Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Bob Sandelman. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.
Bob, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Alright, so you had your idea and then what happened? Can you walk us through the story of how you went from just an idea to executing on the idea
I have always had a keen interest in solving puzzles and playing games such as Scrabble, Boggle, Sudoku, Wordle, and Jumble. I’ve also always been fascinated by unique clocks and calendars and have built quite a collection of both.
In 1974, I combined these passions and invented the Crossword Calendar. This perpetual wall calendar looks like a crossword puzzle with three-letter abbreviations for every month of the year and every day of the week, and all of the numbers from one to 31 displayed horizontally and vertically…just like a crossword puzzle. The current date was highlighted from the back of the calendar with colored plastic strips that had to be moved each night to the next date. I was awarded a patent for the Crossword Calendar in 1978.
Although I had some distribution in gift stores and gift catalogs, this calendar never really took off. One of the reasons was because the calendar had to be taken off the wall in order to move the plastic strips, which was an inconvenience.
This low-tech display was long before colored LEDs were commonplace. But once LEDs were universally available, I thought there had to be a way for this calendar to incorporate an electronic LED display that could be programmed to automatically change the date each night to the next day. However, I never pursued this technique until 2021 when I saw an ad for QLOCKTWO, a German-made word clock. This device was a bit different than mine in that it only read the time horizontally, only used one LED color, and included some “filler” letters that were never used to tell the time. But this proved to me that it was possible for a company to to make an electronic version of my Crossword Calendar. I knew the technology was there because I saw this company had used the same technology to make their clocks.
So, I did extensive research to find a Chinese manufacturer associated with Alibaba that could develop a prototype of my calendar that included the same grid layout as my original design and with more colors. During my design process, I also achieved my goal of ensuring that every character in the grid would be used at least once a year as opposed to similar products that have unused “filler” characters. I ordered a prototype and was so pleased with the result that I then decided to invent a companion product — the Crossword Clock — which displays the hour, minute and AM/PM in multi-colored LEDs that change every minute of the day and has no “filler” characters.
I launched a Kickstarter campaign for both products in 2022 and, while I received a lot of interest, I was not able to raise the funds I needed to place a production order. Nevertheless, I decided to bite the bullet and order 50 units of each product and developed a website to display and sell my products. Along the way, I also added two more LED timepieces — the Roman Clock XXIV and the Diamond Duo Clock + Calendar. These products are still available on my website as well as on Etsy and eBay.
Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.
I have always been coming up with ideas for new products and services. As a kid, I would send my ideas for products or product improvements to companies. I would receive a nice letter that basically stated they do not accept outside submissions. Nevertheless, I continued to develop a variety of products and services.
My educational and professional background is in marketing and advertising. I earned both a bachelor’s and master’s degree in business administration from the University of Michigan in 1967. I also completed a course in computer programming while attending the Naval Supply Corps School in 1968. I really embraced programming because it can be viewed as a puzzle challenging me to find the most efficient way to make a computer carry out tasks using logic and skill. I then served as a supply officer in the US Navy from 1968 to 1972 on the administrative staff of Admiral Hyman Rickover, the “father of the nuclear Navy.”
After my Navy stint, I worked for a variety of companies and advertising agencies gaining experience on a wide variety of consumer products. Always anxious to be an entrepreneur, I decided to leave the corporate world in 1988 and founded Sandelman & Associates, Inc., a market research company that specialized in providing comprehensive market intelligence to restaurant chains for 33 years. Along the way, another of my “bucket list” items was to pass the Mensa test because the joy of solving puzzles is a common trait among many Mensa members. I passed the test in 1979 and have enjoyed the timely articles and challenging puzzles in Mensa’s monthly magazines. Some of my recent puzzle creations have appeared in the “Brain Games” section of the Mensa Bulletin monthly magazine.
In 2006, I took up Origami. This Japanese art of folding paper requires focus and concentration — much like puzzles. I learned to create architectural models of the Chrysler Building, Sydney Opera House, Westminster Abbey, and many other landmarks. During the COVID-19 lockdown in 2020, I embarked on a project I named “Cranes Conquering Covid.” I spent 85 hours over 17 days folding 1,000 origami cranes so that, according to Japanese legend, my wish would come true (a rapid end to the pandemic).
After retiring from Sandelman & Associates in 2021, I have devoted more time to pursuing my passions for unique timepieces, and puzzles and games. I have created four electronic LED timepieces — Crossword Calendar, Crossword Clock, Roman Clock XXIV and Diamond Duo Clock+Calendar. Most recently, I developed two web-based game apps — Scramble, and Fragments. I have created six puzzle books that are available on Amazon — “Fragments,” “Quotables,” “Tangles,” “MathMix”, and “Sequence” — as well as “Brain Gym” which is a compilation of over 500 of my puzzles.
The name of my current company is innOHvations — products that make you say “OH!” To reflect my passion as an innovator, I also got a new vanity license plate — INOHV8R.
We’d love to hear your thoughts about selling platforms like Amazon/Etsy vs selling on your own site.
I sell my four timepieces on my website — www.innohvations.com. These include the Crossword Calendar, the Crossword Clock, the Roman Clock XXIV, and the Diamond Duo Clock+Calendar. I also sell these products on Etsy and eBay.
I have had the most success with Etsy since I pay a small fee for Etsy to promote my products. However, Etsy also charges fees for listings, marketing, processing, etc., but also offers shipping for fees that are less than normal. My net profit from Etsy sales is below what I earn when selling directly from my website. I have run several ad campaigns on Facebook/Instagram directed at my website, but the cost for these ads does not really pay out, so I have stopped ads on social media and depend on word of mouth for advertising.
My six puzzle books (“Fragments,” “Quotables,” “Tangles,” “MathMix,” “Sequence”, and “Brain Gym” are promoted on my website and direct interested buyers to my Amazon page where there is more information about each book. The profit margins on Amazon are slim but they handle all of the printing and shipping books to customers so it is convenient for me not to keep an inventory of these books.
My website also includes links to two free web-based game apps that I developed: “Scramble” and “Fragments.”
We’d really appreciate if you could talk to us about how you figured out the manufacturing process.
My timepieces are manufactured by a company in China that is part of Alibaba. I did a lot of research on finding the right manufacturer and selected one that was already producing similar products in the size and materials I was seeking. This saved me a lot of money since I did not have to pay for molds. This company offered to develop my first prototype for the Crossword Calendar for just $200, including air shipment! They also developed the first prototype for the Crossword Clock at the same time and for the same price.
I was very satisfied with the prototypes and the speed at which they were developed. I requested some design changes for the clock, which the company executed perfectly. I proceeded to order 50 of each product and had this inventory shipped directly to me via ocean freight, which is much less expensive but takes longer to receive than air freight.
When I received these 100 items, I discovered that some of them were not working properly because the plastic grid inside the item had come loose during shipment, likely due to rough movement during the shipping process. So I had to carefully remove the front cover from each item, use a hot glue gun to firmly attach the grid to the printed circuit board, then re-attach the front cover with hot glue. This was a painstaking process. My manufacturer apologized for this but only offered me four free clocks on my next order, which was very disappointing.
When my inventory was almost sold out, I had interest from the Sharper Image catalog to carry both the Crossword Clock and the Crossword Calendar and to promote them for Father’s Day. I informally quoted them a price, signed the contract and proceeded to order 50 more of each product from my manufacturer, which had to be paid upfront. Unfortunately, the deal with Sharper Image fell through because I had to increase my initially quoted price to reflect some previously unknown Sharper Image charges, including an expensive insurance policy, and Sharper Image refused to budge on the price I had initially quoted. This would have resulted in virtually no profit on those sales, so we had to part ways. Since I was not able to cancel my order from the manufacturer, I was going to be stuck with 100 items to try to sell.
That second shipment from my manufacturer took several weeks longer than the first shipment and there were many emails back and forth that included lame excuses for the ongoing delays. When I finally did receive the shipment, I noticed that on all 50 clocks, there were four red LEDs that were noticeably brighter than all of the other LEDs on the display. My manufacturer could not determine the cause of these brighter LEDs and refused to compensate me in any way. I submitted a negative review on their website and have not heard anything from them since that time, despite several attempts I made to reach them. As it turns out, I came up with a fairly easy fix myself, which involved removing the front cover, placing a small piece of white paper over the brighter LEDs to reduce the brightness intensity, and then replacing the front cover using hot glue. (Note: I did not tell my manufacturer about my solution!).
The main lesson I learned from this experience is to not trust any manufacturer to produce a product that completely meets your specifications. This is especially difficult to accomplish given the time difference between the US and China and not being able to actually visit their facility to supervise the process (without large travel expenses). The pricing was attractive but the old adage of “you get what you pay for” certainly was true in my experience.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.innohvations.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/innohvations/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/innohvations
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/bob-sandelman-8201265/
Image Credits
Not applicable.