply, Apple has launched its own mobile advertising system, the iAd.

Before the success, the bidding wars, and the multi-million dollar deals, Hamoui actually created AdMob to build traffic for his young company. It was a firm that created photo-sharing software for cell phones. He first tried marketing his company through Google ads, but found that it cost too much. Since his application is meant for smartphones, he thought that the best way to market it was directly through mobile devices. But such industry was still unheard of when he initially thought about it.

As a result, Hamoui can be considered as a pioneer in the mobile ad industry. The cost of marketing was shockingly cheaper compared to regular Google ads, too.

Upon seeing how cost-effective this strategy was, Hamoui introduced AdMob to the public market in 2005, attracting the two largest tech companies in the industry.

The wisdom of Omar Hamoui is reflected on the short period (around three years)it took him to create a pioneering company that consequently became the largest player of mobile Web ads. As Google’s coveted jewel, Hamoui is expected to rise up to the challenge and demand of a growing industry in the years to come.

Ben Kazez: Bringing Travel to the Palm of Your Hand

Ben Kazez founded the app creating company Mobiata in August 2008. In its first year the company generated more than $1 million in earnings and became a top app company in the business travel niche. In fact, its top-selling app, FlightTrack, was one of apps listed on Mashable’s “6 Essential Android Apps for Business Travel” in 2010.

FlightTrack has that elusive combination that the best apps always seem to have being both beautiful and usable. It enables air travelers to track flights and their arrivals and departures in real time through the phones in their hands. Within days of its iPhone app launch in November 2008, FlightTrack became the top-selling travel app at that time.    

FlightTrack was just the beginning. Some of the other mobile phone apps Kazez and Mobiata created are HotelPal, FlightBoard and TripDeck. HotelBoard gives users the power to browse and book from more than 100,000 hotels across the globe. It also has availability information, photos and reviews. On the other hand, FlightBoard is an amazing app that turns your phone into the real time arrivals and departures board for any airport in the world. According to Mobiata website, the flight board was designed after the  Charles de Gaulle Airport’s. Moreover, TripDeck is a free app that gives the user the ability to manage flights, car rentals, hotel reservations, meetings, restaurant reservations and cruises all through a single app.

Continued success, according to Mobiata’s website, “comes from a combination of working extraordinarily hard, being meticulous about design, focusing on user experience and making sure that every one of our products is an indispensible tool for travelers. We take exceptional pride in our products and we think it shows.”

To learn more about Kazez and Mobiata’s successful travel apps, visit:
• Ben Kazez Interview
• My Interview with Kazez
• Review Tripdeck
• FlightTrack Review
• FlightTrack Live Flight Status Tracker by Mobiata

American Ingenuity

Plato summed it up perfectly when he pointed out that necessity is the mother of invention. Every day, entrepreneurs work diligently to fill gaps in a specific market or create a new product. Some of these entrepreneurial inventors are successful, while others encounter failure after failure.

The amazing product that Patricia Billings invented is one of the successes. Billings, born in 1926 in Clinton, Missouri, studied art at Amarillo College in Texas. Billings specialized in plaster of paris sculptures. During an incident in the late 1970s, she experienced an immense disappointment when a sculpture she was working on shattered after falling over.

Billings subsequently learned that sculptors in the Renaissance period used an additive to increase the longevity of their plaster, which spurred her decision to create a modernized version of this additive. It took her eight longs years of conducting experiments in her basement, but Billings succeeded in creating the additive. When mixed with gypsum and concrete, the additive makes a plaster that is indestructible. She showed it to a friend of hers who happened to be a scientist. Her friend discovered that the new material was heat resistant in addition to being indestructible. Following another eight years of tinkering, Billings introduced Geobond, a virtually indestructible building material. Geobond is non-toxic and fire-proof, making it an excellent and healthy replacement for asbestos. Billings, now a great-grandmother, remains in control of the company and refuses to reveal her secret recipe. She also holds two patents on Geobond.

Ashok Bagdy’s Business and Entrepreneurial Background

As Vice President of Outsourcing Services for Cameo Corporate Services Limited, Ashok Bagdy serves as a business leader for the Chennai, India-based company’s Healthcare Outsourcing Division in Tampa, Florida. Ashok Bagdy has contributed in this capacity for six years, calling on his skills as a businessman and entrepreneur to develop and maintain relationships with the company’s entire US client base.

Much of Ashok Bagdy’s success in his current position stems from his career experience working in an array of progressively responsible positions for firms in India and the United States. After earning a Bachelor of Commerce from Madras University in India and an MBA from Bharathiar University in Coimbatore, India, he served as a Principal for the Bagdy Group, a family business of mineral mining and processing firms. In this role, Ashok Bagdy first obtained international business experience, developing new client relationships in China. He was tremendously successful in this position, increasing receivables turnover, enhancing gross margins, and participating on a team that doubled revenues in a two-year period.

Ashok Bagdy brought this experience to his position as Head of US Operations for Hiltex Exports. During his tenure, he initiated the Indian export company’s American business, building a customer base, negotiating transactions, and performing other functions as necessary to successfully maintain a national division.

Upon leaving Hiltex Exports, Mr. Bagdy served as Director of Business Development for YouKnowBest.com in Celebration, Florida. There, he leveraged his extensive experience in maintaining important corporate relationships and his international business skills. He worked to grow the start-up through vendor initiatives, strategic marketing plans, and partnership agreements with companies such as Microsoft Corporation.

Since 2003, Ashok Bagdy has continued to excel in business, serving in progressively responsible capacities for his current company. With his strong knowledge of international business relations, his ability to identify promising entrepreneurial opportunities, and his networking skills, he has helped the enterprise increase its American clientele.

An Empire Built on Mistakes

Before the age of computers, important documents had to be produced using a typewriter. While this was a great way of producing printed documents, if you made one mistake at the end of the document, you had to retype the entire page. With a little creativity and perseverance, an executive secretary by the name of Bette Nesmith Graham came up with a solution that would allow typists to cover their mistakes and salvage their documents.

Graham was born in 1924 in Dallas, Texas. After divorcing her first husband, she went to work as a secretary at a bank to support herself and her son. While working as a secretary, she became frustrated with the electric typewriters that were replacing the older models at the time. The electric models did not allow the user to erase mistakes, so every time she made a mistake in a document, she'd have to retype it. Inspiration struck while she was watching painters decorate the bank windows. When they made a mistake, they just added another layer of paint over the original, thereby masking the mistake. Graham put some white tempura paint in a bottle and used a paintbrush to paint it over her errors.

Over the next five years, she worked with her son's chemistry teacher to tweak her formula. Graham named her new product Mistake Out and started marketing it in 1956. Upon launching her own company, she changed the product's name to Liquid Paper. Graham ran the company until it was sold to the Gillette Corporation in 1979 for $47.5 million.

Experience and Trust

An experienced entrepreneur, Danny Shabat has over 35 years of experience in business management, administration, and ownership. Throughout his career, Shabat has successfully founded, acquired, directed, and sold a range of companies in the private health care sector, including nursing homes, technology start-ups, and pharmaceutical businesses.

Raised on the East Coast, Danny Shabat moved to Chicago, Illinois, in 1977 where he entered the field of health care as an employee of the Royal Gardens Nursing Home. After establishing himself as a successful nursing home administrator, he purchased Royal Gardens, renaming the facility The Waterford. As The Waterford flourished, he purchased additional long-term care facilities, including Diplomat Nursing Home and Senn Park Nursing Home, which he renamed Heritage Nursing Home Inc. After more than three decades of industry leadership, Danny Shabat continues to own and operate each of these long-term and rehabilitative care providers.

In addition to his holdings in the field of nursing care, Daniel Shabat is the owner of medical, technical, and pharmaceutical companies, including LifeScan Laboratory, Inc., and PharMore Drugs, LLC. He is also the owner of Micro Innovations Corp., a privately held computer hardware company headquartered in Edison, New Jersey. Shabat recently sold LifeCare Ambulance, Inc., a 24-hour urgent care service provider based in Elyria, Ohio. A proponent of engaged leadership, Shabat assumes an instrumental role in directing each of his businesses, pairing entrepreneurial skill with experience and innovation.

Dedicated to service, Daniel Shabat has contributed financially to a range of organizations throughout the United States and Israel, including Migdal Torah, Ohr Somayach, and the Melvin J. Berman Hebrew Academy of Greater Washington. An active member of Congregation Adas Yeshurun, a synagogue in Chicago, Shabat serves on the Board of Directors of the Wisconsin Institute for Torah Study. He is a prior President of the Arie Crown Hebrew Day School and the Adas B’nai Israel Congregation. He also previously served on the Board of Directors of Helping Hands, an organization devoted to those with disabilities.

IKEA’s Humble Beginnings

Although you’ve most likely never heard of Ingvar Kamprad, you’ve probably heard of his company. You may have even shopped there at one time or another. Kamprad is the founder of IKEA, a popular inexpensive furniture and home goods store. Kamprad, who was born in Sweden in 1926, showed his aptitude for business at a very early age. After discovering he could buy matches in bulk and sell them to his neighbors individually for a profit, he started selling matches from his bike. Over the years, he expanded his selection to include various items, including Christmas decorations, seeds, and pens and pencils.

Kamprad was born in 1943 at his uncle’s kitchen table. The company sold assorted household items, including wallets, watches and stockings, and delivered them to area customers using a milk delivery van (About.com). Kamprad added furniture to his offerings in 1947, providing the foundation for all future IKEA stores. He used products from local companies to keep his costs low. The first showroom opened in 1953 and focused solely on furniture.

IKEA focuses on inexpensive (yet durable) furnishings that are packed flat and can be assembled easily. Packing the furniture flat saves money during shipping and allows customers to get their furniture home without having to pay for an expensive delivery.

Although Kamprad has a net worth of about $23 billion, he is notoriously frugal. He travels economy, drives an old Volvo and even recycles teabags. He challenges his employees to be frugal as well, urging them to write on both sides of each piece of paper and encouraging furniture designers to build economical and sturdy furnishings. Today, IKEA has more than 250 stores in 25 countries worldwide.

Adam Witty: The Entrepreneur’s Entrepreneur

Adam Witty is a youthful looking fellow and though he is also slight of stature and spectacled, he is a man with a grand dream and the courage to go after it. His dream is to help entrepreneurs succeed and to do this he founded Advantage Media Group, an international publisher of business books, magazines, television and video and educational software. Additionally, he has authored five books on success, business and entrepreneurship.

All of this experience along with his eagerness to teach others how to succeed, has turned Witty into a marketing, media and publishing, business development and entrepreneurship consultant. Witty is also a very popular public speaker. One of the things he is best known for is his “Mastermind Groups for Entrepreneurs,” in which he works personally with  14 to 18 entrepreneurs to help them with their big picture situations and perspectives unique to their particular businesses. These mastermind groups meet three times each year.

His ability to teach and expand horizons is appreciated by those he has helped. Talking about his time with Witty, Anthony David Adams, Founder of the DetentionSlip.org, said, “Adam Witty melted my reality. Hands down one of the best public speakers I have heard in my life. His proven mastery of marketing and branding combined with powerful delivery make for an amazing keynote. Witty engaged his audience from the start and didn’t stop. I walked away with a new and deeper understanding of how to build and leverage my brand.”

His publishing company, Advantage Media Group, has also found success in the six years it has been operational. In July of this year, it celebrated its sixth year anniversary by relocating to the Advantage Center, a 10,000 square foot headquarters in Charleston, South Carolina. The new headquarters is approximately 100 times larger than the first headquarters that was based in Witty’s bedroom.

To learn more about Adam Witty or his businesses, visit:
• Adam Witty
• Advantage Family

Sachin Agarwal: Bringing Simplicity, Customable Features to Blogging

Three years ago, 30 year old Sachin Agarwal left Apple despite being an “Apple Fanboy” to start the self-blogging site Posterous. His goal, he said in this article, was to create a way to make blogging simpler; and a way for bloggers and others to better share information photos, posts and content on the internet.

Initially, Posterous succeeded simply by giving people the opportunity to blog without using Wordpress, Joomla or Drupal. This meant that they could blog by sending their blog posts, pictures or videos to a central Posterous email address from where it would be automatically formed into a blog.

Unfortunately, Agarwal found that as Facebook grew, Posterous became less popular. This led to a new concept, the introduction of groups. Agarwal explains: “What we’re finding is that Facebook’s network has gotten too big.” He continues to say: “It’s because they are so successful that people feel like they don’t have easy controls to indicate who can see what. It’s because of their success that we have this opportunity [with groups].”

It is impossible to predict whether Posterous will be able to continue to find success with its group platform. After all, we are talking about the world of technology where fortunes are made and lost overnight. By the way, when is the last time you logged into your Friendster or MySpace account? Now, Posterous faces competition from the giant, angry kid on the block, Google whose own social networking platform Google+ makes use of circles much in the same way that Agarawal’s Posterous uses groups to enable users to share information with all of their friends or with select groups or circles or friends.

To learn more about Argawal and Posterous, visit:
• Sachin Posterous
• Posterous Guide
• Posterous Review