Position: Co-founder and partner of One Tech, LLC; founder and chief executive officer of The Ocean Group, Inc.; founder and chief executive officer of Leisure 3, LLC; founder and chief executive office of ReSource, Inc.; founder and MEDport, Inc
Background: An entrepreneur who has been starting and selling companies since he was a college student. Jacober had a two-year stay on the Inc. 500 list of America’s fastest growing small businesses. Early companies included JJ Cover-ups, marketer of sportswear and canvas bags (1976-1981) and SGI Inc., a marketer of sports and leisure products.
Education: University of Rhode Island, Bachelor of Arts (Political Science), 1976
Age: 45
Residence: Providence
JEFFREY M. JACOBER: ‘The Ocean Group provides overhead services for start-ups that we create based on different product groups.’
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You are operating several small businesses under the Ocean Group. Explain what the Ocean Group is and give us a description of your companies.
To understand what the Ocean Group is, you have to understand a little bit about me. I’ve created the Ocean Group to work for my personality and my entrepreneurial bend on things. It doesn’t make any money, because it allocates services at cost right now to various companies. That probably will change and it will become profitable.
What exactly does it do?
The Ocean Group provides overhead services for start-ups that we create based on different product groups. That includes accounting services, personnel services, distribution services, MIS and customer service. Any management service, and in some cases financing, that a start-up would need. It doesn’t include sales and marketing, which are unique to individual companies. To start a company, you have to find a building. You have to put in a computer system, a telephone system, hire secretaries
It sounds like a business incubator.
That’s essentially what it is. We allocate these services to the individual start-ups so they don’t have the full burden. The reason for the Ocean Group was so that we could create and start these companies, grow them and sell them, and not be left without companies in the fold. That happened to me once and I never wanted to be there again.
Why don’t you explain the companies we’re talking about, starting with One Tech.
One Tech was started with a friend of mine in the architectural lighting business. He builds overhead lighting for industrial applications and is familiar with the indirect lighting technology. He had an idea; ‘Could this be brought down to the work station light and become a consumer product?’ We’re best friends and he knows what I do. We starting kicking it around two years ago. We did research and testing. We developed a product together. We tooled it up in the Far East and then developed a company around that product. We hired a president and a sales guy and plugged it into the Ocean Group. We didn’t have to go out and hire anybody else for that company. That company launched around January of this year shipping product. In eight months, that product is widely available through e-commerce, catalogs and it’s on the shelf at Best Buy, Staples, MicroCenter.
Has One Tech been especially rapid in its success?
This one moved along relatively quickly. We did a lot of homework up front. We spent money on public relations up front. It’s a unique product and the timing was right.
What about Leisure 3, LLC?
It comes from my old days at Sport Graphics, when we were in the soft-side cooler and lunch kit business. I developed relationships over the years and some of those customers said they wished I was still doing some of that. So we created a couple of product lines under the Leisure 3 banner. There hasn’t been a lot of marketing. It’s a sales-driven business. We sell to customers like Toys R Us.
And Resource Inc.?
Resource started with a product my 10-year-old son helped me develop. He was seven or eight at the time. It was a battery organizer. We were looking for batteries one day and we opened a draw and didn’t know if they were good batteries or not. They were all scattered around the house. We sketched out this little battery organizer. We drew it, tooled it up and it ended up in the first year in a number of catalogs, including Lillian Vernon and Sky Mall. Since then we’ve created a business around what we call power management. We have battery testers, organizers. We’re in the process of signing a license agreement to develop and manufacture battery chargers for regular alkaline batteries. That’s an example of a product that came first, and then we added customers.
And how about MEDport, Inc.?
It’s the oldest company here — four years old this year. It was developed out of an understanding that the Boomers are aging. Medication in health care is very important. I have always been sort of an accessory guy. I’ve never really made the thing, but have made the thing that makes the thing better. So we created medication travel kits for asthma and diabetes. We sell through e-commerce and drug stores like CVS and Wal-Mart.
You seem to have the ability to get ideas out of the development stage and to the consumer. What is it that allows you to do so successfully what must be so frustrating for prospective entrepreneurs?
I love products. I’m kind of an inventive person. And although I am not an engineer, I understand engineering. I’m a consumer. At the end of the day I look at products that I would use to make my life better. Much of the development side I have handled myself. It’s about understanding how to get it done and where to go. This is through the experiences of nine or ten different businesses and building relationships at the manufacturing level and at the distribution level.
So you tap back into contacts and tell them you’ve got this new idea?
Absolutely.
You started a T-shirt business, JJ Cover-ups, while at URI. What convinced you that you could operate a successful business at such a young age?
I came from a background of entrepreneurs. My father and grandfather owned retail stores. They went to work at 7 a.m. and came home at 10 at night. That’s the way they ran their lives. Part of that – the free spirit part — was instilled in me. Being able to be responsible for one’s own destiny.
Your life has been marked by some personal adversities. What enabled you to stay strong through these ordeals?
The whole life tragedy thing hit me in 1988. My younger sister, Ellen, who had been working for me, passed away. She suffered from anorexia. That was a terrible time. I was building SGI at the time. It was a relatively large business. But that sent me reeling for almost a year. Shortly after that, my youngest brother – who was suffering from kidney disease – went into chronic renal failure. He needed a kidney. I had already lost one sibling and I wasn’t about to lose another. I gave my brother a kidney in January 1993. That became a traumatic experience – although certainly one with a positive outcome. A year after that I was diagnosed with a mild form of cancer. So that was the triple play. I left the company that I had sold SGI to, got on my sailboat and sailed to the Caribbean. I tried to figure out life. I’ve had some recurrences, but I have been cancer-free for over two years. I believe I’m well on the road to recovery. I’ve never felt better, actually.
What did the experience teach you about life?
It teaches you that life is short. And you never know when something is going to come up from behind and bite you. You have to live every day – not like it’s your last – but you have to get something out of every day. You never know when there won’t be another day. You’ve got to save a little for tomorrow, but also spend a little today. There’s a balance there that is difficult to find. But when you’ve been through some of these things, you tend to find that balance.
Did it teach you anything about business?
There are more important things in life. I’ve learned that lesson. It also teaches you that if you can get through some of those experiences that are so difficult, there is nothing in business that can stop you. There is no obstacle. There is no mountain you can’t climb. It’s been a positive message for me. I’ve taken a different approach to business since I have been through these experiences. I never let things get me down or get to a point where I’m having anxiety attacks. I also know that I’ll get through things.
How do you know when it’s the right time to sell a business?
I start with a strategy as to how to start a business – and how to sell it. I also know before I start a business, who I want to sell it to. I direct it that way. There is no script as to when it is time to sell. I started a business in 1995 and sold it nine months later. I had no plans to, but it worked out that way. You have to demonstrate some history, some profitable and significant growth. But you also have to demonstrate that there is a future for the business. Part of it, frankly, is luck.
What do you consider to be the most difficult challenge facing today’s entrepreneur?
The world is much smaller today. Whatever marketplace you play in today, you’ve got to think globally. Today, it’s impossible to be isolated. Being a little guy with a unique thing – all of a sudden the whole world can look at you. With the Internet, some guy 7,000 miles away can click on a button and look at your company and say; ‘That’s a great idea, I think I can do it better.’ That makes the risks greater. But it also makes the rewards greater if you are successful.
Have there been cases when you sold a business – and then wished you hadn’t?
No. I never look back.
Has there ever been a time when you are in the middle of growing a business and you think; I really don’t want to sell this?
I’m in a couple of those right now. Some of these businesses are a lot of fun. We’re in niche markets, without a lot of competition. But history, knowledge and experience say you’ve got to sell them. You live by the numbers. You never let emotions make decisions. The numbers make the decisions.
