After a little revelation and a lot of help from locals, these lifelong friends are debuting their product that keeps food fresh twice as long.
October 25, 2007If all goes as planned, lifelong friends Jeff Stuebing and Eric Miramon may revamp the way food is stored.
The Morro Bay residents recently launched SealSaver, a food storage device that is doubling the shelf life of most foods by sucking the air out of its sealed containers.
The product is debuting in the Asian market at the China International Hardware Show this weekend and will be showcased at upcoming U.S. shows in Las Vegas and Chicago.
While SealSavers looks simple, its technology is sophisticated and its creation has been 13 years in the making.
"Our first 'a-ha' moment was when we put one of those pumps from Nike tennis shoes into a wooden lid and saw it suck out the air," Stuebing said.
Today, users give the plastic lid a couple of pumps after closing it, and the air is sucked out. The shelf life of berries is said to be about a month, and 24-hour marinades are effective in 20 minutes because of the device's air-tight effect.
Getting their product patented and manufactured has been a long and enlightening process, Miramon said.
The pair searched globally for services but ended up finding much of their help locally. They needed a working prototype and searched for a manufacturer across the country before using the help of Hogue Tool & Machine in Paso Robles. The founders of San Luis Sourdough, Dave and Charlie West, were mentors to the entrepreneurs, providing insightful advice.
San Luis Obispo-based survey company Opinion Studies conducted focus groups to help them decide on sizes and pricing, and Cal Poly industrial technology students have helped the pair as interns.
A set of three SealSavers costs just under $40. The products have been featured in infomercials and are available for purchase online, but the duo hopes that it will be at mainstream retailers within a couple of years.
When asked if they are nervous that 13 years of work is finally coming to fruition, the pair is optimistic.
"We're just really excited," Stuebing said. "We promised a lot of people we'd make it to this point, and we're finally here."