William J. Tobin
Encyclopedia
William J. Tobin is an American
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 entrepreneur
Entrepreneur
An entrepreneur is an owner or manager of a business enterprise who makes money through risk and initiative.The term was originally a loanword from French and was first defined by the Irish-French economist Richard Cantillon. Entrepreneur in English is a term applied to a person who is willing to...

, inventor, and business owner known for founding ten different startups since 1968, and securing 15 different patent
Patent
A patent is a form of intellectual property. It consists of a set of exclusive rights granted by a sovereign state to an inventor or their assignee for a limited period of time in exchange for the public disclosure of an invention....

s for products and software. Among the companies he founded and served as CEO and Director of Marketing are PC Flowers, Inc. from 1988, Instruments of Sweden, and Concept Industries, Inc. He was named an "Entrepreneur of the Year" by Inc. Magazine and in 2011 published the memoir and business tutorial Confessions of a Compulsive Entrepreneur and Inventor.

Early life, education

William J. Tobin was raised in a City Assisted Housing Project in New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...

. His father was a policeman. Tobin claims he started his first company at age 12, when he borrowed his mother's credit card and she bought him a hand edger and a gas lawn mower
Lawn mower
A lawn mower is a machine that uses a revolving blade or blades to cut a lawn at an even length.Lawn mowers employing a blade that rotates about a vertical axis are known as rotary mowers, while those employing a blade assembly that rotates about a horizontal axis are known as cylinder or reel...

 at Sears. He worked his landscaping business manually until age 16, when he bought a car and a trailer.

In 1959 he began attending the State University of New York
State University of New York
The State University of New York, abbreviated SUNY , is a system of public institutions of higher education in New York, United States. It is the largest comprehensive system of universities, colleges, and community colleges in the United States, with a total enrollment of 465,000 students, plus...

, Farmingdale
Farmingdale, New York
The Village of Farmingdale is an incorporated village on Long Island within the Town of Oyster Bay in Nassau County, New York in the United States...

, where he stayed for two years earning an associate degree in Applied Sciences. By the time he graduated, his landscaping business had grown considerably in size, with 2 trucks and 12 workers. Tobin then joined the United States Army
United States Army
The United States Army is the main branch of the United States Armed Forces responsible for land-based military operations. It is the largest and oldest established branch of the U.S. military, and is one of seven U.S. uniformed services...

 and afterwards attended Adelphi University
Adelphi University
Adelphi University is a private, nonsectarian university located in Garden City, in Nassau County, New York, United States. It is the oldest institution of higher education on Long Island. For the sixth year, Adelphi University has been named a “Best Buy” in higher education by the Fiske Guide to...

 to earn a BBA
BBA
BBA may refer to:*Bachelor of Business Administration, degree*Bachpan Bachao Andolan, an NGO against child labour in India*Backyard Brawlers Association, a wrestling promotion based primarily out of Rockville Centre, NY*Balanced Budget Act, U.S...

 in Business, graduating in 1966. He attended C.W. Post College for his MBA.

Career

Starting in 1968, Tobin began founding, financing, and marketing a series of startup companies. In each case he served as CEO and director of marketing. Throughout his career Tobin secured fifteen patents, including U.S. Patent #6,141,666, US Patent #7,505,913, and Japanese Patent #4,021,941.

Cal Industries, Inc.
In 1969 Tobin co-founded Cal Industries, Inc., serving as financier and marketing director. The company provided promotional programs for over 50 companies of the Fortune 500
Fortune 500
The Fortune 500 is an annual list compiled and published by Fortune magazine that ranks the top 500 U.S. closely held and public corporations as ranked by their gross revenue after adjustments made by Fortune to exclude the impact of excise taxes companies collect. The list includes publicly and...

, including Pepsi
Pepsi
Pepsi is a carbonated soft drink that is produced and manufactured by PepsiCo...

, Nabisco
Nabisco
Nabisco is an American brand of cookies and snacks. Headquartered in East Hanover, New Jersey, the company is a subsidiary of Illinois-based Kraft Foods. Nabisco's plant in Chicago, a production facility at 7300 S...

, General Foods
General Foods
General Foods Corporation was a company whose direct predecessor was established in the USA by Charles William Post as the Postum Cereal Company in 1895. The name General Foods was adopted in 1929, after several corporate acquisitions...

, CPC International, Coca-Cola
Coca-Cola
Coca-Cola is a carbonated soft drink sold in stores, restaurants, and vending machines in more than 200 countries. It is produced by The Coca-Cola Company of Atlanta, Georgia, and is often referred to simply as Coke...

, and American Tobacco. The company also developed educational materials for multiple major publishers, such as the American Management Association
American Management Association
The American Management Association , based in New York City, is a corporate training and consulting group that provides a variety of educational and management development services to businesses, government agencies and individuals. The non-profit membership organization offers business courses in...

, Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, MacMillan, and McGraw-Hill
McGraw-Hill
The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc., is a publicly traded corporation headquartered in Rockefeller Center in New York City. Its primary areas of business are financial, education, publishing, broadcasting, and business services...

. It also developed sales training programs for American Can, A&P, AT&T
AT&T
AT&T Inc. is an American multinational telecommunications corporation headquartered in Whitacre Tower, Dallas, Texas, United States. It is the largest provider of mobile telephony and fixed telephony in the United States, and is also a provider of broadband and subscription television services...

, Chase Manhattan Bank
Chase Manhattan Bank
JPMorgan Chase Bank, N.A., doing business as Chase, is a national bank that constitutes the consumer and commercial banking subsidiary of financial services firm JPMorgan Chase. The bank was known as Chase Manhattan Bank until it merged with J.P. Morgan & Co. in 2000...

, General Foods
General Foods
General Foods Corporation was a company whose direct predecessor was established in the USA by Charles William Post as the Postum Cereal Company in 1895. The name General Foods was adopted in 1929, after several corporate acquisitions...

, and Johnson & Johnson
Johnson & Johnson
Johnson & Johnson is an American multinational pharmaceutical, medical devices and consumer packaged goods manufacturer founded in 1886. Its common stock is a component of the Dow Jones Industrial Average and the company is listed among the Fortune 500....

. Tobin left the company in 1977.

Travel Concepts, Inc.
Tobin founded and financed a second company in 1971, Travel Concepts, Inc. He served as president and CEO for 14 years. The company developed the first travel kits to be distributed in First Class and Business Class cabins, and also provided in-flight educational games for children. The first class
First class travel
First class is the most luxurious class of accommodation on a train, passenger ship, airplane, or other conveyance. It is usually much more expensive than business class and economy class, and offers the best amenities.-Aviation:...

 and business class
Business class
Business class is a travel class available on many commercial airlines and rail lines, known by brand names which vary by airline or rail company. In the airline industry, it was originally intended as an intermediate level of service between economy class and first class, but many airlines now...

 travel kits and the educational game programs have been utilized by most major airlines for 25 years.

Concept Industries, Inc.
Tobin's third company, Concept Industries, Inc., was founded in 1975. While he served as president and CEO, the company developed computer software training programs, which went on to be used by most major word-processing and photo-typsetting systems like Compugraphic
Compugraphic
Compugraphic Corporation was an American producer of typesetting systems and phototypesetting equipment, based, at the time of the Agfa merger, in Wilmington, Massachusetts, just a few miles from where it was founded...

, Olivetti
Olivetti
Olivetti S.p.A. is an Italian manufacturer of computers, printers and other business machines.- Founding :The company was founded as a typewriter manufacturer in 1908 in Ivrea, near Turin, by Camillo Olivetti. The firm was mainly developed by his son Adriano Olivetti...

, Philips USA
Philips
Koninklijke Philips Electronics N.V. , more commonly known as Philips, is a multinational Dutch electronics company....

, Radio Shack
Radio shack
Radio shack is a slang term for a room or structure for housing radio equipment.-History:In the early days of radio, equipment was experimental and home-built. The first radio transmitters used a noisy spark to generate radio waves and were often housed in a garage or shed. When radio was first...

, Royal Typewriter, Savin
Savin (photocopiers)
Savin was incorporated in 1959 by Max M. Low and was run by Low's son, Robert K. Low and E. Paul Charlap...

, and Xerox
Xerox
Xerox Corporation is an American multinational document management corporation that produced and sells a range of color and black-and-white printers, multifunction systems, photo copiers, digital production printing presses, and related consulting services and supplies...

, to name a few.

Cal Pack Industries, Inc.
In 1977, Tobin founded and served as CEO to Cal Pack Industries, Inc., which invented and sold patented plastic dispensers for disposable cups and napkins, eliminating the need for restaurants to use expensive metal dispensers. The dispensers are still in common use. Tobin remained CEO until 1985.

Software Concepts, Inc.
A year after Cal Pack Industries was founded, Tobin founded Software Concepts, Inc., where he served as president and CEO for 8 years. The company developed software programs for computers, including a map downloading program for the CIA, and one of the first patented software programs in the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 for spelling verification. The latter program was used by most major word-processing and photo-typesetting systems, including Lanier, Philips, and Xerox, among many others. The patent he was issued in 1980 for the Spell-Checking program was one of the first software patents issued in the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

, Canada
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...

, and Europe
Europe
Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...

.

Concept Communication, Inc.
From 1984 to 1989, Tobin headed his startup Concept Communication, Inc., which replaced the then 100 pound, $100,000 computers necessary for teleconferencing with a patented, $12,000 circuit board which doubled frame rate
Frame rate
Frame rate is the frequency at which an imaging device produces unique consecutive images called frames. The term applies equally well to computer graphics, video cameras, film cameras, and motion capture systems...

 from 15 frames per second to 30 frames per second and was reduced in size to a circuit board that fit into any PC. He secured a patent for a codec
Codec
A codec is a device or computer program capable of encoding or decoding a digital data stream or signal. The word codec is a portmanteau of "compressor-decompressor" or, more commonly, "coder-decoder"...

 for full-motion videoconferencing
Videoconferencing
Videoconferencing is the conduct of a videoconference by a set of telecommunication technologies which allow two or more locations to interact via two-way video and audio transmissions simultaneously...

, first demonstrated at AT&T Bell Labs in 1986. Mr. Tobin was named Man of the Year by the International Teleconferencing Association for this achievement.

PC Flowers, Inc.
In 1988 Tobin founded PC Flowers, Inc., one of the first online electronic commerce
Electronic commerce
Electronic commerce, commonly known as e-commerce, eCommerce or e-comm, refers to the buying and selling of products or services over electronic systems such as the Internet and other computer networks. However, the term may refer to more than just buying and selling products online...

 services on the Prodigy Network. The company was the first financially successful interactive electronic commerce service in the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

. By 1991, the company had sales in excess of $6 million. The company linked FTD's 25,000 member florists to the Prodigy Network, becoming their most successful service.

Instruments of Sweden, Inc.
Tobin founded Instruments of Sweden, Inc. in 1987, where he patented, produced, and marketed a medical instrument used for removing deer ticks. It has been acknowledged by scientists as the only way to safely remove the ticks without increasing the risk of contracting Lyme disease
Lyme disease
Lyme disease, or Lyme borreliosis, is an emerging infectious disease caused by at least three species of bacteria belonging to the genus Borrelia. Borrelia burgdorferi sensu stricto is the main cause of Lyme disease in the United States, whereas Borrelia afzelii and Borrelia garinii cause most...

. He remained with the company until 1994.

PC Flowers and Gifts
Tobin founded PC Flowers and Gift in 1994, and using patents he had developed, the company invented the ability to provide tracking, affiliate marketing, and customized "co-branded" flower and gift services for numerous large websites. The company had over 2,700 affiliate marketing partners by 1998, and was sold in May 2000 to Federated Department Stores
Federated Department Stores
Macy's, Inc. is a department store holding company and owner of Macy's and Bloomingdale's department stores. Macy's Inc.'s stores specialize mostly in retail clothing, jewelery, watches, dinnerware, and furniture....

.

Commerce Technology Licensing, LLC
In 2000, Tobin founded Commerce Technology Licensing, LLC, a consulting firm on patent licensing, co-branding
Co-branding
Co-branding refers to several different marketing arrangements:Co-branding, also called brand partnership, is when two companies form an alliance to work together, creating marketing synergy...

, and e-commerce.

Memoir

In early 2011 Tobin published his first book, 'Confessions of a Compulsive Entrepreneur and Inventor: How I Secured Fifteen Patents, Started Ten Companies, and Became a Pioneer on the Internet, which is part memoir
Memoir
A memoir , is a literary genre, forming a subclass of autobiography – although the terms 'memoir' and 'autobiography' are almost interchangeable. Memoir is autobiographical writing, but not all autobiographical writing follows the criteria for memoir set out below...

 and part tutorial.

Awards

Tobin was named "Entrepreneur of the Year" by Inc. Magazine. He was also named "Man of Year" by the International Teleconferencing Association, and was selected as one of the "Top 100 Marketing Executives" by Ad Age Magazine.

Personal life

Tobin lives on Marco Island, Florida
Marco Island, Florida
Marco Island is a city in Collier County, Florida, United States, located on an island by the same name in the Gulf of Mexico off the coast of Southwest Florida. It is a principal city of the Naples–Marco Island Metropolitan Statistical Area...

. He founded the Tobin Family Education and Health Foundation, and when not boating, is a frequent speaker and panelist for business startups, management, and the topic of entrepreneurial innovation. He has also worked for a range of causes that search for cures for veterans' illnesses.

Further reading


External links

  • Book on Amazon.com
    Amazon.com
    Amazon.com, Inc. is a multinational electronic commerce company headquartered in Seattle, Washington, United States. It is the world's largest online retailer. Amazon has separate websites for the following countries: United States, Canada, United Kingdom, Germany, France, Italy, Spain, Japan, and...

  • Patent Example
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