Though the road to success may have been paved with obstacles, for one Rhode Island technology manufacturer, the company’s recent success has put it back in the high-speed lane of travel. In the two years since ttools Inc. was founded by the husband and wife team of Tracy Leigh and Tom Hazzard, along with friend Sixten Abbott, the company has faced an array of challenges.
Last summer, ttools, which created and now manufactures pens that can be used both on a computer screen and as a traditional writing instrument, battled international computer giant Palm Computing over patent infringement – and won.
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In December, ttools signed a licensing agreement with IDEO, a marketing design firm that works with Palm Computing, effectively settling the infringement dispute by allowing IDEO to use the patented throttle technology which is part of the pen design with royalties being paid to ttools.
But for Leigh and Hazzard, who run the day to day operations of the company from the third floor of their East Side home, the victory was bitter sweet. The process took a lot of capital out of the company’s pocket, and meant some loss in business.
Soon after the settlement, a proposed collaboration between ttools and another large pen manufacture that would have resulted in mass production of the product also fell through, bringing the company almost back to its starting point.
”At that point we had to sit down and really look at our business plan,” Leigh said. “We felt there was still a lot we wanted to do with this company and we just needed to find a way.”
So the two decided instead of closing up shop, they would learn from the experiences and make themselves stronger.
”Someone once told me that if you aren’t scared to death in business then you aren’t doing well,” Leigh. “Well, I think it’s the scariest thing. I am just as excited about this business today as I was the day we started.”
And as one door closed another opened for the company when Illinois-based Fellowes Manufacturing showed interest in producing and distributing all three of ttools throttle pens. A final agreement between the two companies was signed earlier this month.
”Fellowes is the perfect partner for us,” Leigh said. “With the other major pen maker we had the feeling like we were being swallowed. This is a 180-degree difference.”
Under the agreement, Fellowes will manufacture, market and distribute ttools products, including the three throttle-pen models, the Executive, the Slimline, and the Classic. Fellows will help ttools put its product in most major computer and office retail stores as well as mass merchandise and mail order catalogs around the country by the fall of 2000.
”In the retail market the barrier-to-entry is unreal,” Leigh said. “But you have to get past it and the only way to really do that is through a partner.”
”Most major retail stores don’t want to deal with a company that only has one product, a company like ours,” Hazzard said. “They want to sell a lot of shelf space, and they normally think of companies like ours as a risk.”
As part of the agreement, ttools was also able to retain the right to sell its product on the company Web site, something Leigh said, few companies are still able to do.
”On-line business is a very easy way for us to keep in touch with our customer base,” she said. “We are really energized about that.”
For Leigh and Hazzard working with Fellowes has only been a positive experience. Founded in 1917 by Harry Fellowes, Fellowes Manufacturing is privately held, family owned and operated. The company has grown from the “Bankers Box Company” to a global manufacturing corporation providing home and office organizational solutions.
ttools at the ready in this depiction of Executive Throttles writing instruments.
”The company is a family run business that started with just one patent, similar to us,” Leigh said. “There was a complementary interest there and we were able to go forward, and go forward quickly.”
Leigh said her gut feeling about their partner company also helped make the decision easier.
”When you are an entrepreneur you have to have a lot of instincts,” Leigh said. “With the first deal, my instincts kept telling me that something was wrong. With this deal, my instincts were telling me we were doing something right.”
Still, Leigh and Hazzard said if they have learned anything over the last year, it’s the importance of diversification in their business.
”With the failure of so many dot-com companies we realized that we need a more diverse product base, a more diverse market, and more diverse space,” Leigh said. “We had to have them all.”
As a result, the company applied for and received some funding through a U.S. Small Business Administration loan.
With the new capital, the company invested in a machine that can mark each of ttools pens with another company’s logo. Leigh said ttools has experienced great success already in the pharmaceutical industry.
”More and more doctors are carrying around Palms, or hand-held computers,” she said. “As a result the pharmaceutical companies are looking to put the names of their drugs on pens that they give to doctors. The volume is very large and for us it means serving another market.”
Leigh and Hazzard agree, recent changes in the company will allow them to do what they do best – design more products.
”As a designer I have spent much of the last year doing everything but designing,” Hazzard said. “I am really excited about being able to get back to where we began.”
Already, the two have plans to unveil a new product in January of 2001.
”We have to keep up with the retail schedule, and January is the start of the next big cycle,” Leigh said. “It’s pretty exciting.”
Both Hazzard and Leigh agree the company’s ability to stay up and running through it all is the result of good planning.
”We have always had a really clear business plan,” Leigh said. “We look at it monthly, and for us it is a guide tool that we follow.”
Eventually the couple agrees they would like to create office furniture, designed to meet the needs of people working with technology.
”We have always known that we were going to manufacture technology driven products,” Leigh said. “But we always thought of the stylus pen as a way of getting us to where we want to be, in furniture design.”
Still, Leigh and Hazzard are patient.
”We don’t know how long it will take for us to get there,” Leigh said. “But it’s clear that is where we are going.”
