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Smarts : Snapshot
Allison Kugel
29, founder of
Longislandlefty.com and Tiresignal.com, plainview, New York
Entrepreneur
magazine -
February 2004
By April Y. Pennington
Description:
E-tailer offering products geared toward left-handed people; imported
tire-pressure monitor caps and other automotive accessories offered on a
second site
Start-up:
LongIslandLefty.com, $500; TireSignal.com, $1,000
Sales:
Projected combined sales for 2004, $1.1 million
Lose-win
situation:
After being laid off post
9/11, Kugel found salvation while perusing an Internet start-up book her
15-year-old brother Jared had ordered. A supplier for left-handed products
intrigued the brother and sister enough that they pooled their savings to
co-found LongIslandLefty.com. (Jared has since left the company.)
Southpaws rule!
Operating lean and out of her parents' home, Kugel had an old college
friend—now a Web developer—create her Web site plans in exchange for
homemade cookies. Initially ordering from suppliers, the Kugels eventually
started working with manufacturers directly, developing products like a
left-handed notebook and can opener. Sixty percent of their customer base
consists of parents and their school-aged children, who often provide
positive feedback. "We get a lot of e-mails from kids," Kugel beams.
"Those are my favorite letters.
Two-tired:
Entrepreneurship struck again when Kugel's father, who is in the tire
business, showed her the pressure-indicating tire caps he got as a sample.
While clever, the product had never gained popularity. Kugel discovered
that her cousin was developing a similar product, and the cousin allowed
her to launch TireSignal.com, opting to be a ghost partner in the
business. (Kugel is in the process of buying the cousin out.)
Starting with online orders and bulk overseas
sales, they landed an account with AAA, and sales reps and distributors
all over the country now sell the car accessory to retail stores. Kugel
now has offices in Plainview and New York City as well as warehouses in
Clark Summit, Pennsylvania, and Long Island, New York.
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