Hank [BS/MSEE,
MSM $$$, Ph.D. Mgmt] teaches 
In a past life, I was a consultant at a startup company that was into a little bit of everything: seed corn, junk machinery, and had recently become associated with a guy from Tenn. named Bill Felknor. Bill invented the Whirley Popper, an aluminum pot with a split lid and a hand crank through the handle that went through a right-angle spur gear set to in turn spin around an S-shaped wire at the pot’s bottom that agitated the heated pop corn kernels resulting in almost 100% popped corn. Pretty nifty. It’s currently carried by most if not all of popular sites such as Amazon.com.
Bill was not a business man, but in his own words, a peddler. He had ideas, but lacked execution ability. For instance, in the beginning there were two sizes of the popper, and one was manufactured in Mexico, and one in an Asian country. Aside from the usual mess of importing goods, the quality was lacking, and often the two did not even come close to comparing from a form-fit-function perspective. We brought the entire parts inventory back to the Monon, Indiana area, assembled what we could, and redesigned the entire popper from scratch. This effort went on to become Felknor International - web site here: Bill Felknor is not part of the company that bears his name.
Advance time ahead some twenty years to today. Reaching even further heights, Bill Felknor is behind the, get this, “Topsy Turvy Tomato Tree,” a device that “enables tomato lovers to grow the juicy
globes upside down,” or at least that’s what their web site states.
Just what we need but didn’t know about. I have 23 acres of great Indiana soil, and need something like this to grow tomatoes? I don’t think so. Following the pattern of twenty years ago, the Topsy Turvy web site states: “We have sold our licensing rights for the Topsy Turvy and Tomato Tree to another company. They are no longer available from us. All sales request and customer service questions should be directed to the new company… .” But wait, there’s more. A little googling revealed Bill has a new company, Felknor Ventures. Try FelknorVentures.com, and you are redirected 
to etopsturvy.com with Bill’s picture, a bunch of related products, and a tag-line of “Turning Gardening UpSide-Down (sic)”. Actually, the root is E-Topsturvy.com - I feel another dotcom bust in the works
We really need a E-Topsturvy, don’t we?
BTW, the seed corn mentioned above went on to become one of the largest independent corn seed producers, and is now headquartered in Monticello, IN as Fielder’s Choice. And Bill, he is still a peddler, starting “stuff,” and selling out. Peddler’s like to sell, not build. But he drives a big black car! Hank
Great story. I disagree with Bill though. He does have the ability to execute. If he doesn’t have the ability to execute, then what do we call people who just talk??
That’s kind of a good point. The man can execute, but just doesn’t have the ability or will to grow his ideas and follow through with them to their fruition. At least he takes an idea somewhere and can possibly make money off of them.
This is really a nice tale. There are many ‘peddlers’ here around who drive big black car. We all know that ‘nobody is perfect’, and so are entrepreneurs. But when people lack a major skill like execution and still drive a big black car, ‘luck’ is something which helps them. A really good idea invites luck to help it develop, if something like proper execution skills are missing!
People have different skills. If an entrepreneur doesn’t have a particular skill, he can develop that particular skill. If he’s too busy to develop that particular skill, he should form a partnership with a person who has that skill. One more reason why partnerships should be formed.
If to interpret “execute” as implement, then Bill certainly has the ability to implement his ideas. But he probably means the willingness to live with his products to their end, to endlessly perfect them, which means he is lacking passion for his products or businesses, and some integrity or great purposefullness. That’s why his businesses are so different and he doesn’t stay long with them. He builds up his start-up skills for sure, but not his own ‘empire’ - just a matter of personal preference.
I actually have a Whirley Popper, seeing as how they were first assembled only 10 minutes from my hometown. I have never meet Bill Felknor, but I have heard of him. It is really encouraging to know that great inventors/entrepreneurs can come from the middle of nowhere (Monon) in Indiana.
As for his latest creation, it definitely reminds me of the AeroGarden. I agree with Hank that his target market for the Topsturvy is probably not Indiana where most people have abundant amounts of space to grow a garden. It may be good for people that used to live in a rural setting and are used to fresh tomatoes, but now live in a city where traditionally growing them is not possible.
I think that execution is easier said than done. It’s easy to say “if only somebody would make this or that product.” Taking the time to get everything in order and getting the proper funding are very difficult tasks to perform. Especially if you have a full time job and need to support a family. I would suggest that the easiest time to “execute” is when you can risk everything and still be able to rebuild if something goes wrong. Young people-high schoolers and college students-probably have the least amount to lose and the best opportunity to cause innovative disruption. But the thing is, most of us don’t have the wisdom or the know how to get it done. As you get older you have to start choosing between risking your possessions/family safety net, and choosing to execute a business plan. To comment on the tomato tree-excellent idea for the average family home that doesn’t have the land to grow these which can take up a LOT of space. My family enjoys growing tomatoes and cucumbers and stuff but tomato plants become very large and hard to manage properly. This doesn’t necessarily save space but allows for easier access to your vegetables. Thanks Hank!
Holy Cow…my roomate has one of those stupid tomato things hanging on our fence, hahaha!!! I never even knew what it was til I read this. That is hilarious.
Anyway, this is a lot like many MANY start-ups. If any of the students in your current class go on to take MGMT484 (a great ENTR Certificate elective course, by the way)they’ll read quite a few Harvard Business School cases that concentrate on people much like Bill. Some people seem to really just LOVE the process of creating something new, but get disinterested in the actual follow through required for taking the product much past inception.
One of the best things about entreprenuership (at least in my mind) is being able to concetrate on what you love, and if just coming up with new ideas is what you love that’s what you get to do!
It seems Bil’s inability to follow through is his ultimate downfall. Yes, he hasn’t fallen far, but he could be much better off with what he has done with past ventures than with what he is currently doing. Entrepreneurship is a matter of not only inventing buy processing business plans and creating markets. He seems to be no more that an inventor to me.
This is making cropping more lazy. I see why I never heard of this Topsy Turvy. Sad to see that he isn’t reaping the benefits of the things that he’s done in the past. How is it possible to have the mind and motivation to invent something but not to execute.