Mighty Mug Stands Its Ground
Founder Jayme Smaldone Solves Universal Cup Spilling Problem With A Simple Yet Mighty Solution
“It’s a universal problem that no one really gives much thought because there was no other option,” explains Jayme Smaldone, founder and CEO of Mighty Mug. The problem Smaldone is speaking of is really universal. Imagine one is sitting at a computer working and drinking coffee- at an office, at home, at the cafe - and the person gets up quickly and swipes their hand and, as happens to everyone at some point, the coffee spills and ruins a $1000 computer. Talk about a bad day.
Here for the rescue is the Mighty Mug. The Mighty Mug says boldly (or perhaps “mightily”) to “Prepare to Never Spill Again.” It has been tested over and over, but many publications, podcasts, and youtubers, and nearly all, if not all, are extremely impressed with its ability to not spill. People have bumped into it, punched it, slapped it hard with their hand and the result is the same - the Mighty Mug stays on the table in an upright position. The obvious question is - how do you actually drink from the mug? The website says, “when you are ready for a sip, Mighty Mug lifts right up!” Again, proved true by countless third party videos and bloggers - it won’t spill over, but it lifts with ease when one is ready to drink.
So how does it work? “It’s essentially a vacuum,” Smaldone explains, “it’s fact that you can’t move air once it is trapped, so we trapped air on the bottom.” The mechanism that does the magic moves up and down. So when it moves side to side, the air stays trapped. However if one is to lift, the mechanism moves and lets the air escape, thereby allowing the cup to lift normally.
Mighty Mug has been around for about 5 years as a company. “It is my father and I that started it,” Smaldone explains, “it was a pretty simple idea that turned out to be way more complicated than we thought.” The idea was to “create something that wouldn’t ruin a computer.” Smaldone’s father has been in the product development field for over 32 years so it was relatively easy to start the process. A trend in the product development world is that it’s “very hard to make something that simply looks good and make money,” Smaldone says, so they wanted to make something “new and innovative.”
They worked with a team of mechanical and industrial engineers to develop the Mighty Mug. “We came up with some pretty ridiculous ideas while brainstorming like putting magnets in a table,” Smaldone chuckles, “but once we found the idea that became the Mighty Mug, we knew we had it.” Of course, coming up with a completely new idea had its cost, both in time and money. “From a mechanical engineering perspective it was very difficult,” Smaldone says. However, after about 1 and a half years of development, they started the company with the product they set out to make. Since then, over 100 publications have talked about it and the mug has expanded to include coffee mugs, iced drinks cups, and beer cups.
Originally, Smaldone and his team thought it would be best suited for the corporate world - a mug that wouldn’t spill in the office. They were surprised by how universal it actually is. “RVers, boaters, blind people, people with shaky hands, cat owners, and the list goes on have praised it,” Smaldone says. He realized that they can push in all directions without even selling it because the product sells itself. “It’s an item that doesn’t need to be changed,” Smaldone explains. He says that they really just have to get the Mighty Mug is people’s hands. “If you are a teacher and have the Mighty Mug people are naturally going to want to talk to you about it because it is so cool!” Smaldone says.
And this kind of advertising has made it a hit with people like Lew from Unbox Theory, getting 4 million views on youtube in the first 24 hours. Lew reviewed the Mug with typical enthusiasm, saying things like “How do I not have this already? How does EVERYONE not have this?!” Smaldone explains that his friends thought that he knew Lew but, in fact, “It took me several weeks just to talk to Lew for the first time afterwards and thank him. I couldn’t believe that he did it.”
They get all sorts of great feedback, from submariners in the UK Navy to nurses who use it on their carts throughout the hospital. “We have had people tell us that they left it on top of their car, drove 10-15 miles to work, and it was still sitting up there,” Smaldone says. The most meaningful to Smaldone are the ones that really help people, especially people with brain disorders or injuries. “We received a big order from a rehabilitation center in Cleveland. They used a bunch with patients who have been through traumatic car accidents,” explains Smaldone, “They were so thankful because it gave the patients the extra stability they needed.”
Smaldone is hoping the Mighty Mug keeps being used in many different avenues. From RVers who don’t need to put their mug in a cup holder to teachers quickly moving to make sure all their kids are safe, it is a universal solution to a universal problem.
Andrew Malo
A graduate of Northeastern Illinois University in Education, Andrew has taught for the past decade in Chicago, New Mexico, and Japan. He enjoys tinkering with trucks and motorcycles, woodworking, reading and computer programming.
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Mighty Mug, the innovative mug that grips to your desk to avoid spills when knocked in to. Yet motion up and down are seamless. Never spill again and ruin your expensive equipment with this versatile cup made for many different beverages.