Getting a Grip

Developing a new product was easy, but finding the right target market was a challenge for Flexible Innovations

Dallas Business Journal - Monday February 26, 2007 - Holli L. Estridge

David Pellerin The comeback: He rebounded from bad decisions.

Entrepreneur Fred Antonini came up with the idea for eGrips -- tread-like appliqués that help small electronic devices stay put -- when he destroyed his handheld by carrying it in his pants pocket on a tubing trip down the Comal River. His invention provided a way to secure electronic devices, without having to carry them.

Product development went well, and the former 3M Co. adhesives maker soon built a new company around the invention: Fort Worth-based Flexible Innovations Ltd.

In 2003, he took on a business partner, Cheryl Marshall, and cut a deal with Connecticut manufacturer Rogers Corp. to make eGrips products. At the time, the products were designed to fit specific electronic devices and were sold over the Internet and at RadioShack stores.

Tech Fort Worth, a business incubator for small tech companies, picked up Flexible Innovations and provided office space to its owners, who had been working out of home offices and various Starbuck's coffee shops.

Then, things started to go wrong.

"We kept working on development of the material," Antonini said. "One day, a process in the manufacturing changed, and all of our product (physically) fell apart."

Hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of eGrips products were thrown out in the spring of 2005 because the manufactured material didn't work. The situation worsened when a competitor filed a federal patent infringement suit against the fledgling company.

"It was going to cost an estimated $500,000 just to fight the suit, and we had already invested over $1 million in the business," Antonini said.

New course

Things began looking up when the competitor dropped its lawsuit, and the manufacturing issues were solved. But by this time, Flexible Innovations was left with limited financial resources and in dire need of a new approach.

Antonini and Marshall set up exclusive sales agents in foreign countries, where they knew they could collect money prior to shipping the product. The duo also started attending consumer electronics and wireless shows in an attempt to woo big-name clients.

When talking with Samsung executives, trying to sell them an eGrips kit for inclusion with its cellphone packaging, Antonini had an epiphany -- and found the corporate strategy that would eventually set the company's new course.

Samsung representatives were not interested in the kit. Instead, they wanted small 1-by-2-inch strips emblazoned with its logo to adhere to the backs of its cellphones.

"Our strategy now is for eGrips to be as globally ubiquitous as Post-it notes and Velcro," Antonini said.

Flexible Innovations has since inked a deal with Cingular for the wireless company to carry its products in retail stores nationwide. It also launched two new lines -- Phone Tredz, eGrips products for youth, and Tank Tredz, larger treads that grip motocross riders to their bikes -- and formed a sister company, Carrollton-based Wizjobby, to handle retail and Internet sales.

Last year, Flexible Innovations generated $1.5 million to $2 million in revenue. Antonini projects those numbers to double in 2007 and grow to $20 million in five years.

Changing direction has been the key to the company's newfound success, said Darlene Ryan, executive director of Tech Fort Worth.

"Fred had a great technology, but it took the change in marketing strategy to find his route to the top with it," she said. "He is a great example of the importance of combining technology and business experience -- in just the right combination -- to create a fast-growing and profitable business."

NAME: Flexible Innovations Ltd.

BUSINESS: Manufactures and sells tread products for electronics devices TOP EXECUTIVES: Fred Antonini and Cheryl Marshall EMPLOYEES: 7 REVENUE: $1.5 million to $2 million (2006) ADDRESS: 1120 South Fwy. Fort Worth 76104 PHONE: 817-366-6297 WEB: www.egrips.com