The Story

THE DETENTION INVENTION:

The year is 1987. Colin Roche is late to class at Palo Alto high-school in the United States… again. As a result, he gets sent to a breakfast club style all day Saturday detention… again. The kid next to him is probably daydreaming about what tattoo he wants to get next. Colin? He’s revolutionizing the pen industry and formulating a business idea that will haunt him for the next 15 years.

Borrowing a lighter from another student, he reconfigured a novelty robot pen that he had picked up at a flea market when the school briefly let the detained students out for lunch. The result was what looked like a Y shaped crutch for your index finger with a pen at its tip.

Colin’s father is a scientist that worked for NASA so invention was in his blood and a workshop was in his garage. “I felt like a mad scientist” reflects Colin today “I had this idea and I didn’t know where it would take me”. He tinkered with the design some more and then shelved it in his garage where it would remain for the next decade and a half.

THE 15 YEAR PITCH:

Colin never forgot about his pen idea. If you talked to him for more than 5 minutes he would undoubtedly tell you about how he was going to redefine how people write with his wishbone-shaped pen design.

One day Colin awoke from a nap he was taking to pick up the phone. He told his friend that he had just had a dream about the pen. His friend replied “are you still dreaming about that pen again?”

That is when his dream started to take shape. He named his invention the PenAgain™, since it would be a reintroduction and redefinition of the pen and how we write. In 2001 Colin had lunch with his a good friend from college and engineer Bobby Ronsse. The discussion inevitably turned to the PenAgain™, the basic premise was to design a pen that used the natural weight of your hand instead of pressure from a grip, making it easier to write for long periods of time.

The next day was Colin’s 30th birthday so as a birthday present for Colin, Bobby drew up some designs and sent them over. The point of no return had been crossed. The two friends each invested R35,000 in startup capital and began their business adventure.