The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Monday, October 18, 2010
Metro Section - Living, Page D5
Dog collar light creator selling to government
By Sue Manning
Associated Press
Los Angeles - Jackie Simoni is a computer geek turned inventor of a special light to make dogs safer after dark. Now, she's also a government contractor.
Simoni invented PupLight six years ago. She came up with the idea of a light that attaches to a collar while fumbling with a leash, flashlight, poop bags and animal repellent during a walk with her 90-pound, very social golden retriever.
It took 15 prototypes, but the lights are now sold at Petco, Cabela's outfitters and on Amazon.com. "I thought I would sell a million a year," she said.
So far, the number is closer to 150,000 at $19.95 each. But Simoni's luck could be changing.
The Secret Service has been using the lights for a couple of years. A few weeks ago, she got a five-year, $125,000 contract with the General Services Administration so she can sell to more than 1,000 other government departments, said Rita Haake, program manager of the Center for Entrepreneurship at the College of DuPage in Illinois.
"The process that Jackie had to go through is thorough and substantial. The federal government evaluates the product offering and then negotiates for the best pricing from the company," said Haake, who help Simoni with her GSA application.
All Simoni has to do now is contact the departments that use dogs and sell them on PupLight, then they can order the lights through the GSA.
Hot prospects include: the Federal Emergency Management Agency, with its canine search and rescue corps; the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives for airport detection and narcotics canines; and Customs and Border Patrol for dogs that search for narcotics or find themselves in dark border tunnels, Haake said.
PupLight was recently on of six products - out of 1,300 entries - chosen by the Edison Nation product search competition.
Edison Nation is running television infomercials though October to determine if it will sponsor the light in a national direct sales ad campaign.
That could means sales in the millions and licensing royalties, said Simoni, who lives in suburban Chicago.
Four years ago, Robert Eschenberg, 43, an auto repair technician from Ventura, Calif., and his wife, Kim, adopted Maggie, a 10-month-old Lab mix who had been abused. Every once in a while, she would freeze in fear.
At a dog show, a neighbor found a PupLight and brought it for the dog.
"Maggie was a little leery of it at first, but when it got dark and I reached down to turn it on, something changed in her. Her chest popped out and she started to strut," Eschenberg said.