The Story
The idea came to John Goscha and fellow freshman college student, Andrew Foley, while brainstorming business ventures one night in 2002. The two Babson college students asked the question “What if we could turn the whole wall into a whiteboard?”. At Babson, Entrepreneurially minded students would often brainstorm their ideas using paper that covered the walls, often needing to be ripped off and replaced. Being poor college students at the time, unable to afford whiteboards, especially ones that would fit their brainstorming and collaboration needs, John and others began to wonder that a whiteboard paint did not exist. Later the same year (2002), this need fueled the process of starting up IdeaPaint, a business that sells environmentally conscious paint that turns any smooth surface into a 
whiteboard. After a few years of gathering support and venture capital money, John Goscha invited two fellow Babson graduates, Jeff Avallon and Morgan Newman (both of whom are still with the company today) to join the start-up. IdeaPaint launched in 2008 at the Chicago Trade Show, with their first product, IdeaPaint Pro.
The Product
The former president of IdeaPaint, Bob Munroe, describes the company’s three main positioning strategies as:
“Flexibility and Versatility”
IdeaPaint offers the ability to be applied in many different spaces and shapes that whiteboards could not. They also offer color selections, including a clear dry erase paint option.
“Environmental Advantage”
Instead of a traditional whiteboard that must be manufactured in a factory and then disposed of, IdeaPaint can be used on existing surfaces, or even to recoat an existing dry erase board. It is also GREENGUARD Certified to insure indoor air quality.
“Cost”
Averaging about $4 per foot, IdeaPaint sells for “less than half the price of a high performance white board.”
The Success
Due to the innovative birth of this idea, and the product’s continual encouragement of innovation, creativity and collaboration, IdeaPaint has seen great success. By 2012, they hoped to bring in $ 15 – 20 million. In 2012, the IdeaPaint corporation expanded into the home market and is now available in all Lowe’s stores. Their products have reached 75,000 homes, schools and offices. IdeaPaint has received recognition by Fast Company, CNBC, and the Wall Street Journal. Well-known, including many Fortune 500, companies have utilized IdeaPaint in their own headquarters. Some of these companies include NASA, Google and even Apple.
To learn more visit http://www.ideapaint.com/ or enjoy the following video:
http://youtu.be/lo2HFA6T20U
Sources:
http://www.ideapaint.com/about/our-story/
http://www.ideapaint.com/about/founding-story/
http://www.wbjournal.com/article/20110620/PRINTEDITION/306209972
I really like how these guys have the three clear positioning strategies. All three of them are topics that people today are especially concerned with, and they are selling a quality product that speaks to that. This a great example of finding a problem right where you are at and actually moving on the idea to solve it.
I love how practical this product is. It can be used in so many places like classrooms, offices, design studios, hospitals and so many more! I love how these guys saw a real need and addressed it with such useful creativity!
I love how out-there this idea is. It fills such a cool, practical purpose and is completely original. I really love it how they were able to create something for themselves that proved to be so useful to so many major corporations, like Apple and NASA. I love the versatility of the product that allows it to be used in so many different markets and for so many different purposes.
What a neat idea! This reminds me of the chalkboard paint that I’ve seen in some of my friends’ homes. Whiteboard paint has a lot of advantages over blackboard paint because it wouldn’t change the look of the surface, especially with the clear paint. I also think that it’s interesting how this company marketed their brand to the workplace for use in developing creativity and innovation. With this emphasis in the workplace recently, this was a progressive direction for the marketing strategy. Great job with this!
This is a really cool post – Not only is it such a great company, but I like the way you pointed out the different advantages of their product. It’s also nice to hear of a college student like ourselves being a good entrepreneur.
What’s neat is that it seems like such an obvious one once you read about it. It’s one of those cases where, now that it’s available, we can’t understand why it wasn’t before. Not only was the idea fantastic, but I also love how they kept it cheap. I mean, come on. $4 per foot? I’m sold–and I don’t even know where I’d put it.
I love how these guys identified a problem and came up with a creative solution to solve it! I have personally invested in whiteboard paint, and not only do I love the idea, but I also love the product itself.
this is a great idea! it works because they are very specific in how they want to get this product to work, and how they want to get this product to their customers. its especially exciting because they really were just broke college students.
This product is appealing to so many different people. I love how artists, teachers, engineers, really anyone could use this. He has such a wide variety of potential customers and he can really market this product in so many different ways. It’s also nice that he kept the cost down so really anyone could buy it!
first off I’m a huge fan of Babson college i think they do a great job of teacher their student to think and be creative. this is an awesome idea and id even love to have one in my room for brainstorming. great inspiration to us as freshman to begin thinking and creating business ventures.