It was a Tuesday in February when College Station resident Molly Watson first knew her invention would sell.
Over the past three years, the mother of three young boys grabbed minutes -- sometimes hours, never days -- here and there transforming her idea into a product with a price tag and bar code for stores to place on shelves.
The 1996 Baylor University communications graduate had experience in teaching, public relations, event planning and recruiting MBAs, but zero know-how about building a business from scratch.
Even so, Watson hit the streets to do market research, while scouring stores and an online patent library to confirm that her idea wasn't already in someone else's mind or in a warehouse.
"It's silly but when you invent something, at first you think someone is going to steal it," Watson said, laughing at herself while she recalled asking her close circle of friends to promise that they wouldn't repeat a word about her creation.
Her lawyer husband didn't need to be sworn to secrecy. Davis Watson, the first person to whom she revealed her idea, was instantly supportive. Even with his legal background in civil matters, he couldn't supply her with the expertise she needed.
Soon, the 36-year-old was dealing with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, an intellectual property lawyer, an engineer, a designer, a manufacturer in China and a Web site developer.
All these efforts were aimed at getting into the shopping bags of women a plastic, rectangular box the size of a postcard that opens at the top when a button is pushed. Inside -- tampons.
It comes with a catchy name and simple slogan: "Tbox. The most perfect tampon holder. Period." It holds eight and has two suction cups that affix to the side of the toilet.
She's still testing a clever phrase that gets right to the point: "Stop the Waddle." Easy for those in the know to visualize, but she's found some are put off by its reality.
Watson didn't get a broker. She didn't spend big dollars on a marketing campaign. She didn't even make tons of calls to corporate offices.
On that February morning earlier this year, Watson -- dressed in jeans and wrapped in a stark white raincoat that tied neatly around her waist -- grabbed a Tbox from the inaugural inventory stored in the family garage. She made certain she had her props and headed out for the 15-minute trip to her first potential sale.
She first walked into Closet Door on Harvey Road where she knew owner Pam Schultz. The clothing store owner told Watson that she liked the Tbox and bought 10.
"That gave me a good deal of confidence," she said, adding that she already sold 15 on the Internet, some to people she didn't even know.
"The Closet Door sale gave me the boost I needed. I went straight to Kroger," she said of the grocery store on Boonville Road in Bryan where the manager has earned a reputation for taking a chance on local products.
There, she learned a few lessons: Be willing to negotiate the price and listen to the people who do this for a living.
The next day, other stops: H-E-B in College Station and Walgreens where she filled out paperwork for a vendor application.
Within several weeks, Watson's inventory was depleted and a reorder was making its way to her connection in China.
"While it's really taken three years to get here, it feels like it's gone by more quickly -- things really started moving," Watson said. "Following through is key."
Practical idea
Watson was a new mother, dealing with a million things that come with the birth of a first child when the idea hit her.
She always stored her tampons in a flowery Ralph Lauren box that once held soap -- a gift given to her while in college. Once a month for a week or so, the container that was bigger than a shoebox sat perched on the back of the toilet in the bathroom off her master bedroom.
"It was there for seven years before my husband ever even asked me what it was -- he had never even looked inside. Seven years," Watson said in wonderment.
"My thought was -- wouldn't it be great if when this sometimes surprising thing happens, I had quick access to what I needed," she said, adding that she then searched aisle after aisle for a product that met this need. Nothing.
She quickly told her husband what she was thinking. His response? Pretty good idea. It was the same reaction she drew from two close friends.
"Tbox just fit what it actually is, so the name was really easy, now I had to get to work on creating it," she said.
Watson, who also has a master's degree in communication from Texas State University, found a patent attorney after doing research on trademarks.
"Turns out what I'm trying to build is not rocket science in the patent world. It's a simple product," she said. "It doesn't have a lot of moving parts."
The lawyers told her to move forward with the understanding that once she divulged her idea she had one year to file the provisional patent.
Through a colleague on the board of the Children's Museum of the Brazos Valley, Watson was hooked up with engineer Veronica Morgan.
"We went everywhere -- Academy, Target, Walmart. We found a tackle box with a hinge that I wanted and then we examined the thickness of plastic products, the sturdiness of suction cups and the designer-engineer started sketching it out."
Meanwhile, she met in Austin with a University of Texas MBA graduate, Rob Bailey, who lives and works in China as a go-between for business owners and the manufacturing process overseas.
Along the way, Watson sought advice from relatives, including her cousin, Clayton Christopher, who created Sweet Leaf Tea and last year moved over as CEO when Nestle Waters made a $15.6 million investment in his company. She learned about innovation early in life: Her grandfather started a photography studio, which eventually her father took over; one of her three brothers started a legal copy service that grew in three cities and her mother created a bridal line that sold in Saks Fifth Avenue.
Even with entreprenuership in her blood, her product chartered new territory for consumers and she wanted it to be perfect and it wasn't quite there -- the first Tbox prototype came back too big.
"So I went back to the drawing board until it was discreet enough," Watson said.
The package of one Tbox arrived by UPS when she was playing with her young boys.
"I opened it up and said -- 'this is it!'" Watson said. "It looks great. I immediately put it on the toilet, and thought 'I made that.'"
Getting buy-in
Excited and ready for the next step, Watson now was head-deep in a process in which she knew exactly what she wanted. She hired a photographer who helped her with the slogan. A graphic artist chimed in.
The idea for bright green color on her packaging came from a party bag that Watson liked, especially after she examined other products down the aisle where feminine items are sold and discovered few popped out like hers.
Through trial and error, they worked on putting together a box that would fit the product in without damaging the suctions cups.
Then it was ready for mass production, Watson said, so she sent the box designs to China to the same businessman handling the product itself.
Almost five months later, 1,000 white Tbox's came in on a freight truck two days before Christmas. She opened up each one herself and discovered a 12 percent defective rate, but knew that was a part of working out the kinks.
Along the way, she gave away 120 to friends with an explanation of why she might have missed a few events over the past year. Two weeks later she gave 170 to the Pi Beta Phi sorority at Texas A&M, which is the organization she belonged to at Baylor, and then another 10 to Thetas.
"I had read that the best thing you can do is give away 10 percent so you can get feedback," Watson said.
She used each recipient as researchers: Report back on the overall thoughts on the product? Was it too small? Too big? Did they like the color? Packaging OK? What would they change? Would they use it?
"Some wanted it to hold more, others said it was just right. Many thought the price was too much. Much of what they were telling me was positive and encouraging, so I kept going," she said.
That's when she headed out to see if those in store management would agree.
The first stop at Closet Door was aimed at someone she knew. The next stop at Kroger was a stranger.
Within several minutes that included a 90-second pitch, Watson had sold 250 to a major grocery store chain.
"He said he liked it and thought it would sell, but that I was charging too much," she recalled of the $12 price tag.
Kroger Manager Larry Medearis -- who opened the site on Boonville, along with several other stores since 1986 -- said he told Watson to knock the price down to $9.99 and "we had a deal."
"She knew her product had a self-pitch, obviously had done research on population and percentage. She knew her product well even though it's never been sold anywhere," Medearis said. "These are the people we pay attention to."
Watson, as confident as she was, still was floored by how the conversation and ensuing purchase unfolded.
"Larry gave me a big boost," she said. "And credibility."
The following day she went to Walgreens, learned who handled local vendors, then did the same at H-E-B.
H-E-B Manager Tony Atkins asked her to bring two samples and within days she was standing at the end of an aisle doing a demonstration. A video of her describing the product played behind her, another task she had to get done in a matter of days.
"My mother and two college students were with me, and we learned that a lot of women want different colors, so I listened to that, along with all the advice," she said.
Soon Watson ordered 5,000 more and by the summer will have Tbox available in leopard and polka dot designs.
Next steps
"Social networking has to be a part of this," she said. More than 250 are following her efforts on Facebook, which, along with a Twitter account, is linked from her Web site -- www.stopthewaddle.com done by Global Graffiti in Houston.
"I want to eventually be in Target, Bed, Bath and Beyond and The Container Store," she said. "I want to be ready for them if they like it."
QVC is another goal on her to-do list that gets longer and more time-consuming by the day for her one-person shop.
"I was told by Rob in China that I don't need another employee until I've sold 200,000," Watson said. "There's still a long road ahead but we're getting there."
The challenge so far hasn't been on the creative side for Watson. For her, it's making sure she passes federal regulations and gets her patent.
"To be patentable, among other requirements, you have to be solving a problem. Here's ours -- women need to have a tampon close to us in the restroom. Ask most women. That's a problem. I hope the patent officials agree."
Kroger's Medearis, who hears from about three local inventors each year, said he's seen them come and go over 25 years.
"The ones that are excited about the product, the ones who believe in their product, those are the ones who normally succeed.
"The woman with the Tbox was extremely excited and has faith in what she's selling, plus her product is unique," Medearis said. "I think as time goes on, we're going to actually see it pick up and she'll be one of those who makes it."
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