Enterprising brothers roll out the rolls
“I was sitting in the bathroom one day,” says Jordan Silverman, describing how a business ”“ his and his kid brother”™s novel business, Star Toilet Paper L.L.C. ”“ begins. We are sitting in the workout room in the basement of his family”™s Rye Brook home, where 22-year-old Jordan and 19-year-old Bryan Silverman have set up a low-budget office workstation for their startup enterprise.
His seat of inspiration was in Ann Arbor, where Jordan at the time was a sophomore at the University of Michigan. (He recently graduated with a degree in philosophy and a pleasantly virulent “entrepreneurial bug” passed on to his brother.) People are always reading in bathrooms, he mused. Why not give them something to read ”“ guerrilla advertising! retailers”™ discount coupons redeemed online! ”“ on those blank scrolls of toilet paper?
“I”™m the kind of guy where, if I have an idea, I always type it into my phone,” says Jordan. With this idea, he went farther, searching on Google and doing research to find marketing companies that were profiting from like inspiration.
“Nobody”™s ever done it. We were amazed that nobody had tried this before, and that”™s when we thought we were really onto something,” he says.
The Silvermans have bootstrapped their startup business, working with little capital and trying to avoid hitting up friends and family for financial investments. “Up to date, we”™ve probably invested five to ten thousand,” Jordan says. “That”™s just to get us off the ground and running. We”™re already at a break-even point.”
Their startup effort was boosted by a grant from the state of Michigan through a business incubator in Ann Arbor, a city that nurtures a thriving community of startup entrepreneurs. An executive summary of Jordan”™s business plan won a $2,500 second-place prize for new business ideas from the Great Lakes Entrepreneur”™s Quest in Michigan. Star Toilet Paper was registered in Michigan as a limited liability company in 2010.
Avoiding attorney”™s fees, the philosophy major and his younger brother ”“ then a student at Blind Brook High School ”“ first scoured U.S. Patent and Trademark Office databases for filed patents that might dispel their burgeoning business dreams. Finding none, they applied for and obtained a provisional patent for their advertising concept. “We wrote the whole thing ourselves,” says Jordan.
“There”™s no better way to learn than by experiencing,” Bryan Silverman says.
The brothers and co-founders built their own initial website ”“ since replaced with a more professionally produced one ”“ and have designed all toilet-paper ads.
After a lengthy hunt, Jordan flushed out a novelty printer in Illinois to produce Star Toilet Paper”™s readable scrolls. “It took us about six months to find a printer who can do the bulk at the price we needed,” he says. Manufacturers”™ quoted prices ranged from $2 to $10 per roll. “From a cost standpoint long-term, we”™ll be able to get down to below a dollar,” he says.
The seminal idea was his older brother”™s, but their company”™s cheeky slogan ”“ “Don”™t Rush, Look Before You Flush!” ”“ is Bryan”™s creation.
“We know it”™s a humorous product and we try to embrace that,” says Jordan.
After that first laugh, business owners have begun to embrace their product. While in college, Jordan picked up 30 Ann Arbor advertisers, including a local Ben & Jerry”™s shop and a Pita Pit restaurant. Back home this summer, the brothers have signed on 20 diverse advertisers in Westchester County. They include an Allstate insurance agent, athletic training center, trophy shop, flooring company, food mart and pizza parlor.
After an initial discount deal, the Silvermans will offer advertisers a price of one-half cent per ad, with 125 of their company”™s ads unscrolling on each roll of toilet paper. Companies can target their marketing by venue and by gender for men”™s and women”™s bathrooms.
To reach advertisers, “We do everything from cold calls to emails to door-to-door and networking events,” says Jordan.
“The fact that it”™s in a bathroom is one strong selling point,” says Bryan. “We”™re reaching an audience that”™s really captive.”
“Most advertisements are seen from two to five seconds. Our advertisements are seen from one to 10 minutes.”
In October, the brothers will roll out their product in Westchester in a venue where readers ”“ of books and magazines and, yes, toilet paper ”“ are most welcomed, the Port Chester-Rye Brook Public Library.
“We”™re both working 10 to 12 hours a day on this,” says Bryan. Since graduating from college, “Jordan is now doing this full time.”
Bryan will return to Duke University this fall for his sophomore year. Thanks to Star Toilet Paper, he is one of five finalists for Entrepreneur magazine”™s College Entrepreneur of the Year award. He made the magazine”™s finals with the aid of a video produced by Purchase College students hired by the brothers.
In September, Jordan will venture into the vast Manhattan advertising market and move his company”™s office from the family workout room to co-working space at Sunshine Suites in NoHo.
“The plan was law school,” says Jordan. “But once you catch that entrepreneurial bug, it stays with you.”
“All you want to do is think up new ideas and work on them,” says his kid brother.
“I don”™t wake up every day and say, ah, I”™ve got to go to work,” says Jordan. “I wake up and say, this is awesome.”
Forget law school. Like his company”™s advertisers, Jordan Silverman is on a roll.