John Goscha founded IdeaPaint, in the early 2000s. He and several friends, Andrew Foley, William Gioielli, and Alex Galperin, developed this idea through their college years. Seeing a need for dry erase walls first, when John and his entrepreneurship hall mates posted large sheets of paper up and down the walls of their hall. They eventually ran out of space on their idea sheets and had to continually replace them. Goscha decided to try and find some dry erase paint to make their lives easier. To his chagrin, there was no such thing!
John, Andrew and William started developing the business plan for IdeaPaint, and researching options and paints to test their product out. They made the walls dry erase and when students and faculty started using the walls, they realized this had an actual market. IdeaPaint received seed money for Babson, and the team began working to creating their product. After graduation, the team split up, but John Goscha kept at his idea. IdeaPaint has several setbacks finding a paint that would actually work commercially. They eventually found the perfect product, and received investors and are now a very successful company. Many large companies and universities, including Chick-fil-A, MIT, Go Daddy, Evernote, Welch’s, Google and more use IdeaPaint around their campuses.
John Goshca, came up with an incredible product idea, when he and his entrepreneurship buddies found a pain they were experiencing. He joined together with a few other classmates, realizing that working together would help him find a better solution, than if he had been working on his own. John did not let setbacks keep him down, but pursued his idea throughout the decade until he reached success. He has benefited so many individuals and companies through his hard work.
IdeaPaint now have many different options and products, including magnetic surfaces, dry erase + projector surfaces and others that allow lots of flexibility, and it all stemmed from the need to stop replacing paper on the walls of John Goscha’s dorm hall.
This is a really cool product and a great way to solve this problem. I like how they saw a problem that needed fixed and instead of complaining about it, they actually did something and made a business. Dry erase walls are a great idea in dorm hallways for notes, dates, reminders, etc.
I love this creative solution to a unique situation. I actually have used this product in my own house, it works fairly well and it is such a fun thing to actually be able to use. I noticed how Goscha used his friends and classmates to produce this idea; I really like how they worked together and found success. For me at least, it’s easy to forget how helpful others can be at your time of need. Really cool story, nice job.
This story is really cool. Clearly, there was a problem that many people experienced and I love that they acted on it to create a solution. Rather than continually replacing paper on the walls, they found an easier way to solve the problem and it turned into a successful business.
I’ve heard of blackboard paint before, but this is my first time hearing about dry erase paint! Such a cool product idea that is useful for many different applications. This makes me want to go out and buy a can of IdeaPaint to transform one of my own walls!
I transferred here from Liberty, and in a lot of their study rooms in various buildings they have this paint on the walls. We could cover it ceiling to floor with dry erase marker. This stuff is amazing and a great way to solve the problem of wanting to write stuff out on walls with no consequences!