The Ultimate Jar Opener- the journey to success in Rita Vandergaw's words
Our business is a brand new and our product is an innovative and unique jar opener – The Ultimate Jar Opener. It opens lids from ½ inch to 6 inches wide and functions differently than anything else on the market currently.
My husband Dale invented this product and holds two patents, design and utility. The process has been over a 12 year period – yes 12 years! We were both suffering from issues – I had a torn rotator cuff and he had the beginnings of painful arthritis in his hands, neither of us could open a jar of any kind. We bought one that worked on specific size lids and ridged lids but didn’t work on smooth lids or large lids like pickle jars. So, we bought others and found similar challenges. He said, “the world needs a better jar opener”. I said why don’t you invent one. So, the process began. We are both executives in the transportation and travel and tourism industry, not kitchenware nor kitchen utensils. To make a long story somewhat shorter, Dale hired a mechanical engineer to work with him and he worked to develop a design and went through eight prototypes to finally come up with the current design. This was essentially like sending another child off to college and took longer. Ultimately he acquired the patents and we both “semi-retired” from our travel and tourism professions and are now working on marketing The Ultimate Jar Opener. We have had to learn a brand new industry and are trying to break through to obtain some commitments from retailers and/or large scale kitchen ware brands.
What’s different about our product – is it works! Not only it is a great kitchen tool, but we have found that you can use in the garage for paint jars, office for those pesky water bottles and for opening stuck on glue lids and paint in crafting. It even opens those square shaped nozzles on spray bottles that are often difficult as well as juice cartons with the hard to open spouts.
Meet Rita Vandergaw in her own words
I was an airline executive for 15 years and then an executive with the Port of San Diego. I retired after 21 years at the Port of San Diego where I served as the Sr. Director of Marketing and Communications.
My responsibilities included, all corporate communication strategies and tactics, marketing to the cruise line industry and securing cruise line service for the Port; overseeing airport route expansion for the San Diego International Airport until the split of the airport and seaport approximately 7 years ago; creating strategy and implementing programs for all the various divisions of the Port; maritime, real estate, environmental and public art.
I served as a Commissioner on the State of California Travel and Tourism Commission; Board member of California Travel Industry Association; member of the San Diego Convention and Visitors Bureau, founder of Cruise the West, and served on the Cruise Line International Association (CLIA) as a Board affiliate and as a member of the Florida Caribbean Cruise Association.
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