Meet Richard Pessall, a 20-year-old British entrepreneur who wants to take the condom where no man has gone before (no, not space).
Richard Pessall, 20, lives and works as bartender in Shropshire, England. He spent nine years living in the United States, but when he ran out of money to pay for college in North Carolina, he was unable to renew his visa and was forced to return to the U.K. He’s decided to make his fortune before attempting to return stateside. His big idea? Reboot the condom.
Forplay, the condom company he's been bootstrapping with his barman’s earnings, has grown to a staff of four by focusing on the student-rich towns like Oxford, Bristol, and Liverpool. Pessall, who hopes to expand to London and Edinburgh by June, recently spoke with Fast Company.
FAST COMPANY: So this all began with a series of bad dates...
RICHARD PESSALL: I went out with a couple of friends and I met these two twins, who were absolutely gorgeous. One of them really hit it off with me, and the next week we went out to a club. I used to breakdance with my friends back in high school. So I go down on the floor, I go to a handstand, and my heel connects to her face, and I knock her onto the floor. I’ve never felt so bad in my life. Her twin comes over and takes her to the bathroom, and while she’s in the bathroom I go to the bar, and this girl says, “I saw that, are you alright?” I end up getting her number as well. We ended up going on a date, and things were going really well. But then she got a phone call. She said, “Richard, I’m so sorry, but I’ve got to go.” This girl was 19, and she’d already had a child. She had to go back and pay the babysitter. I thought, “This is a joke, this can’t be happening.”
I went home and started researching teen pregnancy rates in England, and they’re just atrocious. This related to work I did when I lived in New York back in 2010. I sold “Obama Condoms.” They had his face on the front of the condom, and they’d say, “Use Yo...
[Source: Fast Company]
No comments:
Post a Comment