NOVEMBER 2021 • LONGISLANDPRESS.COM 73
GIFT GUIDE
IN BRINGING PRODUCTS TO MARKET
whose career highlights included working
on the Apollo 11 moon landing as a
Grumman employee. The passionate
inventor’s latest product is the Twist
Lock Grommet, a device for organizing
the wires behind a computer or TV.
Pagoto, whose company is named JBL
Products for the initials of his three
daughters’ names, has a patent for the
device, which can be installed without
tools and locks into place.
“When you are sitting in your living
room having a glass of wine with your
spouse, you don’t want to look at wires
running up and down the walls,” he said.
Pagoto worked on perfecting the product
in his garage for several years, making
hundreds of prototypes, fi rst with
cardboard, then PVC pipe and metal.
He had 3D printed professional prototypes
created before making the steel
physical mold that would be used in the
manufacturing process. “The steel mold
cost about $35,000, so before going to
that expense, I had to make sure it was
perfect,” he said.
Pagoto chose to market his product
through Amazon about two years ago.
“People use Amazon a lot, so I thought,
‘Let’s put it there and see what happens,’”
he said.
What happened was that sales have
exceeded Pagoto’s wildest dreams,
helped by dozens of 5-star customer
reviews. The product was also added
to Walmart.com, and Pagoto is now
focused on scaling the business.
Like Pagoto, East End resident Amanda
Fennell fi led for a patent for her invention,
the ColorShield Art Kit. Fennell
has a master’s degree in art therapy and
taught art before staying home to raise
her children.
Fennell, whose company is called The
Art Nanny, likened the ColorShield
concept to fastening blue tape along
the borders before painting a wall so
the paint stays within the boundary.
The art kit comes with ColorShield
shapes such as a polar bear, butterfl y,
or lighthouse, which can be affi xed to
the paper and then peeled off aft er the
child colors or paints a background.
The artist can then add details to the
distinct shape to create art featuring a
recognizable focal item.
From her time as a teacher, Fennell
knew that oft entimes, the paintings
and drawings that kids create in school
wind up in a pile.
“I wanted to off er one project from start
to fi nish, so my product came with all
the materials and a glass frame,” she
said. “Kids build the ColorShield in the
frame, and then take it home, where it
can be hung on a wall.”
The ColorShield was a hit at local fairs
and the public library in Southampton,
where Fennell began giving ColorShield
classes. Soon word spread and other
libraries started calling.
But then the pandemic struck and,
like other entrepreneurs, Fennell had
to adjust. She created art kits for the
libraries to give kids to take home. The
glass frames wouldn’t work, so she
incorporated a black mat background
instead. Libraries in Suff olk and now
Nassau County have been ordering
the kits, which include a QR code for
logging on to her website for a tutorial.
“It’s like I got on a train and it took off ,”
Fennell said of her business. “And it’s
not stopping.”
Maddalena Harris creates soaps she calls Maddalena’s Soap du Jour. (Photo by Bernadette Starzee)
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