Jason O'Neill founded the company Pencil Bugs in November 2005, right after he turned 10 years old.
Pencil Bugs attach to a standard pencil via a pipe cleaner body. Each bug has a Styrofoam head with antennae and eyes and comes with its own Certificate of Authenticity, which includes its name, the day it was "born" and instructions on the proper care and training of a Pencil Bug. What started as a simple craft fair product a few years ago is now a full-fledged business for O'Neill, complete with a city of Temecula business license, a state tax identification number and a Web site for sales.
O'Neill donates 5 percent of Pencil Bugs sales to Rady Children's Hospital in San Diego. The other 95 percent goes right back into the product itself.
We're actually working on expanding it right now. We've been working for a couple of months with companies trying to get it mass produced in China and that's been very hard because we've been sending back and forth many prototypes because the way that the exact same way that we're doing it can't be...(Full transcript available to logged in subscribers.).
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Jason O'Neill States Company Grew From Sidewalk Sales To Word of Mouth to Website Sales
Jason O'Neill States Importance for Parents To Listen To Their Kid's Ideas and To Let Them Fail
Jason O'Neill Discusses Challenges of Expansion and Getting Products Developed in China
