Web Site: www.yakaboutit.com
Headquarters: Buffalo, NY
Year Founded: 2009
Founder: Jeff Gawronski, CEO
Investors: Self-funded
Employees: Gawronski, with a board of advisors and outsourced contingent workforce.
Company Description in 140 characters or less:
“Shop for the latest and most unique products you’ve never seen before. Yak About It only features products from independent inventors.”
By Jeff Gawronski, CEO
YAK ABOUT IT is an e-commerce e-retailer that only carries items from inventors and independent entrepreneurs. The underlying goal of YAK ABOUT IT is to get products noticed and Yak’d About. The web site not only wants to provide consumers with great products, but it is also geared toward making inventor based creations a success. Achieving the same wide-spread placement and awareness that large suppliers and companies do is an uphill battle for independent entrepreneurs. Inventors are the true underdog. In general, inventors and independent entrepreneurs face two major hurdles in getting their products noticed and, consequently, enjoyed by you, the consumer: (1) access to retailer shelf space, and (2) customer awareness once shelf space is awarded.
YAK ABOUT IT’s goal is to remove these roadblocks. When you visit YAK ABOUT IT, you are purchasing, paying attention, and showing retailers which products are worthy of notice. Giving products you like recognition through the sharing of opinions, purchase, and comments within YAK NATION, you become a part of the product’s climb in popularity. It’s important to YAK ABOUT IT that consumers like you have a real voice within our YAK NATION. Your voice is also heard every time you tell a friend or post what you’ve found throughout the web (e.g. Facebook, Twitter, Blogs, etc). The true long-term success of products is only achieved when you, the customer, make a purchase and share your experience of the purchase. It’s these same useful benefits the inventor had in mind when he or she stopped life to work on bringing his or her vision to market. YAK ABOUT IT featured inventors and start-up entrepreneurs appreciate your help in getting their products noticed! And YAK ABOUT IT welcomes you to the very beginning of increasing awareness of these tremendous products!
YAK ABOUT IT featured products all started off as ideas, ideas conceived of by ordinary people like you and me. The people behind these inventive products had the courage to change their lives as they once knew them and take a risk on their dreams. This vision to bring a product to market and to start a company is not all-encompassing; it’s not a dream shared by everyone. The learning process, hard work, cash investment and time make it all the more special for inventors and independent entrepreneurs when their ideas are brought to market. The problem is that once a product is ready to sell, it doesn’t mean that a sale is guaranteed. It’s not that the invention or creative product is useless; rather, the product lacks awareness.
Where would you go to look for new and useful inventions? Where are the products from innovative inventors featured? Before the birth of YAK ABOUT IT, the answer was nowhere. New, market-ready inventions were all in random locations on the Internet or spread out in mostly smaller, niche retail stores. YAK ABOUT IT’s mission is to get new products noticed. Now inventors and start-up entrepreneurs’ new, innovative or exciting products can be found in one central place—YAK ABOUT IT. You now have one spot that ensures that previously unknown products of yesterday become popular products of the future. Join us at the ground level and YAK ABOUT IT!
About Me
My passion for inventors, entrepreneurs and the entire process of product creation to product retail is what inspired YAK ABOUT IT. Through my various and frequent encounters with fellow inventors (entrepreneurs), I found a commonality among them. I discovered a problem, or a gap.
After working diligently in creating the product and preparing it for retail—often for many years—a budding entrepreneur struggles with figuring out how to bring his or her product to market, for, in reality, there is no one central place to launch newly invented products and let the world know of its existence. Because of the abundance of exciting yet unknown inventions and a personal desire to make consumers and retailers aware of their existence, it made sense to create a fun web site for people to “yak about it”; hence, the site was born! I set out to create a place to provide consumers with useful products that they can use, connect retailers with retail ready inventions, and give inventors an outlet to make their inventions known.
A Little History
I graduated college in 2001 with a double major in Entrepreneurial Studies and Marketing, and from there I landed a job in the corporate world working in Pharmaceutical Sales. During this three-year stint, I caught the bug, the entrepreneurial bug, that is. I invented a product (four years prior while in college) that I was ready to breathe life into (a bedpost shelf, patent #6,748,874). I handled everything from soup to nuts in bringing the product to market and getting it sold to major retailers. While on the creating-new-product journey, I developed and created an e-commerce retail outlet. The site was created to not only sell my niche invention, but to build a company that could expertly merchandise products. Propelled by the idea and inspiration for YAK ABOUT IT, I decided to sell my e-commerce business. The knowledge I gained from my first 6-plus years of entrepreneurial experience was invaluable. From creating an invention to building a retail web site from scratch to having almost 4,000 products upon exit, I’ve been involved personally in almost all aspects of retail and wholesale business. I started at the idea formation stage, learned about the start-up phase and continued to gain knowledge about independent entrepreneurship in the high growth and sale phase. It’s fair to say that I was involved directly in each and every step and decision that’s involved in being an entrepreneur. This experience has provided an understanding of the work, effort, and knowledge needed to survive and achieve success.
YAK ABOUT IT – www.yakaboutit.com
