Business View - January 2016 65
TECHNOLOGY
product possible so that they can maximize their mar-
keting dollars. I was so put off by this; I walked away
from the industry and vowed never to return to it.”
However, with the support of friends and family, as
well as some encouragement from a few vendors with
whom he had long-standing relationships, Cohen re-
turned once again, but this time, he was determined
to do things his own way. This time, he would be in the
driver’s seat. He began on his own kitchen counter,
reformulating products that he knew had a great niche
following and high consumer demand. “I started creat-
ing formulations and testing the products out. In Sep-
tember 2010, with just ideas in my head and formula-
tions on legal pads, I hired a graphic artist to make a
rendering of what my product line would be. I wrote a
business plan and I flew out to Las Vegas for the Mr.
Olympia contest – one of the biggest expos in my in-
dustry – and I was determined to go there and sell my
new product line.”
Even though the now true believer had stepped on
the accelerator and gone flat out to his own sector’s
version of the Indy 500, he was not overly optimistic.
“The likelihood of me walking away without an order
was highly probable,” he notes. But things turned out
a whole lot better than he had anticipated. “To my sur-
prise, the people accepted it with open arms, because
it was such a different philosophy, such a different
