John Osher Has Built Companies

John Osher has built companies and introduced products which are diverse in nature and seemingly have very little in common over the course of his business career. However, the underlying process of this serial entrepreneur boils down to a common theme, no matter what company or product he is engaged in: identify a gap in the market by understanding people’s needs and fill it promptly. He has an extensive track record of such an impeccable understanding. A man of many crafts, he appears to be a street-smart person who has developed an observational power.

Osher, though, does not build a business to last; he builds one from the ground-up and brings it to a successful and profitable exit. The examples are numerous: he sold his earring business at a premium to a classmate, his second-hand clothes store at a profit, and his SpinPop battery-powered lollipop to Hasbro Toys. The latter product provided the basis for the SpinBrush electric toothbrush.

His businesses are also ones which diversify as market conditions shift; CON-SERV started as a firm making innovative products for energy conversation as the energy crisis of the late 1970s unfolded, but swiftly switched to baby products in the 1980s as the crisis subsided. John Osher made successful use of his extensive network, and used his connections to make deals in marketing, logistics, financing, and retail, as he hopped from one project to the other.

SpinBrush, his greatest hit, was a product that exploited the gap between cheap manual toothbrushes and high-end electric ones produced by giants such as Gillette and Johnson & Johnson, which were expensive for the masses. Osher’s plan was to have a product that would sell for $6,00, work for 3 months on the included batteries, and clean teeth effectively. Having a great product that would solve an actual problem for a lot of people, is the very concept at the cornerstone of entrepreneurship.

His products are not perfect from the get-go, but since they tackle a waiting-to-be-filled gap, customers might overlook the early shortcomings since they perceive Osher’s products and solutions as value-for-money. Such was the case with SpinBrush, which initially did not last as long as planned and had issues with the spinning bristles. But its design and value for the price did not affect sales while Osher’s team made the necessary improvements. Timing was thus more important to Osher than a perfect product. In essence, working on the minimum viable prototypes and patenting the design early enough also proved pivotal in the success of SpinBrush.