CAS-MI Helps Develop Successful Novel Product - Idea Paint
Idea Paint tops $4MM in sales in 2010!
Back in early 2007 CAS-MI Laboratories was contacted by a young inventor by the name of John Goscha. As it happened, Mr. Goscha was one of three young entrepreneurs attending Babson College. The three young men - Mr. Goscha, Mr. Jeff Avallon, and Mr. Morgen Newman were intrigued by the idea of a liquid coating that could be applied to any wall rendering it as a dry erase surface. Mr. Martin Donbrosky (CAS-MI's Innovation Center Director) began evaluating multiple 2k paint systems to formulate just the right balance of workable time of the paint and cure rate. Substantial research was then conducted to determine the necessary properties to create a dry eraseable surface.
Over 50 formulas were developed and evaluated until a suitable coating was identified with the right combination of appearance, application, performance, and cost. After several more months of investigation and trial and error - voila - Idea Paint PRO (a two component solvent based dry erase paint) was born! A couple of products already existed on the market, but none could boast the superior performance of Idea Paint.
The fresh young minds of the three entrepreneurs quickly took over by incorporating simple ideas into the marketing and packaging of their new product, such as labeling the part A and B components as "This" and "That", with written mixing instructions to pour "This" into "That". A little more than one year later, and again - voila - CRE8 was born. 
This was a water based coating with much lower VOCs than its predecessor, PRO. Slowly, sales began to increase - orders became for well over 1000 kits. Now, Idea Paint can be found on the floors of Lowes (www.ideapaint/lowes) and Sherwin Williams across the country with thousands of outlets for both DIY as well as professional installation.
CAS-MI Laboratories and Idea Paint have continued to work together to develop more environmentally friendly products while pushing the limits of current technologies and designing some new ones. As a result, Idea Paint expects sales to exceed $9MM in 2011 and has plans for continued growth into foreign markets as well as domestic ones in classrooms and offices. Learn more about Idea Paint.
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